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The 1000s

357 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 11th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1000 CE45 entries

  • In Scandinavia, Christianization was in its early stages, with the Althing of the Icelandic Commonwealth embracing Christianity in the year 1000. On September 9, the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, was defeated by the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden in the Battle of Svolder. Sweyn Forkbeard established Danish control over part of Norway. The city of Oslo was founded in Norway (the exact year is debatable, but the 1,000 year anniversary was held in the year 2000). It is known that in or around this year, Norse explorer Leif Erikson became the first European to land in the Americas, at L'Anse aux Meadows in modern-day Newfoundland.
  • In continental Europe, the Holy Roman Empire established itself as the most powerful state. The Holy Roman Emperor Otto III made a pilgrimage from Rome to Aachen and Gniezno (Gnesen), stopping at Regensburg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and Gniezno. The Congress of Gniezno (with Bolesław I the Brave) was part of his pilgrimage. In Rome, he built the basilica of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, to host the relics of St. Bartholomew.
  • The archdiocese in Gniezno was founded; the first archbishop was Radim Gaudentius, from Slavník dynasty, and dioceses in Kołobrzeg, Kraków and Wrocław.

1001 CE53 entries

  • February 6 – After leading the revolt against Emperor Otto III and expelling the Crescentii, Gregory I, Count of Tusculum is named "Head of the Republic".
  • March 17 – The Buddhist ruler of Butuan, in the Philippines (P’u-tuan in the Sung Dynasty records), Sari Bata Shaja, makes the first tributary mission to China.
  • November 27 – Battle of Peshawar: Jayapala suffers defeat from the Ghaznavid Empire.

1002 CE33 entries

  • January 23 – Emperor Otto III dies, at the age of 22, of smallpox at Castle of Paterno (near Rome) after a 19-year reign. He leaves no son, nor a surviving brother who can succeed by hereditary right to the throne. Otto is buried in Aachen Cathedral alongside the body of Charlemagne.
  • June 7 – Henry II, a cousin of Otto III, is elected and crowned as King of Germany by Archbishop Willigis at Mainz. Henry does not recognise the coronation of Arduin. Otto of Worms withdraws his nomination for the title of Holy Roman Emperor and receives the Duchy of Carinthia (modern Austria) - Henry is the first King to be elected away from the Cathedral of Aachen since the tradition was begun by Otto I in 936.
  • November 13 – St. Brice's Day massacre: King Æthelred the Unready orders all Danes in England killed. Æthelred marries (as his second wife) Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy.

1003 CE37 entries

  • February 9 – Boleslaus III is restored to authority with armed support from Duke Bolesław I (the Brave) of Poland. The following months, Boleslaus' brothers Jaromír and Oldřich flee to Germany and place themselves under the protection of King Henry II, while Boleslaus orders the massacre of his Bohemian leading nobles at Vyšehrad.
  • May 12 – Pope Sylvester II dies after a 4-year pontificate. He is succeeded by John XVII as the 140th pope of the Catholic Church.
  • November 6 – John XVII dies after a pontificate of about 7 months and is buried in the Lateran Basilica at Rome.

1004 CE36 entries

  • December – Fujiwara no Kenshi, the future empress consort, enters the palace as lady-in-waiting to her sister, Empress Shōshi.
  • A Danish Viking fleet under Sweyn Forkbeard lands in Norfolk. Ealdorman Ulfcytel orders his Anglo-Saxon troops to burn the raiding ships. The plan fails and Ulfcytel's small army is defeated by the Vikings.
  • Battle of Skopje: Emperor Basil II defeats the Bulgarian forces near Skopje (modern North Macedonia). Leaving his army behind, Samuel of Bulgaria manages to escape. Basil continues his campaign and besieges the fortress of Pernik. By the end of the year Basil has reconquered about half of the Bulgarian Empire.

1005 CE32 entries

  • January 13–18 – The Shanyuan Treaty is negotiated between the Liao dynasty and the Song dynasty. The Song government agrees to pay an annual tribute of 200,000 bolts of raw silk and 100,000 taels of silver, ending the northern border clashes against Liao.
  • March 25 – King Kenneth III of Scotland is killed in the battle of Monzievaird in Strathearn. He is succeeded by his cousin Malcolm II ("Forranach, the Destroyer", son of the late King Kenneth II) as ruler of Scotland.
  • November 16 – Ælfric of Abingdon, archbishop of Canterbury, leaves ships to the people of Wiltshire and Kent in his will, leaving the best, equipped for 60 men, to King Æthelred the Unready.

1006 CE22 entries

  • April 30 – The brightest supernova ever recorded, SN 1006, occurs in the constellation of Lupus. It is observed and described in China, Japan, Iraq, Egypt, and Europe and possibly depicted in North American rock art. Modern astronomers now consider its distance at about 7,200 light-years. The supernova provides enough light to read by on a night with a dark moon.
  • A major eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano on Java causes devastation throughout the centre of the island (which it covers with volcanic ash) and to the Javanese Hindu Mataram kingdom.
  • Summer–Autumn – Danish Viking raiders led by Sweyn Forkbeard raid south-eastern England from the Isle of Wight to Reading in the Thames Valley where they overwinter at the Wallingford river crossing.

1007 CE30 entries

  • January 29 – Ranking ceremony of Murasaki Shikibu – as a renowned writer and lady-in-waiting, tutor of Empress Shōshi, she is elevated to the highest position in the palace below the empress.
  • November 1 – King Henry II of Germany founds the Diocese of Bamberg during a synod held in Frankfurt.
  • The Keraites, a Turco-Mongolian tribe, are converted to Nestorianism (a sect of Christianity).

1008 CE33 entries

  • November 13 – Kamo Special Festival: The poet Murasaki Shikibu is given her name from a famous court poet, Fujiwara no Kinto; this year she probably starts to write The Diary of Lady Murasaki.
  • Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah sends a tributary mission to Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty in order to reestablish trade relations between the Fatimid Caliphate and China (approximate date).
  • Olof Skötkonung, king of Sweden, is baptized in Husaby (Västergötland) by missionary Sigfrid, and makes generous donations on the spot.

1009 CE36 entries

  • February 14 or March 9 – The first known mention is made of the name of Lithuania, in connection with the murder of Bruno of Querfurt. He is beheaded and his 18 companions are hanged the same day during a mission among the Prussians in the Baltic region.
  • August 29 – Mainz Cathedral suffers extensive damage from a fire, which destroys the building on the day of its inauguration.
  • August – A large Viking army led by Thorkell the Tall lands on Kent and proceeds to terrorize most of Southern England.