•
March 1: In
Rouen,
Pope John XV ratifies the first
Truce of God, between
Æthelred the Unready and
Richard I of Normandy. •
March 29:
Bishop Adalberon imprisons the treasonous
Duke Charles of Lorraine and his nephew
Arnulf, the
Archbishop of Reims. Adalberon delivers the two men to King
Hugh Capet, who imprisons them and their family in
Orléans. The cities of
Reims and Laon are returned to Capet. •
April 5:
991 Damascus earthquake in
Syria: According to historian
George Elmacin (13th century), the earthquake caused the fall of 1,000 houses in Damascus itself, and many people were trapped in their
ruins and died. The village of Beglabec was reportedly engulfed, due to the earthquake. • Spring: Byzantine Emperor
Basil II begins a campaign against the
Bulgarians. •
June 15:
Theophanu dies in
Nijmegen, and
Adelaide of Italy assumes full regency over her grandson,
Otto III. •
June 17 –
18: The royal council of Saint-Basle de Verzy is marked by opposition between the bishops and the monks.
Gerbert d'Aurillac is elected as the deposed Arnulf's successor as the Archbishop of Reims, to the anger of Pope John XV, who had no involvement in the decision. •
August 11: Following a raid by
Olaf Tryggvason at the mouth of the
River Thames,
ealdorman Byrhtnoth is killed in the
Battle of Maldon in
Essex, which is commemorated in the
Old English poem
The Battle of Maldon. Æthelred the Unready is forced to pay a
tribute of 22,000 pounds of silver for Tryggvason to withdraw his troops; this is the first in a series of
Danegelds. •
November 22: The beginning of the reign of
al-Qadir,
Abbasid caliph of
Baghdad, under the tutelage of the
Buyids and following the deposition of
al-Ta'i.
Unknown dates •
Count Odo I of Blois, who captured
Melun, is driven out of the city by the coalition of King Hugh Capet,
Count Fulk III of Anjou and Richard I of Normandy; Odo is defeated in
Orsay by Bouchard I of Vendôme, a faithful vassal of Capet charged with guarding Melun. •
Stavoren is sacked in Viking raids on the ports of
Frisia and the mouths of the
Rhine. •
Pietro II Orseolo becomes the 26th
Doge of Venice.
Venice establishes a protectorate on the coast of the Dalmatian Islands. •
Taranto is sieged by
Sicilian Arabs. • The
Dagome iudex, a document which enumerates the possessions of
Mieszko I, is written and entrusted to Pope John XV, who places the
Polish territories under papal protection. •
Mount Vesuvius erupts. == Births ==