Martin Van Buren
1782 – 1862 · 80 years · Washington, D.C. · Americas
Reign: 1837 – 1841 (US presidents)
A New York politician who organized the Democratic Party and the first president born a US citizen. His term was overshadowed by the Panic of 1837 and a long depression.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 27 years younger
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 33 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 12 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 36 years younger
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 37 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 13 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 39 years younger
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 17 years younger
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 46 years younger
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 52 years younger
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 58 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 53 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 3 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 41 years younger
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 60 years younger
- Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 48 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 21 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 3 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 13 years older
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 31 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 5 years younger
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 62 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 4 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 4 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 22 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 9 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 55 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 71 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 31 years older
- Emperor Meiji — Emperor of Japan, 70 years younger
Americas
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 27 years younger
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 1 year younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 50 years older
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 65 years younger
- José de San Martín — liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, 4 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 15 years older
Oceania
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 24 years older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 30 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 33 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 10 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 44 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 18 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 1, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 1, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 1, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 5, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 6, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 7, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 7, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 9, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 14, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 16, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 21, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 22, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 22, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 22, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 23, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 23, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 28, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 30, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 32, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 33, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 33, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 34, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 35, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 35, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 37, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 40, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 46, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 49, Asia
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 51, Europe
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 53, Africa
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 53, Americas
- 1838–1839 Trail of Tears — aged 56, Americas
- 1839–1842 First Opium War — aged 57, Asia
- 1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — aged 57, Europe
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — aged 57, Middle East
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — aged 57, Middle East
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 63, Europe
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 64, Americas
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 71, Asia
- 1861 Unification of Italy — aged 79, Europe