Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Prophets & Divine Messengers

Ruminahui

Rumiñawi (Stone Eye)

Inca Empire

c. 1490 – 1535 (45 years old)

Heroic Inca general and brother of Emperor Atahualpa who led the northern defense of the Inca Empire against Spanish conquistadors, evacuated and torched Quito, and hid the legendary golden Treasure of the Llanganatis in the volcanic Andes.

Quito, Ecuador

3 Full Record →

13

🕯️ 650

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Gauranga)

শ্রীচৈতন্য মহাপ্রভু

India

18 February 1486 – 14 June 1534 (48 years old)

Fifteenth-century saint, mystic, and divine messenger who initiated the congregational chanting of the holy names (Sankirtana) throughout India, democratizing spiritual practice across all castes and creeds.

Puri, India

13 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

Lucas van Leyden

County of Holland

c. 1494 – 1533 (39 years old)

Dutch Renaissance engraver and painter whose prodigious printmaking rivaled Albrecht Dürer and whose monumental 'The Last Judgment' hangs in Leiden's Museum De Lakenhal.

Leiden, Netherlands

5 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

Ludovico Ariosto

Duchy of Ferrara

1474 – 1533 (58 years old)

Italian Renaissance epic poet whose romantic epic Orlando Furioso wove chivalry, irony, and ottava rima into one of the most influential masterworks of world literature.

Ferrara, Italy

3 Full Record →

4

Huldrych Zwingli

Old Swiss Confederacy

1484 – 1531 (47 years old)

Leader of the Reformation in Switzerland and pastor of the Grossmünster in Zurich who championed scripture as sole authority and viewed the Lord's Supper as a memorial.

Kappel am Albis, Switzerland

4 Full Record →

6

Vallabhacharya

वल्लभाचार्य

Vijayanagara Empire

1479 – 1531 (52 years old)

Indian devotional philosopher who founded the Shuddhadvaita (Pure Non-dualism) school of Vedanta and the Pushtimarg path of unconditional divine grace (Pushti).

Varanasi, India

6 Full Record →

Babur

ظہیر الدین محمد بابر

Timurid Empire

1483 – 1530 (47 years old)

Central Asian conqueror, poet, and founder of the Mughal Empire in India, celebrated for defeating the Delhi Sultanate at the Battle of Panipat and authoring his candid autobiography Baburnama.

Kabul, Afghanistan

3 Full Record →

Babur (Zahir al-Din Muhammad)

بابر / Zahīr al-Dīn Muhammad

Fergana Valley (Uzbekistan)

1483 – 1530 (47 years old)

Founder of the Mughal Empire in India and author of the Baburnama, descended from Timur and Genghis Khan, who revolutionized warfare with artillery.

Kabul, Afghanistan

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Arts & Music

5

Quentin Matsys

Quinten Matsijs

Duchy of Brabant

c. 1466 – 1530 (64 years old)

Founder of the Antwerp school of painting whose masterwork 'The Moneylender and His Wife' established satirical secular genre painting and northern humanist portraiture.

Antwerp, Belgium

5 Full Record →

6

Krishnadevaraya

ಶ್ರೀ ಕೃಷ್ಣದೇವರಾಯ (శ్రీ కృష్ణదేవరాయ)

Vijayanagara Empire

1471 – 1529 (58 years old)

Greatest emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (1509–1529) who presided over the golden age of South Indian architecture and literature, built the breathtaking temple monuments of Hampi, and authored the Telugu epic 'Amuktamalyada'.

Hampi (Bellary, Karnataka), India

6 Full Record →

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara

శ్రీ కృష్ణదేవరాయ

Vijayanagara Empire (India)

1471 – 1529 (58 years old)

Foremost emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire whose military prowess and cultural patronage initiated a golden age in southern Indian history.

Hampi, India

3 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought

12

🕯️ 780

Wang Yangming (Wang Shouren)

王陽明 (王守仁)

China

31 October 1472 – 9 January 1529 (56 years old)

Ming general and philosopher who founded the School of Mind (Xinxue), proclaiming the unity of knowledge and action (zhixing heyi) and the innate moral conscience of every person.

Nan'an (Ganzhou, Jiangxi), China

12 Full Record →

4

Sidi Abdallah al-Ghazwani

عبد الله الغزواني (مول القصور)

Morocco

c. 1460 – 1529 (~69 years old)

One of the Seven Saints of Marrakech, known as 'Moul El Ksour' (Master of the Palaces), who succeeded Sidi Abd al-Aziz al-Tebba' as leader of the Jazuliyya order and predicted the rise of the Saadian dynasty.

Marrakech, Morocco

4 Full Record →

Arts & Music

9

🕯️ 970

Albrecht Dürer

Germany

21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528 (56 years old)

Foremost genius of the Northern Renaissance who revolutionized woodcut and copper engraving into autonomous fine art forms, unified German gothic detail with Italian classical perspective, and pioneered artistic self-portraiture.

Nuremberg, Germany

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4

Balthasar Hubmaier

Bavaria

c. 1480 – 1528 (48 years old)

Pivotal Anabaptist theologian and former Catholic university rector who established believer's baptism in Waldshut and Nikolsburg and defended religious freedom in 'Heretics and Those Who Burn Them'.

Vienna, Austria

4 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought

5