565

Year 565 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 565 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

November 15 - Justin II succeeds his uncle Justinian I as emperor of the Byzantine Empire. He begins his reign by refusing subsidies to the Avars, who conduct several large-scale raids through the Balkan Peninsula.
Justin II recalls his cousin Justin to Constantinople; after accusations against him, he is placed under house arrest.
Justin II sends his son-in-law Baduarius with a Byzantine army, to support the Gepids in their war against the Lombards.
The Madaba Map is made in the Byzantine church of Saint George. The floor mosaic contains the depiction of the Holy Land.
Britain
Columba, an Irish missionary, spots the Loch Ness Monster on the River Ness and saves the life of a Pict.
Europe
Summer - A war erupts between Alboin, the king of the Lombards, and King Cunimund, the leader of the Gepids..
Asia
Gao Wei succeeds his father Wu Cheng Di as ruler of the Chinese Northern Qi Dynasty. Wu Cheng Di becomes a regent and Grand Emperor.
The Uyghurs are defeated by the Göktürks, who expand their territory in Central Asia.
Central America
February 6 - Kʼan Joy Chitam I, ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque, in what is now the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, dies after a reign of exactly 36 years.
May 2 - Ahkal Moʼ Nahb II becomes the new ruler of Palenque and reigns until his death in 570.
By topic

Agathias begins to write a history, beginning where Procopius finished his work.
Religion
January 22 - Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople is deposed as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Justinian I after he refuses the Byzantine Emperor's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of Monophysites. From April 12 he is replaced by John Scholasticus.
Columba begins preaching in the Orkney Islands.
Births
Chen Yueyi, empress of Northern Zhou
Cuthwine, prince of Wessex
Gundoald, Bavarian nobleman
Marutha of Tikrit, Persian theologian
Mirin, Irish monk and missionary
Sisebut, king of the Visigoths
Witteric, king of the Visigoths
Yuan Leshang, empress of Northern Zhou
Deaths
November 14 - Justinian I, emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Audoin, king of the Lombards
Belisarius, Byzantine general
Diarmait mac Cerbaill, High King
Procopius, Byzantine historian
Samson of Dol, bishop and saint
Establishments
Saint Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt by Justinian I, which contains the oldest active library, being Ebla tablets in the city of Ebla, Syria, discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75, the first, if not the oldest, inactive library.