1044

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	10th century – 11th century – 12th century
Decades:	1010s  1020s  1030s  – 1040s –  1050s  1060s  1070s
Years:	1041 1042 1043 – 1044 – 1045 1046 1047

Battle of Ménfő, in the corner (left) the depiction of the killing of Samuel Aba.

Year 1044 (MXLIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

• King Anawrahta takes over the throne of Pagan, Myanmar.
• Benedict IX gives up his role as pope. Sylvester III becomes the new pope after him.
• The Chinese military essay of the Wujing Zongyao is written and built by scholars Zeng Gongliang (曾公亮), Ding Du (丁度), and Yang Weide (楊惟德) during the Song Dynasty. It is the first book in history to include formulas for gunpowder and its use for various bombs (thrown by sling or trebuchet catapult). It also describes the double-piston pump flamethrower and a thermoremanence compass, a few decades before Shen Kuo wrote of the first known magnetic mariners compass. Although making clear the importance of many weapons, it reserves high respect for the crossbow and ability of crossbowmen to eliminate charging units of nomadic cavalrymen.

Births

• Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as El Cid (d. 1099)

Deaths

• Gothelo I, Duke of Lotharingia