1000

The year 1000 of the Gregorian Calendar was the last year of the 10th century as well as the last year of the first millennium of the Christian era ending on December 31st. According to the then used Julian Calendar, AD 1000 was a leap year starting on Monday. In the Gregorian Calendar (not invented at the time) the year would have been a common year starting on Wednesday.

Overview

China

In what is today China, the Song Dynasty remained the world's most populous empire and continued to thrive under Emperor Zhenzong of Song China. By the late 11th century, the Song Dynasty had a total population of some 101 million people, an average annual iron output of 125,000 tons produced a year, and bolstered its enormous economy with the world's first known paper-printed money.

Islamic world

The Islamic world was experiencing a Golden Age around the year 1000 and continued to flourish under the Arab Empire (including the Ummayad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates), which included what is now the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Iberian Peninsula. By 1000, Muslim traders and explorers had established a global economy across the Old World leading to a Muslim Agricultural Revolution, establishing the Arab Empire as the world's leading extensive economic power.

The scientific achievements of the Islamic civilization also reaches its zenith during this time, with the emergence of the first experimental scientists and the scientific method, which would form the basis of modern science.

Most of the leading scientists around the year 1000 were Muslim scientists, including Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Avicenna, Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), Ibn Yunus, Abu Sahl al-Quhi (Kuhi), Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi, Abu Nasr Mansur, Abu al-Wafa, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, Al-Muqaddasi, Ali Ibn Isa, and al-Karaji (al-Karkhi), among others.

In particular, Ibn al-Haytham, Avicenna, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, and Abu al-Qasim, who all flourished around the year 1000, are considered among the greatest scientists in history.

Events

By Place

Africa

The Hutu arrive in present-day Rwanda and Burundi, soon outnumbering the native Twa.

Americas

Leif Ericson lands in North America, calling it Vinland.
The Incas are one of many small groups fighting for land and water (approximate date).

Asia

Dhaka, Bangladesh, is founded.

Europe

September 9 — Battle of Svolder: King Olaf Tryggvason is defeated by an alliance of his enemies, in this notable naval battle of the Viking Age.
December 25 - Stephen I becomes King of Hungary, which is established as a Christian kingdom.
Sancho III of Navarre becomes King of Aragon and Navarre.
Sweyn I establishes Danish control over part of Norway.
Oslo, Norway is founded (the exact year is debatable, but the 1,000 year anniversary was held in the year 2000).
Emperor Otto III makes a pilgrimage from Rome to Aachen and Gniezno (Gnesen), stopping at Regensburg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and Gniezno. The Congress of Gniezno (with Bolesław I Chrobry) is part of his pilgrimage. In Rome, he builds the basilica of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, to host the relics of St. Bartholomew.
The Château de Goulaine vineyard is founded in France.

By Topic

Religion

The Islamic world expands.
Scandinavia and Hungary are Christianized.
The Diocese of Kołobrzeg is founded.
The archdiocese in Gniezno is founded; the first archibishop is Gaudentius (Radim), from Slavník's dynasty.

Science and Technology

Scientific achievements in the Islamic civilization reach their zenith, with the emergence of the first experimental scientists and the scientific method, which will form the basis of modern science.
Iraqi Muslim polymath and scientist, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), who is considered the father of optics, the pioneer of the scientific method, and the "first scientist", moves to Egypt, where he invents the camera obscura, and writes his influential Book of Optics, which introduces the scientific method, and drastically transforms the understanding of light, optics, vision, and science in general.
Persian Muslim polymath and scientist, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, who is considered the father of geodesy and the "first anthropologist", writes books on many different topics, and rejects many theories which cannot be verified through experimentation.
Persian Muslim scientist and physician, Avicenna, who is considered the father of early modern medicine, publishes The Canon of Medicine, an influential book which maintains that medicine should be known through either experimentation or reasoning. He also publishes The Book of Healing, where he hypothesizes two causes of mountains: "Either they are the effects of upheavals of the crust of the earth, or they are the effect of water, which, cutting itself a new route, has denuded the valleys."
Arab Andalusian Muslim physician, Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), the "father of modern surgery", publishes his influential 30-volume medical encyclopedia, the Al-Tasrif, which remains a standard textbook in the Islamic world and medieval Europe for centuries.
Arab Egyptian Muslim mathematician and astronomer, Ibn Yunus, publishes his astronomical treatise Al-Zij al-Hakimi al-Kabir, and invents the pendulum.
Persian Muslim physicist and mathematician, Abu Sahl al-Quhi (Kuhi), hypothesizes that the heaviness of bodies vary with their distance from the center of the Earth, and solves equations higher than the second degree.
Persian Muslim astronomer and mathematician, Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi, invents the astronomical sextant and first states a special case of Fermat's last theorem.
The Bell foundry is founded in Italy by Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli.
Gunpowder is invented in China.