981

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	9th century – 10th century – 11th century
Decades:	950s 960s 970s – 980s – 990s 1000s 1010s
Years:	978 979 980 – 981 – 982 983 984

981 by topic
Politics
State leaders – Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
Births – Deaths
Establishment and disestablishment categories
Establishments – Disestablishments

981 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	981 CMLXXXI
Ab urbe condita	1734
Armenian calendar	430 ԹՎ ՆԼ
Assyrian calendar	5731
Bengali calendar	388
Berber calendar	1931
Buddhist calendar	1525
Burmese calendar	343
Byzantine calendar	6489–6490
Chinese calendar	庚辰年 (Metal Dragon) 3677 or 3617 — to — 辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 3678 or 3618
Coptic calendar	697–698
Discordian calendar	2147
Ethiopian calendar	973–974
Hebrew calendar	4741–4742
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1037–1038
- Shaka Samvat	903–904
- Kali Yuga	4082–4083
Holocene calendar	10981
Iranian calendar	359–360
Islamic calendar	370–371
Japanese calendar	Tengen 4 (天元４年)
Julian calendar	981 CMLXXXI
Korean calendar	3314
Minguo calendar	931 before ROC 民前931年
Seleucid era	1292/1293 AG
Thai solar calendar	1523–1524

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 981.

Year 981 (CMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

The Viking explorer Eric the Red-haired leaves Norway to survey west of Iceland. He finds land and calls it Greenland. Hundreds of land-starved Vikings board longships and head west for this so-called "Greenland".
The de facto ruler of Al-Andalus, al-Mansur, conquers and razes to the ground the city of Zamora, as part of his effort to seize the Christian-dominated north of the Iberian Peninsula.

The first ever Mahamasthakabhisheka ceremony of the sacred 57 feet (17 m) high monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali, is performed.
The Gommateshwara statue is built by Chavundaraya of the Western Ganga Dynasty in India.
The Bulgarians invade the Byzantine Empire.
The first commercially made soap for shaving sells for 3 dirhams (0.3 dinars).