The Soninke Ghana Empire (Wagadu) flourished in what is now Mauritania and Mali, growing rich from control of the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade.
Lý Công Uẩn is enthroned by the court, founding the Lý dynasty, which lasts more than two centuries.
The Chola king Rajaraja I completes the monumental temple to Shiva, a masterpiece of Dravidian architecture.
Court lady Murasaki Shikibu writes The Tale of Genji, often considered one of the world's first novels.
Lý Công Uẩn issues the Edict on the Transfer of the Capital, moving it from Hoa Lư to Đại La and renaming it Thăng Long (today's Hanoi).
Ibn al-Haytham composes the Book of Optics, explaining vision as light entering the eye and emphasising experimental method.
The fleet of the Chola king Rajendra I raids Srivijayan ports along the Strait of Malacca, weakening the maritime empire.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) completes The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia used as a standard text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries.
The artisan Bi Sheng creates movable type from fired clay, the earliest known movable-type printing.
Anawrahta takes the throne at Pagan, going on to unify the Irrawaddy valley and establish Theravada Buddhism in Burma.
The military compendium Wujing Zongyao contains the earliest surviving written formulas for gunpowder.
Emperor Lý Thái Tông has the One Pillar Pagoda built in Thăng Long; it becomes an emblem of Hanoi.
Emperor Lý Thánh Tông renames the country from Đại Cồ Việt to Đại Việt, the name used for most of the following centuries.
Papal legates lay a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia, marking the split between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
William of Normandy defeats King Harold II, beginning the Norman conquest of England.
Emperor Lý Thánh Tông founds the Temple of Literature in Thăng Long, dedicated to Confucius.
The Seljuks defeat and capture Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV, opening Anatolia to Turkish settlement.
Emperor Lý Nhân Tông holds the first civil service examination in Đại Việt; Lê Văn Thịnh passes first.
To disrupt Song preparations for invasion, Lý Thường Kiệt attacks Qin, Lian and Yong prefectures in southern China (1075–1076).
The Lý court establishes the Imperial Academy beside the Temple of Literature, regarded as Vietnam's first university.
Lý Thường Kiệt halts the Song invasion at the Như Nguyệt (Cầu) River; tradition links the poem "Nam quốc sơn hà" to the battle.
During the Investiture Controversy, Emperor Henry IV goes to Canossa to seek absolution from Pope Gregory VII.
William I orders a great survey of land and property across England, recorded in the Domesday Book.
In his Dream Pool Essays, Shen Kuo describes the magnetic needle compass and magnetic declination.
Traditionally founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is regarded as the oldest university in continuous operation.
Pope Urban II urges Christian knights to aid Byzantium and recover Jerusalem, launching the First Crusade.
The First Crusade takes Jerusalem after a siege, followed by a massacre of its inhabitants.
Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, is the largest urban center of the Mississippian culture in North America, dominated by Monks Mound.
Great Zimbabwe, a city of mortarless stone enclosures, was the centre of a powerful state that prospered from cattle and the gold trade with the Swahili coast.