Erasmus
1466 – 1536 · 70 years · Rotterdam · Europe
Philosophy: Renaissance humanism
The best-known scholar of the Northern Renaissance. He published the Greek New Testament (1516) and mocked the failings of clergy and scholars in The Praise of Folly.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Hans Holbein the Younger · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 7 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 9 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 14 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 17 years younger
- Niccolò Machiavelli — Florentine political thinker and diplomat, 3 years younger
- Maximilian I — "the Last Knight", who raised the Habsburgs through shrewd marriages, 7 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 13 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 26 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 11 years older
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 34 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 4 years younger
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 28 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 39 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 58 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 19 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 23 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 40 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 3 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 3 years younger
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 17 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 30 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, born the same year
- Wang Yangming — Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher, 6 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 15 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, born the same year
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 18 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 19 years younger
- Amerigo Vespucci — navigator, 12 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 14 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1469 Afanasy Nikitin's journey to India — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 12, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1478 Spanish Inquisition established — aged 12, Europe
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 22, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 26, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 26, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 28, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 32, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 35, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 42, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 45, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 51, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 53, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 54, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 55, Americas
- 1526–1867 Atlantic slave trade — aged 60, Whole world
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 60, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 60, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 63, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 66, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 68, Europe