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Written records and archaeological evidence indicate that the island of Britain was settled by speakers of the ancestor of the English language, The Angelo Saxons.
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Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's main town of Canterbury.
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Texts in English emerge and become numerous. Many are religious texts but there is also one great work of literature that was written down in this period: Beowulf. The content shows the story to be much older than its written version; it takes place when the pre-Christian Germanic peoples were still in Scandinavia. It was apparently written down by monks and preserved in the monasteries. It shows many signs of Christian influence, possibly introduced by its writer during this period.
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After 20 years of battling and bribing, the English capitulate to king Sveinn of Denmark (later also of Norway).
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The English kings lose the duchy of Normandy to French kings. England is now the only home of the Norman English.
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William Caxton brings a printing press to England from Germany. He publishes the first book in England.
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The stage of the English language used from the transition to the Middle English in the late 15th century.
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King James bible was publishd.
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Present day English is used by speakers that are alive today.
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Recognition (and acceptance) by linguistic scholars of the ever-changing nature of language.
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Internet begins to change the way people communicate and find out information.
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The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language waqs published.
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Twitter was made
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The two-volume Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is published by Oxford University Press.
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The fifth volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
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Charlemagne, king of the Franks, crowned Holy Roman Emperor; height of Frankish power in Europe. Wessex kings aspire to similar glory; want to unite all England, and if possible the rest of mainland Britain, under one crown (theirs).
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Rise of three great kingdoms politically unifying large areas: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. Supremacy passes from one kingdom to another in that order.
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First serious Viking incursions. Lindisfarne monastery sacked.
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Vikings move against Wessex. In six pitched battles, the English hold their own, but fail to repel attackers decisively. In the last battle, the English king is mortally wounded. His young brother, Alfred, who had distinguished himself during the battles, is crowned king.
