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410
The goths
(speakers of a now-extinct East Germanic language) sack Rome. The first Germanic tribes arrive in Britain. -
610
Ethelbert, the King of Kent
Baptized. He is the first English king to convert to Christianity. -
700
Rise of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex
the Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Middlesex; the Angle kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria. St. Augustine and Irish missionaries convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, introducing new religious words borrowed from Latin and Greek. Latin speakers begin referring to the country as Anglia and later as Englaland -
1000
Suspected date of Beowulf's writing
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1066
The Norman Invasion
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1150
Surviving English
Approximate date of the earliest surviving texts in 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. -
1204
king John
King John loses control of the Duchy of Normandy and other French lands; England is now the only home of the Norman French/English. -
1400
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
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1440
The invention of the Printing Press
Johannes Gutenberg is usually cited as the inventor of the printing press. Indeed, the German goldsmith's 15th-century contribution to the technology was revolutionary — enabling the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe. -
1542
Andrew Boorde
In his Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, Andrew Boorde illustrates regional dialects. -
1553
Thomas Wislon
Thomas Wilson publishes The Art of Rhetorique, one of the first works on logic and rhetoric in English. -
Period: to
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare writes his Sonnets and the majority of his plays. -
Against the hair
"against the grain," a metaphor from brushing the hair of an animal the opposite way to which it lies. [Romeo and Juliet] -
Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
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Period: to
The discovery of North America, and The American Revolution
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Bedward
Exactly as it sounds, bedward means heading for bed. Who doesn’t like heading bedward after a hard day? -
anorak
very boring person, person who has no character.
