Directory

750 CE

According to historian Peter Brown, this year marked the universal beginning of the Middle Ages across every human civilization, thus marking the end of the late antiquity along with the classical world.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • King Alfonso I of Asturias establishes the Kingdom of Galicia, in roughly the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The exact time this happened is contested.source
  • Native Americans, in the area now known as the Four Corners, begin constructing and occupying pueblos.source
  • The Ghana Empire begins (approximate date).source
  • Gopala I is proclaimed as the first ruler and founder of the Pala Empire.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 25 – Battle of the Zab: Abbasid forces under Abdallah ibn Ali defeat the Umayyads near the Great Zab River. Members of the Umayyad house are hunted down and killed. Defeated by his rivals, Caliph Marwan II flees westward to Egypt, perhaps attempting to reach Al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula), where there are still significant Umayyad armies.source
  • August 6 – Marwan II is caught and killed at Faiyum by supporters of the Abbasid caliph As-Saffah. Almost the entire Umayyad Dynasty is assassinated; Prince Abd al-Rahman I escapes to Al-Andalus. The Abbasids assume control of the Islamic world and establish their first capital at Kufa.source
  • Battle of Mugdock: The Strathclyde Britons under King Teudebur defeat Prince Talorgan of the Picts. This leads to the decline of the power of King Óengus I.source
  • Military action continues in the Bashmurian war. Egyptians granted tax breaks in the Nile Delta.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • The town Slaný in the Central Bohemian Region (Czech Republic) is founded at the site of a salt spring, according to one chronicle written in the sixteenth century (approximate date).source

Religion & Belief

  • King Eadberht of Northumbria imprisons Cynewulf, bishop of Lindisfarne, at Bamburgh Castle. King Eadberht does this in order to punish the bishop for sheltering one of his enemies, Prince Offa. He then besieges Prince Offa, son of the late King Aldfrith, in Lindisfarne Priory. Almost dead from hunger, he is dragged from his sanctuary and put to death.source
  • Borobudur, or Barabudur (a Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, as well as the world's largest Buddhist temple, and also one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world) is built (approximate date).source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • In China during the Tang Dynasty, a barge load of tea (a medicinal herb) comes up the Grand Canal to Luoyang, from Zhejiang (approximate date).source

Crime & Justice

  • The "Western Paradise" of Amitābha Buddha, detail of a wall painting in Cave 217, Dunhuang (China), is made during the Tang Dynasty (approximate date).source

Disasters & Accidents

  • The city of Teotihuacan (modern Mexico) is destroyed and left in ruins, its palaces burned to the ground.source

Births

  • January 25 – Leo IV, Byzantine emperor (d. 780)source
  • Leo III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 816)source
  • Wu Shaocheng, general of the Tang Dynasty (d. 810)source
  • Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf, Abbasid poet (d. 809)source
  • Sawara, Japanese prince (approximate date)source
  • Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, Abbasid general (d. 812)source
  • Hildegrim, bishop of Châlons (approximate date)source
  • Eigil of Fulda, Bavarian abbot (approximate date)source
  • Clement, Irish scholar and saint (approximate date)source
  • Arno, archbishop of Salzburg (approximate date)source
  • Bermudo I, king of Asturias (approximate date)source
  • Theodulf, bishop of Orléans (or 760)source

Deaths

  • January 25 – Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, Umayyad caliphsource
  • August 6 – Marwan II, ruling Umayyad caliph (b. 688)source
  • Bressal mac Áedo Róin, Dál Fiatach king of Ulaidsource
  • Abdallah ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad prince (or 749)source
  • Basil the Confessor, Eastern Orthodox saintsource
  • Isonokami no Otomaro, Japanese noblemansource
  • Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid, Umayyad prince and generalsource
  • Irene of Khazaria, Byzantine empress (approximate date)source
  • Veborg, Scandinavian shieldmaiden (approximate date)source
  • Agilulfus, bishop of Cologne (approximate date)source
  • Boruth, prince (knyaz) of Carantania (approximate date)source
  • Himelin, Scottish priest (approximate date)source
  • Burchard, bishop of Würzburg (approximate date)source
  • Inreachtach mac Dluthach, king of Uí Maine (Ireland)source