Russia annexes Astrakhan
After Kazan, the second Volga khanate falls
In 1554 a Russian army installed Moscow's protégé Dervish Ali as khan of Astrakhan; when he turned to the Crimea, the city was occupied without a fight in 1556. Four years after Kazan the second Volga khanate fell, and the whole Volga down to the Caspian became Russian.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — 13 years earlier
- 1545–1563 Council of Trent — 11 years earlier
- 1555 Peace of Augsburg — 1 year earlier
- 1565 Great Siege of Malta — 9 years later
- 1568–1648 Dutch Revolt — 12 years later
Asia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — same year
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — same year
Americas
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — 24 years earlier
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — 14 years earlier
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — 11 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Michelangelo (aged 81)
- Ivan the Terrible (aged 26)
- Elizabeth I (aged 23)
- Akbar the Great (aged 14)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 13)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 9)
- Bartolomé de las Casas (aged 72)
- Suleiman the Magnificent (aged 62)
- Charles V (aged 56)
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) (aged 51)