0770
Lu Yu writes the Cha Jing or 'Classic of Tea' - a guide to tea origins, preparation and etiquette.
0773 - 0819
Liu Zongyuan.
0775
Sterling coins are issued by Saxon kingdoms (240 could be made from 1lb of silver).
0777
The Imperial Diet of Charlemagne meets at Paderborn.
0780
The first tea tax is levied in China.
0790
Viking longships become common.
0790 - 1066
The Viking Age. Norsemen raid Britain and Europe.
0800
Earliest surviving image of smoking is painted on a Mayan jar.
0800
Charlemagne funds his campaigns through renewed French gold production and captured gold.
0800
Viking raiders follow the River Volkhov and settle in Russia and Ukraine.
0800
Charlemagne, King of the Franks, is crowned King of the Romans by Pope Leo III.
0808
A Chinese book of chemistry describes the formula for gunpowder, invented by the Chinese.
0810
Charlemagne grants Venice trading rights along the Adriatic.
0810 - 1453
Golden Age of Venice as a commercial centre, trading spices and other goods.
0813
A school of astronomy is founded in Baghdad.
0822
Hops are added to beer by a Carolingian Abbot.
0823
Creation of the Mamluk army, composed of Turkish, Arab and African slaves.
0827
Muslims begin to settle in Sicily and introduce oranges, lemons, cotton, carob, mulberry, date palms and sugar cane.
827
Arab settlers introduce durum wheat and pasta to Sicily.
0828
St Mark's relics are moved to Venice.
0839
Pietro Tradonico, Doge of Venice, helps to suppress Saracen pirates and thus establishes Venice's pre-eminence as a trading port in the Mediterranean.
0843
Germany is created as a separate area when the Carolingian Empire is divided.
085
The energising effect of coffee cherries is discovered by Ethiopian goat herders such as Kaldi.
0850 - 1279
The Chola Kingdom holds sway in India.
085
Chinese travellers begin to make use of the navigational compass.
0850
The astrolabe is perfected by Arab sailors to aid navigation.
851
Merchants of southern Arabia and the Persian Gulf trading with China and acquiring porcelain.
0865 - 0925
Al-Razi.
0866
Vikings take the city of York.
0868
The Diamond Sutra, printed in China, is the oldest surviving printed book.
0874 - 0930
Norwegian settlement of Iceland.
0878
Alfred of Wessex defeats the Danes at the Battle of Edington and halts the Viking conquest of Britain.
0886
Royal Mint established by Alfred the Great.
0900
The horse collar is first used in Europe.
0900
Persian scientist Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi discovers alcohol.
0900 - 1500
Mayan Civilisation collapses and is replaced with rule by local city states.
0900 - 1180
The Toltecs hold sway in Mexico until their main city in Tula is burnt down in a local war.
0900
Edible bananas originated in the Indo-Malaysian region reaching to northern Australia and are believed to have been first carried to Europe in the 10th Century A.D.
0900
Extensive codfish commerce took root in the ninth Century, when Norse explorers discovered that cod, because its flesh is less than 1% fat, is easily preserved through drying, making distribution throughout Northern Europe possible.
0911
Vikings under Rollo settle in Normandy, France.
0933
Henry of Saxony defeats the Magyars at the Battle of Riade.
0950
The art of paper making reaches Italy and Spain.
0950 - 1250
Medieval Warm Period.
0953
Fountain pens are invented in Mahgreb, in Arabic North Africa.
0960 - 1279
The Song Dynasty in China. New farming processes increase yields.
960
Porcelain production begins to spread from China to other parts of south-east Asia.
0962
Otto I, King of the Germans, is made Holy Roman Emperor.
0980 - 1037
Ibn Sina.
0982
Erik the Red and others explore and colonise Greenland.
0990
The Toltecs capture the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.
992
Gregoire de Nicopolis introduces Gingerbread to France from Italy.
1000
Arab Traders bring coffee plants home to cultivate. They boil the beans to produce Qahwa.
1000
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi writes the medical text, the Al-Tasrif, describing the medicinal uses of opiates.
1000
The Arabs installed the first industrial sugar refinery on the island of Candia or Crete - its Arabic name, Quandi, meant crystalized sugar - around the year 1000.
1000
Leif Eriksson reaches North America and establishes a colony in Vinland, named after the local vines that he discovers. These may have been wild cranberries.
10
Hippalos writes The Voyage Around the Erythean Sea tracing ancient trading routes around the Arabian Sea and to India and with mention of sugar and spices.
1004 - 1007
Porcelain factory established at Jingdezhen during the Song dynasty.
1008
Muslim forces invade India.
1016
King Cnut unites England, Denmark and Norway.
1016
Tughril Beg becomes leader of the Seljuks, Turkish-speaking nomads who had migrated from central Asia to Persia.
1021
Ibn Al-Haytham writes his Book of Optics.
1024
Paper currency is introduced in China.
1025
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) writes the Canon of Medicine and descripes opium as a powerful narcotic and anaesthetic.
1038
Tughril Beg is made Sultan of Nishapur after defeating many rivals.
1041
The movable type printing press is invented by Bi Sheng.
1044
The Chinese work Wu Ching Tsung Yao describes the use of explosives and petrochemicals.
1047
Norman conquest of Sicily and Southern Italy.
1066
After the Norman invasion, Britain adopts a metallic currency of pounds, shillings and pence.
1068
Emperor Shenzong creates a government monopoly over tea in China.
1079
The New Forest in Hampshire is declared a Royal Forest and is used for deer hunting.
1086
The Domesday Survey confirms that most villages in England have a watermill.