British Literature Timeline By Jessica Billiter Jan 1, 653 Celtic Church spreads Christianity to Severn Valley. Celtic Church begins to spread Christianity among people living in the Severn Valley. Jan 1, 750 Surviving version of Beowulf composed. Jan 1, 1066 The Old English Period ends. Jan 1, 1066 The Medieval Period begins with the Battle of Hastings. Period: Jan 1, 1070 to Jan 1, 1485 The Medieval Period occured. Jan 1, 1073 Canterbury becomes England's religious center. Jan 1, 1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered. Jan 1, 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Jan 1, 1233 First coal mined at Newcastle. Jan 1, 1258 The first commoners were allowed in parliament. Jan 1, 1272 Edward I becomes King. Jan 1, 1337 Beginning of the Hundred Years' War with France. Jan 1, 1348 Black Death sweeps through England. Jan 1, 1375 Surviving version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written. Jan 1, 1381 The Bible was first translated into English. Jan 1, 1386 Geoffrey Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales. Jan 1, 1470 Thomas Malory writes Morte d' Arthur. Jan 1, 1485 The Medieval Period ends with the Battle of Bosworth. Jan 1, 1485 The English Renaissance Period begins. Jan 1, 1485 Henry VII became the first Tudor King. Period: Jan 1, 1485 to Jan 1, 1625 The Renaissance Period occured. Jan 1, 1503 Leonardo da Vinci painted The Mona Lisa. Jan 1, 1516 Thomas More publishes Utopia. Jan 1, 1534 Henry VII issues Act of Supremacy. Jan 1, 1535 Thomas More executed. Jan 1, 1547 Henry VII died. Jan 1, 1549 The Book of Common Prayer was issued. Jan 1, 1550 Everyman was first preformed. Jan 1, 1558 Elizabeth I became queen. Jan 1, 1560 Thomas Tallis published English cathedral music Jan 1, 1563 Over 20,000 Londoners die from the plague. Jan 1, 1564 William Shakespeare was born. Jan 1, 1582 Sir Phillip Sidney wrote Astrophel and Stella Jan 1, 1588 English Navy defeated the Spanish Armada. Jan 1, 1590 Edmund Spencer published The Faerie Queen, Part 1. Jan 1, 1594 Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. Jan 1, 1599 The Globe theater opens Jan 1, 1600 East India Company was founded. Jan 1, 1603 Elizabeth I died and James I became king. Jan 1, 1606 Royal debt amounted to $600,000. Jan 1, 1609 The Faerie Queen was published in its entirety. Jan 1, 1611 King James Bible was published. Jan 1, 1620 Francis Bacon published Novum Organum Jan 1, 1623 The first patent law was passed Jan 1, 1625 James I died. Jan 1, 1625 The Renaissance Period ended. Jan 1, 1625 The Seventeenth Century began. Period: Jan 1, 1625 to Dec 31, 1699 The Seventeenth Century occured. Jan 1, 1628 William Harvey explains blood circulation Jan 1, 1633 John Donne's Songs and Sonnets were published. Jan 1, 1635 Public mail service was established. Jan 1, 1638 John Milton published Lycidas. Jan 1, 1642 The English Civil War began. Jan 1, 1642 Puritans closed the theaters. Jan 1, 1646 John Suckling published Fragmenta Aurea. Jan 1, 1648 Robert Herrick published Hesperides. Jan 1, 1649 Charles I was beheaded. Jan 1, 1649 Richard Lovelace published Lucasta. Jan 1, 1653 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector. Jan 1, 1658 Oliver Cromwell died. Jan 1, 1658 The Puritan government collapsed. Jan 1, 1660 The Monarchy was restored. Jan 1, 1660 The theater was reopened. Jan 1, 1660 Samuel Pepys began writing Diary. Jan 1, 1662 Royal Society was chartered. Jan 1, 1666 The Great Fire of London occured. Jan 1, 1667 John Milton's Paradise Lost was published. Jan 1, 1668 John Dryden published An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Jan 1, 1685 James II became king. Jan 1, 1687 Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia. Jan 1, 1688 The Glorious Revolution occured. Jan 1, 1689 The Bill of Rights became law. Jan 1, 1690 John Locke published his Two Treaties of Government. Dec 31, 1699 The Seventeenth Century ended. Jan 1, 1700 The Eighteenth Century began. Period: Jan 1, 1700 to Dec 31, 1798 The Eighteenth Century occured. Jan 1, 1702 The first daily newspaper began publication. Jan 1, 1707 Great Britain was created by Act of Union. Jan 1, 1712 Alexander Pope published The Rape of the Lock. Jan 1, 1714 George I became king. Jan 1, 1719 Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe. Jan 1, 1726 Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels. Jan 1, 1735 William Hogarth painted The Rake's Progress. Jan 1, 1745 Last Jacobite rebellion in Scotland occured. Jan 1, 1749 Henry Fielding published Tom Jones. Jan 1, 1751 Thomas Gray published "Elegy in a County Courtyard. Jan 1, 1755 Samuel Johnson published Dictionary of the English Language. Jan 1, 1756 Britain entered the Seven Years' War. Jan 1, 1791 James Boswell published The Life of Samuel Johnson. Jan 1, 1793 England goes to war with France. Jan 1, 1795 The Romantic Period began. Jan 1, 1798 William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge published Lyrical Ballods. Period: Jan 1, 1798 to Dec 31, 1832 The Romantic Period occured. Dec 31, 1799 The Eighteenth Century ended. Jan 1, 1801 Act of Union created the UK and Great Britain and Ireland. Jan 1, 1801 Union Jack became the official flag. Jan 1, 1805 Battle of Trafalgar occured. Jan 1, 1807 Thomas Moore wrote Irish Melodies. Jan 1, 1812 Lord Byron published Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Jan 1, 1813 Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice. Jan 1, 1814 George Stephenson constructed the first successful steam locomotive. Jan 1, 1818 Mary Shelley published Frankenstein. Jan 1, 1819 Peterloo Massacre happened in Manchester. Jan 1, 1819 Percy Shelley wrote "Ode to the West Wind" Jan 1, 1820 John Keats published "Ode on a Grecian Urn" Jan 1, 1825 John Nash began the rebuilding of Buckingham Palace. Jan 1, 1827 The water purification system was installed in London. Jan 1, 1829 Robert Peel established Metropolitan Police in London Jan 1, 1830 Liverpool-Manchester railway opens. Jan 1, 1830 The Victorian Period began.1830 Jan 1, 1831 Michael Faraday demonstrates electromagnetic induction. Jan 1, 1832 First Reform Act extends voting rights. Jan 1, 1832 The Romantic Period ended. Jan 1, 1833 Slavery was abolished in the British empire. Period: Jan 1, 1833 to Jan 1, 1901 The Victorian Period occured. Jan 1, 1837 Victoria became quenn. Jan 1, 1839 Michael Faraday offered the general theory of electricity. Jan 1, 1843 William Wordsworth became poet laureate. Jan 1, 1845 The Irish Potatoe Famine began. Jan 1, 1848 Women began attended University of London. Jan 1, 1850 Elizabeth Barrett Browning published Sonnets from the Portuguese. Jan 1, 1854 Britain entered the Crimean War. Jan 1, 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Jan 1, 1860 Florence Nightingale found a school for nurses. Jan 1, 1865 Lewis Carrol published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Jan 1, 1868 Robert Browning published The Ring and the Book. Jan 1, 1869 Debtors' prisons were abolished. Jan 1, 1880 Joseph Swan installed the first electric lighting. Jan 1, 1884 First book of Oxford English Dictionary was published. Jan 1, 1887 First Sherlock Holmes tale was published. Jan 1, 1891 Thomas hardy published Tess fo the d'Urbervilles. Jan 1, 1896 A.E. Houseman published A Shropshire Lad. Jan 1, 1901 Queen Victorian died, and the Victorian Period came to an end. Jan 1, 1901 The Edwardian Period began. Jan 1, 1901 Henry VII became king. Period: Jan 2, 1901 to May 3, 2011 The Modern and Postmodern Periods occured. Jan 1, 1902 Joseph Conrad published Heart of Darkness. Jan 1, 1914 Britain entered World War I. Jan 1, 1914 The Edwardian Period ended. Jan 1, 1914 The Modern Period began. Jan 1, 1918 Women over thirty achieved the right to voted. Jan 1, 1922 T.S. Elliot published The Waste Land. Jan 1, 1922 James Joyce published Ulysses. Jan 1, 1939 Britain entered World War II. Jan 1, 1940 William Churchill became Prime Minister. Jan 1, 1945 George Orwell published Animal Farm. Jan 1, 1945 The Modern Period ended. Jan 1, 1950 The Post Modernism Period began. Jan 1, 1952 Elizabeth II became queen. Jan 1, 1962 Doris Lesing published The Golden Notebook. Jan 1, 1975 North Sea oil production begins. Jan 1, 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman prime minister. Jan 1, 1979 V.S. Naipaul published A Bend in the River. Jan 1, 1989 Parliament privatizes national electric and water companies. Jan 1, 1991 Nadine Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Jan 1, 1997 Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister. Jan 1, 2000 The celebration of the New Year's Eve in the Millennium Dome. Jan 1, 2003 Rock Star Sting is made Commander of the British Empire for services to the music industry. Mar 2, 2022 The Old English Period begins. Mar 2, 2022 St. Augustine found Christian monestary at Canterbury, Kent. Mar 2, 2022 Vikings attack Lindisfarne. Mar 2, 2022 Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex. Period: Mar 2, 2022 to Jan 1, 1066 The Old English Period occured.