Where are you most likely to get important news and information that you rely on each day? From a print newspaper? From an app on your phone? From social media? From a cable channel? What about from a man or woman standing in the middle of your neighborhood and shouting out the latest headlines? Not likely.

If you’d lived about 1,000 years ago in England, you would have gotten the latest news and headlines from a town crier. The job of town crier began officially in the year 1066. What happened in 1066? William of Normandy and his army invaded England. Consequently, men were hired by the government to travel from town to town to publicly remind the citizens of King Harold the Second’s authority. They did this by reading public proclamations from the king.

Since few people knew how to rea…