• Conflict intensifies between English king Henry II and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket over Henry's attempts to assert civil jurisdiction over the church. Beckett at first reluctantly agrees to the Constitutions of Clarendon designed to limit Church freedoms, but then changes his mind and defiantly refuses to sign. Henry then issues him a summons to appear before a a great council at Northampton to answer crimal charges, but Beckett flees in a fishing boat to France where he begins courting support from Pope Alexander III and French king Louis VII. The council at Northhampton is often considered the origin of the present-day Grand Jury system.
• The spectacular Sanjusangendo temple of a thousand Buddhas is constructed in Kyoto at the behest of retired emperor Go-Shirakawa.
• The Crusader Kingdoms suffer several setbacks. King of Jerusalem Amalric I launches an unsuccessful raid into Egypt, but his army is defeated by Shirkuh in the Battle of Bilbeis. Meanwhile Muslim generalissimo Nur ad-Din defeats Prince Bohemond III of Antioch and Count Raymond of Tripoli at the Battle of Harim.
• Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa takes the bones of the Three Wise Men from a church in Milan and gives them to the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald of Dassel. The spectacular Cologne Cathedral will later be built to house them.
• Verona forms the Veronese League for mutual defense against the machinations of Frederick Barbarossa to expand his influence in Italy.
• The Welsh Cistercian abbey Strata Florida (Welsh Ystrad Fflur) is founded at the headwaters of the River Tiefy by Rhys ap Gruffudd, the reigning prince of South Wales.
• 11th-century Norwegian king Olaf II is cannonized as Saing Olaf, and will eventually become the patron saint of Norway.
• The earliest presently surviving manuscript of the Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan is transcribed.
• Marie de France marries Henry de Champagne, becoming Marie de Champagne.

These people were born in 1164:

• Japanese Emperor Rokujo.
• Japanese samurai warrior Hatakeyama Shigetada, a leading vassal of Minamoto Yoritomo.
• Sancha of Castile, daughter of Castilian king Alfonso VII and future queen of Aragonian king Alfonso II.
• Duke of Swabia Frederick V.

These people died in 1164:

• Héloïse, secret lover and wife of French theologian Peter Abelard. Together, Abelard and Héloïse conducted one of the most celebrated tragic love affairs in Western literature.
• Frederick Barbarossa's antipope Victor IV, succeeded by Antipope Paschal III.
• Japanese Emperor Sutoku.
• Fujiwara regent Fujiwara Tadamichi.
• Margrave of Styria Ottokar III.
• Svyatoslav Olgovich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky.
• English scholar of Arabic Adelard of Bath.

1163 - 1164 - 1165

12th century