Maria Theresa
.jpg?width=160 "Martin van Meytens · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1717 – 1780 · 63 years · Vienna · Europe
Only woman to head the Habsburg lands. Defended her inheritance in the War of the Austrian Succession, reformed schools and army; mother of Marie Antoinette.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Martin van Meytens · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
.jpg){kind=link}
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 23 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 32 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 32 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 39 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 52 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 74 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 12 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 6 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 10 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 13 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 8 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 28 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 29 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 44 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 14 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, born the same year
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 8 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 18 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 52 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 37 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 72 years older
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 6 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 33 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 34 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 43 years younger
- Cao Xueqin — Chinese novelist, 2 years older
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 5 years older
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 11 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 15 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 21 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 26 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 26 years younger
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 50 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 11 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 8 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 41 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 21 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 47 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 30, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 38, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 39, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 40, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 43, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 45, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 51, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 51, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 52, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 59, Americas