609

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Nicetas, cousin of future emperor Heraclius, launches an overland invasion in Egypt. He defeats a Byzantine army under Bonus outside Alexandria, sent from Constantinople.

  Persia

• Battle of Dhi Qar: Arab tribesmen of Bakr ibn Wa'il defeat a Persian force, at a watering place near Kufa.

  Asia

• Emperor Yángdi completes the Grand Canal; it provides an unbroken inland ship transport between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. The canal network is 1,776 km long—linking five river systems—and extends from Beijing to the city of Hangzhou.
• The Sui Dynasty government records a tax census of roughly 9 million registered households in the Chinese Empire, a population size of roughly 50 million people.
• Shibi Khan becomes the ninth ruler of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate.

  By topic

Religion

• May 13 - The Pantheon in Rome is consecrated as "St. Mary and the Martyrs" by Pope Boniface IV.