The History of the English Language Timeline By raiyahorseman Period: 400 to 2000 Year Period: 400 to 1100 Old English 449 Anglo-Saxon Settlement of Britain 787 The Viking Age 1000 Suspected date of Beowulf's writing 1066 The Norman Invasion Period: 1100 to 1500 Middle English 1337 The Hundred Years' War 1346 The Black Death 1387 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1440 The invention of the printing press 1492 The discovery of the Americas 1500 The Beginning of the Rise of the British Empire Period: 1500 to 2000 Modern English 1530 English Reformation 1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio 1775 The American Revolution 1939 World War II
