Alexander III the Peacemaker
1845 – 1894 · 49 years · Saint Petersburg · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1881 – 1894 (Rus and Russia)
He took the throne after his father's assassination by revolutionaries and rolled back liberal reforms. Russia fought no wars during his reign, which saw construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway begin and an alliance with France.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: Sergey Lvovich Levitsky · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 26 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 27 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 36 years older
- Vincent van Gogh — painter, 8 years younger
- Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 22 years younger
- Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 29 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 17 years older
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 11 years older
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 5 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 24 years older
- Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 25 years younger
- Joseph Stalin — leader of the Soviet Union, 33 years younger
Middle East
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder and first President of Turkey, 36 years younger
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 3 years older
- Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 16 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 22 years older
- Mehmed V Reşad — sultan under whom the empire entered World War I, 1 year older
- Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 15 years older
Africa
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 1 year older
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 32 years older
- Samori Ture — founder of the Wassoulou Empire, 17 years older
- Yaa Asantewaa — Queen Mother of Ejisu, war leader, 5 years older
- Taytu Betul — Empress of Ethiopia, 6 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 59 years older
Asia
- Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 24 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 8 years older
- Emperor Meiji — Emperor of Japan, 7 years younger
- Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 16 years younger
- Sun Yat-sen — revolutionary, founding father of the ROC, 21 years younger
- Emperor Taishō — ailing emperor of the 'Taishō democracy' era, 34 years younger
Americas
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 2 years younger
- Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 11 years younger
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 36 years older
- Mark Twain — writer and humorist, 10 years older
- Alexander Graham Bell — inventor of the telephone, 2 years younger
- Ulysses S. Grant — 18th US president, commanding general of the Union Army, 23 years older
Oceania
- Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 26 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 30 years older
- Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 7 years older
- Kate Sheppard — suffragist, 2 years younger
- Nellie Melba — operatic soprano, 16 years younger
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 33 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 0, Europe
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 1, Americas
- 1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 1, Americas
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 2, Africa
- 1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 3, Europe
- 1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 3, Europe
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — aged 6, Oceania
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 8, Asia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — aged 8, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — aged 14, Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — aged 16, Europe
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861–1865 American Civil War — aged 16, Americas
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation — aged 18, Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — aged 19, Americas
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — aged 22, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — aged 22, Americas
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — aged 23, Asia
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — aged 24, Africa
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — aged 24, Americas
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — aged 25, Europe
- 1871 Unification of Germany — aged 26, Europe
- 1871 Paris Commune — aged 26, Europe
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — aged 29, Europe
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — aged 31, Americas
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — aged 31, Asia
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — aged 31, Middle East
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1878 Congress of Berlin — aged 33, Europe
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — aged 34, Americas
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — aged 34, Africa
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 38, Asia
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — aged 39, Europe
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 40, Asia
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — aged 40, Africa
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — aged 40, Africa
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 41, Europe
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — aged 44, Europe
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — aged 48, Oceania