Elizabeth
1709 – 1762 · 53 years · Saint Petersburg · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1741 – 1762 (Rus and Russia)
Daughter of Peter the Great who came to power in the guards' coup of 1741. She founded Moscow University and the Academy of Arts, and in the Seven Years' War her army occupied Berlin.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Vigilius Eriksen · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 15 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 24 years older
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 66 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 40 years younger
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 2 years older
- Louis XV — king under whom France lost Canada, 1 year younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 2 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 20 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 37 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 2 years older
- Peter III — emperor who freed the nobility from compulsory service, 19 years younger
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 28 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 21 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 36 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 6 years older
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 10 years older
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 13 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 8 years younger
Africa
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 64 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 55 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 2 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 25 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 42 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 3 years younger
- Cao Xueqin — Chinese novelist, 6 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 3 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 23 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 29 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 34 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 34 years younger
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 21 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 19 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 16 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 29 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 0, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 12, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 38, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 46, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 47, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 48, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 51, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 53, Eastern Europe & Russia