Leopold II
1747 – 1792 · 45 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1790 – 1792 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
He ruled Tuscany for twenty-five years and in 1786 became the first in Europe to abolish the death penalty and torture there. As emperor he calmed Hungary and the Netherlands, which had revolted under Joseph II, and signed the Declaration of Pillnitz with Prussia against revolutionary France.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Josef Kiss · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 2 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 9 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 53 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 22 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 23 years younger
- Immanuel Kant — German philosopher, 23 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 18 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 36 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 17 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 2 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 7 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 40 years older
Middle East
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 44 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 22 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 14 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 30 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 32 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 48 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 22 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 7 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 31 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 36 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 4 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 13 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 26 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 10 years older
- Cao Xueqin — Chinese novelist, 32 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 15 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 41 years older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 4 years older
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 4 years older
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 9 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 20 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 19 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 11 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 22 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 9 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 17 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 25 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 0, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 8, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 9, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 10, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 13, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 15, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 21, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 22, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 29, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 36, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 36, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 36, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 40, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 41, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 42, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 42, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 44, Americas