681 AD – The Bulgarian State was established – one of the first ever European states. The first Bulgarian capital was Pliska. Its khans - Asparuh, Krum the Dreadful (803 – 814 AD), and Omurtag (831 – 852 AD) turned it into a mighty power in Southeastern Europe.

     855 AD – The brothers St. Cyril and St. Methodius made the Slavonic alphabet.

     865 AD – Tsar Boris I (852-889 AD) did away with paganism and introduced Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the official religion in Bulgaria.

     893-927 AD – Under the reign of Tsar Simeon (the Great), son of Tsar Boris I, the Bulgarian kingdom became the biggest in territory and the most powerful in Europe. In 893 AD he moved the capital from Pliska to Veliki Preslav (Great Preslav). The Byzantine Empire recognized him as Tsar of the Bulgarians. The "golden age" of Bulgarian culture set in. 

     1018 AD – Emperor Basil II conquered Bulgaria and turned it into a province of the Byzantine Empire.

     Basil II (c. 958-1025) — Byzantine emperor from 976. His achievement as an emperor was to conquer, and later decisively defeat, the Bulgarians, earning for himself the title "Bulgar-Slayer" after a victory in 1014. After the battle in Klyuch, he blinded almost all 15,000 of the defeated, leaving only a few men with one eye to lead their fellows home. The Byzantine Empire had reached its largest extent at the time of his death.