1.06 The History of the English Language Timeline Project

  • Period: 400 to

    The English Language

  • Period: 400 to

    The English Language

  • 700

    Suspected date of Beowulf's writing

    When asked "When was Beowulf written?" historians typically give a range of dates rather than a specific year. That spans the years 700 to 800 CE, a period of more than a century. The poem, however, is set in the start of the 500s.
  • 700

    Suspected date of Beowulf's writing

    Suspected date of Beowulf's writing
    When asked "When was Beowulf written?" historians typically give a range of dates rather than a specific year. That spans the years 700 to 800 CE, a period of more than a century. The poem, however, is set in the start of the 500s.
  • Oct 14, 1066

    Norman Conquest

    The Battle of Hastings, which took place on October 14, 1066, was the turning point in William, duke of Normandy's military conquest of England. This event ultimately brought about significant political, administrative, and social changes in the British Isles.
  • Oct 14, 1066

    The Norman Invasion

    The Norman Invasion
    The Norman Invasion was William, duke of Normandy's military conquest of England, which was chiefly sparked by his overwhelming victory at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066, and which ultimately brought about significant political, administrative, and social changes in the British Isles.
  • Period: 1378 to 1400

    The Canterbury Tales

    Geoffrey Chaucer composed The Canterbury Tales, a collection of twenty-four tales totaling more than 17,000 lines, between 1387 and 1400. It is frequently referred to as Chaucer's greatest work.
  • 1387

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
    Geoffrey Chaucer composed The Canterbury Tales, a collection of twenty-four tales totaling more than 17,000 lines, between 1387 and 1400. It is frequently referred to as Chaucer's greatest work.
  • 1450

    The invention of the Printing Press

    When Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and inventor, started experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France, in 1440, he was a political exile from Mainz, Germany. He went back to Mainz a few years later, and by 1450, the Gutenberg press was a fully functional and ready-to-use printing device.
  • 1450

    The invention of the Printing Press

    The invention of the Printing Press
    When Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and inventor, started experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France, in 1440, he was a political exile from Mainz, Germany. He went back to Mainz a few years later, and by 1450, the Gutenberg press was a fully functional and ready-to-use printing device.
  • Jun 24, 1497

    The discovery of North America

    The discovery of North America
    The New World was made accessible by Christopher Columbus' voyages. On June 24, 1497, at the direction of King Henry VII of England, the Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Caboto, better known in English as John Cabot, is credited with discovering the continent of North America.
  • Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

    Geoffrey Chaucer composed The Canterbury Tales, a collection of twenty-four tales totaling more than 17,000 lines, between 1387 and 1400. It is frequently referred to as Chaucer's greatest work.
  • Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

    Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
    Shakespeare's plays were originally published in The First Folio, which was printed in 1623, seven years after his passing. For the first time, it categorizes Shakespeare's plays into comedies, histories, and tragedies under the title Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies.
  • Period: to

    The American Revolution

    Minutemen, the militia of the colonists, and British soldiers, known as lobsterbacks because of their red coats, engaged in gunfire in Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in April 1775. It was known as "the shot heard round the world," and it marked the beginning of the American Revolution and the birth of a new country.
  • The American Revolution

    Minutemen, the militia of the colonists, and British soldiers, known as lobsterbacks because of their red coats, engaged in gunfire in Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in April 1775. It was known as "the shot heard round the world," and it marked the beginning of the American Revolution and the birth of a new country.
  • Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence
    The Second Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776, issued the United States Declaration of Independence, officially known as The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.
  • Whiskey Rebellion

    Whiskey Rebellion
    The Whiskey Rebellion, which took place in the United States between 1791 and 1794 while George Washington was president, was a bloody tax protest. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first levied by the newly established federal government on a domestic good.
  • Louisiana Purchase

    Louisiana Purchase
    Before U.S. President Thomas Jefferson wrested it away from Napoleon in 1803 for a total cost of around $27 million, the Louisiana Territory, a vast area of land covering more than 800,000 square miles and comprising the western Mississippi basin, was under Spanish colonial administration first.
  • The discovery of North America

    The New World was made accessible by Christopher Columbus' voyages. On June 24, 1497, at the direction of King Henry VII of England, the Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Caboto, better known in English as John Cabot, is credited with discovering the continent of North America.
  • 9/11

    9/11
    Al-network Qaeda's of violent Islamic extremists launched four coordinated suicide terrorist strikes on the United States on September 11, also known as 9/11.