Jeremy Bentham
1748 – 1832 · 84 years · London · Europe
Philosophy: Utilitarianism (founder)
Founder of utilitarianism: the right action brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number. He argued for abolishing slavery and the death penalty; his preserved body is still kept at University College London.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Henry William Pickersgill · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 1 year younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 22 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 21 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 8 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 54 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 61 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 19 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 51 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 37 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 73 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 3 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 18 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 37 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 13 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 45 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 23 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 31 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 31 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 21 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 39 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 65 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 6 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 30 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 38 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 12 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 25 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 37 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 3 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 45 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 11 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 16 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 35 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 42 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 61 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 5 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 19 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 20 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 10 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 23 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 10 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 24 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 16 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 7, Europe
- 1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — aged 7, Asia
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 8, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 9, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 12, Europe
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — aged 13, Asia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 20, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 21, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 28, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 35, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 35, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 39, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 40, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 41, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 41, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 43, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 48, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 50, Africa
- 1800 Volta's pile, the first battery — aged 52, Europe
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 55, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 56, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 56, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 56, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 57, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 57, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 62, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 64, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 66, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 67, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 67, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 68, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 69, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 69, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 71, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 74, Americas