6th Century BC - Significant People

Significant People

• Mahavira of Vaishali, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, (599 BC–527 BC)
• 580s BC—Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon
• Anaximenes of Miletus, Greek philosopher (585 BC–525 BC)
• Pythagoras of Samos, Greek mathematician and discoverer of the Pythagorean theorem (c. 580 BC– c. 500 BC)
• 580 BC—Death of Cyrus I of Anshan (approximate date)
• Cyrus the Great, King of Persia (576 BC–July 529 BC, reigned 559 BC–July 529 BC)
• Ezra and Nehemiah, leaders of the Jews returning from the Babylonian Exile
• May 563 BC—Birth of Siddhartha Gautama, later known as Gautama Buddha in Lumbini, Nepal (died May 483 BC
• 563 BC—Queen Maya, mother of Siddhartha Gautama, dies seven days after giving birth
• c. 562 BC—Death of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon
• Pisistratus, Tyrant of Athens in 561 BC, 559 BC–556 BC and 546 BC–528 BC (died 527 BC)
• Solon of Athens, one of the Seven Sages of Greece (638 BC–558 BC)
• c. 556 BC—Birth of Simonides of Ceos
• 553 BC—Emperor Itoku in Japan appeared
• Stesichorus of Sicily, lyric poet (c. 640 BC–555 BC)
• c. 551 BC—Death of Zoroaster
• Confucius, founding figure of Confucianism (551 BC–479 BC)
• Thales, Greek mathematician (635 BC–543 BC), predicts solar eclipse in 585 BC
• Darius I, King of Persia (born 549 BC; reigned 521–485 BC)
• 547 BC—Death of Croesus
• 546 BC—Death of Anaximander, Greek philosopher (approximate date)
• 545 BC—Death of King Ling of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
• Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War (c. 544 BC–496 BC)
• 543 BC((To be verified))—Death of Gautama Buddha (traditionally in Thailand and elsewhere—basis of the Thai solar calendar)
• c. 540 BC—Birth of Vardhaman Mahavir
• c. 540 BC—Amyntas I becomes King of Macedonia
• 539 BC/538 BC—Death of Nabonidus, the last King of Babylon
• c. 535 BC—Birth of Heraclitus of Ephesus, Greek philosopher
• c. 531 BC—Death of Laozi, founder of Taoism
• Aeschylus, author of Greek tragedies, (525 BC–456 BC)
• 525 BC—Death of Psammetichus III, the last Pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
• 522 BC—Birth of Pindar, Greek poet
• March 521 BC—Death of Cambyses II, ruler of ancient Persia (suicide)
• October 521 BC—Death of Smerdis, ruler of ancient Persia
• c. 519 BC—Birth of Xerxes I of Persia
• Epimenides of Knossos, a famous Cretian seer and philosopher-poet, associated with the Epimenides paradox
• Lehi, first prophet recorded in the Book of Mormon
• Thespis, founder of Greek theatre