Selim III
1761 – 1808 · 47 years · Istanbul · Middle East
Reign: 1789 – 1807 (Ottoman Empire)
Tried to modernise the Ottoman Empire on European lines with his Nizam-i Cedid army; overthrown by the Janissaries and killed.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Konstantin Kapıdağlı · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 12 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 8 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 9 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 5 years older
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 67 years older
- James Watt — Scottish inventor and engineer, 25 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 32 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 16 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 7 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 31 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 16 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 54 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 24 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 58 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 18 years younger
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 36 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 44 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 8 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 26 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 7 years older
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 17 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 25 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 1 year older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 50 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 10 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 12 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 24 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 32 years younger
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 29 years older
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 55 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 22 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 18 years older
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 18 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 6 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 33 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 3 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 23 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 3 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 11 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 1, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 7, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 7, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 8, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 15, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 22, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 22, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 22, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 26, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 27, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 28, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 28, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 30, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 35, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 37, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 42, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 43, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 43, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 43, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 44, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 44, Europe