1281

By place

Asia

• August 15 - Battle of Kōan : The second Mongol invasion of Japan is foiled, as a large typhoon - famously called a kamikaze, or divine wind - destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces, numbering over 140,000 men and 4,000 ships.
• Kublai Khan orders the burning of sacred Taoist texts, resulting in the reduction in number of volumes of the Daozang from 4,565 to 1,120.
• The Mon Kingdom of Hariphunchai falls, as its capital Lamphun is captured by King Mangrai's Lannathai Kingdom.

  Middle East

• October 29 - Second Battle of Homs: Mamluk sultan Qalawun defeats an invasion of Syria, by Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa Khan.
• Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, becomes bey of the Söğüt tribe in central Anatolia; in 1299 he will declare independence from the Seljuk Turks, marking the birth of the Ottoman Empire.
• An offensive by the Byzantine Empire significantly reduces the size of the Kingdom of Albania, as it recaptures land seized from the Despotate of Epirus by Charles I of Sicily 10 years earlier.

  Europe

• Pope Martin IV authorizes a Crusade against the newly re-established Byzantine Empire in Constantinople; French and Venetian expeditions set out toward Constantinople, but are forced to turn back in the following year.
• July - Niccolò Bonsignori heads a hundred of Ghibelline exiles, in a failed attempt to topple the Sienese government.

  By topic

Markets

• Guy of Dampierre, count of Flanders, licenses the first Lombard merchants to open a changing business in his realm.

  Religion

• Pope Martin IV succeeds Pope Nicholas III, as the 189th pope.