Events

• January 21—Philip II of France and Henry II of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.

• February 18—Emperor Xiaozong abdicated to Emperor Guangzong.

• August 29—Ban Kulin writes The Charter of Kulin, which becomes a symbolic "birth certificate" of Bosnian statehood.

• September 3—Richard Lionheart is crowned as king of England.

• This year is fixed as the end of time immemorial in English law in 1276.

• The Siege of Acre begins.

• The Crusader castles of Montreal and Kerak are captured by Saladin.

• The town of Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland gains its charter.

Ongoing

• Khmer-Cham War (1170–1203)

• Third Crusade (1187–1191)

Births

• Saint Pedro Nolasco, French religious leader (d. 1256)

• Yelü Chucai, Mandarin statesman (d. 1243)

• Yuri II, grand prince of Vladimir (d. 1238)

• probable – Skule Bårdsson, Norwegian nobleman (d. 1240)

Deaths

• January 1 – Henry of Marcy, Cistercian abbot (b. c. 1136)

• March 25 – Frederick of Bohemia

• May 17—Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japanese general (b. 1159)

• July 6—King Henry II of England (b. 1133)

• July 13—Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, daughter of Henry II of England (b. 1156)

• September 3 – Jacob of Orléans, Jewish scholar

• October 1—Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Knights Templar

• November 11—King William II of Sicily ("the Good") (b. 1153)

• November 14—William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex

• Anvari, Persian poet (b. 1126)

• Conchobar Maenmaige Ua Conchobhair, King of Connacht

• Fulmar, Archbishop of Trier (b. c. 1135)

• Richard de Morville, Constable of Scotland

• Geoffrey Ridel, Lord Chancellor of England

• Saito Musashibo Benkei, Japanese fighting monk (b. 1155)

• Emperor Shizong of Jin (b. 1123)