Region

Europe

Election of Hugh Capet (987): The Capetian Dynasty Begins

Hugh Capet became king of the West Franks, ending Carolingian rule and founding a dynasty whose branches ruled France until 1848.

July 987 · 6 min read

A Scandinavian, Rus and later largely English unit became the emperors' most trusted bodyguard for more than two centuries.

c. 988 · 6 min read

Vladimir adopted Byzantine Orthodox Christianity as the faith of Kievan Rus, binding it to Byzantium's religious and cultural world.

c. 988 · 8 min read

Viking victory; Byrhtnoth was killed and the English paid 10,000 pounds of silver for peace.

991 · 6 min read

The single copy of Beowulf survived the Cotton Library fire of 1731 and became the foundation text of Old English literature.

c. 1000 · 6 min read

Stephen became the first crowned King of Hungary, founding a Christian kingdom that lasted for more than nine centuries.

1000 · 6 min read

The site proved that Norse Greenlanders reached North America about 500 years before Columbus; it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

c. 1000 · 6 min read

Norse Greenlanders explored and briefly settled parts of North America about five centuries before Columbus, but did not establish a lasting colony.

c. 1000 · 8 min read

An unknown number of Danes in English towns were killed; Danish raids intensified and Sweyn Forkbeard conquered England in 1013.

13 November 1002 · 6 min read

The settlers stayed two or three years but withdrew to Greenland after conflict with Indigenous people; no lasting Norse colony was founded.

c. 1010 · 6 min read

Victory for Brian's army, but Brian, his son Murchad and his grandson Tairdelbach were killed; Norse Dublin survived under Sitric.

1014 · 8 min read

Byzantine victory; Samuel's army was destroyed, he died weeks later, and Bulgaria was annexed by 1018.

29 July 1014 · 6 min read