Viking tribes known as the Rus are established as traders in the region of Novgorod

The Venetians, acquiring from Alexandria some bones believed to be those of St Mark, build St Mark's to house the valuable relic

The iconoclastic controversy ends when Theodora, widow of the emperor Theophilus, officially sanctions the veneration of icons

The missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius arrive in Moravia, where they introduce the Greek Orthodox faith in a special Slavonic liturgy

The Bulgarian king Boris I is baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith, bringing his people within the Byzantine fold

Cyril and Methodius translate the Gospels and parts of the Old Testament into Slavonic for the Moravians.

Zoroastrians migrate from Muslim Persia to India, where they become known as Parsees

The Samanids, replacing the Saffarids, transform their capital at Bukhara into a centre of Persian culture

Monastic reform, begun at Cluny, is so successful that more than 1000 Benedictine houses eventually follow the Cluniac example

The Vikings settle in France, as Normans, when Rollo the Ganger is granted feudal rights over the region round Rouen

Wenceslas, a prince of the Premsylid family, is murdered on his way into church - and becomes Bohemia's patron saint

So many Slavs are captured and sold, in the movement eastwards of the Germans, that their name becomes the European word for a slave

The Byzantine empire enjoys a revival, bringing the Slavs within the Greek Orthodox fold and winning victories against the Muslims

Harald Bluetooth is baptized a Christian and unites the whole of Denmark as a single kingdom.

The imperial coronation of Otto I by Pope John XII in St Peter's puts in place the formal role of a Holy Roman emperor

Mieszko, pagan chieftain of the Poles, marries a Christian Czech princess and brings all his people into the Roman Catholic fold

The Hungarian king Gezá and his family are baptized as Roman Catholics, beginning a long link between Hungary and Rome

Vladimir, the prince of Kiev, decides that Greek Orthodoxy is the most suitable religion for the Russian people

Iceland's parliament, the althing, passes a resolution that everyone on the island is to be baptized

The Jews, barred from any work which Christians want to do, find profitable employment as money-lenders

Thorfinn Karlsefni leads an expedition to north America, traces of which may survive in a longhouse at L'Anse aux Meadows

Firdausi completes his great chronicle of Persian history, the Shah-nama, which becomes established as Iran's national epic

A Russian chronicle makes the first mention of the marauding Polovtsy, who persistently raid Russian cities from the steppes

A papal delegate (from Leo IX) excommunicates Cerularius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the delegate is excommunicated in retaliation, launching a lasting East-West Schism

Halley's comet, appearing in the Normans' annus mirabilis, is later depicted in the Bayeux tapestry