George III

Allan Ramsay · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

king under whom Britain lost its American colonies

1738 – 1820 · 82 years · London · Europe

Reign: 1760 – 1820 (England and Britain)

Reigned for 60 years. Under him Britain lost its 13 American colonies but defeated Napoleon, and in 1801 united with Ireland to form the United Kingdom. He suffered severe mental illness, and from 1811 a regent ruled in his place.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century

Portrait: Allan Ramsay · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Europe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 11 years younger
Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 31 years younger
Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 32 years younger
Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 44 years older
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 18 years younger
Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 53 years older

Eastern Europe & Russia

Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 9 years older
Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 27 years older
Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 61 years younger
Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 7 years younger
Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 8 years older
Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 16 years younger

Middle East

Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 47 years younger
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 35 years older
Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 13 years older
Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 23 years younger
Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 21 years older
Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 41 years younger

Africa

Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 31 years younger
Shaka — King of the Zulu, 49 years younger
Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 16 years younger
Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 40 years younger
Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 48 years younger

Asia

Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 27 years older
Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 22 years younger
Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 13 years younger
Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 35 years younger
Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 54 years older
Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 1 year older

Americas

George Washington — first President of the United States, 6 years older
Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 32 years older
Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 45 years younger
Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 71 years younger
Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 5 years younger
Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 5 years younger

Oceania

James Cook — British navigator, 10 years older
Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 20 years younger
Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 13 years older
Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, born the same year
Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 26 years younger
Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 34 years younger

The world in their lifetime

1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 9, Middle East
1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 17, Europe
1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 18, Europe
1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 19, Asia
c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 22, Europe
1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 26, Eastern Europe & Russia
1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 30, Oceania
c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 30, Eastern Europe & Russia
1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 31, Europe
1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 38, Americas
1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 45, Europe
1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 45, Eastern Europe & Russia
1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 45, Europe
1787 US Constitution — aged 49, Americas
1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 50, Oceania
1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 51, Europe
1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 51, Europe
1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 53, Americas
1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 58, Europe
1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 60, Africa
1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 65, Americas
1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 66, Europe
1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 66, Europe
1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 66, Africa
1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 67, Africa
1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 67, Europe
1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 72, Americas
1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 74, Eastern Europe & Russia
1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 76, Europe
1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 77, Asia
1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 77, Europe
1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 78, Europe
1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 79, Asia
1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 79, Americas
1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 81, Asia