Erik the Red settles Greenland
'Greenland' was named as a sales pitch
Exiled from Iceland for killings, Erik spent three years exploring the huge island to the west, then gave it an appealing name on purpose: people, he said, would be keener to go if the land had a good name. Around 985, 25 ships of settlers followed him; 14 arrived.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 962 Coronation of Otto I — 23 years earlier
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — 15 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 966 Baptism of Poland — 19 years earlier
- 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus' — 3 years later
Middle East
- 1010 Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh — 25 years later
Africa
- 969 Founding of Cairo — 16 years earlier
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — 13 years earlier
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — 15 years later
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — 21 years later
Asia
- 960 Founding of the Song dynasty — 25 years earlier
- c. 1010 The Tale of Genji — 25 years later
- 1010 The Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur — 25 years later
Alive at the time
- Vladimir the Great (aged 25)
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (aged 5)
- Ferdowsi (aged 45)
- Hugh Capet (aged 45)
- Æthelred the Unready (aged 19)
- Leif Erikson (aged 15)
- Murasaki Shikibu (aged 12)
- Yaroslav the Wise (aged 7)
- Sei Shōnagon (aged 19)
- Robert II the Pious (aged 13)