Adam Smith
1723 – 1790 · 67 years · Edinburgh · Europe
Founder of modern economics whose The Wealth of Nations described the division of labour and the 'invisible hand' of the market.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Etching created by Cadell and Davies (1811), John Horsburgh (1828)… · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 29 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 26 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 33 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 38 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 46 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 47 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 6 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 12 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 16 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 7 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 22 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 14 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 35 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 50 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 20 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 2 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 6 years older
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 24 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 46 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 31 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 55 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 12 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 28 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 37 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 39 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 50 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 14 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 17 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 9 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 20 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 20 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 15 years younger
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 44 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 5 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 2 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 35 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 15 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 41 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 49 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 24, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 32, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 33, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 34, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 37, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 39, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 41, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 45, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 45, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 46, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 49, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 53, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 60, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 60, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 60, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 64, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 65, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 66, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 66, Europe