-
450
Earliest Old English inscriptions
BEDIGHT
decorate
BESMIRCH
smear so as to make dirty or stained
BIGHT
a bend or curve -
Dec 1, 792
Viking raids of Britain begin
In the final decade of the 8th century AD, Norse raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries located in the British Isles. -
Dec 1, 871
Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex
Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works -
Dec 1, 878
Danelaw established
Danelaw established, dividing Britain into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north -
Dec 1, 1000
Beowulf Writing
Beowulf was suspected to have been written in 1000AD -
Dec 1, 1066
The Norman Invasion
The Norman conquest of England was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy -
Dec 1, 1100
Start of Middle English
End of Old English time period
CONSEIL: council; to counsel or advise; secret, confidence
CORAGE: heart; spirit; courage; desire
CURIOUS: careful, diligent; skillful; eager; skillfully made
DAUNGER: lordship, power, control; ungraciousness, disdain -
Dec 1, 1167
Oxford University established
Teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it is unclear when a university came into being. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris. The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. -
Dec 1, 1204
King John loses Normandy to France
John returned to France to find his lands had been given to Arthur. He immediately declared war on Arthur and surprised him at Mirebeau. Arthur died while being held prisoner by John in 1203. The Bretons were outraged by the murder of their duke. The French united against John, who returned to England at the end of 1203 allowing Philip to claim all his French territories leaving. -
Dec 1, 1349
The Black Death kills one third of the British population
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic, which reached England in June 1349, and died down by December 1350. It was the first and most severe manifestation of the Second Pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria. The term "Black Death" was not used until the late 17th Century. -
Dec 1, 1440
The invention of the Printing Press
The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg -
Dec 1, 1478
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. -
Dec 1, 1492
The discovery of North America
Columbus was among the last explorers to reach the Americas, not the first. Five hundred years before Columbus, a daring band of Vikings led by Leif Eriksson set foot in North America and established a settlement. Around the year 1000 A.D. the Viking explorer Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, sailed to a place he called "Vinland," in what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland. Erikson and his crew didn't stay long before returning to Greenland. -
Dec 1, 1500
Start of Early Modern English
End of Middle English
forming past tense words was a big thing
creep: crope, cropen; delve: dolve, dolven; help: holp -
William Shakespeare writes his first plays
Early Modern English. It is widely believed that the first play written by Shakespeare was Henry VI Part II, a history play, first performed in 1590-1591. -
Death of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, his 52nd birthday. In truth, the exact date of Shakespeare's death is not known, but assumed from a record of his burial two days later, 25 April 1616, at Holy Trinity Church -
Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
First published edition in 1623 of the works of William Shakespeare, originally published as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies. It is the biggest source for the time period of his plays. -
Period: to
American Revolution
The American Revolution was a political uprising that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy -
US defeats Britain
George Washington defeats Cornwallis at Yorktown and Britain abandons its American colonies -
Start of Late Modern English to present day
End of Early Modern English
For aught I know; for all I know. P.22
Cogitations; unpleasant thought. After being assigned to an unpleasant fatigue, "However, I kept my cogitations to myself."
Pray; ask. "praying each one if he had aught against him"
Aught; anything. -
Millennials
This generation came up with their own kind of English Language. with the introduction of smart phones and social media, proper English began fading away