Emily Dickinson

poet

1830 – 1886 · 56 years · Amherst · Americas

American poet who published little in her lifetime; her nearly 1,800 poems, printed posthumously, reshaped American verse.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century

Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Europe

Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 11 years older
Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 12 years older
Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 21 years older
Vincent van Gogh — painter, 23 years younger
Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 37 years younger
Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 44 years younger

Eastern Europe & Russia

Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 2 years older
Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 4 years younger
Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 9 years older
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 10 years younger
Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 40 years younger
Alexander II of Russia — Emperor of Russia, 12 years older

Middle East

Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 12 years younger
Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 7 years older
Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 31 years younger
Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, born the same year
Mehmed V Reşad — sultan under whom the empire entered World War I, 14 years younger

Africa

David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 17 years older
Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 14 years younger
Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 61 years older
Samori Ture — founder of the Wassoulou Empire, 2 years older
Yaa Asantewaa — Queen Mother of Ejisu, war leader, 10 years younger
Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 44 years older

Asia

Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 39 years younger
Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 7 years younger
Emperor Meiji — Emperor of Japan, 22 years younger
Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 31 years younger
Sun Yat-sen — revolutionary, founding father of the ROC, 36 years younger
Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 70 years older

Americas

Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 17 years younger
Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 21 years older
Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 26 years younger
Ulysses S. Grant — 18th US president, commanding general of the Union Army, 8 years older
Mark Twain — writer and humorist, 5 years younger
Benito Juárez — President of Mexico, 24 years older

Oceania

Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 41 years younger
Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 15 years older
Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 8 years younger
Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 18 years older
Kate Sheppard — suffragist, 17 years younger
Ned Kelly — bushranger and Australian folk hero, 24 years younger

The world in their lifetime

c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 1, Asia
1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 3, Europe
c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 5, Africa
1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 5, Americas
1838–1839 Trail of Tears — aged 8, Americas
1839–1842 First Opium War — aged 9, Asia
1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — aged 9, Europe
1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — aged 9, Middle East
1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — aged 9, Middle East
1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 15, Europe
1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 16, Americas
1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 16, Americas
1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 17, Africa
1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 18, Europe
1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 18, Europe
1851 The Australian gold rushes — aged 21, Oceania
1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 23, Asia
1853–1856 Crimean War — aged 23, Eastern Europe & Russia
1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — aged 29, Europe
1861 Unification of Italy — aged 31, Europe
1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — aged 31, Eastern Europe & Russia
1861–1865 American Civil War — aged 31, Americas
1863 Emancipation Proclamation — aged 33, Americas
1864–1870 Paraguayan War — aged 34, Americas
1867 Alaska Purchase — aged 37, Eastern Europe & Russia
1867 Canadian Confederation — aged 37, Americas
1868 Meiji Restoration — aged 38, Asia
1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — aged 39, Africa
1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — aged 39, Eastern Europe & Russia
1869 First transcontinental railroad — aged 39, Americas
1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — aged 40, Europe
1871 Unification of Germany — aged 41, Europe
1871 Paris Commune — aged 41, Europe
1874 First Impressionist exhibition — aged 44, Europe
1876 Invention of the telephone — aged 46, Americas
1876–1878 Great Famine in India — aged 46, Asia
1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — aged 49, Americas
1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 53, Asia
1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 55, Asia
1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 56, Europe