William McKinley
1843 – 1901 · 58 years · Washington, D.C. · Americas
Reign: 1897 – 1901 (US presidents)
Under him the US won the war with Spain (1898), gaining the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, and annexed Hawaii. He was assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo in 1901.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: photographer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 24 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 25 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 34 years older
- Vincent van Gogh — painter, 10 years younger
- Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, twice Nobel laureate, 24 years younger
- Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 31 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 15 years older
- Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 9 years older
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 3 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 22 years older
- Vladimir Lenin — revolutionary, head of the Soviet government, 27 years younger
- Joseph Stalin — leader of the Soviet Union, 35 years younger
Middle East
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder and first President of Turkey, 38 years younger
- Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 1 year older
- Mehmed VI — last Ottoman sultan, 18 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 20 years older
- Mehmed V Reşad — sultan under whom the empire entered World War I, 1 year younger
- Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 13 years older
Africa
- Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 1 year younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 30 years older
- Yaa Asantewaa — Queen Mother of Ejisu, war leader, 3 years older
- Samori Ture — founder of the Wassoulou Empire, 15 years older
- Taytu Betul — Empress of Ethiopia, 8 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 57 years older
Asia
- Mahatma Gandhi — leader of the Indian independence movement, 26 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 6 years older
- Emperor Meiji — Emperor of Japan, 9 years younger
- Rabindranath Tagore — poet and writer, Nobel laureate, 18 years younger
- Sun Yat-sen — revolutionary, founding father of the ROC, 23 years younger
- Emperor Taishō — ailing emperor of the 'Taishō democracy' era, 36 years younger
Americas
- Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 4 years younger
- Nikola Tesla — inventor and electrical engineer, 13 years younger
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 34 years older
- Charlie Chaplin — comic actor and filmmaker, 46 years younger
- Mark Twain — writer and humorist, 8 years older
- Alexander Graham Bell — inventor of the telephone, 4 years younger
Oceania
- Ernest Rutherford — physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus, 28 years younger
- Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 5 years older
- Kate Sheppard — suffragist, 4 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 28 years older
- Nellie Melba — operatic soprano, 18 years younger
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 31 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 2, Europe
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 3, Americas
- 1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 3, Americas
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 4, Africa
- 1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 5, Europe
- 1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 5, Europe
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — aged 8, Oceania
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 10, Asia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — aged 16, Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — aged 18, Europe
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861–1865 American Civil War — aged 18, Americas
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation — aged 20, Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — aged 21, Americas
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — aged 24, Americas
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — aged 25, Asia
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — aged 26, Africa
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — aged 26, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — aged 26, Americas
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — aged 27, Europe
- 1871 Unification of Germany — aged 28, Europe
- 1871 Paris Commune — aged 28, Europe
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — aged 31, Europe
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — aged 33, Americas
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — aged 33, Asia
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — aged 33, Middle East
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1878 Congress of Berlin — aged 35, Europe
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — aged 36, Americas
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — aged 36, Africa
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — aged 40, Asia
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — aged 41, Europe
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — aged 42, Asia
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — aged 42, Africa
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — aged 42, Africa
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — aged 43, Europe
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — aged 46, Europe
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — aged 50, Oceania