Atahualpa (in hispanicized spellings) or Atawallpa (Quechua) was the last Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) of the Tawantinsuyu (the Inca Empire) before the Spanish conquest. Atahualpa became emperor when he defeated and executed his older half...

Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso was a Spanish conquistador, brother of Francisco Pizarro. A lieutenant of his brother in the conquest of Peru, Gonzalo aided in the defense of Cuzco (1536-37) against the Inca Manco Capac, subdued Charcas (present B...

Francisco de Montejo y León (el Mozo) was a Spanish conqueror, he was born in 1502. Founder in 1542 of the City of Mérida, capital of State of Yucatán, Mexico. Son of Francisco de Montejo. Circa June of 1527 at the age of 26 years he sailed...

Miguel López de Legazpi, also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who established one of the first European settlements in the East Indies and the Pacific Islands in 1565. He was the first Governor-Ge...

Pope Gregory XIII, born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 13 May 1572 to his death in 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this...

Isabella of Portugal was a Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Spain, Germany, Italy, Naples and Sicily and Duchess of Burgundy by her marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and regent of Spain during the absences of her husband during 1529-...

Christian III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1534–59. Early in his reign, he allied with Gustavus I of Sweden to defeat the German city of Lübeck in 1536. That victory broke the power of the Hanseatic League and made the Danish fleet s...

Ferdinand I was an Austrian monarch from the House of Habsburg. He was first the Archduke of Austria from 1521-1564. After the death of Louis II, Ferdinand ruled as King of Bohemia and Hungary (1526–1564). After his brother Charles V abdica...

Nostradamus was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publi...

Lakandula or Lakan Dula, was the regnal name of the Lakan (king or paramount ruler) of the pre-colonial Philippine Kingdom of Tondo when the Spaniards first conquered the lands of the Pasig River delta in the 1570s. Along with Rajah Matanda...

Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Il Bronzino, or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. The origin of his nickname, Bronzino is unknown, but could derive from his dark complexion, or from that he gave many of his...

Pope Saint Pius V was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church. P...

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the republic includes the i...

Nikolaus Federmann was a German adventurer and conquistador in the colonies of Venezuela and Colombia. He worked in the service of the Welser brothers. Nikolaus Federmann was born in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) around 1505. In 1529 he was sent...

Mary of Austria, also known as Mary of Hungary, was queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II, and she was later Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. The daughter of Queen Joanna of Castile and King Philip I of C...