802
Year 802 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 802nd year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 802nd year of the 1st millennium, the 2nd year of the 9th century, and the 3rd year of the 800s decade.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- October 31 - Empress Irene is deposed after a 5-year reign, and banished to Lesbos. High-ranking patricians place Nikephoros, the minister of finance, on the throne. He is crowned in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople, by Patriarch Tarasios, as emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
Central America
- May 1 - Lachan Kʼawiil Ajaw Bot becomes the ruler of the Mayan city state near Itzan in Guatemala.
Europe
- Pagan Danes invade Obodrite-ruled Schleswig, to take over territory almost emptied by the forcible deportations of the Saxons by emperor Charlemagne.
- Al-Andalus: Saragossa rises against the Emirate of Córdoba. Emir Al-Hakam I sends a Muslim army under General Amrus ibn Yusuf, and retakes the city.
- Krum becomes ruler of the Bulgarian Empire. During his reign Bulgarian territory doubles in size, from the Danube to the Dniester.
Britain
- King Beorhtric of Wessex dies after drinking a chalice of poison intended for his wife, Eadburh. She flees to the court of Charlemagne, who accepts a portion of her wealth and makes her abbess. Prince Egbert returns to Wessex, and is accepted as the new king.
- Battle of Kempsford: Æthelmund, ealdorman of Hwicce, is killed during the battle by his rival Weohstan, who levies West Saxon Wiltshire.
- The Vikings plunder the treasures of Iona Abbey, on the west coast of Scotland.
Abbasid Caliphate
- The Mecca Protocol: Caliph Harun al-Rashid and the leading officials of the Abbasid Caliphate perform the hajj to Mecca, where the line of succession is finalized. Harun's eldest son al-Amin is named heir, but his second son al-Ma'mun is named as al-Amin's heir, and ruler of a broadly autonomous Khurasan. A third son, al-Qasim, is added as third heir, and receives responsibility over the frontier areas with the Byzantine Empire.
Asia
- Prince Jayavarman declares the Khmer Empire independent, and establishes the kingdom of Angkor. He is reconsecrated as a world ruler, or god-king, under Hindu rites.
By topic
Religion
- The Haeinsa Temple of the Jogye Order is built in Korea.
Births
- Bi Xian, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
- Fujiwara no Nagara, Japanese statesman
- Hugh, illegitimate son of Charlemagne
- Ono no Takamura, Japanese scholar and poet
- Ralpacan, emperor of Tibet
Deaths
- January 11 - Paulinus II, patriarch of Aquileia
- Æthelmund, Anglo-Saxon nobleman
- Bahlul ibn Marzuq, Muslim general
- Beorhtric, king of Wessex
- Domitian, duke of Carantania
- Eadburh, Anglo-Saxon princess
- Kardam, ruler of the Bulgarian Empire
- Rashid, Muslim regent of Idris II
- Višeslav, duke of Croatia
- Wulfstan, Anglo-Saxon ealdorman
- Theoctista, politically influential Byzantine woman