Hammad ibn Buluggin recognises the Abbasid Caliphate, beginning the split of the Hammadids from the Zirids.
Asia
In Kashmir, Abhinavagupta, the teacher of the poet Ksemendra, circulates his Greater commentary on the Pratyabhijna Darshana.
Europe
February 3 – Sweyn Forkbeard, Danish King of all England since December 25, 1013, dies at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and his son Cnut is proclaimed King of England by the Vikings.
February 14 – Pope Benedict VIII recognizes and crowns Henry of Bavaria (who has ruled since 1003) as King of Germany.
March – Æthelred the Unready returns from exile in Normandy, to reclaim the throne of England at the invitation of English nobles.
April – Cnut returns to Denmark to enforce his rule there.
April 23 – Battle of Clontarf: Gaelic Irish forces under Brian Boru defeat several allied Viking forces in Ireland. However, Brian is killed in the battle.
July – Battle of Thessalonica: Forces of the Byzantine Empire, under Theophylact Botaneiates, defeat those of the First Bulgarian Empire.
July 29 – Battle of Kleidion: Basil II, leading forces of the Byzantine Empire, inflicts not only a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, but his subsequent blinding of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock, and earns Basil II the sobriquet Boulgaroktonos ("Bulgar-slayer").
Holmgang is declared illegal in Norway.
Religion
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of the Faith is used for the first time during the Roman Mass, after Henry II, the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor, asks the Pope to add it, together with the filioque clause. Prior to this date, the Creed has not been used at all during the liturgy.
In England, Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York preaches his Latin homily Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ("Wulf's Address to the English"), describing the Danes as "God's judgement on England".
Births
Al-Bakri, Andalusian Muslim geographer and historian (d. 1094)
Princess Constance, daughter of Robert II of France (d. 1052)
Deaths
February 3 – Sweyn I Haraldsson Forkbeard, king of Denmark
April 23 – Brian Boru, high king of Ireland
June 25 – Æthelstan Ætheling, eldest son of Æthelred the Unready
August – Theophylact Botaneiates, Byzantine general and governor of Thessalonica
October 6 – Samuel of Bulgaria, Tsar of the First Bulgarian Empire (b. 958)
Sigurd the Stout, Viking earl in Orkney
King Raja Raja Chola I, of the Chola Empire of southern India, and great temple builder of the Chola dynasty