868

This article is about the year 868. For other uses, see 868 (disambiguation).

Year 868 (DCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	8th century 9th century 10th century
Decades:	840s 850s 860s 870s 880s
Years:	865 866 867 868 869 870 871

868 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	868 DCCCLXVIII
Ab urbe condita	1621
Armenian calendar	317 ԹՎ ՅԺԷ
Assyrian calendar	5618
Balinese saka calendar	789–790
Bengali calendar	275
Berber calendar	1818
Buddhist calendar	1412
Burmese calendar	230
Byzantine calendar	6376–6377
Chinese calendar	丁亥年 (Fire Pig) 3565 or 3358     — to — 戊子年 (Earth Rat) 3566 or 3359
Coptic calendar	584–585
Discordian calendar	2034
Ethiopian calendar	860–861
Hebrew calendar	4628–4629
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	924–925
- Shaka Samvat	789–790
- Kali Yuga	3968–3969
Holocene calendar	10868
Iranian calendar	246–247
Islamic calendar	253–255
Japanese calendar	Jōgan 10 (貞観１０年)
Javanese calendar	765–766
Julian calendar	868 DCCCLXVIII
Korean calendar	3201
Minguo calendar	1044 before ROC 民前1044年
Nanakshahi calendar	−600
Seleucid era	1179/1180 AG
Thai solar calendar	1410–1411
Tibetan calendar	阴火猪年 (female Fire-Pig) 994 or 613 or −159     — to — 阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) 995 or 614 or −158

First printed copy of the Diamond Sūtra

Events

By place

Europe

• King Charles the Bald meets his brother Louis the German at Metz. They agree to a partition of Lotharingia, which belonged to former emperor Lothair I (now in possession of his sons Lothair II and Louis II).
• Salomon, duke ('king') of Brittany, leads a joint campaign against the Loire Vikings. He is forced to defend southeastern Brittany unaided, and mobilizes levies raised at Poitiers to defeat the Vikings.
• Al-Andalus: The city of Mérida rises against the Umayyad rule. Emir Muhammad I regains control, and has the walls of the city destroyed. He supports the rival creation of Badajoz in retaliation.^[1]
• The County of Portugal is established around the town of Portus Cale (present-day Porto) by Vímara Peres, an Asturian nobleman, after the reconquest from the Moors of the region north of the Douro River.
• Ratramnus, a Frankish monk and abbot of Corbie Abbey, writes Contra Graecorum Opposita.

Britain

• Alfred the Great marries Ealhswith (a daughter of Æthelred, known as Mucel, an ealdorman of the Gaini). He supports his brother Æthelred I, in his choice to form an alliance with Mercia.
• King Burgred of Mercia appeals to Æthelred I for help in resisting the Great Heathen Army. The Danes occupy Nottingham, and stay through the winter without any serious opposition.^[2]
• King Áed Findliath drives the invading Danes and Norwegians out of Ireland, after defeating them at the Battle of Killineery.

Africa

• September 15 – Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkish general, is sent to Egypt as governor, by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tazz. He becomes the founder of the Tulunid Dynasty (until 905).
• Muslim Arab forces under Muhammad II, emir of the Aghlabid Dynasty (modern Tunisia), conquer the island of Malta and raid into the mainland of Italy.

Asia

• May 11 – The earliest extant printed book, an illustrated scroll of the Diamond Sutra ("Perfection of Wisdom"), unearthed at Dunhuang (Western China), is produced.^[3]

Births

• Choe Eon-wui, Korean minister and calligrapher (d. 944)
• Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri, Muslim theologian (d. 909)
• Théodrate of Troyes, Frankish queen (d. 903)
• Xu Jie, Chinese officer and chancellor (d. 943)

Deaths

• Ali al-Hadi, tenth Shia Imam
• Al-Jahiz, Afro-Muslim scholar and writer (b. 776)
• Bugha al-Sharabi, Turkish military leader
• Conwoïon, Breton abbot (approximate date)
• Minamoto no Makoto, Japanese prince (b. 810)
• Muzahim ibn Khaqan, Muslim governor
• Stephania, wife of Adrian II
• Theotgaud, archbishop of Trier
• Yang Shou, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
• Yu Xuanji, Chinese poet (or 869)

References

1. Rucquoi, Adeline (1993). Histoire médiévale de la Péninsule ibérique. Paris: Seuil. p. 86. ISBN 2-02-012935-3.
2. Paul Hill (2009). The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great, p. 31. ISBN 978-1-59416-087-5.
3. Victor H. Mair 2016 (lecture). "Dunhuang as Nexus of the Silk Road during the Middle Ages" on YouTube (58:30~58:40) Getty Research Institute. Accessed September 15, 2016.