Johann Sebastian Bach
1685 – 1750 · 65 years · Leipzig · Europe
Pinnacle of Baroque music: St Matthew Passion, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concertos. Long served as cantor in Leipzig.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Elias Gottlob Haussmann · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 9 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 42 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 47 years older
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 22 years younger
- Louis XV — king under whom France lost Canada, 25 years younger
- Frederick the Great — King of Prussia, 27 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 13 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 26 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 44 years younger
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 4 years older
- Anna — empress who tore up the Conditions; era of Biron's dominance, 8 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 22 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 3 years younger
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 12 years older
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 11 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 14 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 18 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 32 years younger
Africa
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 40 years older
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 25 years older
- Kimpa Vita — Kongolese prophet, 1 year older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 31 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 1 year older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 26 years younger
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi — the 'Dog Shogun' who outlawed cruelty to animals, 39 years older
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 67 years older
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 27 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 21 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 47 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 53 years younger
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 37 years older
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 45 years younger
- John Adams — 2nd US president, one of the Founding Fathers, 50 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 43 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 40 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 53 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1687 Newton's Principia — aged 2, Europe
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — aged 3, Europe
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 36, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 62, Middle East