KEY EVENTS in OLD, MIDDLE & MODERN ENGLISH

The Old English Period (449–1100)

The following events during the Old English period significantly influenced the development of
the English language.

• 449 Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians began to occupy Great Britain, thus changing its major
population to English speakers and separating the early English language from its Continental
relatives. This is a traditional date; the actual migrations doubtless began earlier.

• 597 Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrived in England to begin the conversion of the English by
baptizing King Ethelbert of Kent, thus introducing the influence of the Latin language.

• 664 The Synod of Whitby aligned the English with Roman rather than Celtic Christianity, thus
linking English culture with mainstream Europe.

• 730 The Venerable Bede produced his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, recording
the early history of the English people.

• 787 The Scandinavian invasion began with raids along the northeast seacoast.

• 865 The Scandinavians occupied northeastern Britain and began a campaign to conquer all of
England.

• 871 Alfred became king of Wessex and reigned until his death in 899, rallying the English against
the Scandinavians, retaking the city of London, establishing the Danelaw, securing the kingship of
all England for himself and his successors, and producing or sponsoring the translation of Latin
works into English.

• 987 Ælfric, the homilist and grammarian, went to the abbey of Cerne, where he became the major
prose writer of the Old English period and of its Benedictine Revival and produced a model of
prose style that influenced following centuries.

• 991 Olaf Tryggvason invaded England, and the English were defeated at the Battle of Maldon.

• 1000 The manuscript of the Old English epic Beowulf was written about this time.

• 1016 Canute became king of England, establishing a Danish dynasty in Britain.

• 1042 The Danish dynasty ended with the death of King Hardicanute, and Edward the Confessor
became king of England.
• 1066 Edward the Confessor died and was succeeded by Harold, last of the Anglo-Saxon kings,
who died at the Battle of Hastings while fighting against the invading army of William, duke of
Normandy, who was crowned king of England on December 25.

The Middle English Period (1100–1500)

The following events during the Middle English period significantly influenced the development
of the English language.

• 1066 The Normans conquered England, replacing the native English nobility with Anglo-
Normans and introducing Norman French as the language of government in England.

• 1204 King John lost Normandy to the French, beginning the loosening of ties between England
and the Continent.

• 1258 King Henry III issued the first English-language royal proclamation since the Conquest,
having been forced by his barons to accept the Provisions of Oxford, establishing a Privy Council
to oversee the administration of the government, so beginning the growth of the English
constitution and parliament.

• 1337 The Hundred Years’ War began and lasted until 1453, promoting English nationalism.

• 1348–50 The Black Death killed an estimated one-third of England’s population and continued
to plague the country for much of the rest of the century.

• 1362 The Statute of Pleadings was enacted, requiring all court proceedings to be conducted in
English.

• 1381 The Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler was the first rebellion of working-class people
against their exploitation. Although it failed in most of its immediate aims, it marks the beginning
of popular protest.

• 1384 John Wycliffe died, having promoted the first complete translation of scripture into the
English language (the Wycliffite Bible).

• 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer died, having produced a highly influential body of English poetry.

• 1430 The Chancery office (where legal records were deposited) began recordkeeping in a form
of East Midland English, which became the written standard of English.

• 1476 William Caxton brought printing to England, thus promoting literacy throughout the
population.

• 1485 Henry Tudor became king of England, ending thirty years of civil strife, called the War of
the Roses, and introducing 118 years of the Tudor dynasty.
• 1497 John Cabot sailed to Nova Scotia, foreshadowing English territorial expansion overseas.

The Early Modern English Period (1500–1800)

• 1534 The Act of Supremacy established Henry VIII as “Supreme Head of the Church of
England,” and thus officially put civil authority above Church authority in England.

• 1549 The Book of Common Prayer was adopted and became an influence on English literary
style.

• 1558 At the age of 25, Elizabeth I became queen of England and, as a woman with a Renaissance
education and a skill for leadership, began a forty-five-year reign that promoted statecraft,
literature, science, exploration, and commerce.

• 1577–80 Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, the first Englishman to do so, and
participated in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, thus removing an obstacle to English
expansion overseas.

• 1590–1611 William Shakespeare wrote the bulk of his plays, from Henry VI to The Tempest.

• 1600 The East India Company was chartered to promote trade with Asia, leading eventually to
the establishment of the British Raj in India.

• 1604 Robert Cawdrey published the first English dictionary, A Table Alphabeticall. • 1607
Jamestown, Virginia, was established as the first permanent English settlement in America.

• 1611 The Authorized or King James Version of the Bible was produced by a committee of
scholars and became, with the Prayer Book and the works of Shakespeare, a major influence on
English literary style.

• 1619 The first African slaves in North America arrived in Virginia.

• 1642–48 The Puritan Revolution overthrew the monarchy and established a military dictatorship,
which lasted until the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660.

• 1660 The Royal Society was founded as the first English organization devoted to the promotion
of scientific knowledge and research.

• 1670 Hudson’s Bay Company was chartered for promoting trade and settlement in Canada.
• 1688 The Glorious Revolution was a bloodless coup in which Parliament invited William of
Orange and his wife, Mary (daughter of the reigning English king), to assume the English throne,
resulting in the establishment of Parliament’s power over that of the monarchy.

• 1702 The first daily newspaper was published in London, resulting in the expanding power of
the press to disseminate information and to form public opinion.

• 1719 Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe, sometimes identified as the first modern novel
in English.

• 1755 Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language.

• 1775–83 The American Revolution resulted in the foundation of the first independent nation of
English speakers outside the British Isles.

• 1788 The English first settled Australia near modern Sydney.

Late Modern English (1800–Present)

The following events during recent centuries significantly influenced the development of the
English language.

• 1803 The Louisiana Purchase acquired U.S. territory beyond the Mississippi River, ultimately
resulting in westward expansion to the Pacific Ocean.

• 1805 A victory over the French at the battle of Trafalgar established British naval supremacy.

• 1806 The British occupied Cape Colony in South Africa, thus preparing the way for the arrival
in 1820 of a large number of British settlers.

• 1828 Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was published.

• 1840 In New Zealand, by the Treaty of Waitangi, native Maori ceded sovereignty to the British
crown.

• 1857 A proposal at the Philological Society of London led to work that resulted in the New
English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1928), reissued as the Oxford English Dictionary
(1933), 2nd edition 1989, now revised online.

• 1858 The Government of India Act transferred power from the East India Company to the
crown, thus creating the British Raj in India.
• 1861–5 The American Civil War established the indissolubility of the Union and abolished
slavery in America.

• 1898 The four-month Spanish-American War made the United States a world power with
overseas possessions and thus a major participant in international politics.

• 1906 The first public radio broadcast was aired, leading in 1920 to the first American
commercial radio station in Pittsburgh.

• 1914–18 World War I created an alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.

• 1922 The British Broadcasting Company (after 1927, Corporation) was established and became
a major conveyor of information in English around the world.

• 1927 The first motion picture with spoken dialog, The Jazz Singer, was released.

• 1936 The first high-definition television service was established by the BBC, to be followed by
cable service in the early 1950s and satellite service in the early 1960s.

• 1939–45 World War II further solidified the British-American link.

• 1945 The charter of the United Nations was produced at San Francisco, leading to the
establishment of UN headquarters in New York City.

• 1947 British India was divided into India and Pakistan, and both were given independence.

• 1961 Merriam Webster’s Third New International Dictionary was published.

• 1983 The Internet was created.

• 1992 The first Web browser for the World Wide Web was released.

• 2007 An estimated 363 billion text messages were sent in the United States, 429 billion in
China, and 2.3 trillion worldwide.