1079
Year 1079 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
- April 11 - Stanislaus of Szczepanów, bishop of Kraków, is executed on orders by King Bolesław II the Generous. The way in which his sentence is carried out causes a revolt among the Polish nobles. Bolesław is forced to flee, to take refuge at the court of King Ladislaus I of Hungary. He is succeeded by his brother Władysław I, as ruler of Poland.
- Battle of Cabra: Moorish forces, aided by Castilian knights under El Cid, defeat and rout the invading army of Emir Abdallah ibn Buluggin of Granada, near the town of Cabra.
- Emperor Henry IV appoints Frederick I as duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle. Henry's 7-year-old daughter Agnes of Waiblingen is betrothed to Frederick who founds the Hohenstaufen Dynasty.
- Upon the death of Håkan the Red, Halsten Stenkilsson returns as king of Sweden, jointly with his brother Inge the Elder.
England
- King William the Conqueror establishes the New Forest in Southern England. He proclaims it as a royal forest, using it for hunting, mainly of deer.
Seljuk Empire
- The Seljuk Turks under Sultan Suleiman ibn Qutulmish reach and occupy the western coast of Asia Minor, an area known since the Archaic Period as Ionia.
By topic
Astronomy
- Omar Khayyam, Persian mathematician and astronomer, calculates a 33 year calendar consisting of 25 ordinary years that include 365 days, and 8 leap years that include 366 days, the most accurate calculation of his time. Khayyam, in his Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems in Algebra, produces a complete classification of cubic equations and their geometric solutions.
Religion
Births
- February 11 - Yejong, king of Goryeo
- April - Urraca, queen regnant of León, Castile and Galicia
- August 8 - Horikawa, emperor of Japan
- Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, Fatimid scholar and writer
- Berardo dei Marsi, Italian cardinal and bishop
- Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, French noblewoman
- Gampopa, Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher
- Kilij Arslan I, sultan of the Sultanate of Rum
- Liu, Chinese empress of the Song dynasty
- Peter Abelard, French scholastic philosopher
- Zheng, Chinese empress of the Song dynasty
- Approximate date - Diepold III, margrave of Vohburg
Deaths
- January 8 - Adela of France, countess of Flanders
- February 22 - John of Fécamp, Italian-Norman abbot
- April 11 - Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Polish bishop
- August 2 - Roman Svyatoslavich, Kievan prince
- August 5 - Hezilo, bishop of Hildesheim
- October - Atsiz ibn Uwaq, Turkish emir of Damascus
- November 16 - Cao, empress of the Song dynasty
- Adelaide of Savoy, duchess of Swabia
- Aedh Ua Flaithbheartaigh, king of Iar Connacht
- Al-Jayyānī, Arab scholar and mathematician
- Cellach húa Rúanada, Irish chief ollam and poet
- Håkan the Red, king of Sweden
- Íñigo López, Spanish nobleman
- John of Avranches, French archbishop and writer
- Odo of Rennes, duke and regent of Brittany
- Roger d'Ivry, Norman nobleman
- Wen Tong, Chinese painter and calligrapher