Louis XVI

Antoine-François Callet · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

king guillotined during the Revolution

1754 – 1793 · 39 years · Versailles · Europe

Reign: 1774 – 1792 (Franks and France)

Aid to the American colonists emptied the treasury, and summoning the Estates General in 1789 opened the way to revolution. After the failed flight to Varennes he was deposed and executed in January 1793.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century

Portrait: Antoine-François Callet · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Europe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 5 years older
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 2 years younger
Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 60 years older
Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 15 years younger
Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 16 years younger
Immanuel Kant — German philosopher, 30 years older

Eastern Europe & Russia

Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 25 years older
Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 43 years older
Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 24 years older
Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 9 years older
Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, born the same year
Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 47 years older

Middle East

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 51 years older
Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 29 years older
Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 7 years younger
Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 37 years older
Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 25 years younger

Africa

Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 15 years younger
Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, born the same year
Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 24 years younger

Asia

Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 43 years older
Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 3 years older
Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 6 years younger
Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 19 years younger
Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 17 years older

Americas

George Washington — first President of the United States, 22 years older
Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 48 years older
Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 29 years younger
Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 11 years older
Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 11 years older
Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 16 years older

Oceania

James Cook — British navigator, 26 years older
Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 4 years younger
Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 29 years older
Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 16 years older
Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 10 years younger
Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 18 years younger

The world in their lifetime

1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 1, Europe
1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 2, Europe
1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 3, Asia
c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 6, Europe
1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 8, Eastern Europe & Russia
1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 14, Oceania
c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 15, Europe
1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 22, Americas
1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 29, Europe
1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 29, Eastern Europe & Russia
1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 29, Europe
1787 US Constitution — aged 33, Americas
1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 34, Oceania
1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 35, Europe
1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 35, Europe
1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 37, Americas