TIMELINE

TIMELINE


MIDDLE ENGLISH

1167	Oxford University established
c.1180	The �Ormulum� text of the monk Orm completed
1204	King John loses the province of Normandy to France
1209	Cambridge University established
1349-50	The Black Death kills one third of the British population
1362	The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law (although records continue to be kept in Latin)
1362	English is used in English Parliament for the first time
c.1370	William Langland writes �Piers Plowman�
1384	John Wycliffe publishes his English translation of �The Bible�
1385	English replaces Latin as main language in schools (except Universities of Oxford and Cambridge)
c.1388	Chaucer begins �The Canterbury Tales�
1399	Henry IV becomes first English-speaking monarch since before the Conquest
c.1450	The Great Vowel Shift begins EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH 1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press c.1500 Start of English Renaissance 1526 William Tyndale prints his English translation of the New Testament of �The Bible�  1539 �The Great Bible� published 1549 First version of �The Book of Common Prayer� published c.1590 William Shakespeare writes his first plays 1604 Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, �A Table Alphabeticall� 1607 Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, established 1611 The Authorized, or King James Version, of �The Bible� is published 1616 Death of William Shakespeare 1622 Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the �Courante� or �Weekly News�  1623 First Folio of Shakespeare�s works is published 1702 Publication of the first daily English-language newspaper, �The Daily Courant�, in London 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his �Dictionary of the English Language� 1763 Britain wrests control of Canada from the French LATE MODERN ENGLISH 1777 Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language dies 1782 George Washington defeats Cornwallis at Yorktown and Britain abandons its American colonies 1788 British penal colony established in Australia 1788 First publication of �The Times� newspaper in London 1788 Noah Webster publishes �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 publishes his �The American Dictionary of the English Language� 1834 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire 1840 British colony established in new Zealand 1865 United States ends slavery after Civil War 1922 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) founded 1928 First edition of the �Oxford English Dictionary� is published 1947 India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain 1954 Sir Ernest Gowers� �The Complete Plain Words� published 1989 Second edition of the �Oxford English Dictionary� is published