Year 1006 (MVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Europe

• Summer An Arab Saracen fleet appears before Pisa, but departs again. The Pisans take their fleet to sea and chase the Arabs down to Southern Italy where, in the Battle of Reggio Calabria, the Pisan fleet defeats the Arabs.

• Summer–Autumn Danish Viking raiders led by Sweyn Forkbeard raid south-eastern England from the Isle of Wight to Reading in the Thames Valley where they overwinter at the Wallingford river crossing.

• Brian Boru visits Ulster, and remains unchallenged.

Oceania

• A major eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano on Java causes devastation throughout the centre of the island (which it covers with volcanic ash) and to the Javanese Hindu Mataram kingdom.

By topic

Astronomy

• April 30 The brightest supernova ever recorded, SN 1006, occurs in the constellation of Lupus. It is observed and described in China, Japan, Iraq, Egypt, and Europe and possibly depicted in North American rock art. Modern astronomers now consider its distance at about 7,200 light-years. The supernova provides enough light to read by on a night with a dark moon.

Births

• October 23 Wen Yanbo, grand chancellor (d. 1097)

• Al-Lakhmi, Fatimid scholar and jurist (d. 1085)

• Constantine X, Byzantine emperor (d. 1067)

• Ísleifur Gissurarson, Icelandic bishop (d. 1080)

• Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Persian Sufi poet (d. 1088)

Deaths

• February 13 Fulcran, bishop of Lodève (France)

• July 21 Gisela of Burgundy, duchess of Bavaria

• December 26 Gao Qiong, Chinese general (b. 935)

• Ælfhelm of York, ealdorman (dux) of Northumbria

• Azon the Venerable (or Atso), French prelate

• Fiachra Ua Focarta, abbot of Clonfert (Ireland)

• Giovanni Orseolo, Venetian nobleman (b. 981)

• Ibn Marzuban, Persian official and physician

• Maud of Normandy, French noblewoman

• Olaf the Peacock, Icelandic merchant

• Sherira Gaon, Jewish spiritual leader

• Cenwulf, bishop of Winchester (approximate date)

References