NB:
I won't quiz students specifically over these dates unless
they appear in other study questions for a specific reading.
However, students will impress me if they make reference
to them (accurately) as part of their mid-term or final
essay examinations. It is more impressive if I can see the
student understands why the date is important as
a useful milestone of periodization, rather than a mere
demonstration of the student's ability to regurgitate numbers.
Twelve Medieval
Dates Every English Major Should Know
449: Traditional date the Anglo-Saxons
invade England
597: St. Augustine the Lesser undertakes
mission to Kent and begins conversion of Anglo-Saxons to
Christianity
731: The Venerable Bede completes The
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
793: Vikings sack Lindisfarne.
1066: Norman Conquest commences with the
Battle of Hastings--marks the start of Middle English (c.
1066-1450).
1095: First Crusade preached by Pope Urban
II
1170: Archbishop Thomas a Becket murdered
in Canterbury Cathedral
1215: Fourth Lateran Council; Magna Carta
signed by King John
1348: Black Plague strikes England
1381: Peasants' Revolt
1455: War of the Roses begins
1476: Caxton's Printing Press set up in
England.
Ten Renaissance
Dates Every English Major Should Know
1485: Tudor dynasty founded by Henry VII
1517: Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
nailed to church door at Wittenberg; begins Protestant Reformation
1558: Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the
British throne
1564: Birth of Shakespeare
1588: Spanish Armada fails to Conquer England
1603: Death of Elizabeth I; Her cousin
King James I ascends to the British throne, setting precedent
for the unification of Scotland and England.
1616: Shakespeare's death
1633: Galileo forced to recant his scientific
proof of Copernican theory under the Inquisition's threat
of torture
1660: Restoration of Charles II to the
throne after decades of Puritan-controlled "Protectorate";
Samuel Pepys starts his diary
Eight Restoration
Dates Every English Major Should Know
1666: Great Fire of London destroys the city
1667: John Milton publishes
Paradise
Lost
1690: John Locke's
An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding
1707: Act of Union merges Scotland and England
1711: First issue of Addison and Steele's
The Spectator
1717: Pope's
Rape of the Lock published
1751: British Empire seizes its first holdings
in India
1755: Samuel Johnson completes his
A
Dictionary of the English Language.