1189

By place

Asia

• February 18 - Emperor Xiaozong abdicates to Emperor Guangzong.
• The siege of Acre begins.
• The Crusader castles of Montreal and Kerak are captured by Saladin.

  Europe

• January 21 - Philip II of France and Henry II of England begin assembling troops, to wage the Third Crusade.
• July 27 - Friedrich Barbarossa arrives at Niš, the capital of Serbian King Stefan Nemanja, during the Third Crusade.
• August 29 - Ban Kulin writes The Charter of Kulin, which becomes a symbolic "birth certificate" of Bosnian language and statehood.
• Henry II of England ends a war against Philip II of France & Richard, by agreeing to their terms: he pays Philip 20,000 marks, and recognizes Richard as the heir to the English throne. Henry is brokenhearted to find that his second heir, John, had also allied against him in the war. He dies within a few months.
• September 3 - Richard I is crowned as King of England. He immediately begins selling castles, lordships, privileges, and towns to fund his long-anticipated crusade against Saladin.
• The town of Dundalk, Ireland gains its charter.
• Sancho I of Portugal conquers Silves and Alvor, with the help of the troops of the Third Crusade.
• Henry Fitz Ailwyn is elected Mayor of the City of London.
• Sicilian nobles elect bastard Tancred, Count of Lecce their new king, instead of the designated heiress Princess Constance and her husband Prince Henry of the Holy Roman Empire, to avoid German rule.