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43 - 410 - Celtic Speech of the Britons during Roman Occupation -
400 - 1500 - Anglo-Saxton Britain
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500 - 650 - Angles, Saxons, Jutes & Frisians settle in Britain, bringing dialects that become Old English. -
550 - Borrowed words from narrative Romano-Britons; influence from Celtic languages or British Latin is disputed. -
597 - Latinism -
1000 - Beowulf was written down, but the poem was suspected to be created as early as the 700's
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700 - Caedmon's Hymn - the oldest known English poem composed -
800 - 1000 - Vikings invade eastern and northern England. A contact between Old English and Old Norse of the English case system. -
1066 - Normans, Bretons and Frenchmen invade England and establish themselves the ruling class -
1150- Translation to Middle English-earliest surviving texts -
1066- The Norman Invasion -
1170- Introduction to Norman French and English; University of Oxford founded -
1387-1400- The Canterbury Tales by Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer -
1436- Invention of the Printing Press -
1200-1450- As a result of the Norman conquest, French words began to enter English, including royalty, law and food items
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1215- King Johns Magna Carta; critical document in the ruling of the constitutional law in the English-speaking world -
1204- England now only home for Norman French/English -
Late 15th Century- The first printing press; printers begin to standardize English spelling -
1450- Translation to Early Modern English -
1500-1700- Great Vowel Shift 0ccurs, affecting all dialects of English -
1492- Discovery of the Americas -
1610-1790- Large scale migration from England to Northern America leads to new strains of English evolving there -
1623- Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio -
1800- Translation to Late/Modern English -
1765- American Revolution -
1939-1945- World War II -
1790-1950- English spreads across the world as a result of the British Empire -
2000's- English continues to spread through media, films, music and internet
