History of English By pm_luna97 6000 BCE Britain becomes an island. 500 BCE Celts colonize British islands. 55 BCE Romans arrives to Britain. 450 Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain begins. 480 Earliest Old English inscriptions. 597 Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. 600 Anglo-Saxon language covers most of England. 871 Alfred the Great impulses English prose. 1066 The Norman conquest. 1100 London becomes de facto capital of England. 1167 Oxford University established. 1209 Cambridge University established. 1349 The Black Death kills 1/3 of Britishs. 1362 English in the Parliament for the 1st time. 1384 English translation of “The Bible”. 1385 English replaces Latin in schools. 1399 Henry IV: First English-speaking monarch. 1476 First English printing press. 1500 English Renaissance. 1526 English translation of the New Testament. 1539 “The Great Bible” published. 1590 William Shakespeare writes his first plays. 1607 First English settlement in the New World. 1611 King James version of “The Bible”. 1623 First English-language newspaper. 1623 Folio of Shakespeare’s works is published. 1702 First London's daily English newspaper. 1755 “Dictionary of the English Language”. 1763 Britain wrests control of Canada from France. 1777 Last native Celtic speaker dies. 1788 British penal colony established (Australia). 1788 “The American Spelling Book”. 1795 First English settlement at South Africa. 1804 Lewis and Clark explore American West. 1828 “American Dictionary of English Language”. 1840 British colony established in New Zealand. 1922 British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) founded. 1928 1st edit. of the “Oxford English Dictionary”. 1947 India and Pakistan independs from Britain. 1989 2nd edit. of the “Oxford English Dictionary”.
