Year 1347 (MCCCXLVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

The Mamluke Empire was hit by the plague in the autumn.Baghdad was hit in the same year.

After years of resistance against the Delhi Sultan Muhammud bin Tughluq, the Bahmani Kingdom, a Muslim Sultanate in Deccan, was established on August 3, when King Ala-ud-din Hasan Bahman Shah was crowned in a mosque in Daulatabad. Later in the year, the Kingdom's capital was moved from Daulatabad to the more central Gulbarga. Southeast Asia suffered a drought which dried up an important river which ran through the capital city of the Kingdom of Ayodhya, forcing the King to move the capital to a new location on the Lop Buri River.

On 2 February the Byzantine Empire's civil war between John VI Kantakouzenos and the regency ended with John VI entering Constantinople. On 8 February, an agreement was concluded with the empress Anna of Savoy, whereby he and John V Palaiologos would rule jointly. The agreement was finalized in May when John V married Kantakouzenos' 15-year-old daughter. The war had come at a high cost economically and territorially, and much of the Empire was in need of rebuilding. To make matters worse, in May Genoese ships fleeing the Black Death in Kaffa stopped in Constantinople. The plague soon spread from their ships to the city. By autumn, the epidemic had spread throughout the Balkans, possibly through contact with Venetian ports along the Adriatic Sea. Specific cases were recorded in the northern Balkans on 25 December, in the city of Split.

Jack Leo Van Impe (born February 9, 1931, though peoplesmart.com indicates a 1930 birth) is a televangelist who is known for his half-hour weekly television series Jack Van Impe Presents, an eschatological commentary on the news of the week through his interpretation of the Bible. The program airs throughout the United States, Canada, and several other countries through both religious broadcasters and the purchase of paid programming time on commercial television stations. Van Impe's website claims that he is known as the "Walking Bible" because of his extensive memorization of Bible verses. Van Impe's wife Rexella (born Rexella Mae Shelton on November 29, 1932), in Missouri, shares his TV ministry as co-host.

Jack Van Impe's parents immigrated to the United States from Belgium. Originally from Troy, Michigan, Van Impe was an accordion player as a child, performing duets with his missionary father across Michigan and other states. In 1948, Van Impe graduated from high school and entered Detroit Bible Institute, earning his diploma in 1952 and beginning his career as a preacher and evangelist as well as an extensive recording career. In an episode of Jack Van Impe Presents, Jack notes that during his years working with the Billy Graham crusades, Van Impe met his future wife, Rexella, who was an organist with the crusades. The couple were married on August 21, 1954, and started their own joint ministry.