Mary Wollstonecraft
1759 – 1797 · 38 years · London · Europe
Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a founding text of feminism, and mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: John Opie · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 10 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 3 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 10 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 11 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 65 years older
- Immanuel Kant — German philosopher, 35 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 30 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 29 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 14 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 5 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 52 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 18 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 26 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 2 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 56 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 34 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 20 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 42 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 10 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 28 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 5 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 19 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 27 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 48 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 8 years older
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 1 year younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 14 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 22 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 27 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 53 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 24 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 16 years older
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 16 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 8 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 31 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 1 year older
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 34 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 21 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 5 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 13 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 1, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 5, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 9, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 9, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 10, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 17, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 24, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 24, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 28, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 29, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 30, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 30, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 32, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 37, Europe