1240

Events

* Batu Khan and the Golden Horde sack the Ruthenian city of Kiev.
* Battle of Kirina: Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita defeats Sosso king Soumaoro Kanté, beginning the Mali Empire.
* July 15 - Battle of the Neva: Russian prince Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes, saving Russia from a full-scale enemy invasion from the North.
* The civil war era in Norway ends.
* Saint Maurice starts to be portrayed as a Moor.

Births

* Abulafia, Maltese Jewish philosopher (d. 1292)
* Pope Benedict XI (d. 1304)
* Stephen V of Hungary (d. 1272)
* Sigerus of Brabant, French theologian (d. 1284)
* Albert the Degenerate, landgrave of Thuringia (approximate date; d. 1314)

Deaths

* April 11 - Llywelyn the Great, King of Gwynedd
* November 10 - Ibn Arabi, Andalusian Arab philosopher (b. 1165)
* William de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey (b. 1166)

Monarchs

* Aragon - James I King of Aragon and count of Barcelona (reigned from 1213 to 1276)
* Castile - Ferdinand III, the Saint King of Castile and Leon (reigned from 1217 to 1252)