James Watt
1736 – 1819 · 83 years · Birmingham · Europe
Perfected the steam engine that powered the Industrial Revolution. The unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Henry Howard · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 13 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 33 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 34 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 42 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 20 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 51 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 7 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 25 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 63 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 9 years younger
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 6 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 29 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 49 years younger
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 48 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 33 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 11 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 25 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 19 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 33 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 51 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 18 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 42 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 50 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 25 years older
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 24 years younger
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 15 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 37 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 52 years older
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 1 year younger
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 4 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 30 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 47 years younger
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 73 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 7 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 7 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 8 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 22 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 11 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 2 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 28 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 36 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 11, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 19, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 20, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 21, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 24, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 26, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 28, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 32, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 33, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 36, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 40, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 47, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 47, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 51, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 52, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 53, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 53, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 55, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 60, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 62, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 67, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 68, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 68, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 68, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 69, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 69, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 74, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 76, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 78, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 79, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 79, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 80, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 81, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 81, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 83, Asia