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450
The Starting Point
Around 450 AD the island of Britain was settled by speakers of the ancestor of the English language the Anglo-Saxons. -
500
Beginning of the Heptarchy
Anglo-Saxon England is split into the seven kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex and Wessex. -
597
The Conversion of English
Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrives in England to begin the conversion of the English -
664
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby aligns the English with Roman rather than Celtic Christianity. Affecting the practices performed within the Church and the celebration of holidays such as Easter -
716
New king
Ethelbald becomes King of Mercia, marking the beginning of the kingdom's ascendancy over the other Saxon realms. -
800
The Epic Poem
Beowulf is the longest epic poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest. It relates the exploits of its eponymous hero, and his successive battles with a monster named Grendel, with Grendel’s revengeful mother, and with a dragon which was guarding a hoard of treasure. -
878
The Battle of Edington
The Vikings were defeated at the battle of Edington. Ending in the Treaty of Wedmore and the establishment of the Danelaw. -
900
Charels II
Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking Chief Hrolf The Gange -
1000
Manuscripts
The oldest surviving manuscripts of beowulf dates from the period -
1100
Early Mordern English
London becomes De Facto Capital of England -
1150
Middle English
The Middle English is from 1150 to 1650 -
1250
Central Middle English
It is from 1250 to 1400 -
1300
Britain broadcasting corporation
was a British commercial company. British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom and licensed by the British General Post Office. Its original office was located on the second floor of Magnet House, the GEC buildings in London and consisted of a room and a small antechamber. -
1400
The great Vowel shift begin
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1350 and the 1600s and 1700s, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. -
1500
Early Modern English
from 1500 and 1800 -
Modern English
modern English is from 1650 to 1800 -
newspaper
Publication of the first daily English- language newspaper -
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark document exploration of routes to American West. -
second edition
Second edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” published -
Y2K
