According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangian chieftain Rurik was invited to rule Novgorod in 862, traditionally the start of the Rurik dynasty.
Approximate date.
Alfred the Great of Wessex defeats the Viking Great Army under Guthrum, securing the survival of Anglo-Saxon England.
Charlemagne's three grandsons divide the empire into three kingdoms, laying the groundwork for the later France and Germany.
Cluny Abbey is founded in Burgundy and becomes the centre of a monastic reform movement influential across Europe.
Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans in Rome on Christmas Day.
Vikings plunder the monastery on Lindisfarne in England, an event often taken as the start of the Viking Age.
King Otto I of Germany defeats the Magyars near Augsburg, ending Hungarian raids into Western Europe.