Napoleon Bonaparte
1769 – 1821 · 52 years · Paris · Europe
Reign: 1804 – 1814 (Franks and France)
Revolutionary general turned emperor who conquered much of Europe and issued the Civil Code, before defeat in Russia in 1812 and at Waterloo.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Jacques-Louis David · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 20 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 1 year younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 13 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 40 years younger
- Louis XVIII — brother of Louis XVI who restored the Bourbons, 14 years older
- Francis II — last Holy Roman Emperor, who dissolved the empire in 1806, 1 year older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 40 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 30 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 24 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 8 years younger
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 15 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 39 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 16 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 8 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 10 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 66 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 44 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, born the same year
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 18 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 15 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 9 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 17 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 9 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 4 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 58 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 18 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 24 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 32 years older
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 14 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 37 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 63 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 40 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 26 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 2 years older
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 41 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 11 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 3 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 31 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 5 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 0, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 7, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 14, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 14, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 18, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 19, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 20, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 20, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 22, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 27, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 29, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 34, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 35, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 35, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 35, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 36, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 36, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 41, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 43, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 45, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 46, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 46, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 47, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 48, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 48, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 50, Asia