James Madison
1751 – 1836 · 85 years · Washington, D.C. · Americas
Reign: 1809 – 1817 (US presidents)
The chief architect of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His presidency saw the War of 1812 against Britain, during which British troops burned Washington and the White House in 1814.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: John Vanderlyn · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 2 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 19 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 18 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 5 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 57 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 58 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 22 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 48 years younger
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 70 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 40 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 6 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 21 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 34 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 72 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 10 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 48 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 26 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 28 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 18 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 36 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 62 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 3 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 27 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 35 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 9 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 22 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 40 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, born the same year
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 42 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 14 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 19 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 32 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 45 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 58 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 8 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 16 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 23 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 7 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 26 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 13 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 21 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 13 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 4, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 5, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 6, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 9, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 17, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 18, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 25, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 32, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 32, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 36, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 37, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 38, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 38, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 40, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 45, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 47, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 52, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 53, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 53, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 53, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 54, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 54, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 59, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 61, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 63, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 64, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 64, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 65, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 66, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 66, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 68, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 71, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 77, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 80, Asia
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 82, Europe