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 who has 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 ended the Macedonian Dynasty.
• Theodosius, a nephew of the former Emperor Constantine IX, tries to usurp the Byzantine throne and liberates all the prisoners who flocks 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 Pergamum.

  Europe

• October 5 - Emperor Henry III dies after a 10-year reign at Bodfeld, an imperial hunting lodge in the Harz Mountains. He is succeeded and enthroned by his 5-year-old only son Henry IV as "king of the Germans" 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, 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

By topic

Religion

• The Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Shanxi in northern China is built during the Liao Dynasty. Work begins on the Pizhi Pagoda of Lingyan Temple in 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.