600

Events

• The moldboard plow is invented in eastern Europe
• Possibly the first reference to chess, in the Persian work Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan.
• The Persians begin to use windmills for irrigation.
• Pope Gregory I codifies what comes to be known as Gregorian chant.
• Construction on the monastery of St. Catherine is begun on Mount Sinai.
• Irish missionaries preach in Scotland and Germany.
• Chinese-influenced sculptures of Buddha begin to be created in Japan.
• Sumatra, Java, and the surrounding islands are converted to Buddhism.
• Augustine of Canterbury converts Ethelbert of Kent to Christianity (approximate date).
• The Hopewell culture of North America ceases to be the dominant culture.

Environmental change

• The population of the Earth rises to about 208 million people.
• Smallpox arrives in Europe for the first time.

Births

• Ali Ben Abu Talib, the fourth caliph of Islam

Deaths

• Venance Fortunat, bishop of Poitiers, one of the last representatives of Classical Latin poetry.
• John Climax, ascetic and mystic.