996

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Year 996 (CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Europe

• March or April – Pope John XV dies before being able to crown Otto III, King of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor. Otto resides in Pavia while waiting for the election of the next Pope.
• May 21 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by his cousin Pope Gregory V.
• October 24 – Hugh Capet, King of France dies and is succeeded by his son Robert II of France.
• November 1 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).
• In a continuing effort to expend northward, the de facto ruler of al-Andalus, al-Mansur captures the city of Astorga.
• In the duchy of Normandy, peasant revolt against the Scandinavian aristocracy.^[1]

Asia

• Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah, fifth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, dies and is succeeded by his son Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
• The Niujie Mosque is constructed in Beijing.

By topic

Religion

• May 3 – Pope Gregory V succeeds Pope John XV as the 138th pope. He was 24-year-old Bruno of Carinthia, grandson of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor and first cousin of Otto III. He is the first German Pope.

Births

• Drogo of Mantes, count of Valois and the Vexin

Deaths

• March or April – Pope John XV
• October 24 – Hugh Capet, King of France (b. 938)
• November 20 – Richard I of Normandy
• Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah, fifth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt
• Li Fang, Chinese scholar and encyclopedist (b. 925)

References