1036

By place

Europe

• Summer - In Naples, Duke Sergius IV abdicates and retires to a monastery; he is succeeded by his son John V.
• A Zirid expeditionary force invades Sicily and takes Palermo from the Normans, but fails to fully reconquer the island.

  England

• February 5 - Edward the Confessor's younger brother Alfred Aetheling is blinded and murdered, in an apparent attempt to seize the throne of England from Harold I.

  Africa

• June 13 - Caliph al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah dies after a 16-year reign. He is succeeded by his 6-year-old son al-Mustansir as ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate. Vizier Ali ibn Ahmad al-Jarjara'i will guide the regency for the first few years.

  China

• The Tangut script is devised by Yeli Renrong, for Emperor Jing Zong of Western Xia.

  Japan

• May 15 - Emperor Go-Ichijō dies at the age of 27 after a 20-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother Go-Suzaku as the 69th emperor of Japan.

  By topic

Religion

• Pope Benedict IX is briefly forced out of Rome, but returns with the help of the elder Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• The Flower Sermon first appears in Buddhist literature.

  Births

• Anselm of Lucca, Italian bishop
• Fujiwara no Hiroko, Japanese empress
• Igor Yaroslavich, prince of Smolensk
• Wang Shen, Chinese painter and poet

  Deaths

• February 5 - Alfred Aetheling, Anglo-Saxon prince
• March 17 - Gebhard II, bishop of Regensburg
• May 15 - Go-Ichijō, emperor of Japan
• June 12 - Tedald, Italian bishop
• June 13 - al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah, Fatimid caliph
• August 25 - Pilgrim, archbishop of Cologne
• Abu Nasr Mansur, Persian mathematician
• Alric of Asti, Lombard bishop
• Berengar of Gascony, French nobleman
• Emilia of Gaeta, Italian duchess and regent
• Fujiwara no Ishi, Japanese empress
• Hárek of Tjøtta, Norwegian Viking chieftain
• Hisham III, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba