World Timeline

AD 1042: April 19 – Emperor Michael V Kalaphates banishes his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoë, for plotting to poison him, to the island of Principo. His announcement as sole emperor leads to a popular revolt.
 
AD 1044: July 6 – Battle of Ménfő: German troops under King Henry III ("the Black") defeat the Hungarian army, led by King Samuel Aba, who flees the field but is captured and killed. Peter Orseolo ("the Venetian") becomes (for the second time) king of Hungary, and a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire.
 
AD 1043: The Qingli Reforms were put forth by Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan.
AD 1045: The Qingli Reforms failed. By October, all its new policies were cancelled except the rebuilding of Taixue (imperial college). Yan Shu and Du Yan, two chancellors (prime ministers) who supported the reforms, were deposed. Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan became petty officials working far away from the capital city. However, the arguments between Fan Zhongyan and people who opposed his plans established a tradition of free debate and it influenced Song Dynasty's politics deeply.
 
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AD 1046: March 5 – Nasir Khusraw begins his 7-year Middle Eastern (19,000-kilometre) journey, which he later describes in the book Safarnāmé.
 
AD 1047: Rebel Byzantine general Leo Tronikios proclaimed himself emperor and besieged Constantinople. However after initial setbacks his troops abandoned him and he was finally captured by the legitimate Byzantine army.
 
AD 1049: In the last years of his life, Fan Zhongyan established the Fan Family's Charitable Foundation (范氏義莊) to help with poor people in his hometown Suzhou (in Jiangsu Province). This was China's first non-religious charitable organization. Astonishingly, it had continued to function UNTIL 1949; with a full 900-year lifespan, it was the charitable organization with the longest history in China. At its peak it controled over 1,300 hectares of farm land. In 1949 Fan's heirs transformed the foundation into a school and it operates till today.
 
AD 1051: Hilarion of Kiev became the first native metropolitan (head of an ecclesiastical province in the Eastern Orthodox Church) of Kievan Rus.
 
AD 1052: Summer – Godwin, Earl of Wessex, sails with a large fleet up the Thames to London, forcing King Edward the Confessor to reinstate him into his previous position of power.
 
AD 1053: Ouyang Xiu finished writing The New History of the Five Dynasties. It was the only history book in China that wasn't written under the supervision of the imperial court but still recognized as an "official" record of the history.
 
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AD 1054: July 4 (approx.) – SN 1054, a supernova, is first observed by the Chinese, Arabs and possibly Native Americans, near the star Zeta Tauri.[3] For 23 days it remains bright enough to be seen in daylight. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula (NGC 1952).
 
AD 1055: Song Dynasty set up a national standard examination for medical science. Exams were held every three years, in which students were faced with 10 real cases and they need to answer why the patients were sick, were there similar cases recorded in historical medical books, how to treat them, where to find the medicine if it involves precious herbs, etc. Students who passed this exam were eligable to become government (court) doctors.
 
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AD 1056: October 5 – Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor ("the Black") dies after a 10-year reign at Bodfeld, an imperial hunting lodge (Königspfalz) in the Harz Mountains. He is succeeded by his 5-year-old only son Henry IV as "king of the Germans" and enthroned by Pope Victor II (also a German) at Aachen – while his mother, Empress Agnes of Poitou, becomes co-regent.
 
AD 1058: The Almoravids conquer the Barghawata, a group of Berber tribes, who have established an independent state in modern-day Morocco.
 
AD 1059: 15th February - Total solar eclipse. Government ministers in China blamed this astronomical event on Emperor (Renzong of Song Dynasty)'s incompetence and forced him to reform his court rules, meaning that ministers got more freedom of speech at the court.
 
AD 1060: Summer – Norman forces under Duke Robert Guiscard invade Apulia, and capture the cities of Taranto and Brindisi (under control of the Byzantine Empire). Guiscard prepares a Sicilian expedition against the Saracens and returns to Calabria (Southern Italy), where his brother Roger Bosso waits with siege engines.
 
AD 1063: Béla I died accidentally when his throne's canopy fell onto his head. His nephew Salamon succeeded him as the King of Hungary.
 
AD 1065: A stupid political crisis broke out in Song Dynasty.

Emperor Renzong of Song did not bear child. Because of this, he ordered in 1062 that the son of his trusted brother Zhao Yunrang would become next emperor after he died. In AD 1064 Zhao Zong claimed the throne and became Emperor Yingzong of Song. But a problem emerged: should Yingzong refer to Renzong as his "father" in formal and official situations, or not? This led to a political split in the court, with one side supporting "he can call his real father father", represented by Prime Minister Han Qi; another supporting "he should call the late emperor father", represented by Zhijianyuan (similar to National Ombudsman in European countries) Sima Guang. The politics came into a halt, other issues be ignored (reference to NationStates not intended), as nearly all important government officials were busy arguing the definition of "father" and related ethical problems.

The political crisis went on for about one and a half years, and ended after Emperor Renzong removed all ombudsmen from their office. In the end Renzong can call his real father father.
 
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AD 1067: In a civil war, Halsten Stenkilsson killed all his contenders and became the new King of Sweden, maintaining the status of Christianity in Sweden.
 
AD 1069: The Imperial Cholas Empire under the reign of Virarajendra Chola on his 7th year of reign helps the shrivijaya civil war to end and the chola army helps reconquering the Kedah Tua (Kedah modern day Malaysia).
 
AD 1071: The Battle of Manzikert: more than one hundred thousand men of the Byzantine Empire and Seljuk Turks fought against each other in a decisive battle. With the defeat of Byzantine army, the Byzantine Empire lost all its territories in Turkey and Armenia. Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured by the Turks. Though he could buy his freedom with money, domestic aristocrats declared him incapable of being a ruler and impeached him. He tried to lead his army to retake the throne, but failed. He was again captured and tortured by the new emperor, Michael VII Ducas, and exiled.
 
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