First gunpowder formulas in the Wujing Zongyao
China writes down the formula that will transform warfare
China completed the military compendium Wujing Zongyao, containing the earliest known gunpowder formulas. It described incendiary and smoke bombs; gunpowder later spread to the Islamic world and Europe, transforming warfare.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 11th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1066 Battle of Hastings — 22 years later
- 1066 Halley's Comet over England — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1037 Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev — 7 years earlier
Middle East
- 1025 Avicenna's Canon of Medicine — 19 years earlier
- 1054 East–West Schism — 10 years later
Americas
- 1021 Norse in North America — 23 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Yaroslav the Wise (aged 66)
- Edward the Confessor (aged 41)
- William the Conqueror (aged 16)
- Al-Biruni (aged 71)
- Henry I (aged 36)
- Henry III (aged 28)
- Iziaslav I (aged 20)
- Vsevolod I (aged 14)
- Shen Kuo (aged 13)