St Basil's Cathedral is more than 70 years older than the Taj Mahal: it was consecrated in 1561, and work on the Agra mausoleum began only in 1632.
The events
- Saint Basil's Cathedral1555–1561 · Moscow. The Cathedral of the Intercession on Red Square was built in 1555–1561 on Ivan the Terrible's orders to celebrate the capture of Kazan. It later took the name of the holy fool Basil, who was buried beside it.
- Building of the Taj Mahal1632–1653 · Agra. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan began building a white marble mausoleum in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Built by thousands of craftsmen, the Taj Mahal became the masterpiece of Mughal architecture.
More amazing facts
- 1556 · 1584 Ivan the Terrible, the Mughal emperor Akbar and Elizabeth I were contemporaries: from 1558 to 1584 all three reigned at the same time.
- 1556 · 1605 The Mughal emperor Akbar assembled a library of 24,000 volumes but apparently could not read himself.
- 1564 In 1564 Ivan Fyodorov printed the Apostol in Moscow, and Shakespeare was born in England.
- 1564 · 1642 Galileo was born three days before Michelangelo died, and Newton in the year Galileo died: Galileo on 15 February 1564, Michelangelo dying on the 18th, and Newton on Christmas Day 1642 by England's Julian calendar.
- 1565 · 1572 Ivan the Terrible's Oprichnina (1565–1572) and France's St Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) were bloody purges of the same decade.
- 1566 · 1601 The great astronomer Tycho Brahe wore a metal nose.