Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Qi Jiguang (General Qi)

戚繼光

Ming Dynasty (China)

1528 – 1588 (59 years old)

Ming dynasty general and military engineer who eradicated wokou coastal piracy, invented the Mandarin Duck tactical formation, and reinforced the Great Wall.

Penglai (Yantai), China

5 Full Record →

Hai Rui

海瑞

Ming Dynasty China

1514 – 1587 (73 years old)

Legendary Ming dynasty official from Hainan renowned for uncompromising honesty, land reforms protecting peasants, and submitting his coffin memorial to the Jiajing Emperor.

Haikou (Hainan), China

3 Full Record →

Alvaro I of Kongo

Álvaro I Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba

Kingdom of Kongo

c. 1530 CE – 1587 (57 years old)

Manikongo (King) of the Kingdom of Kongo who reclaimed his throne from the devastating Jaga invasions with Portuguese assistance and Europeanized Kongo's royal court ceremonies.

Mbanza Kongo, Angola

3 Full Record →

5

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary Stuart (Mairi Stiùbhart)

Kingdom of Scotland

1542 – 1587 (44 years old)

Queen of Scotland and Queen Consort of France whose tragic life, imprisonment, and execution made her an immortal romantic martyr.

London, United Kingdom

5 Full Record →

Pierre de Ronsard

Kingdom of France

1524 – 1585 (61 years old)

Acclaimed as the 'Prince of Poets' and leader of the French Renaissance Pléiade, renowned for 'Mignonne, allons voir si la rose' and Sonnets pour Hélène.

La Riche (Tours), France

3 Full Record →

Arts & Music

Religious Figures & Theologians

Thomas Tallis

England

c. 1505 – 1585 (80 years old)

Father of English church music who composed through four turbulent Tudor monarchies, immortalized by his 40-part choral masterpiece 'Spem in alium'.

Greenwich, England

4 Full Record →

Carlo Borromeo

Duchy of Milan

1538 – 1584 (46 years old)

Archbishop of Milan, cardinal, and leading figure of the Catholic Counter-Reformation who finalized the Council of Trent and fearlessly nursed plague victims in Milan.

Milan, Italy

3 Full Record →

6

Religious Figures & Theologians

Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible)

Иван IV Васильевич (Иван Грозный)

Grand Duchy of Moscow (Russia)

1530 – 1584 (53 years old)

First crowned Tsar of all Russia who conquered the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, opening Siberia and building Saint Basil's Cathedral.

Moscow, Russia

6 Full Record →

13

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Teresa of Ávila (Saint Teresa of Jesus)

Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada

Spain

28 March 1515 – 4 October 1582 (67 years old)

Spanish mystic, monastic reformer, and the first woman proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. Overcame institutional opposition to found the Discalced Carmelites and authored spiritual masterpieces including The Interior Castle.

Alba de Tormes, Spain

13 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

10

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Zhang Juzheng

張居正

China

1525-05-24 – 1582-07-09 (57 years old)

Greatest statesman of the Ming Dynasty; instituted the 'Single Whip Law' (Yitiao Bianfa) simplifying all taxes into single silver payments and restored Ming fiscal solvency.

Beijing, China

10 Full Record →

Oda Nobunaga (First Great Unifier of Japan)

12

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Oda Nobunaga (First Great Unifier of Japan)

織田信長 (Oda Nobunaga)

Japan

23 June 1534 – 21 June 1582 (47 years old)

The first of Japan's "Three Great Unifiers" of the Sengoku (Warring States) period. Overthrew the Ashikaga Shogunate, revolutionized samurai tactics with volley-fire matchlock firearms at the Battle of Nagashino, and dismantled feudal economic barriers.

Honnō-ji Temple (Kyoto), Japan

12 Full Record →

Wu Cheng'en

吳承恩

Ming Dynasty China

c. 1500 – c. 1582 (82 years old)

Ming dynasty novelist and poet widely attributed as the author of Journey to the West, the mythical fantasy immortalizing the Monkey King Sun Wukong.

Huai'an, China

4 Full Record →

5

Prophets & Divine Messengers

King Bayinnaung

ဘုရင့်နောင် ကျော်ထင်နော်ရထာ

Taungoo Kingdom

1516 – 1581 (65 years old)

Third king of the Toungoo Dynasty who assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, conquering Siam, Lan Na, and Lan Xang (Laos) across three decades of military campaigns.

Bago (Pegu), Myanmar

5 Full Record →

Guru Ram Das Ji (Fourth Sikh Guru & Founder of Amritsar)

6

Guru Ram Das Ji (Fourth Sikh Guru & Founder of Amritsar)

ਗੁਰੂ ਰਾਮ ਦਾਸ ਜੀ

Pakistan

1534 – 1581 (46 years old)

Born as an impoverished orphan selling boiled chickpeas in Lahore, Bhai Jetha rose through immaculate humility to become Guru Ram Das; he founded the holy city of Amritsar (Ramdaspur) and composed the four sacred stanzas of the Sikh marriage covenant.

Goindwal Sahib, India

6 Full Record →

Surdas

सूरदास

Delhi Sultanate

1478 – 1581 (103 years old)

Sixteenth-century blind Hindu poet, musician, and Bhakti saint (1478–1581) whose lyrical devotional hymns in 'Sur Sagar' immortalized the childhood and divine love of Krishna in the Braj Bhasha dialect.

Parsoli (Govardhan, Uttar Pradesh), India

4 Full Record →

Arts & Music

Andrea di Pietro della Gondola

Andrea Palladio

Republic of Venice

1508 – 1580 (71 years old)

Most influential architect in Western history whose 'The Four Books of Architecture' and harmonious villas (Villa Capra 'La Rotonda') created worldwide Palladianism.

Vicenza, Italy

4 Full Record →