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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization |
Hungary's Arpád king Stephen (István) I is installed as monarch January 1 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II last year to legitimize his authority. Stephen will reign until 1038.
The Afghan sultan Mahmud of Ghazna leads his first large-scale invasion of India, marching into the Punjab at the head of a mounted 15,000-man army. The Punjabi rajah Jaipal goes out to meet him with 12,000 horsemen, 30,000 infantrymen, and 300 elephants; a battle ensues near Peshawar. Mahmud's horsemen kill 15,000 Punjabi and take Jaipal captive along with 15 of his officers and relatives. When he is finally released, Jaipal abdicates in favor of his son Anandpal, has a funeral pyre lit, and throws himself into the flames. Other Indian rulers respond to Anandapal's appeals for help, some sending armies, and many Indian women sell their jewels to finance a large military force (see 1008).
Norseman Leif Eriksson rediscovers the Western Hemisphere when storms drive him westward while he is attempting to return to Norway from Greenland (year approximate; see Bjarni Herjulfsson, 999). Landing on the rocky coast of what later will be called Newfoundland, the Vikings build sod-and-timber huts at what later will be called L'Anse aux Meadows, but they come under attack from native inhabitants, who retreat (or so a Viking chronicler will record) when Leif's sister Freydis "took her breasts out and whetted the sword upon them." Leif makes his way back to Greenland with descriptions of Vinland (Wineland), where he claims that grapes and wild wheat grow (see Karlsefni, 1003).
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