William Shakespeare
1564 – 1616 · 52 years · London · Europe
The greatest playwright in the English language, author of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Macbeth, staged at London's Globe Theatre.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Attributed to John Taylor · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 17 years older
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, born the same year
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 31 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 32 years younger
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 42 years younger
- James I — Scottish king who united the crowns of England and Scotland, 2 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 34 years older
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 17 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 32 years older
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 32 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 12 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 12 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 7 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 40 years older
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 2 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 18 years older
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 25 years younger
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 26 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 19 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 8 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 15 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 39 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 21 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 22 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 12 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 13 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 15 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 27 years older
Americas
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 25 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 3 years younger
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 32 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 39 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 5, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 7, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 8, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 18, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 24, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 27, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 28, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 34, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 36, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 36, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 36, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 41, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 43, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 45, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 46, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 48, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 49, Eastern Europe & Russia