The name Korea comes from Goryeo, the kingdom founded in 918 that united the peninsula for almost five centuries and under whose name the country became known abroad.
More amazing facts
- 901 · 903 A disgraced Japanese minister became the god of learning.
- 905 'Born in the purple' was literal.
- 911 Legend says that when the Viking Rollo received Normandy in 911, he refused to kiss the French king's foot and sent one of his men instead.
- 916 The Russian word for China, Kitai, comes from a people who were not Chinese: the nomadic Khitans, who founded the Liao empire in northern China in 916.
- 922 The Arab envoy Ibn Fadlan described the Rus as 'tall as date palms'. On the Volga in 922 he admired their build, fair hair and ruddy skin — then called them the filthiest of God's creatures for not even washing their hands after eating.
- 935 · 1853 'Good King Wenceslas' of the English carol was never a king.