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The first people who spoke a language, that eventually turned into English. The Anglo Saxons invaded England in 450. The language is known as Anglo-Saxon or Old English. We still use some of their words today, for example cow, house, bread and sword.
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Christian Missionaries brought the Latin alphabet and language with them. Old English used words like fork, school, and paper from the missionaries.
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Caedmon's Hymn is believed to be the oldest surviving Old English text.
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Beowulf is an Old English poem with 3182 alliterative long lines. It is said to be the oldest surviving long poem in Old English. The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet.
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Vikings started to invade Britain from countries like Denmark and Norway. They spoke a language that later developed into Norwegian and Danish. Some of the words they used were left behind like, husband, law, and anger.
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The Normans invaded England from Normandy, France. They spoke an earlier version of French and this became the high status language in England. It brought a lot of new words to English like cash, age, and reward.
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There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university.
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The Statue of Pleading makes English the official language in England. Parliament is opened with it's first speech delivered in English.
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King Henry IV becomes the first monarch to deliver a speech in English.
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There were no more invasions in England. English started to be more common, than French. The English spoken at this time was called, Middle English. A popular book from this time was 'The Chaucer's Canterbury Tales', by Geoffrey Chaucer.
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The printing press was brought by William Caxton in 1476. The printing press created a standard way of writing English. Publishing books became very popular.
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Christopher Columbus officially set foot on America, and claimed the land for Spain.
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The new Testament of the Bible was translated into English, by William Tyndale. This was a very important step. This meant people who could only speak English could now read the Bible, without interpretation.
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People would research books written in Latin and Greek. Certain words got added to English. We also took words like cruise and Yacht from the Dutch.
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William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies is a collection of plays, by Shakespeare.
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The American Patriots in the thirteen colonies defeated the British in the war, with assistance of France. 1765-1783
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Noah Webster publishes his American spelling book.
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"The Jazz Singer" is released.
