Spring – King Hormizd IV dismisses Bahrām Chobin as commander (Eran spahbed). He revolts and marches with the support of the Persian army towards Ctesiphon.
February 15 – Hormizd IV is deposed and assassinated by Persian nobles. Having ruled since 579, he is succeeded by his son Khosrau II as king of the Persian Empire.
September – Bahrām Chobin defeats the inferior forces of Khosrau II near Ctesiphon. He seizes the throne and proclaims himself as king Bahrām IV of Persia.
February 7 – Pope Pelagius II falls victim to the plague that devastated Rome. After an 11-year reign he is succeeded by Gregory I, age 50, as the 64th pope, and the first from a monastic background.
Gregory I begins a vigorous program of rebuilding aqueducts and restoring Rome. He feeds the citizens with doles of grain, as under Roman imperial rule.
Agilulf, cousin of Authari (called "the Thuringian"), is raised on the shield (a ceremonial investment) by Lombard warriors in Milan. He becomes king of the Lombards, on advice of the Lombard dukes (dux). Agilulf marries widowed queen Theodelinda and is baptized to please her.
Khosrau II is reinstalled as king of the Persian Empire. Peace with Constantinople is concluded after a war of almost 20 years. Maurice receives the Persian provinces of Armenia and Georgia. The recognition of the traditional frontiers, and the cessation of subsidies for the Caucasus forts, leaves the Byzantines in a dominant position in their relations with Persia.
Ceol succeeds his uncle Ceawlin after his defeat at Woden's Burg. He becomes king of Wessex (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).
Asiaedit
Summer – Emperor Wéndi reduces taxes, due to an overflowing abundance of food and silk in the governmental stores. He sends messengers around central China, redistributing land to give the poor farming land.
December 8 – Emperor Sushun of Japan is murdered after 5 years on the throne by agents of his rival Umako Soga, who is jealous of the emperor's power. He is succeeded by Suiko, widow of the late emperor Bidatsu.
Autumn – Emperor Maurice orders Priscus to spend the winter with his troops on the northern Danube bank, but he disobeys the emperor's order and retreats to the port city of Odessus (Varna) on the Black Sea Coast.
Empress Suiko begins a long reign during a pivotal period, in which Buddhism influences the development and culture of Japan. She is the first female ruler and the first to receive official recognition from China.
Autumn – Emperor Maurice replaces general Priscus for disobeying orders. He installs his inexperienced brother Peter, as commander-in-chief in charge of the war against the Avars.
Asiaedit
Emperor Wéndi repairs and expands sections of the Great Wall in the north-west, which is undertaken by using forced labour. During the years, thousands of civilians are killed.[10]
Muhammad, Islamic prophet, meets and marries Khadija. She is a 40-year-old widow and 15 years older than he. Supported by Khadija's wealth, they form a successful merchant partnership.[12]
Chlothar II, age 13, becomes sole ruler of Neustria, and continues his mother's feud with Brunhilda. He is advised to prepare for war against Austrasia, the eastern part of the Frankish Kingdom.
Britainedit
Ceolwulf succeeds his brother Ceol as king of Wessex. He becomes regent of Ceol's son Cynegils who is too young to inherit the throne.
England gets her first written code of laws from Æthelbert. The code is concerned with preserving social order, through compensation and punishment for personal injury (approximate date).
Educationedit
The King's School is founded by Augustine in Canterbury. He builds an abbey where the Benedictine teaching takes place.
The Avars rout the Byzantine forces of Comentiolus (south of Haemus Mons), and capture Drizipera (Thrace). A large part of their troops are killed by the plague, after many cities are devastated in the Balkan Peninsula.[15]
The Chinese fleet engages in battle against the Goguryeo fleet (50,000 men) under Admiral Gang Yi-sik, and is destroyed in the Bohai Sea. During the invasion the Sui forces are all defeated, and Yang Liang is forced to retreat.
King Yeongyang sends an embassy to Daxing; Wéndi accepts a peace agreement with Goguryeo. He claims a hollow victory, as the Sui Dynasty lost nearly 90% of his army and navy during the disastrous campaign.
Hye becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.[18]
Emperor Maurice refuses to pay ransom for 12,000 Byzantine soldiers taken prisoner by the Avars. Their leader Bayan I orders the execution of the prisoners, and slaughters them all. His failure to buy back the captives destroys Maurice's popularity with the Byzantine troops in the Balkan Peninsula.[19]
Priscus pursues the fleeing Avar tribes and invades their homeland in Pannonia. He devastates the land east of the Tisza River, deciding the war for the Byzantines and ending the Avar and Slavic incursions across the Danube.
Autumn – Comentiolus reopens the Gate of Trajan pass, near Ihtiman (Bulgaria). This strategic mountain pass, whose fortress "Stipon" defends the border between the provinces Thrace and Macedonia, is not used for decades.
^Rome at War (p. 60). Michael Whitby, 2002. ISBN 1-84176-359-4
^Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751, p. 91
^Michelle Ziegler, "The Politics of Exile in Early Northumbria Archived January 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine", The Heroic Age, Issue 2, Autumn/Winter 1999
^Imperial Chinese Armies (p. 6). C.J. Peers, 1996. ISBN 978-185532-599-9
^Imperial Chinese Armies (p. 6). C.J. Peers, 1996. ISBN 978-1-85532-599-9
^The Great Islamic Conquests AD 632–750 (p. 22). David Nicolle, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84603-273-8
^"596 a.D. - The Battle of Raith | made by young people at Makewaves". Radiowaves.co.uk. 2009-05-21. Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
^A Chronicle of England (1864), James Edmund Doyle, p. 26
^ ab"List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
^Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1991) [1983]. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
^Paul the Deacon, History, 4.20; translated by Foulke, p. 165
^Melek Tekin: Türk tarihi, p. 87, Milliyet yayinları, 1991
^ ab"List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.