796

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	7th century – 8th century – 9th century
Decades:	760s  770s  780s  – 790s –  800s  810s  820s
Years:	793 794 795 – 796 – 797 798 799

796 by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishment and disestablishment categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

796 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	796 DCCXCVI
Ab urbe condita	1549
Armenian calendar	245 ԹՎ ՄԽԵ
Assyrian calendar	5546
Bengali calendar	203
Berber calendar	1746
Buddhist calendar	1340
Burmese calendar	158
Byzantine calendar	6304–6305
Chinese calendar	乙亥年 (Wood Pig) 3492 or 3432     — to — 丙子年 (Fire Rat) 3493 or 3433
Coptic calendar	512–513
Discordian calendar	1962
Ethiopian calendar	788–789
Hebrew calendar	4556–4557
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	852–853
- Shaka Samvat	718–719
- Kali Yuga	3897–3898
Holocene calendar	10796
Iranian calendar	174–175
Islamic calendar	179–180
Japanese calendar	Enryaku 15 (延暦１５年)
Julian calendar	796 DCCXCVI
Korean calendar	3129
Minguo calendar	1116 before ROC 民前1116年
Seleucid era	1107/1108 AG
Thai solar calendar	1338–1339

A coin depicting Offa of Mercia (757–796)

Year 796 (DCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 796 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

By place

Europe

• King Charlemagne and his son Pepin of Italy launch a successful two-pronged invasion of the Avar Khaganate (modern Hungary). They seize the Avar "ring" (the nomadic tent capital), destroying Avar power before returning with so much booty in gold and jewels that 15 wagons, each drawn by four oxen, are needed to bring it back to Frankish territory.^[1] Charlemagne wins a major victory (in which the Pannonian Croatian duke Vojnomir aids him) and the Franks make themselves overlords over the Croatians of northern Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Pannonia. Frankish missionaries are sent to the area to convert the pagan population to Christianity.^[2]

Britain

• April 18 – King Æthelred I of Northumbria is murdered, probably at Corbridge, by his ealdormen, Ealdred and Wada. Another rival, Torhtmund slays Ealdred in revenge. Northumbria is plunged into confusion. The patrician Osbald is placed on the throne, but is deserted by his supporters after only 27 days. He flees from Lindisfarne to Pictland. Another faction, brings back Æthelred I's old back-from-the-dead rival, Eardwulf, as new king. He dismisses his wife and publicly take a concubine. Eardwulf is alienated from archbishop Eanbald of York.
• King Offa of Mercia and Charlemagne seal a trading agreement and a marriage alliance is proposed. However, Offa dies after a 39-year reign that has incorporated Kent, Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia into Mercian realm. He has build a 150-mile dyke (Offa's Dyke) to mark his border with Wales, reforms Mercia's coinage, and 4 years ago allied himself with Northumbria by giving his daughter Ælfflæd in marriage to Æthelred I. Offa is buried at Bedford and succeeded for a short time by his son Ecgfrith, and then a distant cousin, Coenwulf.
• Prince Eadberht Præn leaves the Church, returns to Kent and claims his throne. One Eadwald proclaims himself king of East Anglia, but is later ousted by Coenwulf. Direct rule from Mercia is re-established.

By topic

Religion

• Alcuin, Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, is appointed as abbot by Charlemagne and puts him in care of leading Marmoutier Abbey in Tours.
• Tō-ji, a Buddhist temple of the Shingon sect, is established in Kyoto, Japan.

Births

• Al-Mu'tasim, Muslim caliph (d. 842)
• Dhul-Nun al-Misri, Egyptian scholar and Sufi (d. 859)
• Liu Zhuan, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty (d. 858)
• Lü Dongbin, Chinese scholar and poet

Deaths

• April 18 – Æthelred I, king of Northumbria
• Colla mac Fergusso, king of Connacht (Ireland)
• August 10 – Eanbald, archbishop of York
• Ecgfrith, king of Mercia
• Fujiwara no Tsuginawa, Japanese statesman (b. 727)
• June 12 – Hisham I, Muslim emir (b. 757)
• Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari, Muslim philosopher (or 806)
• July 29 – Offa, king of Mercia (b. 730)
• Sibawayh, Persian linguist and grammarian (b. 760)
• Tassilo III, duke of Bavaria (approximate date)

References

1. David Nicolle (2014). The Conquest of Saxony AD 782–785, p. 81. ISBN 978-1-78200-825-5
2. John V.A. Fine, Jr. (1991). The Early Medieval Balkans; Collapse of the Avars, p. 78. ISBN 978-0-472-08149-3