Francysk Skaryna
c. 1490 – 1551 · 61 years · Polotsk · Europe
A native of Polotsk and a Padua doctor of medicine. In 1517 in Prague he began printing the Bible in the Ruthenian recension of Church Slavonic, the first printed book of the Eastern Slavs, and later set up a press in Vilnius.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 15 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 7 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 17 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 38 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 43 years younger
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 1 year younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 40 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 11 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 42 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 50 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 35 years older
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 4 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 15 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 20 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 34 years younger
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 36 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 43 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 47 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 16 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 21 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 7 years older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 21 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 44 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 47 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 47 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 39 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 6 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 5 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 10 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 12 years younger
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 24 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 2, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 2, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 4, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 8, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 11, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 18, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 21, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 27, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 29, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 30, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 31, Americas
- 1526–1867 Atlantic slave trade — aged 36, Whole world
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 36, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 36, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 39, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 42, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 44, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 52, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 53, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 55, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 57, Eastern Europe & Russia