John Calvin
1509 – 1564 · 55 years · Geneva · Europe
Leading Reformation theologian whose Calvinism turned Geneva into a 'Protestant Rome' and spread to Scotland, the Netherlands and beyond.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 34 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 26 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 36 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 24 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 38 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 57 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 21 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 23 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 30 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 43 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 43 years younger
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 15 years older
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 4 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 15 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 39 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 17 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 37 years younger
Africa
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 3 years older
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 66 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 40 years younger
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 33 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 34 years younger
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 40 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 25 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 28 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 28 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 25 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 24 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 7 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 29 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 43 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 30 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 2, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 8, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 10, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 11, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 12, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 17, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 20, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 23, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 25, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 33, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 34, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 36, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 46, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 47, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 47, Asia