1044

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Heads of State

Events

★ King Anawrahta seizes the throne of Pagan, Myanmar

★ Benedict IX abdicates as pope

★ The Chinese military treatise of the ''Wujing Zongyao'' is written and compiled by Chinese scholars during the Song Dynasty, and is the first book in history to include formulas for gunpowder and its use for various bombs (thrown by sling or trebuchet catapult). It also described the flamethrower and the thermoremanence compass. Although emphasizing the importance of many weapons, it reserved high respect for the crossbow and ability of crossbowmen to fell charging units of nomadic cavalrymen.

Births

★ Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as El Cid (d. 1099)

Deaths

★ Gothelo I, Duke of Lotharingia

Heads of State

★ England — Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042–1066)

★ France — Henri I (reigned 1031–1060)

★ Scotland — Macbeth (reigned 1040–1057)