Maximilien Robespierre
1758 – 1794 · 36 years · Paris · Europe
A lawyer from Arras nicknamed the Incorruptible, he led the Jacobins during the Terror. In July 1794, after the coup of 9 Thermidor, he himself was guillotined without trial alongside Saint-Just and his brother Augustin.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 9 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 2 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 11 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 12 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 64 years older
- Immanuel Kant — German philosopher, 34 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 29 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 28 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 13 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 4 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 51 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 19 years younger
Middle East
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 55 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 3 years younger
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 33 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 41 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 21 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 11 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 4 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 20 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 47 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 7 years older
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 2 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 15 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 21 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 26 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 52 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 25 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 15 years older
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 15 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 9 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 30 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, born the same year
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 33 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 20 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 6 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 14 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 2, Europe
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — aged 3, Asia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 6, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 10, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 11, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 18, Americas
- 1781 Surrender at Yorktown — aged 23, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 25, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 25, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 29, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 30, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 31, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 31, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 33, Americas
- 1793 Execution of Louis XVI — aged 35, Europe