The historical timeline you keep in your head might not be as accurate as you think Updated: November 5, 2024 | Originally Published: October 11, 2013 Teaching in Oxford, England, began no later than 1096. Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded in 1325. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Images: Public domain and Txllxt TxllxT via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 As early as 1096, teaching had already started in Oxford, England, setting the stage for the establishment of the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Over the next century, the University of Oxford grew rapidly, welcoming an influx of students after 1167, when England’s Henry II banned his subjects from attending the University of Paris amid his ongoing feud with Thomas Becket , an English archbishop who’d sought refuge in France. By 1264, Oxford had grown into a full-fledged university, complete with student housing at the school’s three original halls of residence: University, Balliol and Merton Colleges.…