Middle Ages
Cadaver Synod (897): Pope Formosus Put on Trial After Death
Formosus was posthumously condemned and his acts annulled; within months Stephen VI was deposed and killed, and later popes reversed the verdict and banned trials of the dead.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Gokstad Ship (c. 900): Viking Longship from a Norwegian Mound
The best-preserved seagoing Viking ship yet found, excavated in 1880 and displayed in Oslo; a replica sailed across the Atlantic to Chicago in 1893.
Middle Ages
Spiro Mounds: Mississippian Treasure and Its 1930s Looting
One of the richest Mississippian sites in North America; its main burial mound was largely destroyed by commercial looters in the 1930s.
Middle Ages
Chimu Kingdom and Chan Chan: Adobe Capital of Peru
The Chimu built the largest state on the Peruvian coast before being conquered by the Inca around 1470; Chan Chan became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
Middle Ages
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: China Divided (907-979)
China was divided among rival regimes until the Song dynasty, founded in 960, conquered or absorbed the last independent states by 979.
Middle Ages
Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171): The Ismaili Empire of Egypt
The Fatimids built a rival caliphate to the Abbasids and founded Cairo, but after a long decline Saladin abolished the dynasty in 1171.
Middle Ages
Founding of Cluny Abbey (910): Medieval Monastic Reform
A Benedictine abbey placed under papal protection and free of lay control, which became the head of the largest monastic network of the medieval West.
Middle Ages
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (911–918): Warrior Ruler
Æthelflæd secured English Mercia, recovered Derby and Leicester from the Danes and prepared the way for the unification of England.
Middle Ages
Rollo and the Founding of Normandy (911): Saint-Clair-sur-Epte
Charles the Simple granted Rollo and his Vikings the lands of the lower Seine around Rouen in return for defending the kingdom and accepting baptism, creating the territory that grew into the duchy of Normandy.
Middle Ages
Goryeo Dynasty (918): Wang Geon Founds the Kingdom of Korea
Wang Geon overthrew Gung Ye and founded Goryeo, which absorbed Silla and destroyed Later Baekje to reunify the peninsula by 936 and lasted until 1392.
Middle Ages
Ibn Fadlan's Journey to the Volga (921): Meeting the Rus
The embassy reached the Volga Bulgar ruler in May 922; Ibn Fadlan's report became one of the most important written sources on the peoples of the steppe and the Rus.
Middle Ages
Athelstan Becomes the First King of England (927)
Athelstan took York, ending the Viking kingdom there for a time, and was recognised as overlord by the rulers of northern Britain.