World Timeline

AD 962: King Otto I (the Great) is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII at the Old St. Peter's Basilica, ending Rome's feudal anarchy.

AD 963: The Chinese government of the Song Dynasty attempted to ban the practice of cremation; despite this decree, the lower and middle classes continued to cremate their dead until the government resolved the problem in the 12th century, establishing public graveyards for paupers.

AD 964: Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, a Persian astronomer, writes the Book of Fixed Stars.

AD 965: Battle of the Straits: The Byzantine attempt to recover Sicily fails, when the Byzantine fleet is annihilated by the Fatimids. The last Byzantine stronghold on the island, Rometta, surrenders. The population is massacred, and the survivors are sold into slavery. Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah completes the conquest of Sicily, and establishes naval superiority in the Western Mediterranean.

AD 966: The Hungarians invade the Bulgarian Empire and force Peter I, emperor of the Bulgarians, to conclude a peace treaty with them.