__NOTOC__ Year 645 ( DCXLV) was a

common year starting on Saturday A common year starting on Saturday is any non-leap year (i.e. a year with 365 days) that begins on Saturday, 1 January, and ends on Saturday, 31 December. Its dominical letter hence is B. The current year, 2022, is a common year starting on Saturd ...

(link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 645 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

Byzantine Empire

* Alexandria revolts against Arab rule, at the appearance of a Byzantine fleet of 300 ships, and Byzantine forces recapture the city.

Abdullah ibn Sa'ad Abd Allah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh ( ar, عبد الله ابن سعد ابن أبي السرح, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī al-Sarḥ) was an Arab administrator and commander. During his time as governor of Egypt (646 CE to 656 CE), Abd Al ...

, Arab governor of Egypt, mounts an assault and retakes it. He begins building a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

fleet.

Europe

* Plato, exarch (imperial governor) of Ravenna, invades the southern

Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain ( it, Pianura Padana , or ''Val Padana'') is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetic ex ...

. The Lombards under King Rothari defeat him on the banks of the Panaro River (near

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

); 8,000 imperial troops are killed.

Britain

* King

Cenwalh of Wessex Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 642 to c. 645 and from c. 648 until his death, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', in c. 672. Penda and Anna Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils baptis ...

is driven from his kingdom by his brother-in-law, King Penda of Mercia (according to

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

). He flees to the court of king Anna of East Anglia, and is baptised while in

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

. Penda overruns Wessex. *

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

and much of Wales is in the grasp of

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...

. Would-be king

Cadwaladr Fendigaid Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (also spelled Cadwalader or Cadwallader in English) was king of Gwynedd in Wales from around 655 to 682 AD. Two devastating plagues happened during his reign, one in 664 and the other in 682; he himself was a victim of t ...

flees to Brittany. Civil war continues in his kingdom (approximate date).

Japan

* July 10 – Isshi Incident: Prince Naka-no-Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari assassinate Soga no Iruka, during a '' coup d'état'' at the imperial palace. * Empress Kōgyoku is forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her younger brother Kōtoku, age 49, who becomes the 36th emperor of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. * Naka-no-Ōe becomes crown prince and prime minister. Supporters of the semi-legendary regent Prince Shōtoku gain supremacy in Japan. * Emperor Kōtoku establishes the Taika Reform: a land reform based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(approximate date). * Kōtoku creates a new city at Naniwa, and moves the capital from Yamato Province. The capital has a sea port, establishing foreign trade and

diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

relations.

China

* May 1 – First conflict of the Goguryeo–Tang War: A Chinese expeditionary army under Emperor Taizong of Tang crosses the

Liao River The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...

into Goguryeo (one of the Three kingdoms of Korea). * July 18 – Tang forces under Li Shiji heading southeast toward the Yalu River put the strategic fortress of

Ansi City Ansi City (; Goguryeo: 安寸忽; ), also known as Ansi Fortress, was a Goguryeo fortified city in present-day Liaoning province, China. The city was founded in early 4th century after Goguryeo conquered the area, and received its name from a H ...

(in the province of

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

) under siege. * September – Taizong is unable to capture the Ansi fortress defended by Korean general Yang Manchun. Food supplies running low, he withdraws his forces, ending the Siege of Ansi. * October 13 – Emperor Taizong is compelled to order a withdrawal from Goguryeo.

By topic

Religion

* Xuanzang, Chinese Buddhist monk, returns to

after a 16-year pilgrimage to India. He is greeted with much honor by Emperor Taizong. * The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci'en Temple, Xi'an (

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

) is first erected during the Tang dynasty (approximate date).

Births

* Æthelred, king of Mercia (approximate date) * Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria (approximate date) * Jitō, empress of

(d.

703 __NOTOC__ Year 703 (Roman numerals, DCCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 703rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 703rd year of the 1st mi ...

) *

John of Damascus John of Damascus ( ar, يوحنا الدمشقي, Yūḥanna ad-Dimashqī; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός, Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós, ; la, Ioannes Damascenus) or John Damascene was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and a ...

, Syrian church father (or

676 __NOTOC__ Year 676 ( DCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 676 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

) *

Mujahid ibn Jabr Abū l-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid ibn Jabr al-Qāriʾ ( ar, مُجَاهِدُ بْنُ جَبْرٍ) (642–722 CE) was a Tabi‘ and one of the major early Islamic scholars. His tafsīr of the Qur'an (exegesis/commentary) is believed to be the earlie ...

, Arabic scholar (or

642 __NOTOC__ Year 642 ( DCXLII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 642 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

) * Yazid I, Muslim Caliph (d. 683)

Deaths

* April 26 – Richarius, Frankish hermit and monk * July 10 – Soga no Iruka, statesman of Japan * October 21 – Zhenzhu Khan, khan of

Xueyantuo The Xueyantuo were an ancient Tiele people, Tiele tribe and khaganate in Northeast Asia who were at one point vassals of the Göktürks, later aligning with the Tang dynasty against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Eastern Göktürks. Names Xue ...

*''unknown dates'' ** Al-Khansa, Arabic poet (b.

575 __NOTOC__ Year 575 ( DLXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 575 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

) ** Cen Wenben,

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

and editor of the '' Book of Zhou'' (b.

595 __NOTOC__ Year 595 ( DXCV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 595 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

) ** Li Chengqian, crown prince of the Tang dynasty ** Soga no Emishi, statesman of Japan (b. 587) ** Yan Shigu, Chinese author of the Tang dynasty (b.

581 __NOTOC__ Year 581 (Roman numerals, DLXXXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 581 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Do ...

)

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:645