Benjamin Harrison
1833 – 1901 · 68 years · Washington, D.C. · Americas
Reign: 1889 – 1893 (US presidents)
Grandson of President William Henry Harrison. He signed the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), and six new states, from North Dakota to Wyoming, joined the Union under him.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: Pach Brothers · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 14 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 15 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 24 years older
- Vincent van Gogh — painter, 20 years younger
- Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 34 years younger
- Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 41 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 5 years older
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 1 year younger
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 7 years younger
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 12 years older
- Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 37 years younger
- Joseph Stalin — leader of the Soviet Union, 45 years younger
Middle East
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder and first President of Turkey, 48 years younger
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 9 years younger
- Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 28 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 10 years older
- Mehmed V Reşad — sultan under whom the empire entered World War I, 11 years younger
- Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 3 years older
Africa
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 11 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 20 years older
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 64 years older
- Samori Ture — founder of the Wassoulou Empire, 5 years older
- Yaa Asantewaa — Queen Mother of Ejisu, war leader, 7 years younger
- Taytu Betul — Empress of Ethiopia, 18 years younger
Asia
- Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 36 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 4 years younger
- Emperor Meiji — Emperor of Japan, 19 years younger
- Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 28 years younger
- Sun Yat-sen — revolutionary, founding father of the ROC, 33 years younger
- Emperor Taishō — ailing emperor of the 'Taishō democracy' era, 46 years younger
Americas
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 14 years younger
- Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 23 years younger
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 24 years older
- Charlie Chaplin — comic actor and filmmaker, 56 years younger
- Mark Twain — writer and humorist, 2 years younger
- Alexander Graham Bell — inventor of the telephone, 14 years younger
Oceania
- Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 38 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 18 years older
- Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 5 years younger
- Kate Sheppard — suffragist, 14 years younger
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 21 years older
- Nellie Melba — operatic soprano, 28 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 0, Europe
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 2, Africa
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 2, Americas
- 1838–1839 Trail of Tears — aged 5, Americas
- 1839–1842 First Opium War — aged 6, Asia
- 1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — aged 6, Europe
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — aged 6, Middle East
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — aged 6, Middle East
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 12, Europe
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 13, Americas
- 1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 13, Americas
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 14, Africa
- 1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 15, Europe
- 1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 15, Europe
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — aged 18, Oceania
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 20, Asia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — aged 26, Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — aged 28, Europe
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — aged 28, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861–1865 American Civil War — aged 28, Americas
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation — aged 30, Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — aged 31, Americas
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — aged 34, Americas
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — aged 35, Asia
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — aged 36, Africa
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — aged 36, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — aged 36, Americas
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — aged 37, Europe
- 1871 Unification of Germany — aged 38, Europe
- 1871 Paris Commune — aged 38, Europe
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — aged 41, Europe
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — aged 43, Americas
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — aged 46, Americas
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 50, Asia
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 52, Asia
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 53, Europe
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — aged 56, Europe
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — aged 60, Oceania