Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 – 1827 · 57 years · Vienna · Europe
Bridge between Classicism and Romanticism. Wrote nine symphonies and the Moonlight Sonata, composing the Ninth when completely deaf.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 21 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 1 year older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 14 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 39 years younger
- Francis II — last Holy Roman Emperor, who dissolved the empire in 1806, 2 years older
- Louis XVIII — brother of Louis XVI who restored the Bourbons, 15 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 29 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 41 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 7 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 25 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 16 years older
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 26 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 15 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 9 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 9 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 67 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 45 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 1 year older
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 17 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 43 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 8 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 16 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 16 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 10 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 3 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 59 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 19 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 23 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 33 years older
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 13 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 38 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 64 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 39 years younger
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 3 years older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 27 years older
Oceania
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 12 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 2 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 32 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 6 years older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 42 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 45 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 6, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 13, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 13, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 17, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 18, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 19, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 19, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 21, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 26, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 28, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 33, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 34, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 34, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 34, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 35, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 35, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 40, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 44, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 45, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 45, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 46, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 47, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 47, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 49, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 52, Americas