Thirty-three years after the Christianization of Rus', Vikings were cutting wood in Newfoundland — tree rings date it precisely to 1021.
The events
- Christianization of Kievan Rus'988 · Kiev. Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev adopted Byzantine Christianity and had the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper. The conversion tied Rus' to the Orthodox world of Byzantium and shaped its culture, literacy and statehood for centuries.
- Norse in North America1021 · Vinland. Around 1000, Norse seafarers led by Leif Erikson reached North America, which they called Vinland. Tree-ring analysis of wood from L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland proves Norse presence there in 1021, nearly 500 years before Columbus.
More amazing facts
- 987 · 988 Rus was baptised in 988, a year after Hugh Capet became King of France.
- 1014 · 1016 While Basil II was finishing off Bulgaria at Kleidion (1014), Rus' was getting its first law code, the Russkaya Pravda (1016).
- 1054 In July 1054, Chinese astronomers saw a new star; 12 days later came the schism in Constantinople.
- 1066 · 1910 The same Halley's Comet embroidered on the Bayeux Tapestry in 1066 returned in 1910 — when the Earth even passed through its tail.
- 1096 · 1325 Oxford University is older than the Aztec state: teaching at Oxford existed by about 1096, while Tenochtitlan was founded only in 1325.
- 1096 · 1147 Moscow is first mentioned in a chronicle in 1147.