Major Events
- May 21 King Henry III gives Utrecht the Groninger currency
- May 23 Battle of Dandanaqan: Tughril's Seljuk army defeats Ghaznavid force, near Merv (present-day Turkmenistan), brings about the fall of the Ghaznavid Empire
- Jul 10 Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry, according to legend, to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes
Did You Know?
King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare's play). The latter does succeed him as King.
Born in 1040
- Feb 22 Rashi, French rabbi (d. 1105)
- Jun 27 Ladislaus I, Árpád dynasty King of Hungary (1077-95), and King of Croatia (1091-95), and Roman Catholic saint, born in Kraków, Kingdom of Poland (d. 1095)
Who Died in 1040
- Mar 17 Harold Harefoot (Harold I), King of England (1035-40), dies
- Jun 21 Fulk the Black, French Count of Anjou, one of the great medieval castle builders (Langeais, Loches)), dies at 69 or 70
- Aug 14 King Duncan I of Scotland, killed in battle at ca. 39 years
- Oct 1 Alan III, Duke of Brittany (poisoned) (b. 997)
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V