Japan • Palace Scandal: Princess Consort Yasuko has an affair. Michinaga (her half-brother) investigates it secretly and finds out the truth about her pregnancy. Yasuko cries and repents. Yasuko leaves the palace under the patronage of Empress Dowager Senshi and Michinaga (moved to his residence). •
Murasaki Shikibu starts to write
The Tale of Genji. •
Ichimonjiya Wasuke, the oldest surviving
wagashi store, is established as a teahouse adjacent to
Imamiya Shrine. •
January 10: Death of Empress Dowager Masako (empress consort of the late Emperor Reizei) •
April 8: Fujiwara no Shoshi is promoted to Empress (Chugu), while there is another empress, Fujiwara no Teishi (kogo) - this is the first time that there are two empresses
Americas • The
Taíno have become the dominant culture of modern day
Puerto Rico.
Christendom , the
Holy Roman Empire,
Kievan Rus', and the
Byzantine Empire in the
Middle Ages (year 1000) • In
continental Europe, the
Holy Roman Empire established itself as the most powerful state. The Holy Roman Emperor
Otto III made a pilgrimage from
Rome to
Aachen and
Gniezno (
Gnesen), stopping at
Regensburg,
Meissen,
Magdeburg, and Gniezno. The
Congress of Gniezno (with
Bolesław I the Brave) was part of his
pilgrimage. In Rome, he built the basilica of
San Bartolomeo all'Isola, to host the relics of
St. Bartholomew. • In the
Kingdom of France,
Robert II, the son of
Hugh Capet, was the first King of the
Capetian royal dynasty. • The
Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty was engaged in a
long and hard war with the
First Bulgarian Empire. The Byzantine generals,
Theodorokanos and
Nikephoros Xiphias captured the former Bulgarian capitals of
Pliska and
Great Preslav, along with
Little Preslav, extending Byzantine control over the northeastern portion of the Bulgarian state (
Mysia and
Scythia Minor). At the same time, Byzantium was instrumental in the
Christianization of Kievan Rus' and of other medieval confederations of Slavic states. • In
Great Britain, a unified
Kingdom of England had developed out of the various
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. • In
Scandinavia,
Christianization was in its early stages, with the
Althing of the
Icelandic Commonwealth embracing Christianity in the year 1000. On
September 9, the
King of Norway,
Olaf Tryggvason, was defeated by the Scandinavian kingdoms of
Denmark and
Sweden in the
Battle of Svolder.
Sweyn Forkbeard established Danish control over part of
Norway. The city of
Oslo was founded in Norway (the exact year is debatable, but the 1,000 year anniversary was held in the year
2000). It is known that in or around this year,
Norse explorer
Leif Erikson became
the first European to land in the Americas, at
L'Anse aux Meadows in modern-day
Newfoundland. • The
papacy during this time was in a period of decline, in retrospect known as the
saeculum obscurum ("Dark Age") or "pornocracy" ("rule of harlots"), a state of affairs that would result in the
Great Schism between
Roman Catholicism and
Eastern Orthodoxy later in the 11th century. • The
Kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 as a Christian state. In the next centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary became the pre-eminent cultural power in the Central European region. On
December 25,
Stephen I was crowned as the first King of Hungary in
Esztergom. •
Sancho III of Pamplona became King of
Aragon and
Navarre. The
Reconquista was gaining some ground, but the southern Iberian peninsula would still be dominated by Islam for centuries to come;
Córdoba was the world's largest city at this time, with 450,000 inhabitants. • In the
Kingdom of Croatia the army of the
Republic of Venice led by Doge
Pietro II Orseolo conquered the island of Lastovo. • The
Château de Goulaine vineyard was founded in
France. • The
archdiocese in
Gniezno was founded; the first
archbishop was
Radim Gaudentius, from
Slavník dynasty, and dioceses in
Kołobrzeg,
Kraków and
Wrocław. • The
Bell foundry was founded in
Italy by
Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli.
Islamic world The
Muslim world was in its
Golden Age; still organised in
caliphates, it continued to be dominated by the
Abbasid Caliphate, with the
Caliphate of Córdoba to the west, the
Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa, and experienced ongoing
campaigns in Africa and
in India. At the time,
Persia was in a period of instability, with various polities seceding from Abbasid rule, among whom the
Ghaznavids would emerge as the most powerful. The Islamic world was reaching the peak of its historical
scientific achievements. Important scholars and scientists who flourished in AD 1000 include
Al-Zahrawi (Abcasis),
Ibn Yunus (publishes his astronomical treatise
Al-Zij al-Hakimi al-Kabir in
Cairo in c. 1000),
Abu Sahl al-Quhi (Kuhi),
Abu-Mahmud Khujandi,
Abu Nasr Mansur,
Abu al-Wafa' al-Buzjani,
Ahmad ibn Fadlan,
Ali Ibn Isa,
Al-Karaji (al-Karkhi),
Ibn al-Haytham (
Book of Optics),
Avicenna,
Averroes, and
Al-Biruni. By this time, the
Turkic migration from the
Eurasian Steppe had reached Eastern Europe, and most of the
Turkic tribes (
Khazars,
Bulgars,
Pechenegs etc.) had been
Islamized.
Babylon abandoned Babylon was abandoned around this year. == Largest cities ==