Vasily III
1479 – 1533 · 54 years · Moscow · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1505 – 1533 (Rus and Russia)
Son of Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologina and father of Ivan the Terrible. He annexed Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514) and Ryazan (1521), completing the gathering of the lands of north-eastern Rus.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: André Thévet · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 6 years older
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 4 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 4 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 27 years older
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 12 years younger
- Maximilian I — "the Last Knight", who raised the Habsburgs through shrewd marriages, 20 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 39 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 24 years older
Middle East
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 9 years older
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 15 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 26 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 32 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 36 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 27 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 10 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 4 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 10 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 43 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 13 years older
- Mirabai — mystic poet, 19 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 28 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 5 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 6 years younger
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 13 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 1 year younger
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 23 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 1, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 9, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 13, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 13, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 15, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 19, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 22, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 29, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 32, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 38, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 40, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 41, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 42, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 47, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 50, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 53, Americas