AD 666

"666 (year)" redirects here. For the year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar, see 666 BC.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	6th century 7th century 8th century
Decades:	640s 650s 660s 670s 680s
Years:	663 664 665 666 667 668 669

666 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	666 DCLXVI
Ab urbe condita	1419
Armenian calendar	115 ԹՎ ՃԺԵ
Assyrian calendar	5416
Balinese saka calendar	587–588
Bengali calendar	72–73
Berber calendar	1616
Buddhist calendar	1210
Burmese calendar	28
Byzantine calendar	6174–6175
Chinese calendar	乙丑年 (Wood Ox) 3363 or 3156     — to — 丙寅年 (Fire Tiger) 3364 or 3157
Coptic calendar	382–383
Discordian calendar	1832
Ethiopian calendar	658–659
Hebrew calendar	4426–4427
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	722–723
- Shaka Samvat	587–588
- Kali Yuga	3766–3767
Holocene calendar	10666
Iranian calendar	44–45
Islamic calendar	45–46
Japanese calendar	Hakuchi 17 (白雉１７年)
Javanese calendar	557–558
Julian calendar	666 DCLXVI
Korean calendar	2999
Minguo calendar	1246 before ROC 民前1246年
Nanakshahi calendar	−802
Seleucid era	977/978 AG
Thai solar calendar	1208–1209
Tibetan calendar	阴木牛年 (female Wood-Ox) 792 or 411 or −361     — to — 阳火虎年 (male Fire-Tiger) 793 or 412 or −360

Barking Abbey: curfew tower (east London)

Year 666 (DCLXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 666 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.

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Emperor Constans II grants the request of Bishop Maurus of Ravenna, allowing the city to consecrate its bishop without approval from Rome (approximate date).

Europe

• Duke Lupus of Friuli revolts against King Grimoald I, with allied Avars. Grimoald takes and devastates Friuli, tracks down Lupus's son Arnefrit (allied with the Slaves), and beats him and kills him in battle at the castle of Nimis. Grimoald appoints Wechtar as the new duke of Friuli.

Asia

• Chinese Buddhist monks Zhi Yu and Zhi Yuo craft more south-pointing chariot vehicles (a non-magnetic, mechanical-driven directional-compass vehicle that incorporates the use of a Differential.

Religion

• Wilfrid returns to Great Britain, but is shipwrecked in Sussex. When he finally reaches Northumbria, he finds he has been deposed and is forced to retire to Ripon.[1]
• Earconwald, Anglo-Saxon abbot, establishes the Benedictine abbeys, Chertsey Abbey (Surrey) for men[2] and Barking Abbey (now in east London) for women.[3]

St Erkenwald, Saxon Prince, bishop and saint known as the "Light of London": founds two religious houses near London in this year

Births

• Zhang Jiazhen, Chinese official

Deaths

• Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, first child of first Rashidun caliph, Abu Bakr
• Arnefrit, duke of Friuli (Northern Italy)
• Liu Xiangdao, official of the Tang dynasty (b. 596)
• Umm Habiba, a wife of Muhammad

References

1. John "Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England" pp. 34-35
2. Kirby "Earliest English Kings" p. 83
3. Yorke "Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts" Cross Goes North pp. 250-251