Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

François Couperin

France

1668 – 1733 (64 years old)

French Baroque composer and organist known as 'Couperin le Grand', the supreme master of the French harpsichord school and creator of the haunting 'Leçons de ténèbres'.

Paris, France

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Literature & Poetry

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Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi

عبد الغني النابلسي

Syria

19 March 1641 – 5 March 1731 (89 years old)

Prolific 17th-century Damascene polymath and poet who authored over two hundred works on Islamic law, mysticism, dream interpretation, and travel.

Damascus, Syria

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Politics

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Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ad-Dhahabi

أحمد الذهبي بن إسماعيل

Morocco

1677 – 1729 (52 years old)

Alaouite Sultan (1727–1729) who succeeded his formidable father Moulay Ismail, reigning through the turbulent initial phase of Black Guard (Abid al-Bukhari) military ascendancy.

Meknes, Morocco

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Philosophy & Thought

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Revolutionary Edo-period Japanese Confucian philosopher and political theorist who founded the School of Ancient Learning (Kogaku), rejecting Song Neo-Confucian moralism in favor of utilitarian institutional statecraft.

Tokyo (Sumida), Japan

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Sciences & Discovery

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Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Great Britain

4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 (84 years old)

Supreme giant of science whose Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica formulated the three laws of motion and universal gravitation, co-invented calculus, and discovered the color spectrum in light.

London, United Kingdom

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Moulay Ismail

مولاي إسماعيل بن الشريف

Morocco

c. 1645 – 1727 (82 years old)

Longest-reigning sovereign in Moroccan history (1672–1727), who consolidated the Alaouite Dynasty, created the formidable 150,000-man Black Guard (Jaysh al-Bukhari), expelled European garrisons from Larache and Tangier, and built the imperial capital of Meknes.

Meknes, Morocco

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Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great / Pyotr Alekseyevich)

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Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great / Pyotr Alekseyevich)

Пётр I Великий (Pyotr Velikiy)

Russia

9 June 1672 – 8 February 1725 (52 years old)

Tsar and first Emperor of All Russia who dragged the Tsardom out of medieval isolation into a major European empire. Modernized the military, built the Russian navy, founded the imperial capital of Saint Petersburg, and reformed science and statecraft.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

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Literature & Poetry

Chikamatsu Monzaemon

近松門左衛門 (Sugimori Nobumori)

Japan

1653 – 1725 (72 years old)

Japan's greatest dramatist (1653–1725), known as the 'Shakespeare of Japan', who authored over a hundred puppet (joruri/bunraku) and kabuki plays exploring the tragic conflict between social duty (giri) and human emotion (ninjo).

Amagasaki (Hyogo), Japan

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Politics

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Henry Kelsey

Great Britain

c. 1667 – November 1724 (57 years old)

First European explorer to travel across the Canadian Great Plains (1690-1692), first to see the massive bison herds and the grizzly bear.

Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

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Sciences & Discovery

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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Netherlands

1632 – 1723 (90 years old)

Dutch draper and self-taught scientist acclaimed as the 'Father of Microbiology', who ground exquisite single-lens microscopes magnifying up to 500 times to discover the microscopic living world: bacteria, protozoa, sperm cells, and red blood cells.

Delft, Netherlands

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Sciences & Discovery

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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Germany

24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723 (90 years old)

'Father of Microbiology' who ground single spherical lenses with 300x magnification to discover bacteria, protozoa (animalcules), spermatozoa, and red blood cells.

Delft, Netherlands

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Arts & Music

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Sir Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren

Great Britain

1632 – 1723 (90 years old)

Savilian Professor of Astronomy, founder of the Royal Society, and England's greatest architect who rebuilt fifty-two churches after the Great Fire of London, crowned by Saint Paul's Cathedral.

London, United Kingdom

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Kangxi Emperor

康熙帝 (爱新觉罗·玄烨)

China

1654 – 1722 (68 years old)

Fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty whose 61-year reign is the longest in Chinese history, who consolidated Manchu rule, defeated the Three Feudatories, and commissioned the Kangxi Dictionary.

Zunhua (Hebei), China

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Kangxi Emperor (Aisin Gioro Xuanye)

康熙帝 (Elhe Taifin Hūwangdi)

China

4 May 1654 – 20 December 1722 (68 years old)

Longest-reigning Emperor of China (61 years) who consolidated Qing rule over China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. A brilliant polymath who mastered Manchu, Chinese, Latin, and mathematics, commissioning the monumental Kangxi Dictionary.

Old Summer Palace (Beijing), China

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Arts & Music

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Jean-Antoine Watteau

Antoine Watteau

France

1684 – 1721 (36 years old)

Pioneering French Rococo painter who invented the 'fête galante' genre, capturing fleeting romantic intimacy, music, and melancholy in 'The Embarkation for Cythera'.

Nogent-sur-Marne, France

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Religion

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