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The 650s

194 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 7th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

650 CE26 entries

  • According to legend, the Polynesian traveller Ui-te-Rangiora sailed south into the Southern Ocean where they sighted ice floes and icebergs, eventually naming the area Te tai-uka-a-pia.
  • The Mercians under King Penda move on East Anglia, destroy the monastery at Burgh Castle and expel King Anna who probably flees to Magonsæte (approximate date).
  • The first Chinese paper money is issued, yet these banknotes will not become government-issued until the Song dynasty era Sichuan province issues them in the year 1024, with the central government of China following suit in the 12th century.

651 CE16 entries

  • An embassy led by Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas arrives in the capital Chang'an via an oversea route. They are greeted by Emperor Gao Zong, who orders the establishment of the first Chinese mosque.
  • The Hôtel-Dieu de Paris is founded by bishop Landry (Landericus). It becomes the first major hospital in Paris.
  • King Yazdegerd III of Persia is murdered in a miller's hut near Merv by his followers, ending both Persian resistance to Arab conquest, and the Sassanid Empire.

652 CE17 entries

  • Arab–Byzantine War: An Arab fleet under Abdullah ibn Sa'ad defeats the Byzantine fleet (500 ships) off the coast of Alexandria.
  • The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is constructed in Chang'an (modern Xi'an), during the Tang dynasty (China). It is completed in the same year, during the reign of Emperor Gao Zong.
  • Siege of Dongola: A Rashidun army (5,000 men) under Abdullah ibn Sa'ad besieges Dongola in the Kingdom of Makuria (modern Sudan).

653 CE24 entries

  • June 17 – Pope Martin I is arrested in the Lateran in Rome, along with Maximus the Confessor, on the orders of Emperor Constans II, and taken to imprisonment in Constantinople.
  • Emperor Kōtoku sends an embassy to the court of the Tang dynasty in China. Japanese ambassadors, priests and students sail for the capital Chang'an, but some of the ships are lost en route.
  • The Temple of Sinheungsa in Gangwon Province (South Korea) is constructed by the Buddhist monk Jajang.

654 CE24 entries

  • August 10 – The exiled Pope Martin I is deposed, and succeeded by Eugene I, as the 75th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. On September 17, Martin is taken to Constantinople and publicly humiliated, for having condemned the Byzantine Emperor Constans II in 649.
  • November 24 – Emperor Kōtoku dies after a 9-year reign; Kōgyoku (his elder sister) is restored on the throne under the name Saimei.
  • King Penda of Mercia defeats the East Anglians at Bulcamp near Blythburgh (Suffolk). King Anna of East Anglia and his son Jurmin are killed.

655 CE17 entries

  • May 15 – Pope Martin I is banished to Chersonesos Taurica (Ukraine). He dies later in the Crimean Peninsula after a 6-year reign, leaving Eugene I as the uncontested pope (see 654).
  • November 15 – Battle of the Winwaed: King Oswiu of Bernicia defeats his rival, King Penda of Mercia at Cock Beck, near what later will be Leeds (Yorkshire). Kings Cadafael Cadomedd of Gwynedd and Œthelwald of Deira, allies of Mercia, withdraw their forces before the battle begins. It marks the defeat of the last credible pagan force in England. It also sows the seeds which will lead to Anglo-Saxon acceptance of the Catholic Church (approximate date).
  • Empress Kōgyoku re-ascends to the throne of Japan, beginning a new reign as Saimei-tennō.

656 CE22 entries

  • February 1 – King Sigebert III of Austrasia, age 25, dies after a 22-year reign. His 5-year-old son Dagobert II is kidnapped by the court chancellor, Grimoald the Elder, who makes his own son king, and exiles him to an Irish monastery. Dagobert is placed with Bishop Dido of Poitiers, while Grimoald's son Childebert the Adopted assumes the Austrasian throne.
  • September 24 – A total solar eclipse is observable from Easter Island. The next at this location would not occur until July 11, 2010.
  • December 8 – Battle of the Camel: Rebel Arabs under Aisha (widow of Muhammad) begin a revolt against Ali. They are defeated at Basra, and Aisha is exiled to Medina. During the battle 10,000 people lose their lives, with each party bearing equal loss.

657 CE14 entries

  • June 1 – Pope Eugene I dies at Rome after a reign of nearly 2½ years. He is succeeded by Vitalian as the 76th pope.
  • July 26 - July 28 – Battle of Siffin: Muslim forces under Ali ibn Abi-Talib fight an inconclusive battle against Mu'awiya I, on the banks of the Euphrates, near Raqqa (Syria).
  • Hilda, Anglo-Saxon abbess, founds a monastery at Streaneshalch, on the Yorkshire coast at Whitby (England).

658 CE18 entries

  • April: Amr ibn al-As and Abu Musa al-Ashari conclude the arbitration agreement that ended the Battle of Siffin the previous year, declaring Caliph Ali deposed and declaring Muawiyah as the legitimate Caliph. This badly damages Ali's standing among the Caliphate, and paves the way for the end of the First Fitna.
  • July 17: The Battle of Nahrawan sees Caliph Ali decisively defeat a Kharijite rebellion, which marks the last fighting of the First Fitna.
  • Battle of Peonnum: King Cenwalh and the Wessex Saxons make a push against Dumnonia (South West England). They are victorious at Penselwood in Somerset, and the Dumnonia-Wessex border is set at the River Parrett (approximate date).

659 CE16 entries

  • March 17 – Gertrude of Nivelles, daughter of Pepin of Landen (mayor of the palace of Austrasia), requests on her deathbed a burial wearing a plain linen shroud. This is the traditional (pagan) practice of a 'furnished' grave.
  • A Japanese embassy is sent to the Chinese Empire, and received in an audience by Emperor Gao Zong. The Tang dynasty is determined in the next year to take administrative measures in regard to Japan. The envoys are detained.
  • Leodegar, an opponent of Ebroin (mayor of the palace), is appointed bishop of Autun in Burgundy.