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974

Year 974 (CMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

• Battle of Danevirke: Emperor Otto II defeats the rebel forces of King Harald I, who has invaded Nordalbingia (modern-day Holstein), to shake off imperial overlordship. Otto's armies swiftly subdue the Danes, consolidating the frontier between Scandinavia and Northern Germany. Meanwhile, Henry II begins a rebellion against his cousin Otto. He forges alliances with Bavarian and Saxon nobles.

• King Edgar I gives English help to Prince Hywel in ousting his uncle, King Iago of Gwynedd from his kingdom.
• A great earthquake occurs in England.^[1]

• 5 August – Caliph al-Muti, ill and incapacitated, is deposed and succeeded by his son al-Ta'i, dying shortly after.^[2]

• The Qarmatians are defeated north of CairobyFatimid forces under General Jawhar al-Siqilli. He consolidates Fatimid rule and sends a legation to the Christian land of Nubia to secure the southern border of Egypt. Arab traders introduce Islam to the population, which gradually supplants Christianity.
• An offensive, by the Spain-based Caliphate of Córdoba brings the Maghrebi Idrisid Dynasty to an end. Caliph Al-Hakam II maintains the supremacy of the caliphate over the kingdoms of Navarra, Castile and León.^[3]

• The Liao Dynasty exchanges ambassadors with the Song DynastyonNew Years Day (Spring Festival).
• The city of Fuzhou, located in Fujian province, builds new city walls.

• Summer – Pope Benedict VI is imprisoned in the Castel Sant'AngeloatRome, where he is strangled to death through the influence of the powerful Crescentii family. Crescentius I (the Elder), Italian politician and aristocrat, engineers an election and replaces Benedict with his own candidate Franco, who ascends under the title anti-Pope Boniface VII.^[4]
• Fall – Boniface VII is expelled by order of Otto II and flees to Constantinople, taking the Church treasury of the Vatican Basilica along with him.^[5] He is succeeded by Benedict VII as the 135th pope of the Catholic Church.
• Anabbey is founded at the site of Mönchengladbach (Germany).

• Bruno of Querfurt, German missionary bishop (d. 1009)
• Ermengol I, count of Urgell (d. 1010)
• Frederick, count of Walbeck (d. 1018)
• Fujiwara no Korechika, Japanese nobleman (d. 1010)

• March 7 – John of Gorze, Frankish abbot and diplomat
• October 12 – Al-Muti, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (b. 914)^[2]
• Al-Qadi al-Nu'man, Fatimid jurist and historian
• Benedict VI, pope of the Catholic Church
• Fujiwara no Yoshitaka, Japanese waka poet (b. 954)
• Muhammad Bal'ami, Persian historian and vizier
• Ratherius (orRathier), bishop of Verona
• Shi Chonggui, emperor of Later Jin (b. 914)