James Monroe
1758 – 1831 · 73 years · Washington, D.C. · Americas
Reign: 1817 – 1825 (US presidents)
In 1823 he proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, closing the Americas to further European colonization. Under him the US acquired Florida from Spain (1819) and adopted the Missouri Compromise (1820).
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Gilbert Stuart · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 9 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 12 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 11 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 2 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 51 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 64 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 29 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 41 years younger
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 63 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 13 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 19 years younger
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 4 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 27 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 3 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 55 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 33 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 21 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 41 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 11 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 29 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 55 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 4 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 20 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 28 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 2 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 15 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 47 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 7 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 35 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 21 years older
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 25 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 26 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 52 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 51 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 15 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 9 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 30 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, born the same year
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 33 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 20 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 14 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 6 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 2, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 6, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 10, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 11, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 18, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 25, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 25, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 29, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 30, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 31, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 31, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 33, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 38, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 40, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 45, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 46, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 46, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 46, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 47, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 47, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 52, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 54, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 56, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 57, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 57, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 58, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 59, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 59, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 61, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 64, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 70, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 73, Asia