Matteo Ricci
1552 – 1610 · 58 years · Beijing · Asia
Jesuit who was the first European admitted to the Forbidden City, bringing Western science and maps to China and China to Europe.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Chinese brother Emmanuel Pereira (born Yu Wen-hui 游文辉) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 5 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 19 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 12 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 12 years younger
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 44 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 77 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 22 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 20 years older
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 29 years younger
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 44 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, born the same year
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, born the same year
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 19 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 28 years older
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 58 years older
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 6 years older
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 14 years younger
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 26 years older
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 31 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 4 years younger
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 3 years older
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 9 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 10 years older
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 15 years older
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 7 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 15 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 25 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 68 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 13 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 15 years younger
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 44 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 4, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 4, Asia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 19, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 20, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 30, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 30, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 36, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 39, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 40, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 46, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 46, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 48, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 48, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 48, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 53, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 55, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 57, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 58, Europe