Alexander Suvorov
1730 – 1800 · 70 years · Izmail · Eastern Europe & Russia
Never lost a battle. Stormed the fortress of Izmail, led the Italian and Swiss campaigns of 1799 and wrote The Science of Victory.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Nicolas Sébastien Frosté · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 19 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 36 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 26 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 39 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 40 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 45 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 1 year older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 19 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 15 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 23 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 24 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 21 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 42 years older
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 55 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 27 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 5 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 13 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 31 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 39 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 57 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 24 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 48 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 56 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 19 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 21 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 30 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 43 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 46 years older
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 7 years younger
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 2 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 24 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 53 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 13 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 13 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 8 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 2 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 28 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 5 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 8 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 34 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 42 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 17, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 25, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 26, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 27, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 30, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 38, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 39, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 46, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 53, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 53, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 53, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 57, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 58, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 59, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 59, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 61, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 66, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 68, Africa