Douglas Mawson
1882 – 1958 · 76 years · Adelaide · Oceania
Australian geologist who led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1914), mapping large areas of Antarctica.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 20th century
Portrait: Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 8 years older
- Pablo Picasso — painter and sculptor, 1 year older
- Albert Einstein — physicist, creator of relativity, 3 years older
- Adolf Hitler — dictator of Nazi Germany, 7 years younger
- Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 15 years older
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 63 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Joseph Stalin — leader of the Soviet Union, 4 years older
- Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 12 years older
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 54 years older
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 48 years older
- Yuri Gagarin — cosmonaut, first human in space, 52 years younger
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 42 years older
Middle East
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder and first President of Turkey, 1 year older
- Golda Meir — Prime Minister of Israel, 16 years younger
- Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 21 years older
- Gamal Abdel Nasser — President of Egypt, 36 years younger
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 40 years older
- Umm Kulthum — singer, 16 years younger
Africa
- Nelson Mandela — first Black President of South Africa, 36 years younger
- Haile Selassie — Emperor of Ethiopia, 10 years younger
- Patrice Lumumba — first prime minister of Congo, 43 years younger
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 38 years older
- Albert Schweitzer — physician and philosopher, Nobel laureate, 7 years older
- Léopold Sédar Senghor — poet, first president of Senegal, 24 years younger
Asia
- Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 13 years older
- Mao Zedong — Chairman of the CCP, founder of the PRC, 11 years younger
- Jawaharlal Nehru — first Prime Minister of India, 7 years younger
- Ho Chi Minh — President of North Vietnam, 8 years younger
- Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 21 years older
- Sukarno — first president of Indonesia, 19 years younger
Americas
- Charlie Chaplin — comic actor and filmmaker, 7 years younger
- Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 26 years older
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 35 years older
- Martin Luther King Jr. — minister and civil rights leader, 47 years younger
- Neil Armstrong — astronaut, first person on the Moon, 48 years younger
- Harry S. Truman — 33rd US president, the atomic bombs and the start of the Cold War, 2 years younger
Oceania
- Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 11 years older
- Howard Florey — pharmacologist who made penicillin a drug, 16 years younger
- Edmund Hillary — mountaineer and explorer, 37 years younger
- Eddie Mabo — land-rights campaigner, 54 years younger
- Sālote Tupou III — Queen of Tonga, 18 years younger
- Albert Namatjira — painter, 20 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 1, Asia
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — aged 2, Europe
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 3, Asia
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — aged 3, Africa
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — aged 3, Africa
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 4, Europe
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — aged 4, Africa
- 1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — aged 6, Americas
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — aged 7, Europe
- 1889 Van Gogh's The Starry Night — aged 7, Europe
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — aged 9, Asia
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — aged 11, Oceania
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — aged 23, Europe
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — aged 26, Middle East
- 1914–1918 World War I — aged 32, Whole world
- 1914 Opening of the Panama Canal — aged 32, Americas
- 1915 Armenian genocide — aged 33, Middle East
- 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement — aged 34, Middle East
- 1917 October Revolution — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1917–1922 Russian Civil War — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic — aged 36, Whole world
- 1919 Treaty of Versailles — aged 37, Europe
- 1928 Discovery of penicillin — aged 46, Europe
- 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression — aged 47, Americas
- 1929–1933 Collectivization in the Soviet Union — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1933 Hitler comes to power — aged 51, Europe
- 1936–1938 Great Purge — aged 54, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War — aged 54, Europe
- 1939–1945 World War II — aged 57, Whole world
- 1941–1944 Siege of Leningrad — aged 59, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1941–1945 The Holocaust — aged 59, Europe
- 1942–1943 Battle of Stalingrad — aged 60, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima — aged 63, Asia
- 1945 German surrender and Victory Day — aged 63, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1947–1991 Cold War — aged 65, Whole world
- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights — aged 66, Whole world
- 1949 Founding of NATO — aged 67, Whole world
- 1953 Discovery of the DNA double helix — aged 71, Europe
- 1953 First ascent of Everest — aged 71, Asia
- 1957 Sputnik 1, the first satellite — aged 75, Eastern Europe & Russia