Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790 · 84 years · Philadelphia · Americas
Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence who studied electricity and invented the lightning rod and bifocals.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Joseph-Siffred Duplessis · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 12 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 21 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 43 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 50 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 63 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 63 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 23 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 5 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 34 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 1 year younger
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 24 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 3 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 18 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 33 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 3 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 19 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 11 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 7 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 63 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 48 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 61 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 72 years younger
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 46 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 52 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 5 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 22 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 45 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 54 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 67 years younger
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 26 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 37 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 37 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 32 years younger
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 61 years younger
- José de San Martín — liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, 72 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 22 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 19 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 52 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 32 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 58 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 66 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 15, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 41, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 49, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 50, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 51, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 54, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 56, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 58, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 62, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 62, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 63, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 66, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 70, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 77, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 77, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 77, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 81, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 82, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 83, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 83, Europe