Who Was Alive

Johann Sebastian Bach

German composer

Born 21 March 1685 (Julian calendar) · died 28 July 1750, aged 65

Who was alive at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach?

  1. John Locke
  2. Louis XIV of France
  3. Isaac Newton
  4. Matsuo Bashō
  5. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
  6. Jonathan Swift
  7. Peter the Great
  8. Antonio Vivaldi
  9. George Frideric Handel
  10. Johann Sebastian Bach
  11. Montesquieu
  12. Voltaire
  13. Benjamin Franklin
  14. Leonhard Euler
  15. Carl Linnaeus
  16. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  17. Adam Smith
  18. Immanuel Kant
  19. James Cook
  20. George Washington
  21. John Adams
  22. Thomas Jefferson
  23. Francisco Goya
  24. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Drag across the timeline to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Johann Sebastian Bach was born, Isaac Newton was 42, John Locke was 52, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 38, Matsuo Bashō was 40 or 41 and Louis XIV of France was 46.

When Johann Sebastian Bach died, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was under a year old, George Washington was 18, Voltaire was 55, Immanuel Kant was 26 and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 38.

Born during Johann Sebastian Bach’s lifetime: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith and Benjamin Franklin.

Not quite contemporaries: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born 6 years after Johann Sebastian Bach died, Molière died 12 years before Johann Sebastian Bach was born, Friedrich Schiller was born 9 years after Johann Sebastian Bach died and Benedictus de Spinoza died 8 years before Johann Sebastian Bach was born.

Compare

All 78 contemporaries we track

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  3. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  4. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  5. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  7. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  8. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  9. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  10. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  11. John Locke 1632 – 1704
  12. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  13. Matsuo Bashō 1644 – 1694
  14. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  15. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  16. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  17. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  18. Louis XIV of France 1638 – 1715
  19. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  20. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  21. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  22. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  23. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  24. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  25. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  26. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  27. Catherine II of Russia 1729 – 1796
  28. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  29. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  30. Daniel Defoe 1659–1662 – 1731
  31. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  32. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  33. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  34. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  35. Frederick II of Prussia 1712 – 1786
  36. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  37. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  38. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  39. Jean Racine 1639 – 1699
  40. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  41. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  42. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  43. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  44. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  45. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  46. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  47. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  48. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  49. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  50. George III of Great Britain 1738 – 1820
  51. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729 – 1781
  52. Louis XV of France 1710 – 1774
  53. Maria Theresa of Austria 1717 – 1780
  54. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  55. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  56. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  57. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  58. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  59. Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703
  60. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  61. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  62. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  63. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  64. John Dryden 1631 – 1700
  65. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  66. Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  67. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  68. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  69. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  70. Anne of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  71. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  72. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  73. Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  74. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  75. William III of England 1650 – 1702
  76. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  77. Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  78. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810