Who Was Alive
Laurence Sterne
Joshua Reynolds (died 1792), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Laurence Sterne

British novelist and cleric

Born 24 November 1713 · died 18 March 1768, aged 54
Also known as Lorens Stern

Who was alive at the same time as Laurence Sterne?

  1. Louis XIV, 1638 – 1715
  2. Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727
  3. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716
  4. Peter the Great, 1672 – 1725
  5. Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 – 1741
  6. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750
  7. Voltaire, 1694 – 1778
  8. Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790
  9. Leonhard Euler, 1707 – 1783
  10. Carl Linnaeus, 1707 – 1778
  11. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778
  12. Laurence Sterne, 1713 – 1768
  13. Adam Smith, 1723 – 1790
  14. Immanuel Kant, 1724 – 1804
  15. James Cook, 1728 – 1779
  16. George Washington, 1732 – 1799
  17. John Adams, 1735 – 1826
  18. Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826
  19. Francisco Goya, 1746 – 1828
  20. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832
  21. James Madison, 1751 – 1836
  22. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 – 1791
  23. Friedrich Schiller, 1759 – 1805
  24. Hokusai, 1760 – 1849

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Laurence Sterne was born, Isaac Newton was 70, Johann Sebastian Bach was 28, Voltaire was 19, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 1 and Benjamin Franklin was 7.

When Laurence Sterne died, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 18, George Washington was 36, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 12, Voltaire was 73 and Immanuel Kant was 43.

Born during Laurence Sterne’s lifetime: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Cook.

Not quite contemporaries: Napoleon was born about a year after Laurence Sterne died, Ludwig van Beethoven was born months after Laurence Sterne died, John Locke died about 9 years before Laurence Sterne was born and Jane Austen was born about 7 years after Laurence Sterne died.

What happened in Laurence Sterne’s lifetime

Where Laurence Sterne’s contemporaries were born

Laurence Sterne is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Laurence Sterne

The 150 best-known contemporaries

247 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Laurence Sterne. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1741.

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  3. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 – 1791
  5. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  6. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  7. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  9. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  10. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  11. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  12. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  13. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  14. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  15. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  16. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  17. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  18. Louis XIV 1638 – 1715
  19. Friedrich Schiller 1759 – 1805
  20. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  21. Hokusai 1760 – 1849
  22. James Madison 1751 – 1836
  23. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  24. John Quincy Adams 1767 – 1848
  25. Andrew Jackson 1767 – 1845
  26. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  27. William Blake 1757 – 1827
  28. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  29. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  30. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  31. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  32. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  33. James Monroe 1758 – 1831
  34. Catherine the Great 1729 – 1796
  35. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  36. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  37. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  38. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  39. Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793
  40. Maximilien Robespierre 1758 – 1794
  41. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797
  42. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  43. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  44. Louis XVI 1754 – 1793
  45. Frederick the Great 1712 – 1786
  46. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  47. Robert Burns 1759 – 1796
  48. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  49. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  50. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  51. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  52. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  53. Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1762 – 1814
  54. John Dalton 1766 – 1844
  55. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  56. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  57. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  58. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  59. George III 1738 – 1820
  60. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729 – 1781
  61. Louis XV 1710 – 1774
  62. Maria Theresa 1717 – 1780
  63. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  64. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  65. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  66. Thomas Robert Malthus 1766 – 1834
  67. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  68. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson 1758 – 1805
  69. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  70. Alexander Hamilton 1757 – 1804
  71. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  72. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  73. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  74. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  75. Pope Gregory XVI 1765 – 1846
  76. Wilhelm von Humboldt 1767 – 1835
  77. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  78. Pope Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  79. William IV 1765 – 1837
  80. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  81. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  82. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754 – 1839
  83. Paul I of Russia 1754 – 1801
  84. Anne, Queen of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  85. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  86. George IV 1762 – 1830
  87. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  88. Georges Danton 1759 – 1794
  89. Pope Leo XII 1760 – 1829
  90. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  91. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  92. Germaine de Staël 1766 – 1817
  93. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  94. Pope Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  95. Alexander Suvorov 1730 – 1800
  96. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810
  97. Louis XVIII 1755 – 1824
  98. Pope Pius VIII 1761 – 1830
  99. Joseph Addison 1672 – 1719
  100. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  101. Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782
  102. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1746 – 1827
  103. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor 1768 – 1835
  104. Emanuel Swedenborg 1688 – 1772
  105. Jean-Paul Marat 1743 – 1793
  106. Christopher Wren 1632 – 1723
  107. Pope Clement XII 1652 – 1740
  108. Nicolas Appert 1749 – 1841
  109. George I of Great Britain 1660 – 1727
  110. Elizabeth of Russia 1709 – 1762
  111. Peter III of Russia 1728 – 1762
  112. Abigail Adams 1744 – 1818
  113. Nikolay Karamzin 1766 – 1826
  114. Vitus Bering 1681 – 1741
  115. Charles X of France 1757 – 1836
  116. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit 1686 – 1736
  117. Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor 1741 – 1790
  118. William Pitt the Younger 1759 – 1806
  119. Pope Clement XIII 1693 – 1769
  120. William Hogarth 1697 – 1764
  121. Henry Fielding 1707 – 1754
  122. Baron d'Holbach 1723 – 1789
  123. Oliver Goldsmith 1728 – 1774
  124. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1742 – 1799
  125. Pope Benedict XIII 1649 – 1730
  126. Christoph Willibald Gluck 1714 – 1787
  127. Pope Clement XI 1649 – 1721
  128. Pope Innocent XIII 1655 – 1724
  129. Luigi Galvani 1737 – 1798
  130. Giambattista Vico 1668 – 1744
  131. Charles XII of Sweden 1682 – 1718
  132. Philip V of Spain 1683 – 1746
  133. Catherine I of Russia 1684 – 1727
  134. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 1685 – 1740
  135. Nader Shah c. 1693 – 1747
  136. Pope Clement XIV 1705 – 1774
  137. Carl Wilhelm Scheele 1742 – 1786
  138. Olympe de Gouges 1748 – 1793
  139. Charles XIV John 1763 – 1844
  140. Maria Gaetana Agnesi 1718 – 1799
  141. Henri de Saint-Simon 1760 – c. 1826
  142. Anna of Russia 1693 – 1740
  143. John Wesley 1703 – 1791
  144. Claude Adrien Helvétius 1715 – 1771
  145. Charles Messier 1730 – 1817
  146. Giuseppe Piazzi 1746 – 1826
  147. Aaron Burr 1756 – 1836
  148. Selim III 1761 – 1808
  149. Joséphine de Beauharnais 1763 – 1814
  150. Joachim Murat 1767 – 1815