1352
Zhu Yuanzhang joins the Red Turbans
An orphaned peasant from Anhui, who had survived the plague in a Buddhist monastery by begging for alms, joined Guo Zixing's Red Turban band as a foot soldier. His intelligence and ferocity drew attention from the start. Within fifteen years he would unite the rebel factions, expel the Mongols, and crown himself founding emperor of the Ming as Hongwu.
Ibn Battuta crosses the Sahara to Mali
Now in his late forties, the indefatigable Moroccan joined a salt caravan from Sijilmasa to Walata. He visited the Mali capital Niani, was unimpressed by the local etiquette of throwing dust on one's head before the king, but admired the security of the roads and the piety of the people.
Glarus and Zug join the Swiss Confederation
Two more Alpine communities swore the federal oath, expanding the original three forest cantons into a five-member confederation. Each accession reinforced the principle that mountain communities could govern themselves without lords or kings, answering to their own assemblies alone. The slow gathering of Swiss cantons would eventually produce Europe's most durable republic.
Karak earthquake ruins Crusader castle
A Dead Sea region earthquake severely damaged the Crusader-built fortress of Karak, held by the Mamluks since Saladin's day. Massive walls that had withstood siege engines cracked and tumbled into the ravine below. It was part of a period of tectonic activity along the Jordan Valley that also damaged Jerusalem's citadel and several Syrian coastal towns.
Innocent VI reforms the Avignon papacy's excesses
The new pope dismissed the pleasure-loving cardinals of Clement VI's court, cut expenditures, and sent the warrior-cardinal Albornoz to reconquer the Papal States. It was a rare moment of austerity in Avignon's gilded history, a brief attempt to prove that a French-based papacy could still govern Italy and its own appetites.