The History of the English Language Timeline By olyssal Period: 400 to 1100 Old English Era 597 Conversion of Anglo-Saxons to Christianity by Augustine of Canterbury 800 Viking Raids 800 Suspected date of Beowulf's writing 871 King Alfred the Great advances education 1066 The Norman Invasion Period: 1100 to 1500 Middle English Era 1337 The Hundred Years' War 1347 The Black Death 1381 The Peasants' Revolt in England 1386 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1440 The invention of the printing press 1492 The discovery of the Americas Period: 1500 to 2000 Modern English Era 1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio 1642 The English Civil War 1760 Industrial Revolution 1775 The American Revolution 1837 The Victorian Era 1939 World War II
