Albert Einstein
1879 – 1955 · 76 years · Berlin · Europe
Developed the special and general theories of relativity; Nobel laureate (1921) for explaining the photoelectric effect.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: Ferdinand Schmutzer / Adam Cuerden · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 5 years older
- Pablo Picasso — painter and sculptor, 2 years younger
- Adolf Hitler — dictator of Nazi Germany, 10 years younger
- Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 12 years older
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 60 years older
- Vincent van Gogh — painter, 26 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Joseph Stalin — leader of the Soviet Union, 1 year older
- Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 9 years older
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 51 years older
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 45 years older
- Yuri Gagarin — cosmonaut, first human in space, 55 years younger
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 39 years older
Middle East
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder and first President of Turkey, 2 years younger
- Golda Meir — Prime Minister of Israel, 19 years younger
- Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 18 years older
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 37 years older
- Gamal Abdel Nasser — President of Egypt, 39 years younger
- Umm Kulthum — singer, 19 years younger
Africa
- Nelson Mandela — first Black President of South Africa, 39 years younger
- Haile Selassie — Emperor of Ethiopia, 13 years younger
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 35 years older
- Patrice Lumumba — first prime minister of Congo, 46 years younger
- Albert Schweitzer — physician and philosopher, Nobel laureate, 4 years older
- Léopold Sédar Senghor — poet, first president of Senegal, 27 years younger
Asia
- Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 10 years older
- Mao Zedong — Chairman of the CCP, founder of the PRC, 14 years younger
- Jawaharlal Nehru — first Prime Minister of India, 10 years younger
- Ho Chi Minh — President of North Vietnam, 11 years younger
- Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 18 years older
- Sukarno — first president of Indonesia, 22 years younger
Americas
- Charlie Chaplin — comic actor and filmmaker, 10 years younger
- Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 23 years older
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 32 years older
- Martin Luther King Jr. — minister and civil rights leader, 50 years younger
- Neil Armstrong — astronaut, first person on the Moon, 51 years younger
- Harry S. Truman — 33rd US president, the atomic bombs and the start of the Cold War, 5 years younger
Oceania
- Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 8 years older
- Howard Florey — pharmacologist who made penicillin a drug, 19 years younger
- Edmund Hillary — mountaineer and explorer, 40 years younger
- Eddie Mabo — land-rights campaigner, 57 years younger
- Douglas Mawson — geologist and Antarctic explorer, 3 years younger
- Kate Sheppard — suffragist, 32 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — aged 0, Americas
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — aged 0, Africa
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 4, Asia
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — aged 5, Europe
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 6, Asia
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — aged 6, Africa
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — aged 6, Africa
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 7, Europe
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — aged 7, Africa
- 1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — aged 9, Americas
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — aged 10, Europe
- 1889 Van Gogh's The Starry Night — aged 10, Europe
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — aged 14, Oceania
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — aged 26, Europe
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — aged 29, Middle East
- 1914–1918 World War I — aged 35, Whole world
- 1914 Opening of the Panama Canal — aged 35, Americas
- 1915 Armenian genocide — aged 36, Middle East
- 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement — aged 37, Middle East
- 1917 October Revolution — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1917–1922 Russian Civil War — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic — aged 39, Whole world
- 1919 Treaty of Versailles — aged 40, Europe
- 1928 Discovery of penicillin — aged 49, Europe
- 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression — aged 50, Americas
- 1929–1933 Collectivization in the Soviet Union — aged 50, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1933 Hitler comes to power — aged 54, Europe
- 1936–1938 Great Purge — aged 57, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War — aged 57, Europe
- 1939–1945 World War II — aged 60, Whole world
- 1941–1944 Siege of Leningrad — aged 62, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1941–1945 The Holocaust — aged 62, Europe
- 1942–1943 Battle of Stalingrad — aged 63, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima — aged 66, Asia
- 1945 German surrender and Victory Day — aged 66, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1947–1991 Cold War — aged 68, Whole world
- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights — aged 69, Whole world
- 1949 Founding of NATO — aged 70, Whole world
- 1953 Discovery of the DNA double helix — aged 74, Europe
- 1953 First ascent of Everest — aged 74, Asia