Dictionary of English Down the Ages. Words and Phrases Born Out of Historical Events, Great and Small 9781856266031

Table of contents :
Introduction
1066 The Normans begin to erect castles
c 1070 William the Conqueror introduces the feudal system
1070 The construction of Canterbury Cathedral is begun
1079 The New Forest is established as a royal hunting ground
1086 William I commissions the Domesday Book
1095 The Council of Clermont: Pope Urban II preaches the First Crusade
1105 The Court of Exchequer is established
1132 Fountains Abbey is founded
1133 St Bartholomew‘s Fair is founded
1137 Eleanor succeeds her father, William X, to the Duchy of Aquitaine
c 1167 Oxford University comes into being
1170 William Marshal becomes a guardian of the young Prince Henry, heir of the English throne
1173 Thomas à Becket is canonised
c 1186 Giraldus Cambrensis writes his Topographica Hibernica
1192 Richard the Lionheart is taken hostage
1198 The Sheriff of London introduces measures to reduce the risk of fire
1204 Constantinople is conquered in the Fourth Crusade
1236 Water is first brought into London through lead pipes
c 1250 Buttons are used to fasten clothes
1268 Roger Bacon comments on the optical use of lenses
c 1290 The Mappa Mundi at Hereford is drawn up
1296 William de Leybourne is appointed Admiral of the Sea
1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaims the first Jubilee Year
1308 Death of the Scottish theologian Duns Scotus
1331 Edward III invites seventy Flemish cloth-workers and their families to settle in England
1340 The Ayenbite of Inwit appears
1346 Edward III uses cannon at Crécy
1347 The Black Death sweeps across Europe
c 1350 The costumes of the wealthy become more flamboyant and varied
c 1350 Almost, every town now has a shop
1360 Edward III issues a royal edict protecting hawks and their owners
1382 The first full translations of the Bible into English appear in 1388
1386 A mechanical clock is set up in Salisbury Cathedral
c 1390 The Forme of Cury, an early cookery book, appears
c 1400 Tennis becomes known in England
c 1410 Wire drawing is invented in Nuremberg
1465 English playing-card manufacturers call for restrictions on foreign imports
1474 William Caxton prints the first book in English
1485 Henry VII begins his reign with a Navigation Act
1492 The Moorish Kingdom of Granada is finally conquered by the Spanish Kings
1492 Christopher Columbus sails west and discovers the West Indies
1495 The first paper mill in England is buil
1496 Wynkyn de Worde publishes an edition of The Boke of St Albans
1509 Alexander Barclay The Ship of Fools appears
1512 Henry VIII founds the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich
1516 A Jewish ghetto is founded in Venice
c 1518 Table forks are regularly used in Italy
1519 Cortés enters Tenochtitian
1568 William the Silent leads the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule
1569 The first lottery in Englnad is organised
1588 The population of Paris erect barricades against their King
1589 William Lee invents the first knitting machine
1597 The Essays, or Counsels, Civill and Morall, of Francis Bacon are first published
1599 Edmund Spenser, the Elizabethan poet, dies
1600 William Gilbert publishes his treatise De Magnete
1605 A plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and the King is discovered
1607 Successful English settlement of North America begins
1608 The poet John Milton is born
1609 Holland becomes effectively independent from Spain
1616 William Shakespeare dies
1622 Pope Gregory XV sets up the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith
1627 English colonists establish a settlement on Barbados
1642 The first battle in the English Civil War is fought
c 1662 Skating becomes popular in England
1685 The Edict of Nantes is revoked
1707 The secret formula for the manufacture of porcelain is discovered
1731 The poet William Cowper is born
1736 The first ‘Gin Act’ is passed
1745 ‘God Save the King’ is first performed
1750 Mrs Vesey begins her famous literary gatherings
1761 Construction of the Bridgewater Canal is completed
1765 The first public restaurant is opened in Paris
1768 James Cook sails for the Pacific Ocean in the Endeavour on the first of his three voyages
1774 The rules of cricket are laid down
1786 Jonas Hanway, the first to carry an umbrella in London, dies
1788 Robert Barker exhibits the first panorama
1788 Captain Arthur Philip establishes a penal colony in Australia
1791 Luigi Galvani publishes his findings on ‘animal electricity’
1795 Mungo Park begins his expedition to the Niger River
1800 Alessandro Volta invents the battery
1819 Baron Cagniard de la Tour invents the siren
1820 Gideon Manteli finds a number of large fossilised teeth in Tilgate Forest
1825 The Stockton and Darlington Railway is completed
1827 Friction matches are invented by British chemist John Walker
1827 Nicéphore Niepce takes the first photograph
1828 Stanislav Baudry starts his omnibus services in Paris
1848 Gold is discovered at Sutter‘s Mill, northern California
1849 Cockfighting is made illegal in Great Britain
1861-5 The American Civil War is fought
1865-77 America undergoes a period of Reconstruction
1869 The first pedal bicycle is produced in England
1871 The Treaty of Frankfurt brings the Franco-Prussian War to a close
1885 Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz use light petrol engines to propel motor vehicles
1885 The first skyscraper is built in the United States
1888 A great blizzard sweeps across the eastern United States
1901 Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits radio signals across the Atlantic
1914 Coco Chanel opens her couture business in Paris
1916 In the First World War tanks are used for the first time as the British attack the Germans at the Somme
1920 Weekly payments are made to the unemployed from national and local funds
1928 Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1938 Laszlo Biro patents the first practical ball-point pen
1940 Vidkun Quisling assumes leadership of Norway
1940 The Blitz begins
1946 Atomic bomb tests are carried out in the Marshall Islands
1948 The first alterable stored-program computer is born
1950 North Korean troops invade South Korea
1957 The first Earth satellite is launched
1961 Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 is published
1969 The Stonewall Riot takes place in New York
1971 Greenpeace is founded
1989 Tim Berners-Lee makes proposals that lead to the WorldWideWeb
Bibliography
Index