Hryhorii Skovoroda
1722 – 1794 · 72 years · Kharkiv · Europe
Taught that happiness lies in knowing oneself and in "congenial work" suited to one's nature. He spent his last 25 years as a wanderer; his epitaph reads "The world tried to catch me, but did not succeed".
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 28 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 27 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 34 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 37 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 47 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 48 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 7 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 11 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 8 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 15 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 23 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 13 years older
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 34 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 49 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 19 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 3 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 5 years older
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 23 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 47 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 32 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 56 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 11 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 29 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 38 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 38 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 51 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 15 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 16 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 10 years younger
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 61 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 21 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 21 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 16 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 6 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 3 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 36 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 16 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 42 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 50 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — aged 0, Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 25, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 33, Europe
- 1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — aged 33, Asia
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 34, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 35, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 38, Europe
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — aged 39, Asia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 40, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 46, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 46, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 47, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 50, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 54, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 61, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 61, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 61, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 65, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 66, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 67, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 67, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 69, Americas