The
French city of
Lille (according to the
legend) is founded by
Lydéric. He kills Phinaert in a
duel to avenge his parents' deaths (approximate date).
December 22 – On orders of the Saracen leader, Amar, the
Serapeum of Alexandria, containing works that had survived the destruction of the
Library of Alexandria, is burned down, along with its collection of 500,000 manuscripts.[3] This story may be apocryphal.[4]
A surge in atmospheric lead in ice core drilled in the Colle Gnifetti Glacier in the
Swiss Alps signals an increase in silver mining because of economic recovery, after natural disasters in
530s and
540s.[6]
^Butler, Alfred, "The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty years of Roman Dominion", p. 222
^Al Farooq, Umar by Muhammad Husayn Haykal, chapter nr. 21
^"Fires, Great", in The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance, Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) pp24