Frederick the Great
%20-%20Google%20Art%20Project.jpg?width=160 "Anton Graff · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1712 – 1786 · 74 years · Potsdam · Europe
Made Prussia a great power and survived the Seven Years' War against Austria, Russia and France. An 'enlightened despot' and friend of Voltaire.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Anton Graff · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 18 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 27 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 37 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 44 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 57 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 58 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 17 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 1 year older
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 40 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 5 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 18 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 3 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 24 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 39 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 9 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 13 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 5 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 13 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 57 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 42 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 67 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 58 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 1 year older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 28 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 39 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 48 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 61 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 6 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 20 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 26 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 31 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 31 years younger
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 55 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 16 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 13 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 46 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 26 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 52 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 60 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 9, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 35, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 43, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 44, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 45, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 48, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 50, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 52, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 56, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 56, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 57, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 60, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 64, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 71, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 71, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 71, Europe