1165

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Spring - Emperor Manuel I makes an alliance with Venice against Emperor Frederick I, who takes an oath at the Diet of Würzburg to support Antipope Paschal III against Pope Alexander III.
• Andronikos Komnenos, a cousin of Manuel I, escapes from prison at Constantinople. After passing through many dangers, he reaches Kiev and seeks refuge at the court of Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl.

  Europe

• Gerald the Fearless, Portuguese warrior and adventurer, seizes the city Évora by surprise. The same year, he takes Cáceres, Trujillo, Montánchez, Moura, Monsaraz and Alconchel from the Almohads.
• Benjamin of Tudela, Spanish Jewish traveler, sets out on his journey from the northeast Iberian Peninsula, in what begins as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
• Otto II, margrave of Meissen, grants Leipzig city and market privileges. The city is located at the crossways of the Via Regia and Via Imperii trade routes.

  England

• King Owain ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd forms an alliance with his nephew Rhys ap Gruffydd, prince of Deheubarth, to challenge English rule. They drive the English forces out of Wales.
• Battle of Crogen: King Henry II invades Wales, but is defeated and forced to retreat. After Welsh forces under Owain ap Gruffydd inflict an unknown number of casualties on the English army.
• Henry II and the marriage with Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is effectively ended when she moves back to Aquitaine. Henry begins an affair with Rosamund Clifford.
• December 9 - King Malcolm IV dies at Jedburgh after a 12-year reign and is succeeded by his brother William I as ruler of Scotland.

  Asia

• September 5 - Emperor Nijō abdicates the throne and dies after a 7-year reign. He is succeeded by his 1-year-old son Rokujō as the 79th emperor of Japan.
• In China the Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty make a lasting peace.

  By topic

Religion

• Eskil, Danish archbishop of Lund, appoints Fulco as the first bishop of Leal, marking the early beginning of the introduction of Christianity in Estonia.
• Hildegard of Bingen, German Benedictine abbess, founds Eibingen Abbey on the opposite bank of the Rhine near Rüdesheim.
• The construction of Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou, China, is completed during the Song Dynasty.