Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Tiziano Vecellio

🌐 Republic of Venice

c. 1488 – 1576 (88 years old)

Supreme master of the Venetian school whose dynamic brushwork, vibrant colorism, and imperial portraits for Emperor Charles V revolutionized European oil painting.

Venice, Italy

3 Full Record →

Arts & Music

12

🕯️ 960

Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)

Tiziano Vecellio

Italy

c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 (~88 years old)

Supreme giant of the Venetian School of painting whose revolutionary mastery of glowing color (*colorito*), expressive brushwork, and monumental compositions influenced generations of European painters from Rubens to Velázquez.

Venice, Italy

12 Full Record →

Heinrich Bullinger

Old Swiss Confederacy

1504 – 1575 (71 years old)

Successor to Zwingli as Antistes of Zurich for forty-four years whose 'Second Helvetic Confession' unified the Reformed churches across Europe and whose 12,000 letters guided kings.

Zurich, Switzerland

4 Full Record →

Joseph ben Ephraim Karo (Maran / Author of the Shulchan Aruch)

Prophets & Divine Messengers

15

🕯️ 870

Joseph ben Ephraim Karo (Maran / Author of the Shulchan Aruch)

יוֹסֵף קָארוֹ

Spain

c. 1488 CE – 24 March 1575 CE (87 years old)

Venerated as "Maran" (Our Master). Expelled from Spain in 1492, he settled in the mystical Galilean city of Safed, authoring the Beit Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch (The Prepared Table)—the universally authoritative code of Jewish halakhic law.

Safed (Tzfat), Palestine

15 Full Record →

Guru Amar Das Ji (Third Sikh Guru & Champion of Equality)

9

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Guru Amar Das Ji (Third Sikh Guru & Champion of Equality)

ਗੁਰੂ ਅਮਰ ਦਾਸ ਜੀ

India

1479 – 1574 (95 years old)

Ascending to the Guruship at the age of seventy-three after years of humble service fetching water from the river, Guru Amar Das revolutionized Punjabi society by banning the veil (purdah) and widow-burning (sati), creating the Manji system of administration.

Goindwal Sahib, India

9 Full Record →

Michel de L'Hôpital

Kingdom of France

c. 1505 – 1573 (68 years old)

Chancellor of France and humanist statesman who pioneered modern religious toleration and judicial reform in the Edict of Saint-Germain.

Champmotteux (Essonne), France

4 Full Record →

6

John Knox

Kingdom of Scotland

c. 1514 – 1572 (58 years old)

Fiery leader of the Scottish Reformation, disciple of Calvin, and founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland who defied Mary, Queen of Scots in defense of the Reformed faith.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

6 Full Record →

Isaac ben Solomon Luria

יצחק לוריא

Ottoman Empire

1534 – 1572 (38 years old)

Supreme kabbalist of Safed whose revolutionary mystical doctrines of Tzimtzum (divine contraction), Shevirat HaKelim (shattering of the vessels), and Tikkun Olam reshaped Judaism.

Safed, Israel

4 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero

משה קורדובירו

Ottoman Empire

1522 – 1570 (48 years old)

Eminent Safed kabbalist and master synthesizer whose works 'Pardes Rimonim' and 'Tomer Devorah' harmonized Zoharic mysticism with profound personal ethics.

Safed, Israel

4 Full Record →

Arts & Music

25

🕯️ 930

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel de Oude

Netherlands

c. 1525–1530 – 9 September 1569 (~44 years old)

Pioneering Netherlandish Renaissance master celebrated for his panoramic seasonal landscapes, biting allegorical satires (Netherlandish Proverbs), and affectionate, vivid depictions of peasant celebrations and labor.

Brussels, Belgium

25 Full Record →

3

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Guaicaipuro

Venezuela

c. 1530 – c. 1568 (38 years old)

Cacique of the Teques and Caracas tribes who formed an indigenous confederation across northern Venezuela that repeatedly defeated Spanish conquistadors, driving them out of the Caracas valley for nearly a decade.

Caracas, Venezuela

3 Full Record →

2

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

King Myeongjong of Joseon

조선 명종 (이환)

Joseon Kingdom

1534 – 1567 (33 years old)

Thirteenth monarch of the Joseon Kingdom of Korea who struggled against conservative factionalism, patronized Neo-Confucian scholarship under Yi Hwang (Toegye), and established royal state grain relief.

Nowon-gu (Seoul), South Korea

2 Full Record →

Suleiman I (The Magnificent / Kanuni Sultan Süleyman)

10

🕯️ 1,410

Suleiman I (The Magnificent / Kanuni Sultan Süleyman)

سليمان اول / Kanunî Sultan Süleyman

Turkey

6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566 (71 years old)

Tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520–1566). Known in the West as "the Magnificent" and in the East as "the Lawgiver" (Kanuni). Oversaw the golden age of Ottoman military supremacy, arts, and monumental architecture.

Szigetvár, Hungary

10 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

7

🕯️ 920

Bartolomé de las Casas

Spain

11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566 (81 years old)

16th-century Spanish Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas who renounced his colonial encomienda to become the 'Protector of the Indians', authoring A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies to denounce colonial genocide.

Madrid, Spain

7 Full Record →

Military Leaders & Strategists

5

Turgut Reis (Dragut Rais)

Turgut Reis / Dragut

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

1 – 1565 (80 years old)

Ottoman admiral, privateer, and Bey of Tripoli described by contemporaries as 'a living drawn sword', who captured Tripoli and commanded at the Great Siege of Malta.

Tripoli, Libya

5 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

8

🕯️ 890

Andreas Vesalius

Andreas van Wesel

Belgium

31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564 (49 years old)

Brilliant anatomist whose 1543 masterpiece De Humani Corporis Fabrica founded modern human anatomy through direct cadaver dissection, correcting over 200 errors in Galen's texts.

Zakynthos, Greece

8 Full Record →