1056

By place

Byzantine Empire

• August 31 - Empress Theodora dies after a 18-month reign, by a sudden illness at Constantinople. She is succeeded by Michael VI Bringas, who had served as military finance minister under the former Emperor Romanos III. Michael is appointed through the influence of Leo Paraspondylos, Theodora's most trusted adviser. This ends the Macedonian dynasty.
• Theodosius, a nephew of the former Emperor Constantine IX, tries to usurp the Byzantine throne, and liberates all the prisoners who flock to his banner. With their support, he marches through the streets of Constantinople to the Palace. There, the Varangian Guard forms outside to stop him. Theodosius loses heart and heads for Hagia Sophia. Later he is captured, and exiled to Pergamon.

Europe

• October 5 - Henry III, [Holy Roman Emperor] dies after a 10-year reign at Bodfeld, an imperial hunting lodge in the Harz Mountains. He is succeeded by his 5-year-old only son Henry IV, [Holy Roman Emperor|Henry IV] as "king of the Germans" and enthroned by Pope Victor II at Aachen – while his mother, Empress Agnes of Poitou, becomes co-regent.
• Ottokar I, count of Steyr, becomes margrave of the Karantanian March.

Britain

• June 16 - In response to the attack on Hereford Cathedral in 1055, Leofgar the bishop of Hereford takes an army into Wales to deal with the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. He along with a large number of English troops is killed in battle at Glasbury-on-Wye by the Welsh. Earl Harold Godwinson raises an army to take revenge, but comes to peaceful terms with Gruffydd.

Northern Africa

• Battle of Tabfarilla in modern day Mauritania: The Almoravids are crushed by the Godala and their Emir.
• Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni falls.

By topic

Religion

• The Pagoda of Fogong Temple at Shanxi in northern China is built during the Liao dynasty. Work begins on the Pizhi Pagoda of Lingyan Temple at Shandong under the opposing Song dynasty.
• Dromtön, an Atiśa chief disciple, founds Reting Monastery in the Reting Tsangpo Valley as the seat of Kadam lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
• The Muslims expel 300 Christians from Jerusalem, and European Christians are forbidden to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Births

• July 24 - Al-Muqtadi, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate
• Abdallah ibn Buluggin, emir of Granada
• Baldwin II of Mons, count of Hainaut
• Ermengol IV, Count of Urgell, Spanish nobleman
• Fujiwara no Kiyohira, Japanese nobleman and samurai
• Hildegarde of Burgundy, French noblewoman
• Nestor the Chronicler, Russian monk and historian
• Sæmundr fróði, Icelandic priest and scholar
• Zhou Bangyan, Chinese bureaucrat and ci poet

Deaths

• February 10 - Æthelstan, English bishop of Hereford
• February 11 - Herman II, archbishop of Cologne
• June 16 - Leofgar, English bishop of Hereford, killed in battle
• August 31
• * Odda of Deerhurst, English nobleman
• * Theodora, empress regnant of the Byzantine Empire
• September 10 - William, margrave of the Nordmark
• October 5 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
• November 25 - Flann Mainistreach, Irish poet and historian
• Áed Ua Forréid, bishop of Armagh
• Anselm of Liège, French chronicler
• Benedict IX, pope of the Catholic Church
• Ekkehard IV, Swiss monk and chronicler
• Hilal al-Sabi', Buyid historian, bureaucrat and writer
• Leo of Ohrid, Byzantine archbishop and theologian
• Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni, Almoravid chieftain