660.  Ali is assassinated; Hasan, his eldest son, is elected caliph.

661.  Hasan resigns the caliphate; Moawiyah, the first of the Ommiads, becomes undisputed ruler of the Moslems; he makes Damascus his capital.

Death of Aribert; Lombardy is divided between his two sons.  Constans, detested by all classes, leaves Constantinople and goes to Italy; the senate detains the Empress and his sons.

663.  Constans visits Rome and carries away much spoil and retires to Syracuse.

664.  Caliph Moawiyah appoints as his lieutenant in Persia, India, and the East his half-brother, Ziyad, “the greatest man of the age.”

668.  Constans is assassinated in a bath at Syracuse; Constans IV succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Empire.

The Sicilians set up Mecezius as emperor.  Constantinople is first besieged by the Saracens.

669.  Sicily is invaded by the Saracens, who capture Syracuse.

670.  Kairwan, or Kayrawan, a holy Mahometan city in Northern Africa, founded.

Death of Clotaire III; Theodoric, or Thierry III, becomes king of Neustria and Burgundy.

671.  Ebroin and Thierry are compelled by the Franks to retire into a monastery; Childeric for a time reigns alone.

672.  Death of Ziyad; his son, appointed by Caliph Moawiyah lieutenant of Khorassan, penetrates into Bokhara and defeats the Turks.

673.  First council of the Anglo-Saxon Church, at Hereford.

Year after year the Saracens repeat their attacks on Constantinople; Callinicus invents the Greek fire used successfully in its defence.

Thierry III and Ebroin leave their monastery and resume the government of Neustria.

Birth of the Venerable Bede.[81]

674.  Revolts of the Gascons and Duke Paulus repressed by Wamba, King of the Visigoths in Spain.

The Bavarians, Thuringians, and other German subjects of Austrasia regain their independence.

677.  Siege of Constantinople raised by the Mahometans; peace concluded.[82]

Domnus restores the authority of Rome over the Church at Ravenna.

678.  Bulgarians establish themselves in the north of Thrace.  Egfrid expels Wilfrid from York and divides his diocese; Wilfrid goes to Rome and obtains from Pope Agatho an order for his restoration.  Egfrid resists the papal interference.  A large comet visible for three months.

679.  A council held at Rome for the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches.

680.  Sixth general council of the Church, at Constantinople; Monothelite heresy condemned.

Establishment of a kingdom in Maesia (modern Bulgaria) by the Bulgarians.[83]

Hoseyn, son of Ali, and his followers massacred at Kerbela.

Murder of Dagobert II, after which Pepin of Heristal and Martin rule Austrasia with the title of dukes.

Attempt to poison Wamba; he resigns his crown and retires into a monastery; Ervigius succeeds him as king of the Visigoths.