-
450
Old English
700 - Approximate date of the earliest manuscript records of Old English -
600
Old English
600 - Ethelbert, the King of Kent, is baptized. He is the first English king to convert to Christianity. -
673
Old English
673 - The birth of the Venerable Bede, the monk who composed The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, a key source of information about Anglo Saxon settlement. -
1000
Old English
1000 - suspected date of Beowulf's writings, it is known that the only manuscript that remains is from circa 1000 AD -
1066
Middle English
1066 - The Norman Invasion (Norman French becomes the language of the courts and of the upper classes; English remains the language of the majority) -
1171
Middle English
1171 - Henry II declares himself overlord of Ireland, introducing Norman French and English to the country. About this time the University of Oxford is founded. -
1215
Middle English
1215 - King John Signs the Magna Carta, a critical document in the long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law in the English-speaking world. -
1340
Middle English
1340-1400 - Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. -
1399
Middle English
1399 - At his coronation, King Henry IV becomes the first English monarch to deliver a speech in English. -
1492
Middle English
1492 - The discovery of North America -
1500
Modern English
1500 - The invention of the Printing Press (enabled the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe) -
Modern English
1623 - Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio -
Modern English
1755 - Samuel Johnson publishes his two-volume Dictionary of the English Language. -
Modern English
1775 - The American Revolution, The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. -
Modern English
1844 - The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse, inaugurating the development of rapid communication, a major influence on the growth and spread of English. -
Modern English
2012 - The fifth volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
