William IV
1765 – 1837 · 72 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1830 – 1837 (England and Britain)
A former naval officer known as the Sailor King. His reign saw the parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 and the abolition of slavery across most of the British Empire. He died without legitimate children, leaving the throne to his niece Victoria.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Martin Archer Shee · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 16 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 5 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 4 years younger
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 44 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 9 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 53 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 34 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 36 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 56 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 20 years older
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 12 years younger
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 31 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 20 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 58 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 4 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 14 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 62 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 40 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 4 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 22 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 48 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 13 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 11 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 21 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 5 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 8 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 54 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 14 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 28 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 28 years older
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 18 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 33 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 44 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 59 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 2 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 22 years older
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 37 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 7 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 7 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 27 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 1 year older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 47 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 3, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 4, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 7, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 11, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 18, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 18, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 22, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 23, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 24, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 24, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 26, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 31, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 33, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 38, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 39, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 39, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 39, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 40, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 40, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 45, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 49, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 50, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 50, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 51, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 52, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 52, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 54, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 57, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 63, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 66, Asia
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 68, Europe
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 70, Africa
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 70, Americas