History of English By taylorjennings 750 Suspected date of Beowulf's writing 787 Viking invasion begins 937 Battle of Brunanburh 1016 Cnut becomes king of England 1066 The Norman Invasion 1314 Battle of Bannockburn 1337 The Hundred Years War begins 1387 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1415 Battle of Agincourt 1436 The invention of the printing press 1492 The discovery of the Americas 1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio 1700 Great Vowel Shift 1760 The Industrial Revelation 1765 The American Revolution 1789 The French Revolution 1939 World War II
