Who was alive at the same time as George Washington?

Founding Father and first U.S. president

George Washington lived 1732–1799. Here are the famous people whose lives overlapped with theirs.

Lived: 1732–1799
Lifespan: about 67 years
Born in, as it was then: Westmoreland County, VAColony of Virginia, British America
On today’s map: United States

Explore George Washington’s world on the timeline →

Did you know?

When George Washington was born, Johann Sebastian Bach was already about 47 years old.
George Washington was about 24 when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.
George Washington and Napoleon (French military leader, French Emperor 1804–1814 and again in 1815) shared about 30 years on Earth, one born in the Colony of Virginia, British America and the other in the Kingdom of France.
Ludwig van Beethoven outlived George Washington by about 28 years.

Famous contemporaries of George Washington

Rulers and commanders

Napoleon 1769–1821 · 30 yrs shared
Marie Antoinette 1755–1793 · 38 yrs shared
Benjamin Franklin 1706–1790 · 58 yrs shared
Louis XVI 1754–1793 · 39 yrs shared
Thomas Jefferson 1743–1826 · 56 yrs shared
Catherine the Great 1729–1796 · 64 yrs shared

Philosophers and scientists

Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 · 67 yrs shared
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778 · 46 yrs shared
Adam Smith 1723–1790 · 58 yrs shared
Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777–1855 · 22 yrs shared
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770–1831 · 29 yrs shared
Carl Linnaeus 1707–1778 · 46 yrs shared

Writers and artists

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791 · 35 yrs shared
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 · 18 yrs shared
Ludwig van Beethoven c. 1770–1827 · 29 yrs shared
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832 · 50 yrs shared
Voltaire 1694–1778 · 46 yrs shared
Francisco Goya 1746–1828 · 53 yrs shared

Explorers and others

James Cook 1728–1779 · 47 yrs shared

Born within five years of George Washington

James Cook (1728) · Joseph Haydn (1732) · James Watt (1736) · Catherine the Great (1729) · Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736) · Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736) · Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729) · Henry Cavendish (1731)

About George Washington

George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of His Country for his role in bringing about American independence.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

More people

Napoleon · Marie Antoinette · George III · Alexander Hamilton · Abraham Lincoln · Queen Victoria · Chester A. Arthur · James A. Garfield