Magdeburg

Magdeburg is a city in eastern Germany, currently in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, previously at times a part of Prussia.

• 805 First recorded mentioning in the Diedenhof Capitulary as Magadoburg. Although a Magdeburg settlement had existed for centuries, the first mentioning of Magdeburg was under emperor Charlemagne, when he secured the small fishing and trading town of Magdeburg.

• 919 king Henry I the Fowler fortified Magdeburg against the Magyars and Slavs.

• 929 Henry I arranged with king Edward the Elder for Edwards daughter Edith (Editha, Eadgyth) to marry Otto I the Great, son of Henry. At Otto and Edith's wedding she received Magdeburg as a Morgengabe. A Morgengabe is a Germanic customary gift received by the new bride from the groom and his family after the wedding night.

• 937 A royal assembly at was held in Magdeburg. At the same time, the abbey of St. Maurice, later the cathedral, was founded.

• 946 Queen Edith died and was buried in the abbey church crypt.

• 968 At the Synod of Ravenna, Magdeburg is elevated to the status of archbishopric and Adalbert is consecrated first Archbishop.

• 1035 Magdeburg is granted a patent giving the city the right to hold trade exibits and conventions. Many visitors from many countries trade in Magdeburg.

• 1656 (1654?) Otto von Guericke made the Magdeburg hemispheres, two hollow shells with rings for attaching ropes, put them together with grease, and evacuated the air with a pump that he had invented some years before. Sixteen horses couldn't pull them apart.