Year 1020 ( MXX) was a leap year starting on Friday of the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

Events

* Summer – Emperor

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

conducts his third Italian military campaign. He makes plans to invade the south, but remains non-committal. *

June 15 Events Pre-1600 * 763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history. * 844 – Louis II is crowned as king of Italy at Rome by pope Sergius II. * 923 – Battle of So ...

–

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

troops under Catepan Basil Boioannes (supported by his ally Prince Pandulf IV) capture the fortress of Troia. * The French city of

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...

is founded by King Robert II (the Pious). * King

Canute the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

codifies the laws of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(approximate date). * King Gagik I of Armenia is succeeded by Hovhannes-Smbat III.

Births

* Almodis de la Marche, French noblewoman (d. 1071) * Beatrice of Bar, French duchess and

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

(d.

1076 Year 1076 ( MLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 24 – Synod of Worms: Emperor Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, holds a synod in Worms (modern Germany). The assembly ...

) * Benno II, German bishop and architect (approximate date) * Bernard of Menthon, French

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and saint (d. 1081) * Conrad I (or Cuno), duke of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

(approximate date) * Filarete of Calabria, Sicilian saint (approximate date) * Gonzalo Sánchez, Spanish nobleman (approximate date) * Gunhilda of Denmark, German queen (approximate date) * Guo Xi, Chinese

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

painter (approximate date) * Hallvard Vebjørnsson, Norwegian saint (approximate date) * Kunigunde of Altdorf, German noblewoman (approximate date) * Maria of Gaeta, Italian noblewoman (approximate date) * Osbern Giffard, Norman nobleman (approximate date) * Otto of Nordheim, duke of Bavaria (approximate date) * Stephen IX, pope of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(approximate date) * Su Song, Chinese statesman and

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

(d. 1101) *

Sweyn Godwinson Sweyn Godwinson () ( 1020 – 1052), also spelled Swein, was the eldest son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, and brother of Harold II of England. Early life In 1043 Sweyn was raised to an earldom which included Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxf ...

, English nobleman (approximate date) * Vladimir Yaroslavich, Grand Prince of

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

(d. 1052) *

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

(the Great), count of

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

(d. 1087) * William Busac, English nobleman (''

jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...

'') (d.

) * William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford (approximate date) * William of Poitiers, French priest and writer (d. 1090) * Wulfhild of Norway, duchess consort of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

(d. 1071) *

Zhang Zai Zhang Zai () (1020–1077) was a Chinese philosopher and politician. He is best known for laying out four ontological goals for intellectuals: to build up the manifestations of Heaven and Earth's spirit, to build up good life for the populace, t ...

, Chinese philosopher and cosmologist (d. 1077)

Deaths

* June 12 – Lyfing, archbishop of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

– Dattus (or Datto), Lombard rebel leader *

August 16 Events Pre-1600 * 1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power in China and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no heirs. * 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the H ...

– Zhou Huaizheng, Chinese

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

* Al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad, Muslim

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

(b.

944 Year 944 ( CMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Byzantine forces are defeated by Sayf al-Dawla. He captures the city of Aleppo, and extends his c ...

) * Al-Sijzi, Persian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

(approximate date) * Bernard I (Taillefer), Spanish nobleman * Bouchard II (the Bearded), French nobleman (b. 975) * Einar Sigurdsson, Norse

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

nobleman *

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

, Persian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and author (b. 940) * Gagik I, king of

Bagratid Armenia Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of t ...

(approximate date) * Gerald I (Tranche-Lion), French nobleman * Gojslav, king of

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

(approximate date) *

Leif Ericson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of I ...

, Norse Viking explorer (approximate date) * Melus of Bari, Lombard nobleman and rebel leader * Radim Gaudentius, Polish archbishop (b. 970) * Stephen I of Vermandois, French nobleman * Trdat the Architect, Armenian chief

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

References

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