Middle Ages
Caliphate of Cordoba (929-1031): Abd al-Rahman III and al-Andalus
The Umayyad emir of Cordoba became caliph, ruling the most powerful state in western Europe for a century before civil war led to its abolition in 1031.
Region
Europe
Middle Ages
Althing (930): Iceland's Parliament at Thingvellir
Iceland gained a single annual assembly for law and justice that governed the island without a king until 1262–1264.
Middle Ages
Saint Wenceslaus: The Real Good King Wenceslas of Bohemia
Wenceslaus was killed by his brother's followers and soon venerated as a martyr, becoming the patron saint of the Czech state.
Middle Ages
Madinat al-Zahra: The Lost Palace City of the Cordoba Caliph
The caliph's palace city flourished for about seventy years, was sacked during the civil war of 1009-1031 and lay buried until excavations began in 1911.
Middle Ages
Battle of Brunanburh (937): Athelstan's Great Victory
Decisive English victory; the alliance of Dublin, the Scots and Strathclyde was broken and Athelstan's kingdom survived.
Middle Ages
Olga of Kiev: Regent, Avenger of Igor and Christian Saint
Olga crushed the Drevlians, reorganised tribute collection in Rus and became its first ruler to accept Christianity.
Middle Ages
Battle of Lechfeld (955): Otto I Ends the Magyar Raids
Decisive East Frankish victory; the Magyar raids on western Europe ended and the Hungarians turned to settled statehood.
Middle Ages
Otto I Crowned Emperor (962): Birth of the Holy Roman Empire
Otto I became emperor, linking the German kingship with the imperial title and with Italy in what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire.
Middle Ages
Mount Athos: The Monastic Republic Founded in 963
Athos became the leading centre of Orthodox monasticism, a self-governing community of 20 monasteries that survives today.
Middle Ages
Jelling Stones (c. 965): Harald Bluetooth and Christian Denmark
The Jelling monuments became a royal statement of Denmark's unification and conversion to Christianity, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
Middle Ages
Baptism of Poland (966): Mieszko I and the Birth of a Nation
Mieszko I accepted Latin Christianity, bringing his Piast state into Christian Europe and laying the foundations of Poland.
Middle Ages
Erik the Red and the Norse Settlement of Greenland (985)
Norse farming communities were established in south-west Greenland and survived for more than four centuries before being abandoned.