Vladimir the Great
c. 960 – 1015 · 55 years · Kyiv · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 978 – 1015 (Rus and Russia)
In 988 he made Rus' Christian, adopting the faith from Byzantium; remembered in epic songs as 'Vladimir the Fair Sun'.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Portrait: anonimous, Novgorod · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Æthelred the Unready — king who paid off the Vikings with Danegeld, 6 years younger
- Hugh Capet — founder of the Capetian dynasty, 20 years older
- Cnut the Great — Danish king who ruled a North Sea empire, 35 years younger
- Otto the Great — founder of the Holy Roman Empire who crushed the Magyars at the Lech, 48 years older
- Edward the Confessor — pious king who built Westminster Abbey, 43 years younger
- Robert II the Pious — pious king excommunicated for marrying a kinswoman, 12 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Yaroslav the Wise — Grand Prince of Kiev, 18 years younger
- Sviatopolk the Accursed — prince of Kiev blamed by the chronicles for murdering Boris and Gleb, 20 years younger
- Yaropolk I — prince of Kiev who fell in a civil war with his brother Vladimir, 5 years older
- Sviatoslav I — Grand Prince of Kiev, warrior, 18 years older
Middle East
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) — physician and philosopher, 20 years younger
- Ferdowsi — Persian poet, 20 years older
Asia
- Murasaki Shikibu — novelist, author of The Tale of Genji, 13 years younger
- Sei Shōnagon — writer and court lady, 6 years younger
- Al-Biruni — polymath, 13 years younger
Americas
- Leif Erikson — Norse explorer, 10 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 960 Founding of the Song dynasty — aged 0, Asia
- 962 Coronation of Otto I — aged 2, Europe
- 966 Baptism of Poland — aged 6, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 969 Founding of Cairo — aged 9, Africa
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — aged 12, Africa
- 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus' — aged 28, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — aged 40, Africa
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — aged 40, Europe
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — aged 46, Africa
- c. 1010 The Tale of Genji — aged 50, Asia