Catherine the Great
.jpg?width=160 "After Alexander Roslin · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1729 – 1796 · 67 years · Saint Petersburg · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1762 – 1796 (Rus and Russia)
Ruled Russia for 34 years, annexing Crimea and New Russia, joining the partitions of Poland and corresponding with Voltaire.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: After Alexander Roslin · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 35 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 20 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 27 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 40 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 41 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 44 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 18 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 1 year younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 22 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 16 years younger
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 25 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 20 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 41 years older
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 56 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 26 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 4 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 12 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 32 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 40 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 25 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 49 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 57 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 18 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 22 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 31 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 44 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 45 years older
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 8 years younger
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 3 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 23 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 54 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 14 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 14 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 9 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 1 year older
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 4 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 29 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 9 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 35 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 43 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 18, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 26, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 27, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 28, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 31, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 33, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 39, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 39, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 40, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 43, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 47, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 54, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 54, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 54, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 58, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 59, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 60, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 60, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 62, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 67, Europe