869
Year 869 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- Summer - Emperor Basil I allies with the Frankish emperor Louis II against the Saracens. He sends a Byzantine fleet of 400 ships, under the command of Admiral Niketas Ooryphas, to support Louis and to clear the Adriatic Sea of Muslim raiders.
- The Hagia Sophia Basilica in Constantinople suffers great damage during an earthquake, which makes the eastern half-dome collapse. Basil I orders it to be repaired.
Europe
- August 8 - Lothair II, King of Middle Francia, dies at Piacenza, on his way home from meeting Pope Adrian II at Rome, to get assent for a divorce. Lotharingia is subsequently divided between Lothair's uncles, Charles the Bald of France and Louis the German.
Britain
- The Danes, led by Viking chieftain Ivar the Boneless, 'make peace' with the Mercians. Ivar leaves Nottingham on horseback, and returns to York.
- Autumn -The Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, invades the Kingdom of East Anglia and plunders Peterborough. The Vikings take up winter quarters at Thetford.
- November 20 - Vikings conquer East Anglia, killing King Edmund the Martyr.
Arabian Empire
- The Zanj Rebellion: The Zanj, provoked by mercilessly harsh labor conditions in salt flats, and on the sugar and cotton plantations of southwestern Persia, revolt.
- Summer - Caliph Al-Mu'tazz is murdered by mutinous Muslim troops, after a 3-year reign. He is succeeded by Al-Muhtadi, as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Japan
- July 9 - The 869 Sanriku earthquake and associated tsunami devastate a large part of the Sanriku coast on the northeastern side of the island of Honshu.
- The first Gion Festival is held in order to combat an epidemic thought to be caused by an angry deity.
Mesoamerica
- The last monument ever erected at Tikal, Stela 11, is dedicated by ruler Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil II.
By topic
Religion
- October 5 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople, called by Basil I and Pope Adrian II, opens. The council will condemn Photius I and depose him as patriarch, reinstating his predecessor Ignatios.