Paul I
1754 – 1801 · 47 years · Saint Petersburg · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1796 – 1801 (Rus and Russia)
Son of Catherine the Great. He introduced male-line succession and limited corvée labour to three days a week; his petty drill and unpredictability provoked a conspiracy, and he was murdered in the Mikhailovsky Castle.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Vladimir Borovikovsky · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 5 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 2 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 15 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 16 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 60 years older
- Immanuel Kant — German philosopher, 30 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 25 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 43 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 9 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 24 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 47 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 23 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 31 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 7 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 51 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 29 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 25 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 37 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 15 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 33 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, born the same year
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 24 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 32 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 43 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 3 years older
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 6 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 19 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 17 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 22 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 48 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 29 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 11 years older
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 11 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 13 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 26 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 4 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 29 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 16 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 10 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 18 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 1, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 2, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 3, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 6, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 8, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 14, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 15, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 22, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 29, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 29, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 29, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 33, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 34, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 35, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 35, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 37, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 42, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 44, Africa