1344
Earthquake and tsunami devastate Alexandria
A violent earthquake shook the eastern Mediterranean, toppling the remains of the Pharos lighthouse - one of the Seven Wonders - into Alexandria's harbor. The great beacon, already damaged by earlier tremors, would never be rebuilt. Its submerged stones lay forgotten beneath the waves for six and a half centuries.
Chinese gunpowder weapons evolve: fire-lances proliferate
Yuan and rebel armies alike deployed bamboo and metal fire-lances that spat shrapnel and flame at close range. These proto-firearms, evolving rapidly through decades of civil war, were transitional weapons between fireworks and true cannon, their barrels growing thicker and their projectiles heavier with each campaign season. By the time the Ming emerged victorious, bronze hand-cannons had become standard battlefield equipment.
Reconquista captures Algeciras
Alfonso XI of Castile besieged and took the Moroccan-held port at the mouth of the Strait after twenty months. Cannon were used in the siege, among the earliest European recorded combat use of gunpowder artillery against fortifications. The Strait of Gibraltar was largely closed to Marinid reinforcements from Africa, sealing the Reconquista's southern flank.
Sukhothai kingdom begins its decline in Siam
The Thai kingdom that had invented the Siamese script and defined Theravada Buddhist kingship lost territory steadily to its southern neighbor Ayutthaya. Sukhothai's graceful walking Buddhas and lotus-bud stupas would survive as masterpieces of Southeast Asian art; its political power would not. Within a century it existed only as a vassal of the rising Ayutthayan empire.
Charles IV of Bohemia founds the archbishopric of Prague
Eager to free his Bohemian kingdom from German ecclesiastical oversight, Charles persuaded Clement VI to elevate Prague to an archdiocese independent of the Mainz metropolitan. He laid the cornerstone of the new Gothic cathedral on Hradcany hill the same year. Bohemia would become the cultural heart of the empire under his rule.