Events

By place

Europe

• January 23 – Henry II succeeds Otto III as king of Germany.

• June – Frederick is sent as an imperial legate to the Synod of Pöhlde to mediate between the claims of Bernard, Bishop of Hildesheim, and Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz, concerning the control of the abbey of Gandersheim.

• July – Battle of Calatañazor: superior Christian armies of Castille led by Count Sancho García and León led by Alfonso V defeat invading Muslim forces under Almanzor.

• November 13—St. Brice's Day massacre: English king Æthelred the Unready orders all Danes in England killed.

• November – Frederick is elected Archbishop of Ravenna.

• Vladivoj succeeds Boleslaus III, Duke of Bohemia.

• Otto of Worms withdraws his nomination for the title of Holy Roman Emperor and receives Duchy of Carinthia in return.

• Æthelred the Unready married Emma of Normandy, Richard's I the fearless, duke of Normandy's daughter.

• Brian Boru, King of Leinster and Munster, becomes High King of Ireland, breaking the Uí Néill monopoly on the title. Not satisfied with the submission of Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, Brian Boru makes an expedition to the north to take hostages from the northern states.

• John IV of Naples is probably released from German captivity by Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor.

• With a new group of colonists, an epidemic hits the Viking colony in Greenland.

• Danegeld is paid by Æthelred the Unready to prevent Viking raids against England.

Middle East

• August 8 – Abd al-Malik succeeds Al-Mansur, chief minister of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, Spain

• December – Khalaf I of Sistan surrenders to Ghaznavids in Taq.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Rafael of Makuria constructs a red brick building in Old Dongola.

Births

• June 21—Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)

• Adolf II of Lotharingia (d. 1041)

• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Sunni Muslim scholar and historian (d. 1071)

• George I of Georgia (possible date; d. 1027)

• Mei Yaochen, Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty (d. 1060)

Deaths

• January 23—Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)

• April 30 – Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, assassinated

• August 8—Al-Mansur, chief minister of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, Spain

• October 15—Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)

• Eadwulf, Abbot of Peterborough, Bishop of Worchester and Archbishop of York

• Godfrey I, Count of Verdun

• Gunnhild, wife of Pallig, killed in the St. Brice's Day massacre

• John the Iberian, Georgian saint (possible date)

• Pallig, Danish chieftain, Jarl of Devonshire, killed in the St. Brice's Day massacre

• Rogneda of Polotsk, wife of Vladimir I of Kiev before his conversion to Christianity

• Sancho Ramírez of Viguera (possible date)

• Tahir, son of Khalaf I

• Udayadityavarman I of Khmer Empire