Francis Bacon
1561 – 1626 · 65 years · London · Europe
Father of empiricism: knowledge should be built from experience and observation, reasoning from facts to conclusions (induction), not from authority. "Knowledge is power" is attributed to him. Lord Chancellor of England.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Paul van Somer I / Formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 3 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 14 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 3 years younger
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 28 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 35 years younger
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 45 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 31 years older
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 35 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 20 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 29 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 9 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 17 years younger
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 10 years younger
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 51 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 37 years older
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 5 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 28 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 15 years older
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 22 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 5 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 12 years older
- Zera Yacob — Ethiopian philosopher, 38 years younger
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 42 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 18 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 19 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 9 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 16 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 18 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 24 years older
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 6 years younger
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 22 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 35 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 42 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 8, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 10, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 11, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 21, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 27, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 30, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 31, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 37, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 37, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 39, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 39, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 39, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 44, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 46, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 48, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 49, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 51, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 52, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 57, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 63, Africa