Johannes Gutenberg
c. 1400 – 1468 · 68 years · Mainz · Europe
Invented movable-type printing in Europe and printed the Bible around 1455, transforming the world.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Joan of Arc — heroine of the Hundred Years' War, 12 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 52 years younger
- Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 3 years younger
- Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 23 years younger
- Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 32 years older
- Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 14 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 40 years older
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 40 years younger
- Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 15 years younger
- Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 29 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 55 years younger
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 32 years younger
- Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 4 years younger
- Mehmed I Çelebi — sultan who reunited the realm after Timur, 11 years older
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 47 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 43 years younger
Asia
- Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 3 years older
- Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 29 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 36 years younger
- Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 6 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshinori — shogun chosen by lot and murdered by his own vassal, 6 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshimochi — shogun who broke off tributary trade with Ming China, 14 years older
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 51 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 18 years younger
- Nezahualcoyotl — ruler of Texcoco, poet, 2 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1400 Founding of Malacca — aged 0, Asia
- 1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He — aged 5, Asia
- 1410 Battle of Grunwald — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1411 Andrei Rublev's Trinity — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1429 Joan of Arc relieves Orléans — aged 29, Europe
- c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire — aged 38, Americas
- c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — aged 45, Oceania
- 1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — aged 46, Asia
- c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press — aged 50, Europe
- c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — aged 50, Americas
- c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — aged 50, Americas
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — aged 53, Middle East