Frédéric Chopin
1810 – 1849 · 39 years · Paris · Europe
Polish Romantic composer living in Paris, known for his nocturnes, mazurkas, polonaises and two piano concertos.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: Maria Wodzińska · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 1 year older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 8 years younger
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 9 years younger
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 61 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 40 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 41 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 11 years younger
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 11 years older
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 18 years younger
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 24 years younger
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 14 years older
- Alexander II of Russia — Emperor of Russia, 8 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 25 years older
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 13 years younger
- Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 20 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 41 years older
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 3 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 23 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 32 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 24 years older
- Samori Ture — founder of the Wassoulou Empire, 18 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 50 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 37 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 27 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 17 years older
- Tokugawa Iesada — shogun under whom Japan opened its ports to the West, 14 years younger
- Empress Dowager Cixi — Empress Dowager of China, 25 years younger
Americas
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 1 year older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 27 years older
- José de San Martín — liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, 32 years older
- Benito Juárez — President of Mexico, 4 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 43 years older
- Ulysses S. Grant — 18th US president, commanding general of the Union Army, 12 years younger
Oceania
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 2 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 5 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 38 years older
- Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 28 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 0, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 4, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 5, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 5, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 6, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 7, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 7, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 9, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 12, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 18, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 21, Asia
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 23, Europe
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 25, Africa
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 25, Americas
- 1838–1839 Trail of Tears — aged 28, Americas
- 1839–1842 First Opium War — aged 29, Asia
- 1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — aged 29, Europe
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — aged 29, Middle East
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — aged 29, Middle East
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 35, Europe
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 36, Americas
- 1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 36, Americas
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 37, Africa
- 1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 38, Europe
- 1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 38, Europe