1500 to the Present: The Modern English Period
British exploration, colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of loanwords from countless languages and fostered the development of new varieties of English, each with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
Early 16th century The first English settlements are made in North America. William Tyndale's English translation of the Bible is published. Many Greek and Latin borrowings enter English.1549 The first version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England is published.
1564-1616 The life of William Shakespeare.
1586 The first grammar of English--William Bullokar's Pamphlet for Grammar--is published.
1604 Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published. (See The Earliest English Dictionaries.)
1611 The Authorized Version of the English Bible (the "King James" Bible) is published, greatly influencing the development of the written language.
1622 Weekly News, the first English newspaper, is published in London.
1623 The First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays is published.
1662 The Royal Society of London appoints a committee to consider ways of "improving" English as a language of science.
1688 Aphra Benn, the first woman novelist in England, publishes Oronooko, or the History of the Royal Slave.
1697 In his Essay Upon Projects, Daniel Defoe calls for the creation of an Academy of 36 "gentlemen" to dictate English usage.
1702 The Daily Courant, the first regular daily newspaper in English, is published in London.
1707 The Act of Union unites the Parliaments of England and Scotland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
1712 Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric Jonathan Swift proposes the creation of an English Academy to regulate English usage and "ascertain" the language.
1721 Nathaniel Bailey publishes his Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, a pioneer study in English lexicography: the first to feature current usage, etymology, syllabification, clarifying quotations, illustrations, and indications of pronunciation.
1715 Elisabeth Elstob publishes the first grammar of Old English.
1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his two-volume Dictionary of the English Language. Also at this time, rule books, based on prescriptive notions of grammar, become increasingly popular. See What Is Grammar?
1760-1795 This period marks the rise of the English grammarians, whose prescriptions and proscriptions still appear in handbooks and usage manuals: Joseph Priestly, Robert Lowth, James Buchanan, John Ash, Thomas Sheridan, George Campbell, William Ward, and Lindley Murray.
1762 Robert Lowth publishes his Short Introduction to English Grammar.
1776 The Declaration of Independence is signed, and the American War of Independence begins, leading to the creation of the United States of America, the first country outside the British Isles with English as its principal language.
1783 Noah Webster publishes his American Spelling Book.
1785 The Daily Universal Register (renamed The Times in 1788) begins publication in London.
1789 Noah Webster publishes Dissertations on the English Language, which advocates an American standard of usage.
1791 The Observer, the oldest national Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.
Early 19th century Grimm's Law (discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel and Rasmus Rask, later elaborated by Jacob Grimm) identifies relationships between certain consonants in Germanic languages (including English) and their originals in Indo-European. The formulation of Grimm's Law marks a major advance in the development of linguistics as a scholarly field of study.
1803 The Act of Union incorporates Ireland into Britain, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1810 William Hazlitt publishes A New and Improved Grammar of the English Language.
1816 John Pickering compiles the first dictionary of Americanisms.
1828 Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language is published.
1842 The London Philological Society is founded.
1844 The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse, inaugurating the development of rapid communication, a major influence on the growth and spread of English.
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