1279

By place

Africa

• Abu Ishaq, uncle of the Hafsid khalif, sides with the Almohad rebels of Béjaïa, and takes Tunis.

  Asia

• March 19 - Battle of Yamen: Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty defeats and ends the Song dynasty after three centuries, and he becomes the emperor of all China. The Mongol Empire reaches its largest extent, although it has already partially fragmented.
• April 17 - Thawun Gyi settles at Taungoo, and becomes its first ruler.
• October 12 - The Dai-Gohonzon, the supreme object of veneration of Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism, is said to be inscribed by Nichiren.
• A Yuan diplomatic party, sent by Kublai Khan to Japan, is killed by Japan's regent Hōjō Tokimune, leading to a second invasion attempt by the Mongols in 1281.
• The Chola Dynasty of South India falls, under attacks by the Hoysala Empire and Pandyan Kingdom.
• Ram Khamhaeng's reign commences as the third king of Thailand's Sukhothai Era, a great "Golden Age" foreshadowing modern-day Thailand.
• Mamluk sultan Baraka Khan and emir Qalawun of Egypt invade Armenia; a revolt in Egypt while they are away forces Baraka to abdicate, and allows Qalawun to become sultan.

  Europe

• March 5 - Battle of Aizkraukle: Lithuanian forces, led by Traidenis, defeat the Livonian Order of Teutonic Knights.
• July 20 - The Castilians are forced to abandon the first Siege of Algeciras, after their fleet is destroyed by the Moroccans, led by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr, and the Infante Pedro of Castile flees the field.
• The first of the Statutes of Mortmain are passed under King Edward I of England, which prevents land from passing into possession of the Church.
• The second of two main surveys of the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, is begun; it lasts until 1280.
• Al-Razi's important medical writings are translated into Latin by Faraj ben Salim, some 350 years after Al-Razi's death.
• The Royal Mint of England moves into the Tower of London.
• The town of Haapsalu, Estonia is founded.

  Births

• March 11 - Mary of Woodstock, daughter of Edward I of England
• date unknown
• *Ismail I, Sultan of Granada
• *Louis I, Duke of Bourbon
• *Muktabai, Indian saint in the Varkari tradition

  Deaths

• February 16 - King Afonso III of Portugal
• March - Zhang Shijie, Chinese admiral and official
• March 16 - Jeanne of Dammartin, Queen consort of Castile and León
• March 19 - Emperor Bing of Song
• April - Walter Giffard, Lord Chancellor of England and archbishop
• April 14 - Duke Boleslaus of Greater Poland
• May 28 - William Wishart, English bishop
• September 11 - Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury
• December 7 - King Boleslaus V of Poland