A brief chronology of English

55 BC Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar

AD 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of
Roman rule of Britain

436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete

449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins

450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions

1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy,
invades and conquers England

1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published

c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English

1348 English replaces Latin as the language of
instruction in most schools

1362 English replaces French as the language of law.
English is used in Parliament for the first time

c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales

c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins

1476 William Caxton establishes the first English
printing press

1564 Shakespeare is born

1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is
published

1607 The first permanent English settlement in the
New World (Jamestown) is established

1616 Shakespeare dies

1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published

1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The
Daily Courant, is published in London

1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary

1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration
of Independence

1782 Britain abandons its colonies in what is later to
become the USA

1828 Webster publishes his American English
dictionary

1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded