Year 1159 (MCLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Events
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- September 7 – Pope Alexander III succeeds Pope Adrian IV, as the 170th pope.
- Taira no Kiyomori leaves Kyōto on a personal pilgrimage, giving Fujiwara no Nobuyori and his Minamoto allies the perfect chance to stage an uprising.
- Tunis is reconquered from the Normans, by the Almohad caliphs.
- (Approximate date): Churchman Richard FitzNeal is appointed Lord High Treasurer in England, in charge of Henry II of England's Exchequer, an office he will hold for almost 40 years.
Births
- Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japanese general (d. 1189)
Deaths
- May 30 – Wladislaus II, the Exile of Poland (b. 1105)
- August 29 – Bertha of Sulzbach, Byzantine Empress (b. 1110s)
- September 1 – Pope Adrian IV (b. c. 1100)
- October 11 – William of Blois, Count of Boulogne and Earl of Surrey (b. c. 1137)
- Joscelin II, Count of Edessa