720

Year 720 (DCCXX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 720 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.

This article is about the year 720. For the number, see 720 (number). For the airplane, see Boeing 720.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	7th century 8th century 9th century
Decades:	700s 710s 720s 730s 740s
Years:	717 718 719 720 721 722 723

720 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	720 DCCXX
Ab urbe condita	1473
Armenian calendar	169 ԹՎ ՃԿԹ
Assyrian calendar	5470
Balinese saka calendar	641–642
Bengali calendar	127
Berber calendar	1670
Buddhist calendar	1264
Burmese calendar	82
Byzantine calendar	6228–6229
Chinese calendar	己未年 (Earth Goat) 3416 or 3356     — to — 庚申年 (Metal Monkey) 3417 or 3357
Coptic calendar	436–437
Discordian calendar	1886
Ethiopian calendar	712–713
Hebrew calendar	4480–4481
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	776–777
- Shaka Samvat	641–642
- Kali Yuga	3820–3821
Holocene calendar	10720
Iranian calendar	98–99
Islamic calendar	101–102
Japanese calendar	Yōrō 4 (養老４年)
Javanese calendar	613–614
Julian calendar	720 DCCXX
Korean calendar	3053
Minguo calendar	1192 before ROC 民前1192年
Nanakshahi calendar	−748
Seleucid era	1031/1032 AG
Thai solar calendar	1262–1263
Tibetan calendar	阴土羊年 (female Earth-Goat) 846 or 465 or −307     — to — 阳金猴年 (male Iron-Monkey) 847 or 466 or −306

Page from a copy of the Nihon Shoki

Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–720)

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Summer – Emperor Leo III secures the Byzantine frontier, by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts of the Thracesian Theme (western Asia Minor). He undertakes a set of civil reforms, and reorganizes the theme structure in the Aegean region. Leo's 2-year-old son Constantine V is associated on the throne, and married to Tzitzak, daughter of the Khazar ruler (khagan) Bihar.

Europe

• Umayyad conquest of Gaul: Governor Al-Samh continues his campaign; he makes Narbonne the capital city of Muslim Septimania (Southern France), and uses it as a base for razzias. King Ardo is killed, and becomes the last ruler of the Visigothic kings of Hispania. Some Visigoths refuse to adopt the Muslim faith, and flee north to Aquitaine. This marks the end of the Visigothic Kingdom.
• Muslim forces under Al-Samh begin the prolonged siege of Carcassonne, a fortified Visigothic town located in the Languedoc-Roussillon.[1]

Britain

• King Ine of Wessex builds a stone church at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset (approximate date).

Arabian Empire

• Umayyad conquest of Transoxiana: The first Turgesh attack on Muslim-Arabs in Transoxiana leads to the siege and relief of the Umayyad garrison at the fortress of Qasr al-Bahili, near Samarkand (or 721).
• Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, former governor of Iraq, revolts and is defeated at Basra, by Umayyad forces under Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid and Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik. He is arrested and later executed.
• February 10 – Caliph Umar II is poisoned by a servant, and dies in Aleppo (Syria) after a 3-year reign. He is succeeded by his cousin Yazid II.
• The Umayyad Caliphate reaches its greatest extent in Spain, controlling all of it except a small region in the north controlled by the Kingdom of Asturias.

Asia

• In the Chinese capital of Chang'an, the walls of a gated city ward collapse during the night, which unexpectedly forms a large pool out in the open. This is most likely caused by a sinkhole created when ground water eroded the limestone bedrock beneath. As a consequence of this, more than 500 homes are destroyed (approximate date).

Americas

• The Third Tikal-Calakmul War begins.

By topic

Literature

• The Nihon Shoki (日本書紀), one of the oldest history books in Japan, is completed under the editorial supervision of Prince Toneri, and with the assistance of Ō no Yasumaro.[2]

Religion

• Contact between the Welsh Church and Yvi of Brittany is the last known link between two Celtic countries. After this, each nation goes its own separate way (approximate date).

Astronomy

• A second series of gravitational interactions with Saturn, the second since 1664 BC, once again force the Centaur_(minor_planet) Chiron into a new orbit, shifting it from orbiting in the edges of the Solar System to orbiting near the inner regions.

Births

• Baizhang Huaihai, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (d. 814)
• Bernard, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)
• Bertrada of Laon, wife of Pippin the Short (d. 783)
• Modestus, Irish missionary (approximate date)
• Stephen III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 772)
• Thierry IV, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)

Deaths

• Ardo, king of the Visigoths (or 721)
• Aubert of Avranches, Frankish bishop
• Fujiwara no Fuhito, Japanese statesman (b. 659)
• Muhammad ibn Marwan, Muslim general (or 719)
• Odile of Alsace, Frankish abbess (approximate date)
• Tariq ibn Ziyad, Muslim general (b. 670)
• Umar II, Muslim caliph (b. 682)
• Xue Ne, general of the Tang Dynasty (b. 649)
• Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, Muslim governor (b. 672)
• Yeh Fa-shan, Daoist wonder-worker (b. 631)

References

1. David Nicolle (2008). Poitiers AD 732, Charles Martel turns the Islamic tide (p. 17). ISBN 978-184603-230-1
2. Aston, William George (July 2005) [1972], "Introduction", Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697 (Tra ed.), Tuttle Publishing, p. xv, ISBN 978-0-8048-3674-6, from the original Chinese and Japanese