Timur meaning "iron" or Tamerlane in English, was a 14th-century conqueror of much of western and central Asia, founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia, and great great grandfather of Babur, the founder...

The Yongle Emperor, born Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China from 1402 to 1424. His era name means "Perpetually Jubilant". His usurpation of the throne is now sometimes called the "Second Founding" of the Ming. He is...

Zheng He, formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family, later adopted the conferred surname...

The Yongle Encyclopedia, literally The Great Canon or Vast Documents of the Yongle Era, was a Chinese compilation commissioned by the Chinese Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle in 1403 and completed by 1408. Until Wikipedia, it was the world's lar...

Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies was a British author and retired submarine lieutenant-commander who has written books promoting claims that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions a...

Batumöngke Dayan Khan was a Borjigin Khagan who reunited the Mongols under Chinggisid supremacy in Post-imperial Mongolia. Dayan Khan was enthroned as Great Khan of the Yuan Mongol Empire though his ancestor Toghan Temur failed to maintain...

Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November. Guru Nanak has been ca...

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. He was born in a still disputed location i...

Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Geng...

Prince John and Prince Manuel continued the efforts of Prince Henry to find a sea route to India, and in 1497 Manuel placed Vasco da Gama, who already had some reputation as a warrior and navigator, in charge of four vessels built especial...

Friar Andrés de Urdaneta was a Spanish circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved in 1536 the "second" world circumnavigation (after the first one led by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano and thei...

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...

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...

Francis Xavier was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (currently Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montm...

Yermak Timofeyevich, born between 1532 and 1542 - 1584) was a Cossack who led the Russian conquest of Siberia in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Russia’s fur interests fueled their desire to expand east into Siberia. The tsar’s ultimate...