Proto- English. Before English Upto 410 A.D. |
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| c.6000 BC | The English Channel separates Britain from continental Europe |
| c.5000 BC | Proto-Indo-Europeans living in Eastern Europe and Central Asia |
| c.1000 BC | Celtic live in today’s Spain, France, Germany, Austria, eastern Europe, and the British Isles. |
| c.500 BC | Celts inhabit much of Europe, and beginning to colonize the British Isles |
| 55 BC | First Roman raids on Britain under Julius Caesar |
| 43 AD | Emperor Claudius occupies Britain. (Beginning of Roman rule of Britain). Roman colony of “Britannia” established |
| 410-436 | The collapse of the Roman Empire |
Old English 450 A.D. To 1100 A.D. |
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| c.450 | Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes) |
| 450-480 | Earliest Old English inscriptions |
| 597 | St. Augustine comes to Britain and Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons begins |
| c.600 | Most of modern-day England now has Anglo-Saxon language |
| c.660 | “Cædmon’s Hymn” composed in Old English |
| 731 | “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (in Latin) by The Venerable Bede |
| 792 | Beginning of Viking raids of Britain |
| c.800 | Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed |
| 865 | Danes attack and occupation of Northumbria |
| 871 | Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works |
| 871 | “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” begins |
| 878 | Britain division into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north |
| 911 | Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger |
| c.1000 | The oldest surviving manuscript of “Beowulf” |
Middle English 1100 – 1500 |
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| 1066 | The Norman conquest: William the Conqueror |
| 1086 | “Domesday Book” compiled |
| c.1100 | de facto capital of England is now London |
| c.1150 | The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English |
| 1154 | Discontinuation of “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” |
| 1167 | Establishment of Oxford University |
| c.1180 | Completion of The “Ormulum” text of the monk Orm |
| 1204 | King John loses the province of Normandy to France |
| 1209 | establishment of Cambridge University |
| 1349-50 | A third of the British population is killed by Black death |
| 1362 | Statute of Pleading – English replaces French as the language of law (although records are still kept in Latin) |
| 1362 | English Parliament uses English for the first time |
| c.1370 | William Langland’s “Piers Plowman” |
| 1384 | John Wycliffe’s English translation of “The Bible” |
| 1385 | Latin is replaced by English as the main language in schools (exception of Oxford and Cambridge) |
| c.1388 | Chaucer begins “The Canterbury Tales” |
| 1399 | Henry IV is the first English-speaking monarch since before the Conquest |
Early Modern English 1500 – 1800 |
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| c.1450 | Beginning of The Great Vowel Shift |
| 1476 | William Caxton – the first English printing press |
| c.1500 | English Renaissance begins |
| 1526 | William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible” |
| 1539 | Publication of “The Great Bible” |
| 1549 | First version of “The Book of Common Prayer” |
| c.1590 | Early plays by William Shakespeare |
| 1604 | First English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall” by Robert Cawdrey |
| 1607 | Jamestown becomes the first permanent English settlement in the New World |
| 1611 | Publication of King James – “The Bible” |
| 1616 | William Shakespeare dies |
| 1622 | Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the “Courante” or “Weekly News” |
| 1623 | The first bunch of Shakespeare’s works is published |
| 1702 | “The Daily Courant” – Publication of the first daily English-language newspaper |
| 1755 | Samuel Johnson’s “Dictionary of the English Language” |
| Late Modern English 1800 onwards | |
| 1763 | Britain takes control of Canada from the French |
| 1777 | Death of Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language |
| 1782 | Cornwallis is defeated by George Washington at Yorktown and Britain leaves from its American colonies |
| 1788 | Establishment of British penal colony in Australia |
| 1788 | First publication of “The Times” newspaper in London |
| 1788 | Noah Webster – “The American Spelling Book” |
| 1795 | First English settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa |
| 1804 | Lewis and Clark document exploration of routes to American West |
| 1828 | Noah Webster – “The American Dictionary of the English Language” |
| 1834 | Slavery is abolished in the British Empire |
| 1840 | Establishment of British colony in new Zealand |
| 1865 | End of slavery in the United States after Civil War |
| 1922 | Foundation of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| 1928 | First edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published |
| 1947 | India and Pakistan independence from Britain |
| 1954 | Sir Ernest Gowers’ “The Complete Plain Words” published |
| 1989 | Second edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published |
History of Britain from Roman times to Restoration era