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Byzantine Empire
June 18 – Byzantine–Rus' War: A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels sails into the Bosphorus, and starts pillaging the suburbs of Constantinople. The raiders set homes on fire, and drown and kill the citizens. Unable to do anything to repel the invaders, Patriarch Photios I urges his flock to implore the Theotokos to save the Byzantine capital. Having devastated the suburbs, the Rus' Vikings pass into the Sea of Marmara and attack the Isles of the Princes, plundering the local monasteries.
Europe
King Charles the Bald gives the order to build fortified bridges across the Seine and Loire Rivers, to protect Paris and the Frankish heartland against Viking raids. He hires the services of Weland, a Viking chieftain based on the Somme, to attack the Seine Vikings at their base on the Isle of Oissel. Weland besieges the Vikings—they offer him a huge bribe (6,000 pounds of silver) to let them escape.
Summer – The Viking chieftains Hastein and Björn Ironside ravage upstream and move to Italy, sacking Luna (believing it to be Rome). They sail up the River Arno to sack the cities of Pisa and Fiesole (Tuscany).
Britain
Summer – Viking raiders led by Weland sail to England and attack Winchester (the capital of Wessex), which is set ablaze. He spreads inland, but is defeated by West Saxon forces, who deprive him all he has gained.
December 20 – King Æthelbald of Wessex dies at Sherborne (northwest Dorset) after a 2½-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother, sub-king Æthelberht of Kent, who becomes sole ruler of Wessex.
Iberian Peninsula
Muhammad I, Umayyad emir of Córdoba, invades Pamplona (Pyrenees), and captures Crown Prince Fortún Garcés in Milagro, along with his daughter Onneca Fortúnez, and takes them as hostages to Córdoba.
Art
Lusterware tiles, that decorated the mihrab of the Mosque of Uqba at Kairouan (modern Tunisia), are made (approximate date).
Communication
The Japanese alphabet Hiragana becomes more popular in Japan. The phonetic alphabet will be further simplified, and reduced to 51 basic characters (approximate date).
Religion
Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius arrive in Khazaria.
Michael I succeeds Sophronius I, as patriarch of Alexandria.
Europe
March – Robert the Strong is appointed margrave of Neustria by King Charles the Bald. He re-establishes the Breton March, and extends his remit by campaigning against Salomon, duke 'king' of Brittany. Robert hires a combined Seine-Loire fleet for 6,000 pounds of silver, 'before Salomon can ally with them against him'. In return, Salomon enlists 12 Viking ships under the command of Hastein, to raid the county of Maine, which, with Anjou, becomes squeezed between Brittany and Neustria.
Carloman, eldest son of King Louis the German, revolts against his father. He is captured, but manages to escape to the Ostmark (or 862).
Summer – Viking raiders sack the cities of Paris, Cologne, Aachen, Worms and Toulouse.
Abbasid Caliphate
December 11 – Caliph al-Mutawakkil is murdered by his Turkish guard, starting the period of troubles known as the "Anarchy at Samarra" (861–870). He is succeeded by his son Al-Muntasir, as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Ya'qub ibn al-Layth, a Muslim military leader, founds the Saffarid Dynasty. He rules over parts of Khurasan and eastern Iran, and establishes his capital at Zaranj (modern Afghanistan).
Hydrology
Al-Mutawakkil orders the construction of a Nilometer on Rhoda Island in central Cairo, supervised by the Persian astronomer Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathir al-Farghani.
Europe
The Varangians (called Rus'), under the leadership of Rurik, a Viking chieftain, arrive (with his brothers, Sineus and Truvor) at Staraya Ladoga. He builds a trade settlement near Novgorod (modern Russia), and founds the Rurik Dynasty.
King Lothair II of Lotharingia tries to divorce his wife Teutberga, on trumped-up charges of incest. With the support of his brother, Louis II, the bishops give him permission to remarry during a synod at Aachen.
March – Viking raiders led by Weland are trapped at Trilbardou Bridge (Northern France), and submit to King Charles the Bald. He and his family accept Christianity (they are baptised) before leaving Neustria).
Robert the Strong, margrave of Neustria, captures 12 Viking ships and kills their crews. He pays tribute (Danegeld) for keeping the Vikings out of Neustria.
Carloman, eldest son of King Louis the German, revolts against his father. He is captured, but manages to escape to the Ostmark (or 861).
The first written record (according to the Primary Chronicle) is made of the towns of Belozersk and Murom (Northern Russia).
Britain
April 13 – King Donald I of Scotland dies after a 4-year reign. He is succeeded by his nephew Constantine I, as ruler of Scotland.
Áed Findliath is crowned High King of Ireland, after the death of Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid (until 879).
Abbasid Caliphate
June – Caliph al-Muntasir dies after just a half-year reign. He is succeeded by al-Musta'in, as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Ashot I ("the Great") is recognized as the 'Prince of Princes' of Armenia, by the Abbasids.
China
Fan Chuo finishes his Manchu ("Book of the Southern Tribes"), during the Tang Dynasty.
Religion
Constantine the Philosopher (alias Saint Cyril) invents the 42-letter Slavonic alphabet (Cyrillic script) as a tool for converting the Moravians to Christianity (approximate date).
Byzantine Empire
September 3 – Battle of Lalakaon: A Byzantine army under Petronas confronts an invasion by Muslim forces, led by Umar al-Aqta, Emir of Malatya. The Muslims raid deep into Byzantine territory, reaching the Black Sea coast at the port city of Amisos. Petronas annihilates the Arabs near the River Lalakaon, in Paphlagonia (modern Turkey).
Europe
January 25 – Emperor Louis II claims Provence, after the death of his brother Charles. King Lothair II receives Lower Burgundy and a part of the Jura Mountains.
King Louis the German suppresses the revolt of his son Carloman (for the second time), who wants a partition (mainly of Bavaria) of the East Frankish Kingdom.
Viking raiders again plunder Dorestad (modern Netherlands). A Frankish port on the mouth of the River Rhine, it thereafter disappears from the chronicles.
Danish Vikings loot along the River Rhine; they settle on an island close by Cologne, but are driven off by a combined attack of Lothair II and the Saxons.
The Christianization of the Rus' Khaganate begins ceasing the dominance of the 63-year-long Rus' Khaganate (approximate date).
The first written record is made of Smolensk (according to the Primary Chronicle).
Britain
King Osberht of Northumbria engages in a dispute for royal power, with a rival claimant named Ælla. After Osberht is replaced, Ælla wields power in Northumbria, but the civil war continues.
Asia
Duan Chengshi, Chinese author and scholar, writes about the Chinese maritime trade and the Arab-run slave trade in East Africa.
Religion
Pope Nicholas I sends archbishops Gunther and Theotgaud to a synod of Metz, which confirms the permission given to King Lothair II of Lotharingia to remarry.
The Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius arrive with a few disciples in Moravia, by request of Prince Rastislav.
Nicholas I excommunicates Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople.
Europe
Spring – Emperor Louis II (the Younger) marches with an Frankish army against Rome. While reaching the papal city, he gets ill, and decides to make peace with pope Nicholas I.
July 25 – Edict of Pistres: King Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings. He creates a large force of cavalry, which is the beginning of the French chivalry.
Viking raiders, led by Olaf the White, arrive in Scotland from the Viking settlement of Dublin (Ireland). He rampages the country, until his defeat in battle by king Constantine I.
Robert the Strong, margrave of Neustria, attacks the Loire Vikings in a successful campaign. Other Viking raiders plunder the cities of Limoges and Clermont, in Aquitaine.
King Louis the German invades Moravia, crossing the Danube River to besiege the civitas Dowina (identified, although not unanimously, with Devín Castle in Slovakia).
Pepin II joins the Vikings in an attack on Toulouse. He is captured while besieging the Frankish city. Pepin is deposed as king of Aquitaine, and imprisoned in Senlis.
September 13 – Pietro Tradonico dies after a 28-year reign. He is succeeded by Orso I Participazio, who becomes doge of Venice.
King Alfonso III conquers Porto from the Emirate of Cordoba. This is the end of the direct Muslim domination of the Douro region.
Asia
Mount Fuji, located on Honshu Island, erupts for 10 days, in an event known as the Jōgan eruption (Japan).
Hasan ibn Zayd establishes the Zaydid Dynasty, and is recognized as ruler of Tabaristan (Northern Iran).
Religion
The Christianization of Bulgaria begins: Boris I, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, is converted to Orthodox Christianity. His family and high-ranking dignitaries accept the Orthodox faith at the capital, Pliska.
Europe
King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. Carloman receives Bavaria (with more lands along the Inn River). He gives Saxony to Louis the Younger (with Franconia, and Thuringia) and Swabia (with Raetia) to Charles the Fat. Louis arranges marriages into the local aristocracy, for his sons to hold important territories along the frontiers.
King Lothair II, threatened with excommunication, takes back his first wife, Teutberga. She expresses her desire for an annulment, but this is refused by Pope Nicholas I.
Boris I, ruler (knyaz) of the Bulgarian Empire, suppresses a revolt, and orders the execution of 52 leading boyars, along with their whole families.
Britain
The Great Heathen Army (probably no more than 1,000 men) of Vikings, led by Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan Ragnarsson, invades East Anglia. King Edmund of East Anglia buys peace with a supply of horses.
Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok is captured by the Northumbrians in battle, and killed by being thrown into a pit filled with poisonous snakes, on orders of King Ælla of Northumbria.
Autumn – King Æthelberht of Wessex dies after a 5-year reign, and is buried at Sherborne Abbey (Dorset). He is succeeded by his brother Æthelred I, as ruler of Wessex.
Abbasid Caliphate
Caliphal Civil War: An armed conflict starts between the rival Muslim caliphs al-Musta'in and al-Mu'tazz. They fight to determine who takes control over the Abbasid Caliphate (until 866).
Religion
Kassia, a Byzantine abbess and hymnographer, dies. She is one of the first Early Medieval composers of many hymns.
Byzantine Empire
Spring – Bardas, the regent of the Byzantine Empire, is murdered by Basil the Macedonian at Miletus, while conducting a large-scale expedition against the Saracen stronghold of Crete.
May 26 – Basil the Macedonian is crowned co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire, and is adopted by the much younger Michael III.
Europe
May 27 – King Ordoño I dies after a 16-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Alfonso III ("the Great"), as ruler of Asturias.
July 2 – Battle of Brissarthe: Frankish forces, led by Robert the Strong, are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.
Harald Fairhair wins a decisive battle, in his quest to become king of all of Norway.
Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats the Saracen invaders who are ravaging southern Italy.
Britain
The Great Heathen Army of the Vikings rides north to Northumbria. The Northumbrians are preoccupied with a civil war, and the Danes enter York unopposed.
Abbasid Caliphate
October 17 – Caliph al-Musta'in is put to death, after a 4-year reign. He is succeeded by al-Mu'tazz, who becomes the youngest Abbasid caliph to assume power.
The Kharijite revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate begins in Al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), which will last for 30 years.
Japan
Fujiwara no Yoshifusa becomes regent (sesshō) to assist the child emperor Seiwa, starting the Fujiwara regency.
Religion
Boris I, ruler (knyaz) of the Bulgarian Empire, sends a diplomatic mission, led by the Bulgarian nobleman Peter, to Rome, in an effort to renew ties with the West.
Pope Nicholas I forbids the use of torture, in prosecutions for witchcraft (approximate date).
Byzantine Empire
September – Emperor Michael III is murdered, by order of his co-emperor Basil I. Basil becomes sole ruler (basileus) of the Byzantine Empire, and founds the Macedonian Dynasty (until 1056). Basil rebuilds the Byzantine army and navy, in an effort to restore the empire.
Europe
August – Treaty of Compiègne: King Charles the Bald cedes the Cotentin Peninsula to Salomon, duke ('king') of Brittany, after he had sent his son-in-law Pascweten to negotiate a peace. Charles orders the fortification of the cities of Tours, Le Mans and Compiègne.
Bořivoj I declares himself duke (knyaz) of Bohemia, and founds the Pŕemyslid Dynasty (approximate date).
Britain
The rival monarchs, Ælla and Osberht of Northumbria, join forces to expel the Great Heathen Army, but are defeated in battle by Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan Ragnarsson. Osberht is killed, while Ælla is executed by the traditional Viking way of the blood eagle.
Danish Vikings conquer Deira in Northern England; the Northumbrian royal court flees into Bernicia. Ivar the Boneless installs Ecgberht I, as a puppet king.
Religion
September – Photius I ("the Great"), patriarch of Constantinople, is removed from office and banished. Ignatius is reinstated as patriarch by Basil I.
November 13 – Pope Nicholas I dies after a 9-year reign. He is succeeded by Adrian II (also referred to as Hadrian II), as the 106th pope of Rome.
Europe
King Charles the Bald meets his brother Louis the German at Metz. They agree to a partition of Lotharingia, which belonged to former emperor Lothair I (now in possession of his sons Lothair II and Louis II).
Salomon, duke ('king') of Brittany, leads a joint campaign against the Loire Vikings. He is forced to defend south-eastern Brittany unaided, and mobilizes levies raised at Poitiers to defeat the Vikings.
Al-Andalus: The city of Mérida rises against the Umayyad rule. Emir Muhammad I regains control, and has the walls of the city destroyed. He supports the rival creation of Badajoz in retaliation.
The County of Portugal is established by Vímara Peres, an Asturian nobleman, after the reconquest from the Moors of the region north of the Douro River.
Alfred the Great marries Ealhswith (a daughter of Æthelred, known as Mucel, an ealdorman of the Gaini). He supports his brother Æthelred I, in his choice to form a alliance with Mercia.
King Burgred of Mercia appeals to Æthelred I for help in resisting the Great Heathen Army. The Danes occupy Nottingham, and stay through the winter without any serious opposition.
King Áed Findliath drives the invading Danes and Norwegians out of Ireland, after defeating them at the Battle of Killineery.
Africa
September 15 – Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkish general, is sent to Egypt as governor, by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tazz. He becomes the founder of the Tulunid Dynasty (until 905).
Muslim Arab forces under Muhammad II, emir of the Aghlabid Dynasty (modern Tunisia), conquer the island of Malta and raid into the mainland of Italy.
Asia
The earliest extant printed book, an illustrated scroll of the Diamond Sūtra ("Perfection of Wisdom"), unearthed at Dunhuang (Western China), is produced.
Religion
Ratramnus, Frankish monk and abbot of Corbie Abbey, writes Contra Graecorum Opposita.
Byzantine Empire
Summer – Emperor Basil I allies with the Frankish emperor Louis II against the Saracens. He sends a Byzantine fleet of 400 ships (according to the Annales Bertiniani), under the command of Admiral Nicetas, to support Louis (who is besieging the city port of Bari), and to clear the Adriatic Sea of Muslim raiders.
The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople suffers great damage during an earthquake, which makes the eastern half-dome collapse. Basil I orders the basilica (church) to be repaired.
Europe
August 8 – King Charles the Bald tries to take Lotharingia, kingdom of Lothair II, after the latter's death, but is resisted by his brother Louis the German.
Britain
The Danes, led by Viking chieftain Ivar the Boneless, 'make peace' with the Mercians (by accepting Danegeld). Ivar leaves Nottingham on horseback, and returns to York.
Autumn –The Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, invades East Anglia, and plunders Peterborough. The Vikings take up winter quarters at Thetford.
November 20 – King Edmund the Martyr and his East Anglian army are destroyed by the Vikings. He is captured, tortured, beaten and used as archery practice.
Arabian Empire
The Zanj Rebellion: The Zanj (black slaves from East Africa), provoked by mercilessly harsh labor conditions in salt flats, and on the sugar and cotton plantations of southwestern Persia, revolt.
Summer – Caliph Al-Mu'tazz is murdered by mutinous Muslim troops, after a 3-year reign. He is succeeded by Al-Muhtadi (a grandson of former Al-Mu'tasim), as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Japan
May 26 – An earthquake and tsunami devastate a large part of the Sanriku coast, on the northeastern side of the island of Honshu.
Mesoamerica
Stela 11, the last monument ever erected at Tikal, is dedicated by ruler (ajaw) Jasaw Chan K'awiil II.
Religion
The Fourth Council of Constantinople is called by Basil I and Pope Adrian II. The council condemnes Photius I, and deposes him as patriarch. His predecessor Ignatius is reinstated.
Rurik
Pope Nicholas I
Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Ragnar Lodbrok
Basil I
Charles the Bald
Louis the German
Baldwin I of Flanders
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