History of the English Language By baylin Period: 400 to 1100 Old English 597 Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England 793 Viking raids 871 Reign of Alfred the Great 1000 Suspected date of Beowulf's writing 1066 The Norman Invasion Period: 1100 to 1500 Middle English 1135 Development of Law 1347 The Black Death 1381 The Peasants' Revolt 1400 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1436 The invention of the printing press 1492 The discovery of the Americas Period: 1500 to 2020 Modern English 1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio 1642 English civil War 1760 Industrial Revolution 1765 The American Revolution 1914 World war 1 1939 World War II
