The History of the English Language Timeline By Easandbom Period: 400 to 799 Old English 700 Beowulf composed 796 Viking raid on Lindisfarne begins the Viking Age in England Period: 1065 to 1400 Middle English 1066 The Norman Invasion 1215 Magna Carta signed 1400 Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales written Period: 1400 to 2000 Modern English 1440 Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press 1492 Columbus’s discovery of the Americas 1623 Shakespeare’s First Folio published 1782 The American Revolution 1945 World War II
