Martin Luther
.jpg?width=160 "Lucas Cranach the Elder · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1483 – 1546 · 63 years · Wittenberg · Europe
The monk whose 95 Theses of 1517 launched the Protestant Reformation; he translated the Bible into German.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Lucas Cranach the Elder · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 8 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 10 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 31 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 50 years younger
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 8 years younger
- Francis I — Renaissance king who brought Leonardo to France, 11 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 47 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 4 years older
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 43 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 49 years younger
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 28 years older
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 11 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 22 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 13 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 41 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 36 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 43 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 40 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 23 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 14 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, born the same year
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 14 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 51 years younger
- Mirabai — mystic poet, 15 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 17 years older
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 32 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 1 year younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 2 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 3 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 17 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 19 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 5, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 9, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 9, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 11, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 15, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 18, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 25, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 28, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 34, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 36, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 37, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 38, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 43, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 43, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 46, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 49, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 51, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 59, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 60, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 62, Americas