Livonian War
Ivan the Terrible's quarter-century war for the Baltic
In 1558 Ivan IV invaded Livonia and took Narva and Dorpat; the Livonian Confederation collapsed, but Lithuania, Poland and Sweden fought for its lands. The war dragged on for a quarter of a century and ended in defeat: by the truces of 1582–1583 Russia lost all its conquests and ceded Ivangorod, Yam and Koporye to Sweden as well.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — 15 years earlier
- 1555 Peace of Augsburg — 3 years earlier
- 1565 Great Siege of Malta — 7 years later
- 1568–1648 Dutch Revolt — 10 years later
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — 24 years later
Asia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — 2 years earlier
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — 2 years earlier
Americas
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — 16 years earlier
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — 13 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Michelangelo (aged 83)
- Ivan the Terrible (aged 28)
- Elizabeth I (aged 25)
- Akbar the Great (aged 16)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 15)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 11)
- Bartolomé de las Casas (aged 74)
- Suleiman the Magnificent (aged 64)
- Charles V (aged 58)
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) (aged 53)