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May 3, 653
Celtic church begins to spread Christianity among people living in Severn Valley.
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May 3, 664
Synod of Whitby establishes Roman church in England.
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May 3, 731
Bede completes A History of the English Church and People.
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May 3, 750
surviving version of Beowulf composed.
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May 3, 1040
Macbeth kills Duncan 1.
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May 3, 1042
Edward the Confessor becomes king of Saxons.
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May 3, 1066
Normans defeat Saxons at Hastings;
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May 2, 1073
Canterbury becomes England's religious center
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Nov 25, 1130
Oxford becomes a center for learning
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May 3, 1170
Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered.
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Jun 15, 1215
King John forced to sign Magna Carta.
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Jan 5, 1233
First coal mined at Newcastle.
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May 3, 1258
First commoners allowed in parliament.
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May 3, 1272
Edward 1 becomes king.
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May 3, 1277
Edward conquers Wales
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May 3, 1295
Edward 1 assembles Model Parliament.
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May 3, 1337
Beginning of the Hundres Years' War with France.
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May 3, 1348
Black Death begins sweeping through England.
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May 3, 1375
Surviving version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written.
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May 3, 1381
Bible first translated into English.
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May 3, 1381
Peasants' Revolt.
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May 3, 1386
Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales.
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May 3, 1455
The Wars of the Roses.
It went on from 1455-1485 -
May 3, 1470
Thomas Malory writes Morte d' Aruthur.
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May 3, 1485
Henry Vll becomes the first Tudor king.
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May 3, 1500
Everyman first performed.
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May 3, 1512
First masque performed.
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May 3, 1516
Thomas More publishes Utopia.
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May 3, 1534
Church of England established.
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May 5, 1534
Henry Vlll issues Act of Supremacy.
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May 3, 1535
thomas More executed.
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May 3, 1541
John Knox leads Calvinist reformation in Scotland.
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May 3, 1547
Henry Vlll dies.
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May 3, 1549
The Book of Common Prayer issued.
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May 3, 1558
Elizabeth l becomes queen.
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May 3, 1563
More than 20,000 Londoners die in plague.
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May 3, 1564
William Shakespeare is born.
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May 3, 1582
Sir Philip Sidney writes Astrophel and Stella.
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Edmund Spenser publishes The Faerie Queene, Part l.
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Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet.
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Globe theater opens.
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Elizabeth l dies; James l becomes king.
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King James Bible published.
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First patent laws passed.
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James l dies.
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John Donne's Songs ad Sonnents published.
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Public mail service established.
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John Milton publishes Lycidas.
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English Civil War begins.
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Puritans close theaters.
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John Suckling publishes Fragmenta Aurea.
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Robert Herrick publishes Hesperides.
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Charles l beheaded.
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Early newspaper ads appear.
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Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector.
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Theaters reopened.
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Royal Society chartered.
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Drury Lane Theater opens.
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Great fire of London.
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John Milton's Paradise Lost published.
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James ll becomes king.
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Glorious Revolution.
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Bill of Rights becomes law.
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First daily newspaper begins publication.
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Great Britain created by Act of Union.
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George l becomes king.
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First organized cricket match takes place.
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Johnathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels.
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Thomas Gray publishes " Elegy in a Country Churchyard"
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Samuel Johnson publishes Dictionary of the English Language.
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Britain enters Seven Years' War.
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England goes to war with France.
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John Keats publishes ''Ode on a Grecian Urn.''
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Horse-drawn buses begin operating in London.
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Edward Vll becomes king.
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Britaon enters World War l.
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Women over thirty achieve right to vote.
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James Joyce publishes Ulysses.
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Britain enters World War ll.
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Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.
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George Orwell publishes Animal Farm.
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Elizabeth ll becomes queen.
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Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman prime minister.
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Celebration of New Year's Eve in the Millennium Dome.
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Anglo-Saxon invasion.
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St. Augustine founds Christian monastery at Canterbury, Kent
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Vikings attack Lindisfarne.
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Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex.
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Saxon monks copy Old English poems into The Exeter Book.
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English defeated by Danes at Battle of Maldon.
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Period: to May 3, 1485
British Literature
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Period: to
British Literature
