While some famous historical figures were as different as can be from each other, it turns out that a lot of them were alive around the same time.
A diary and a pulpit
It’s weird, but it’s true. Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born in the same year, with King being born on January 15, 1929, and Anne being born on June 12, 1929. They were born in completely different countries, of course, but the point still stands. They were the same age.
They probably feel so far apart because the time when they were ‘active’ was pretty different, since Anne’s remembered for writing a diary during World War II and King’s work was during the civil rights era.Â
Two names, one strange year
Two other figures who were born in the same year were William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei. Yes, that’s right, the guy who wrote Romeo and Juliet and the guy who said the Sun was in the middle of the Solar System. They were both born in 1564.
The pair lived very different lives in two very different countries. Shakespeare died in 1616, the same year that Galileo started to stir up some serious trouble with the Catholic Church and Pope Paul V.
Music near a new capital
Mozart and George Washington aren’t two names you’d think are linked. But they are. In fact, Mozart was alive during Washington’s first presidency, and he lived long enough to see the new American federal government in power.
The pair never met or anything, but Washington was apparently a big fan of Mozart’s music, and they were both high-ranking Freemasons. Mozart died on December 5, 1791, just ten days before the first ten amendments were ratified in the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Quiet rooms, loud maps
Jane Austen. She’s probably one of the most famous writers of all time, and it turns out that she was alive at the same time that Napoleon was causing trouble in Europe. Their lives overlapped for over 40 years.
Austen wrote her final novel, Persuasion, from 1815 to 1816, and that was right around the same time that Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo. The Napoleonic Wars actually affected some of her writing. She died in 1817, and Napoleon followed four years later.
One birthday, two tracks
You might be surprised to find out that, actually, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the exact same day. Yes, they were both born on February 12, 1809, with Lincoln being born in Kentucky and Darwin being born in Shrewsbury, England.
Darwin worked in England at the same time that Lincoln was leading the United States during the Civil War. On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, just two years before Lincoln became the President. Weird stuff.
Palace records and wanted posters
Queen Victoria and Billy the Kid. Two names, two very different lives, but they were actually alive at the same time. Queen Victoria was born in 1819 and became the queen in 1837, twenty-two years before Billy the Kid was born.
Interestingly enough, Victoria actually lived for longer than Billy, as he died in 1881 at the age of 21, while she died in 1901, aged 81. One of them was making rules while the other person was breaking them.
From safe houses to flying machines
She might be famous for the Underground Railroad, but Harriet Tubman was also alive long enough to see humans fly, too. She was born around 1822 and died in 1913, ten years after the Wright brothers’ first successful powered flight.
She didn’t see the flight or anything, definitely not, but she would’ve probably heard the news that the Wright brothers had managed to fly.Â
A final year in France
Vincent van Gogh and Adolf Hitler couldn’t be more different from each other, although they were both failed painters during their lifetimes. Van Gogh was born in 1853 and died in 1890, just over a year after Hitler was born.
The famous painter was nearing the end of his life around the same time that Hitler was a baby. Hitler wasn’t the person that people feared around the world, not quite yet.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
