History Of the English Language By charlieleadbeatter 1500 BCE First sign of English Language languages of the Indo-European group 1000 BCE Proto Germanic 1000-500 BC 45 BCE Britain becomes part of the Roman Empire 410 collapse of the Roman Empire 449 Invasion of Britain by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes 700 First written evidence of Old English 780 Scandinavian invasion begins 1066 Battle of Hastings 1100 Middle English 1204 Loss of Normandy England becomes the sole remaining home of Norman English 1390 First English cookery manuscript 1473 First English Printed book 1489 French no longer used as the language of parliament 1564 Birth of Shakespeare 1616 death of Shakespeare 1608 English arrives in North America 1755 Johnson's publication of the dictionary 1762 The publications of Lowth's grammar 1822 Grimms law