Construction begins around 1160 on the cathedral…

Kings of the Khmer Empire during this era reign briefly and are violently overthrown by their successors.

Yasovarman II succeeds his uncle Dharanindravarman as ruler of the Khmer Empire.

Dharanindravarman's son Jayavarman acquiesces to his cousin's succession and goes into exile in neighboring Champa.

The forces of Jaya Harivarman, ruler of the kingdom of Champa, fight rebellious Chams centered in Panduranga for five years, finally achieving victory in 1160 and ending a decade-long period of civil warfare.

Eric is murdered as he leaves the church in Uppsala on May 18, 1160.

He is said to have been murdered by Emund Ulvbane, an assassin who was hired by people working for the Sverker dynasty, in order for them to regain the control of the kingdom, or alternatively by Magnus Henriksson, another claimant, who is said in some sources to have succeeded him briefly as king.

Swedes believe a miracle occurred at Eric's death: a fountain is said to have sprung from the earth where the king's head fell after being chopped off.

Eric is soon worshiped as a saint, becoming known as Eric the Saint or Eric the Holy.

Though never formally canonized by the pope, he will eventually become the patron saint of Sweden.

Valdemar I of Denmark initiates a campaign in 1160 to conquer the southern Baltic coast’s pagan Wends, a target of crusades by Henry the Lion and Albert the Bear since 1147.

Absalon, a Danish soldier-statesman leading the military effort against the Wends, besieges the Wend fortress at Arkona on Rügen.

Syrian Muslims establish a great hospital at Damascus in 1160.

One David Alroy, claiming to be the Messiah, promises to lead the Jews and take Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

One evening he tells the Jews of Baghdad that they are all going to fly to Jerusalem that night and asks them to give him their property.

That night much of the Jewish population stands on their roofs waiting to fly.

According to Benjamin of Tudela, who visits a couple of years after the event, Alroy is slain, after one “successful” battle, by his father-in-law, who had allegedly been bribed and threatened by the governor of Amaida.

Alroy's followers call themselves Menahemites and continue to live in the Adzer Bedjan area.

They eventually fade out; Benjamin Disraeli's 1933 novel Alroy will become a well-known fictionalized version of Alroy's life.

Raynald is captured by the Muslims during a plundering raid against the Syrian and Armenian peasants of the neighborhood of Marash and held captive at Aleppo, where he will spend the next seventeen years in confinement.

Beziers, a center of the rapidly growing Catharist heretics later known as Albigenses (also called Albigensians), is one of the more liberal and open cities in France.

Bishop William of Beziers, appalled by the custom of beating Jews during Palm Sunday, issues an order on May 2, 1160, that excommunicates priests who so do.

A commercial treaty between the Almohad caliphate and the Republic of Pisa has opened the North African ports to Tuscan merchants.

The Almohads conquer Mahdia, a provincial center north of Sfax, from the Normans in 1160 after an important naval success near the city against Christian reinforcements coming from Sicily.