Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Matonabbee

Canada

c. 1737 – Winter 1782 (45 years old)

Influential Chipewyan leader whose leadership and subarctic survival mastery enabled Samuel Hearne to reach the Arctic Ocean in 1771.

Churchill, Canada

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Arts & Music

35

Johann Christian Bach

Saxony

1735 – 1782 (46 years old)

Youngest son of J.S. Bach, known as the 'London Bach', who pioneered the Classical symphonic style, established public subscription concerts, and was a formative mentor to young Mozart.

London, Great Britain

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46

Tupac Katari

Julian Apaza Nina

Bolivia

c. 1750 – 1781 (31 years old)

Aymara indigenous leader who adopted the name Tupac Katari and mobilized 40,000 native warriors to lay siege to the Spanish colonial capital of La Paz for six months in 1781, uttering the immortal prophecy: 'I die today, but I will return, and I will be millions.'

Penas (Omasuyos, La Paz), Bolivia

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46

Gregoria Apaza

Gregoria Apasa

Bolivia

c. 1751 – 1781 (~30 years old)

Indigenous Aymara leader and military general who co-commanded the massive 1781 indigenous uprising and siege of La Paz alongside Tupac Katari.

La Paz, Bolivia

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Micaela Bastidas

Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua

Peru

1744 – 1781 (36 years old)

Indigenous Peruvian revolutionary strategist and co-commander of the massive 1780 Andean insurrection alongside her husband Tupac Amaru II, directing logistics, ammunition convoys, and frontline military battalions against Spanish colonial forces.

Cusco, Peru

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

47

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Túpac Amaru II

José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera

Peru

19 March 1738 – 18 May 1781 (43 years old)

Indigenous leader of Quechua royal descent who led the Great Rebellion of 1780 against Spanish colonial rule, issuing the first proclamation of the abolition of Black slavery in the Americas.

Plaza de Armas, Cusco, Peru

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Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne

35

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

France

1727 – 1781 (53 years old)

Enlightenment economist and Comptroller-General under Louis XVI whose Six Edicts sought to avert revolution through free trade, ending the corvée, and abolishing guilds.

Paris, France

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Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresia von Österreich

Austria

1717 – 1780 (63 years old)

Sole female ruler of the Habsburg dominions who defended her inheritance in the War of the Austrian Succession and modernized central Europe.

Vienna, Austria

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Arts & Music

31

Bernardo Bellotto

Italy

1722 – 1780 (58 years old)

Venetian view painter, nephew and pupil of Canaletto, whose hyper-realistic, dark-toned urban landscapes of Dresden, Vienna, and Warsaw were used to rebuild historic Warsaw after WWII.

Warsaw, Poland

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Philosophy & Thought

5

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

France

1714 – 1780 (65 years old)

Pioneering Enlightenment philosopher who radicalized John Locke's empiricism into pure sensationalism in his 1754 Traité des sensations, using the famous thought experiment of an awakened marble statue.

Lailly-en-Val (Loiret), France

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Humanities

4

Muhammad ibn Ali al-Nafati

محمد بن علي النفاتي

Tunisia

c. 1715 AD – 1780 AD (~65 years old)

18th-century historian and chronicler of the southwestern Tunisian oasis of Nefta, who documented the trans-Saharan caravan trade, date palm irrigation systems, and Sufi orders of the Djerid.

Nefta, Tunisia

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Arts & Music

33

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin

Jean Siméon Chardin

France

1699 – 1779 (80 years old)

Supreme French painter of quiet domestic genre scenes and still lifes whose tactile realism, soft natural light, and works like 'The Ray' and 'The Brioche' captivated Diderot.

Paris, France

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Science

2

Military Leaders & Strategists

Pehr Kalm

Petter Kalm

Sweden

1716-03-06 – 1779-11-16 (63 years old)

Pioneering Finnish-Swedish botanist and explorer, one of Linnaeus's foremost 'Apostles', who explored North America between 1748 and 1751 and authored En Resa til Norra America.

Turku, Finland

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Casimir Pulaski (Kazimierz Pułaski)

Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski

Poland

1745 – 1779 (34 years old)

Polish nobleman and general revered as the 'Father of the American Cavalry' who saved George Washington's life at Brandywine and died at the Siege of Savannah.

Savannah (Georgia), United States

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Philosophy & Thought

34

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Switzerland

28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778 (66 years old)

Genevan philosopher whose Social Contract, Émile, and Confessions championed popular sovereignty, direct democracy, natural education, and the primacy of authentic human sentiment.

Ermenonville (Oise), France

34 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought