856

Year 856 (DCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	8th century 9th century 10th century
Decades:	830s 840s 850s 860s 870s
Years:	853 854 855 856 857 858 859

856 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	856 DCCCLVI
Ab urbe condita	1609
Armenian calendar	305 ԹՎ ՅԵ
Assyrian calendar	5606
Balinese saka calendar	777–778
Bengali calendar	263
Berber calendar	1806
Buddhist calendar	1400
Burmese calendar	218
Byzantine calendar	6364–6365
Chinese calendar	乙亥年 (Wood Pig) 3552 or 3492     — to — 丙子年 (Fire Rat) 3553 or 3493
Coptic calendar	572–573
Discordian calendar	2022
Ethiopian calendar	848–849
Hebrew calendar	4616–4617
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	912–913
- Shaka Samvat	777–778
- Kali Yuga	3956–3957
Holocene calendar	10856
Iranian calendar	234–235
Islamic calendar	241–242
Japanese calendar	Saikō 3 (斉衡３年)
Javanese calendar	753–754
Julian calendar	856 DCCCLVI
Korean calendar	3189
Minguo calendar	1056 before ROC 民前1056年
Nanakshahi calendar	−612
Seleucid era	1167/1168 AG
Thai solar calendar	1398–1399
Tibetan calendar	阴木猪年 (female Wood-Pig) 982 or 601 or −171     — to — 阳火鼠年 (male Fire-Rat) 983 or 602 or −170

Rabanus Maurus (left) presents his work to archbishop Odgar of Mainz (right)

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

• March 15 – Emperor Michael III overthrows the regency of his mother Theodora. He appoints his uncle Bardas as the de facto regent and co-ruler of the Byzantine Empire.^[1]

Europe

• King Charles the Bald cedes the county of Maine to Erispoe, ruler (duke) of Brittany—this in return for an alliance against the Vikings.
• King Ordoño I of Asturias is said to have begun the repopulation of the town of León in the northwest of Spain (approximate date).

Britain

• October 1 – King Æthelwulf of Wessex marries the 12- or 13-year-old Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, at Verberie (Northern France). She is crowned queen and anointed by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims. The marriage is a diplomatic alliance between Wessex and the West Frankish Kingdom.^[2]
• Winter – Æthelwulf returns to Wessex to face a revolt by his eldest son Æthelbald, who usurps the throne. Æthelwulf agrees to give up the western part of his kingdom, in order to avoid a civil war. He keeps control over Sussex, Surrey, Essex and Kent, over which Prince Æthelberht has presided.^[3]

By topic

Geology

• November (approximate date) – An earthquake in Corinth, Greece kills an estimated 45,000 people.
• December 3 – Another earthquake strikes the Abbasid Caliphate (modern-day Tunisia), also killing an estimated 45,000 people.
• December 22 – Another earthquake strikes Damghan (modern-day Iran), killing an estimated 200,000 people.

Births

• October 24 – Li Keyong, Shatuo governor (jiedushi) (d. 908)
• Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (d. 924)

Deaths

• January 7 – Aldric, bishop of Le Mans
• February 4 – Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mainz
• August 6 – Fujiwara no Nagara, Japanese statesman (b. 802)
• August 16 – Theutbald I, bishop of Langres
• Florinus of Remüs, Frankish priest and martyr
• Godfrid Haraldsson, Viking chieftain (approximate date)
• Guerin, Frankish nobleman (or 845)
• Ilyas ibn Asad, Muslim emir (approximate date)
• Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas, Muslim emir

References

1. Treadgold 1997, pp. 450–451.
2. Paul Hill (2009). The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great, p. 18. ISBN 978-1-59416-087-5.
3. Keynes 1998, p. 7; Abels 2002, p. 89.

Sources

• Abels, Richard (2002). Morillo, Stephen (ed.). "Royal Succession and the Growth of Political Stability in Ninth-Century Wessex". The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer. 12: 83–97. doi:10.1017/upo9781846150852.006. ISBN 1-84383-008-6.
• Keynes, Simon (1998). "King Alfred and the Mercians". In Blackburn, Mark A. S.; Dumville, David N. (eds.). Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage of Southern England in the Ninth Century. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. pp. 1–45. ISBN 0-85115-598-7.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.