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'Years:' 1255 1256 1257 - 1258 - 1259 1260 1261

'Decades:' 1220s 1230s 1240s - '1250s' - 1260s 1270s 1280s

'Centuries:' 12th century - '13th century' - 14th century

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Notes

Events

★ c. January - One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the Holocene epoch occurs, possibly from a tropical location such as El Chichón, Mexico or Quilotoa, Ecuador. ^[1] Observed effects of the eruption include the following anecdotal accounts: dry fog in France; lunar eclipses in England; severe winter in Europe; a "harsh" spring in Northern Iceland; famine in England, Western Germany, France, and Northern Italy; and pestilence in London, parts of France, Austria, Iraq, Syria, and South-East Turkey. ^[2]

★ February 10 - Battle of Baghdad (1258) - Hulagu Khan's Mongol forces overrun Baghdad, then the leading center of Islamic culture and learning and capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. They burn the imperial city to the ground, killing as many as 1,000,000 citizens.


★ Llywelyn the Last declares himself Prince of Wales. He is the final ruler of an independent Wales, before its conquest by the English.

★ King Henry III of England is forced by seven powerful barons to accept the Provisions of Oxford, effectively ending the absolute monarchy in England by requiring the calling of a parliament.

★ The Chinese era ''Baoyou'' ends in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.

★ Civil unrest in northern Italy spawns the medieval musical form of Geisslerlieder, penitential songs sung by wandering bands of Flagellants.

★ Gissur Thorvaldsson is made Earl of Iceland by King Haakon IV of Norway

Births

★ Arghun, fourth Ilkhanate ruler of Iran (approximate date; died 1291)

★ Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire (died 1326)

Deaths

★ February 20 - Al-Musta'sim, last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad

★ August 18 - Theodore II Lascaris, emperor of Nicea (Byzantine Emperor in exile)

★ Hong Bok-won, Goryeo commander who later served the Mongol Empire

★ Reginald de Cobham, 1st Baron Cobham (born 1295)

★ Meinhard I of Gorizia-Tyrol (born c. 1200)

★ Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili, Moroccan spiritual leader (born 1175)

★ Clement of Dunblane,13th-century Dominican friar who was the first member of the Dominican Order in Britain to become a bishop

Notes

1. Emile-Geay, J., Seager, R., Cane, M., Cook, E., Haug, G.H., [The volcanic eruption of 1258 A.D. and the subsequent ENSO event, ''Geophysical Research Letters'', 321, XXXX, doi:10.1029/2006JAXYZW, Mar 2006. (available online, pdf file)
2. Stothers, R.B. (2000) Climatic and Demographic consequences of the Massive Volcanic Eruption of 1258. ''Climatic Change'', 45, 361-374.