Charles Martel dies and leaves the Frankish kingdoms to his two sons, Carloman and Pepin III

The elder son of Charles Martel retires to a monastery, leaving Pepin III in control of the entire Frankish empire

With papal support Pepin III is elected king of the Franks, beginning the Carolingian dynasty (named from his father, Charles Martel)

The Abbasids massacre the Umayyads in Damascus and establish a new caliphate

Pope Stephen II anoints Pepin III and his two sons (one of them Charlemagne) in the abbey church of St Denis

Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba

The Abbasid caliphs create Baghdad as a new capital city on the Tigris

On the death of Pepin III, the empire of the Franks is divided between his two sons - Charlemagne and his younger brother, Carloman

On the death of his brother, Charlemagne inherits the entire kingdom of the Franks

In St Peter's in Rome, on Christmas Day, pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor - supposedly to Charlemagne's surprise

Charlemage has his only surviving legitimate son, Louis the Pious, crowned as his co-emperor

Charlemagne dies and his son Louis the Pious inherits the whole, now greatly extended, Frankish empire

Kenneth king of the Scots is accepted also as king of the Picts, providing the traditional founding event of the kingdom of Scotland

The caliphs in Baghdad begin to employ Turkish slaves, or Mamelukes, in their armies

The Bulgarian king Boris I is baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith, bringing his people within the Byzantine fold

The eastern part of the Persian empire comes under the control of the Saffarid dynasty

Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Mameluke, seizes power in Egypt - establishing his own Tulunid dynasty

The young Alfred leads the English in their first significant victory over the Danes, at Ashdown

The Fujiwara family creates for itself a new hereditary office, that of imperial chancellor, through which it effectively rules Japan

Rhodri Mawr, or Rhodri the Great, is widely accepted as king of almost the whole of Wales

A Tamil kingdom, established by the Cholas, controls the whole of south India and will last for two centuries

The Samanids, replacing the Saffarids, transform their capital at Bukhara into a centre of Persian culture

The leader of a peasant uprising captures and kills the Chinese emperor, bringing to an end the T'ang dynasty

Henry I is elected king of the east Frankish kingdom, consisting of four great feudal duchies - Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony and Franconia

Wenceslas, a prince of the Premsylid family, is murdered on his way into church - and becomes Bohemia's patron saint