Batu Khan takes Kiev
The Mongols destroy the ancient capital of Rus'
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In December 1240 Batu's army took Kiev after a siege. The last defenders sheltered in the Church of the Tithes, which collapsed. A few years later the papal envoy Carpini counted barely 200 houses in the city. The Mongols then moved on into Poland and Hungary.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 13th century
Did you know
1240: in summer Alexander beat the Swedes on the Neva; in December Batu took Kiev. Northern Rus' held off the West while the south fell to the East.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1215 Magna Carta — 25 years earlier
Middle East
- 1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad — 18 years later
Asia
- c. 1251 The Tripitaka Koreana — 11 years later
- 1257 Samalas eruption — 17 years later
Oceania
- c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island — 10 years later
Alive at the time
- Kublai Khan (aged 25)
- Alexander Nevsky (aged 19)
- Frederick II (aged 46)
- Rumi (aged 33)
- Saint Louis (Louis IX) (aged 26)
- Sundiata Keita (aged 23)
- Rudolf I (aged 22)
- Thomas Aquinas (aged 15)
- Edward I Longshanks (aged 1)
- Fibonacci (aged 70)