Tsar Cannon cast
The giant gun that, despite the jokes, was fired
Master founder Andrey Chokhov cast the roughly 39-tonne Tsar Cannon in 1586. It is famous as a gun that never fired, but specialists from the Artillery Academy found powder residue in its barrel during a 1980 inspection.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Did you know
The Tsar Cannon, contrary to the saying, seems to have been fired. During its 1980 restoration Artillery Academy experts found powder residue in the barrel and concluded it had fired at least once. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — 14 years earlier
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — 4 years earlier
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — 2 years later
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — 12 years later
- 1600 East India Company founded — 14 years later
Africa
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — 5 years later
Asia
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — 6 years later
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — 14 years later
Americas
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — 14 years later
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — 19 years later
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — 21 years later
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — 23 years later
Alive at the time
- Elizabeth I (aged 53)
- Akbar the Great (aged 44)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 43)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 39)
- William Shakespeare (aged 22)
- Galileo Galilei (aged 22)
- Philip II of Spain (aged 59)
- Stephen Báthory (aged 53)
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (aged 49)
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki (aged 49)