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Period: 400 to 1100
Old English
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401
Text from Beowulf
Old English text example. -
416
Seven Books of History Against the Pagans
The Spanish Christian presbyter Paulus Orosius was the author of Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. It's a Christian interpretation of history from God’s creation of the world during his time period. -
700
Beowulf
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1066
Norman invasion
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Period: 1066 to 1071
The Norman Invasion
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Period: 1100 to 1400
MIddle English
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1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is the start of a constitutional government in England. It gave constitutional law to the English. -
1387
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
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1400
The Great Vowel shift
This was a time when there were several changes in the vocabulary's pronunciations. This took place between 1400 to 1700. -
1400
Gawain and the Green Knight by Gawain Poet
Lines 1-19 SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
þe bor3 brittened and brent to bronde3 and askez,
þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wro3t
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erþe:
Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,
þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome
Welne3e of al þe wele in þe west iles.
Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swyþe,
With gret bobbaunce þat bur3e he biges vpon fyrst,
And neuenes hit his aune nome...) -
Period: 1400 to
Modern English
Modern English is currently ongoing, but for the sake of this timeline it will end in 2012. -
1440
The invention of the Printing Press
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Hamlet by Shakespeare
Hamlet was published in 1603. -
The first English Dictionary
The first English dictionary was titled Table Alphabeticall and written by Robert Cawdrey. The dictionary was 130 pages long that consisted of 2,543 words. -
Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio,
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Publication of the first English language Newspaper
The first English newspaper publisher was produced by Elizabeth Mallet. She advertised that she would only publish foreign news without her own comments only of the people. -
The American Revolution
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The discovery of North America
