For the number, see 1002 (number).

Events

By Place

Europe

• Ethelred the Unready married Emma of Normandy ,Richard's I the fearless ,duke of Normandy daughter .
• November 13 — St. Brice's Day Massacre: English king Ethelred orders all Danes in England killed.
• Brian Boru, King of Leinster and Munster, becomes High King of Ireland, breaking the Uí Néill monopoly on the title.
• Henry II succeeds Otto III as king of Germany.
• With a new group of colonists, an epidemic hits the Viking colony in Greenland.
• Danegeld is paid by Ethelred the Unready to prevent Viking raids against England.

Byzantine Empire

• War breaks out between Byzantine Emperor Basil II and Bulgarian tsar Samuil.

Births

• June 21 — Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
• Mei Yaochen, Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty (d. 1060)

Deaths

• January 23 — Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
• August 8 — Al-Mansur, chief minister of the Umayyad caliphate of Cordoba, Spain
• October 15 — Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)