In 1324, Mansa Musa gave away so much gold in Cairo that its value fell.
According to tradition, a year later Tenochtitlan was founded across the world.
The events
- Hajj of Mansa Musa1324 · Timbuktu. Mali's ruler Mansa Musa made the pilgrimage to Mecca with a vast retinue and caravan of gold; chroniclers say his largesse in Cairo depressed the price of gold for years. Back home he built the Djinguereber Mosque, making Timbuktu a centre of learning.
- Founding of Tenochtitlanc. 1325 · Tenochtitlan. According to legend, the Mexica Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus. The city of causeways and canals became the Aztec capital and one of the world's largest cities; Mexico City stands on its site.
More amazing facts
- 1240 1240: in summer Alexander beat the Swedes on the Neva; in December Batu took Kiev.
- 1299 · 1903 The Ottoman state, founded around 1299, still existed when the Wright brothers made the first airplane flight: the sultanate was abolished only in 1922.
- 1337 · 1380 The Battle of Kulikovo (1380) fell in the middle of the Hundred Years' War, which had been raging for 43 years and had 73 more to go.
- 1347 · 1348 Ibn Battuta witnessed the Black Death: in 1348 he was in Damascus, where, he wrote, thousands were dying each day.
- 1377 · 1450 Korean monks printed the Jikji with movable metal type in 1377, some 70 years before Gutenberg's press.
- 1405 · 1498 Zheng He's first fleet sailed in 1405, 93 years before Vasco da Gama reached India.