The Viking Age and Japan's Heian period began a year apart: Vikings sacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in June 793, and in 794 the Japanese court moved to its new capital, the future Kyoto.
The events
- Viking raid on Lindisfarne793 · Lindisfarne, England. Norse seafarers plundered the famous monastery on a tidal island off Northumbria. The raid, which shocked Christian Europe, is traditionally taken as the start of the Viking Age.
- Founding of Heian-kyō794 · Heian-kyō. Emperor Kammu moved Japan's capital to the newly built city of Heian-kyō, today's Kyoto. It remained the imperial seat for over a thousand years and gave its name to the Heian period, the flowering of Japanese court culture.
More amazing facts
- 793 · 1876 Vikings did not wear horned helmets.
- 794 · 1868 Kyoto (Heian-kyō) was Japan's capital for more than 1,000 years — from 794 until the emperor moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration.
- 800 When Charlemagne was crowned emperor in 800, Borobudur — the world's largest Buddhist temple — was being built on Java.
- 800 The Slavic word for 'king' comes from the name Charles — Charlemagne's, or perhaps his great-grandson Charles the Fat's: Latin Karolus became Russian korol', Polish król and Slovak kráľ.
- 800 Lowercase Latin letters go back to the handwriting of Charlemagne's scribes.
- 800 Charlemagne, patron of a great revival of learning, probably never mastered writing himself.