Genghis Khan born on the Onon River

1162

A Mongol chieftain's son was born clutching a blood clot in his fist - an omen, his people said, of greatness. He was named Temujin after a Tatar his father had just killed. The traditional date is uncertain, but Mongol memory placed his birth around this year. The child would grow up amid hardship, betrayal, and steppe violence, emerging from the margins of the nomadic world to conquer the largest contiguous empire in history.