Another centenarian died on January 18, 2016 in Japan - a 112-year-old Yasutaro Koide, born in Fukui PrefectureMarch 13, 1903. Previously, the man was hospitalized due to exacerbations of chronic heart disease.
Yasutaro Koide
After his death, the title of Japan's oldest man went to 111-year-old Tokyo resident Masamitsu Yoshida.
The now deceased Koide received the status of the world's oldest man last summer, after his compatriot Sakari Momoi, who was also 112 years old, passed away.
Also last year, Japan's oldest resident died, whose name was not disclosed at the request of her relatives. At the time of her death she was 115 years old.
After that, the title of the oldest woman in Japan went to 115-year-old Nabi Tajima from Kagoshima Prefecture.
The question of human life expectancy has long been exciting the minds of not only scientists, but also ordinary mortals. Experts are constantly searching for an anti-aging remedy or a cure for immortality.
Not long ago I even wrote that by 2045, scientists plan to begin resurrecting people from the dead and creating immortality technologies by transferring consciousness into a computer shell. However, on our planet there have been and remain people whose age significantly exceeds the notorious 100 years, and who do not lead such a correct lifestyle.
So, we present to you a list of the ten most famous centenarians in history. Separately, we note that the life expectancy of these 10 people was officially confirmed.
Danish-American record holder for most years lived Christian Mortensen considered to be the oldest man on record. He was born on August 16, 1882, and died on April 25, 1998, having lived 115 years, 252 days.
Christian Mortensen
The man immigrated to America in 1903. In the New World he worked as a tailor and milkman. He cited "friends, good cigars, drinking plenty of good water, avoiding alcohol, an optimistic outlook on life, and singing" as the secret to his longevity.
Maggie Pauline Barnes was born into slavery in the United States on March 6, 1882, and she died on January 19, 1998 at the age of 115 years and 319 days. Little is known about this woman, but we can say for sure that she not only withstood all the hardships and hardships, but also outlived 11 of her 15 children.
Maggie Pauline Barnes
American Bessie Cooper born August 26, 1896, and died December 4, 2012 at the age of 116 years. Answering a question about the secret of her longevity, the woman said: “I I don’t stick my nose into other people’s business,” and added, “And I don’t eat junk food.”
Bessie Cooper
Another centenarian from the USA Elizabeth Bolden born August 15, 1890 and lived until December 11, 2006 - 116 years 118 days. She was born into a family of freed slaves in Tennessee.
Elizabeth Bolden
Thane Ikai born on January 18, 1879 into a family of farmers in the Japanese city of Kansei. At the age of 20, she got married, after which she gave birth to 4 children, whom she outlived by the time of her death on July 12, 1995. The woman loved to embroider fromanimate with ceramics. Her daily diet consisted mainly of rice, which, most likely, in combination with a traditional Japanese diet, helped protect her from heart disease and cancer.
Thane Ikai
Maria Capovilla born in Ecuador on September 14, 1889. Having lived to 116 years 347 days, she became the oldest South American woman in history and the longest living person in the southern hemisphere. The woman died on August 27, 2006, less than a month before her 117th birthday. Almost until the end of her days, Capovilla was healthy and energetic. She I drank a little alcohol, but never smoked.
Maria Capovilla
French-Canadian centenarian from Quebec Maria Louise Mailer was 117 years 230 days old at the time of her death on April 16, 1998. By then, one of her sons was living in the same nursing home as her, and her daughter was 90 years old.
Maria Louise Mailer
Lucy Hannah lived to be 117 years and 248 days. She is considered the oldest African American woman and the third oldest person in history.
The woman was born in Alabama in the USA on July 16, 1875. She married in 1901. During her marriage, she had 8 children, six of whom she survived.
The second oldest person in history is consideredSarah Knauss.She passed away at the age of 119 years 97 days. This happened on December 30, 1999.
Sarah Knauss
The oldest person who has ever lived on Earth is considered to beZhanna Kalman. Officiallyher record has not yet been broken. The woman lived 122 years 164 days.
She was born in the French city of Arles on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997. During her amazing life, she witnessed the invention of the automobile, as well as cinema and airplanes. At the age of 13, she dated Vincent Van Gogh.
Zhanna Kalman
Jeanne Kalman, as she herself said, had “immunity from stress,” was witty, and at every birthday she talked about a new secret to longevity.
It is known that the centenarian rode a bicycle and drank port until she was 100 years old. In addition, she smoked almost until her death. The best advice was the saying: “If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry.”
Unofficial centenarians
However, scientists still cannot give an exact answer about the age of the oldest man in the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the palm belongs to the Japanese Shigechiyo Izumi, who allegedly was born on June 29, 1865, and died on February 21, 1986. That is, the Japanese centenarian, according to sources, lived 120 years and 237 days.
Shigechiyo Izumi
All of the listed centenarians were surpassed by the Chinese Lee Ching-Yun, whose extra-long life has not been officially confirmed. It is believed that he was born in 1677 and died in 1933, that is, at the time of his death he was 256 years old!
The earthly "superstar" spent his entire long life in the mountains of Sichuan, doingcollection, preparation and sale of medicinal herbs. He also visited Tibet, Kan-Su, Shanxi, Manchuria and other countries to collect plants.In his youth, he practiced martial arts, and his neighbors spoke of him as a vigorous and strong man.
According to some reports, the oldest man had 24 wives and 180 heirs, many of whom have already passed away. The Chinese always followed a strict diet, ate rice and wine, and drank decoctions from herbs collected with his own hands.
Lee Ching-Yun
Examples of centenarians are found in the countries of the post-Soviet space and in Russia. But there are not very many such people, and besides, their life expectancy has not been officially confirmed.
One such example is a citizen of Uzbekistan Tuti Yusupova, Karakalpak by nationality. The woman was born on July 1, 1880, and died on March 28, 2015, allegedly aged 134 years.
Tuti Yusupova
Citizen of Georgia Antisa Khvichava born July 8, 1880 in the village of Sachino. She died on September 30, 2012 at the age of 133.
Antisa Khvichava
Azerbaijani by nationality Sarhat Ibragimovna Rashidova born in 1885 in the Dagestan village of Verkhniy Zidyan. After living for 132 years, she died in January 2007.
Sarhat Ibragimovna Rashidova
Living in Altai, she was born in 1886 in the village of Novaya Barda. For some time she lived in Uzbekistan, but then at the age of 100 she returned to her homeland. The woman died in March 2005 from complications caused by the flu, having lived 119 years.
Zakurdaeva (Lavkina) Pelageya Osipovna
Resident of Vladivostok Afanasy Ivanovich Tarasov died in 2003 at the age of 116.
Afanasy Ivanovich Tarasov
In Dagestan, the well-known “grandfather” Magomed Labazanov died at the age of 123 in the fall of 2012.
As for those living today, recently there is a man named Mahashta Murasi living in India, who turned 180 years old this year. The centenarian claims to be immortal.
According to the only document preserved by Murashi, it is known that he was born on June 1, 1835 (according to other sources - in January 1835), he worked as a shoemaker. The man claims that he is so old that he has already outlived his great-great-granddaughter.
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Mahashta Murasi
The title of “longest living” woman on the planet goes to an American Gertrude Weaver. She was born into a farming family in Arkansas. She got married at 17, gave birth to four children, but after breaking her hip at 104, she ended up in a nursing home. She left the facility several times, lived with relatives, but ultimately decided to stay in a specialized facility that provided appropriate care for the elderly.
Gertrude Weaver. Photo: Reuters
Weaver always noted three factors for her longevity - faith in God, hard work and love for others. And her motto in life: “Do everything in your power, and if something is not in your power, then it is not in your power.”
The next on the list of official centenarians on the planet is also an American - Geralian Talley.
Talley was born 115 years ago in Montrose (Georgia) into a large African-American family. She had 10 brothers and sisters. From early childhood, Geralian worked on a farm, picking cotton, peanuts and sweet potatoes.Talley says that she has never driven a car because one day she mixed up the pedals and the car went in the wrong direction. But Tally still enjoys going... fishing. On her 114th birthday, she gave herself a gift by catching 7 soms!
Geralian Talley's motto, which allows her to keep her spirits up and in a great mood every day, is “treat others the way you want them to treat you.”
The third place among the planet's centenarians belongs to a native of Alabama - Suzanne Mushatt Jones.
She, like Geralian Talley, was born into a large family. At the age of 24, Suzanne moved to New York, where she got a job as a nanny. Suzanne Mushatt Jones spent her entire life looking after other people's children, but she never knew the joys of motherhood. For the last 26 years she has lived in a nursing home, uses a wheelchair, but feels well.
Suzanne attributes the secret to her longevity to the fact that she never drank alcohol or smoked.
Positive attitude
The fourth oldest woman on the planet is Italian Emma Martina Luigia Morano. Today she is 115 years old.
Emma was born into a large family - she had 8 brothers and sisters. In October 1926, she married Giovanni Martinuzzi. But this marriage was not happy. Emma could not cope with the loss of their only child and broke off relations with her husband.
Emma says that she has always worked very hard. She was a cook, worked at a jute factory and at a boarding school. Only at the age of 75 did Emma retire.
When the Italian was asked what the secret of her longevity was, she said that she never took drugs, eats three eggs a day, drinks a glass of homemade brandy and sometimes indulges in chocolate. And, of course, he always looks into the future with optimism!
Another, fifth on the list long-liver Violet Brown born March 10, 1900 in Jamaica. She was the fourth child in her parents' family, but the only one who crossed the 100-year-old mark. In the early 1960s, Violette married August Gaynor Brown, but did not become a mother of many children. Her only daughter never found out that her mother was one of the world's top five centenarians.
Men live less
It is noteworthy that it is the fair sex who are at the top of the “hit parade” of centenarians. “Male” places in this long list only begin... from the 36th line! So, the oldest living man is considered Japanese. Sakari Momoi.
Sakari Momoi is “only” 112 years old. He was born into a peasant family in the city of Fukushima. Fortunately, the large-scale man-made accident of 2011 did not catch Momoi - by that time he had moved to another city.Sakari Momoi worked all his life in the education system - he was the director of first a technical and then a high school in the city of Saitama.
Momoi has three children. It is noteworthy that they are all alive to this day. And the Japanese grandfather also has 11 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.
In 2013, journalists asked Sakari Momoi how long he wanted to live. Momoi replied that he wanted to live for two more years. And, as we see, he kept his promise.
In second place among living male centenarians is also a Japanese man - Koide Yasutaro.
Nothing is known about Koide, except that he lives in the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture. And on January 27, 2015, Koide became the 35th oldest verified man in the world to ever live.
Yasutaro Koide and Sakari Momoi are the only men who are included in the verified (confirmed) list of the planet's centenarians.
Required to prove
However, there is a list of the oldest people on the planet, whose status has not yet been confirmed by official bodies and relevant documents. Here men occupy dominant positions. And the age that they attribute to themselves simply does not fit in their heads.
The oldest of these men is Indian Mahashta Murasi. He claims to have been born in January 1835. This means that today he is 180 years old!
If you believe the Indian “passport girls”, then Mahashta Mursai was born on January 6, 1835 in the city of Bangalore. Then Mahashta moved to Varanasi, where he got a job as a shoemaker and worked in this position until 1957. Thus it turns out that Mursai retired at the age of 122. “I outlived all my children and grandchildren,” says Mahashta Mursai, “it seems that death has forgotten about me...”
Unfortunately, Mursai has not yet undergone a special medical examination to confirm his age. Therefore, we can only take his word for it.Another long-living record holder is an Indonesian Mbah Gowo. It is not completely known whether this person has a real name or a fictitious one. There is also no certainty about the place of birth of Mbah Govo. Today he resides on the island of Java, where the local village chief and the islanders look after him. Mbah Gowo says he was born 144 years ago. His words are indirectly confirmed by historical facts witnessed by Mbah Govo. Thus, he very clearly remembers the construction of a local sugar factory in 1880. He was 10 years old at that time. Also, according to Mbah Govo, throughout his long life he had 4 wives and five children, but all of them had already died.
Also, one of the oldest people on the planet who has not yet confirmed their status is a Brazilian Jose Aginelo dos Santos. He says that he was born on July 7, 1888 into a family of African slaves in the city of Pedra Branca in Brazil. Jose has never been married, he does not and never has had children. To this day, he walks without a cane, has an excellent appetite and has no serious health problems. And this despite the fact that Jose has been smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for the last 50 years!
For most of his life, José Aginelo dos Santos worked on a coffee plantation in the city of Bauru. And after he retired, he moved into a local nursing home. Jose loves to tell jokes and sing songs and never misses his daily serving of rice and beans.
“There is no secret to living a long life,” José Aginelo dos Santos said in an interview with reporters, “you just need to accept everything as it is. I lived to this age simply because I lived a lot. That's all."
For centuries, humanity has tried to solve the mystery of longevity. After all, according to the Bible, before the Flood people lived up to 900 years. And Methuselah lived to be 969 years old.
However, scientists still do not know why this or that person becomes a supercentenarian. Some of these lucky people drink, smoke and indulge in “various bad excesses” all their lives, while others adhere to a strict diet and lead a healthy lifestyle. We don't know the answer to this question either. But we know how old is the oldest person in the world.
Oldest living person
The oldest person on Earth now is a resident of Japan, Kane Tanaka. According to the latest data from the Guinness Book of Records website, this woman is the oldest inhabitant of the Earth. Her age is 116 years and 66 days.
The life of Kane Tanaka is clear proof that at any age you should not give up. At the age of 103, she was diagnosed with an oncological disease (colon cancer), but the woman successfully overcame the disease and continues to enjoy life. She believes the secret to longevity lies in hope, family support, proper diet and sleep.
The previous record holder, Nabi Tajima, lived for 117 years and 260 days and died in 2018.
And the oldest male person in the world is Japanese Masazo Nonaka. He was born on July 25, 1905 and is due to celebrate his 113th birthday in 2018. In general, there are a lot of Japanese on the list of supercentenarians. Perhaps a diet rich in fish.
Oldest man who ever lived
On August 4, 1997, Jeanne Calment died in a nursing home in France. Of course, the Grim Reaper will come for us all, but he was in no hurry to get to Mrs. Kalman. She died at the age of 122 years and 164 days, setting the official record for human longevity.
Before her, the title of “oldest person on the planet,” according to the Guinness Book of Records, was held by the Japanese Shigechiyo Izumi, who was born on June 29, 1865 and died on February 21, 1986, at the age of 120 years and 237 days. It is interesting that both Kalman and Izumi did not deny themselves either drinking or smoking.
And unofficially, the oldest person on Earth was the Chinese Li Qingyun, presumably (since there are no documents confirming this) born in 1736 and died in 1933. Some sources even cite 1677 as the date of Qingyun’s birth. That is, at the time of his death he was 256 years old.
For most of his life, this man was engaged in collecting medicinal herbs in the mountains of Sichuan, and comprehending the secret of longevity. When asked about the secret of his fantastically long life, Lee replied: “keep your heart still, sit like a turtle, walk like a dove and sleep like a dog.” He also practiced qigong gymnastics and drank an herbal infusion, the recipe for which is lost.
List of the oldest inhabitants of the planet
This is what ten verified long-livers of the Earth look like, both those who are living and those who have already left this world.
- Jeanne Kalman lived 122 years.
- Sarah Knauss lived to be 119 years old.
- Lucy Hannah lived to be 117 years old.
- Nabi Tajima - 117 years old, alive.
- Maria Louise Meyer lived to be 117 years old.
- Violet Brown lived to be 117 years old.
- Emma Morano lived to be 117 years old.
- Misao Okawa lived to be 117 years old.
- Maria Esther de Capovilla lived to be 116 years old.
- Chiyo Miyako - 116 years old, alive.
There is not a single man in the top 10 centenarians, because the oldest verified centenarian (Jiroemon Kimura) lived 116 years and 54 days. And Chiyo Miyako’s age is 116 years and 336 days.
How long can a person theoretically live?
According to the Bible, a person can theoretically live to the Methuselah Age - 969 years. According to Li Qingyun, you can live over 250 years.
But Ian Vij, an expert on aging at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, doubts that we will see centenarians like Jeanne Calment again. Human life expectancy has increased over the past few decades. But now, Vij believes, we have reached the upper limit of human longevity and people will not cross the 115-year mark.
Scientists analyzed how many people of different ages were alive in a particular year. They then compared the numbers from year to year to calculate how quickly the population grew in each age range. The fastest growing segment of society has become the elderly. For example, in France in the 1920s, the fastest growing group was 85-year-old women. And by the 1990s, the fastest growing group of French women had already reached 102 years of age. If this trend were to continue, the fastest-growing group today could well be 110-year-olds. Instead, growth has slowed and appears to have stalled.
Dr. Vij and his students looked at data from 40 countries and found the same general trend. Scientists believed the reason was that humans had finally reached the upper limit of their longevity.
With rare exceptions, such as Mrs. Kalman, people do not live to be 115 years old. This “wall” is also obvious to the longest living people on Earth. “When you look at the second supercentenarian, and then the third, fourth and fifth, the trend is always the same,” Dr. Vij said. On the researchers' chart, Mrs. Kalman is an anomaly. Vij's team calculated how likely it was that someone would survive it, given current trends. Verdict: practically no one.
Video: Indonesian Mba Goto claims to be 145 years old
Mba Goto died in April 2017 after a long illness at the age of 146.
Human possibilities are limitless. This also applies to people's ability to live a very long time. Therefore, some people in their lives manage not only to give birth to their children, to expect grandchildren from them, but also to see great-grandchildren, and maybe even great-great-grandchildren. However, there are not so many centenarians at all times. So who is the oldest person in the world today?
Such a person lives in Bolivia (South Africa). His house, with a thatched roof and dirt floor, is located near the local Lake Titicaca. The name of the oldest person in the world is Carmelo Flores Laura, whose age is 124 years. He can rightfully be considered the oldest, since he has documentary evidence of his age - the documents indicate that the man was born on July 16, 1890.
Flores Lauro shares the main secret of his longevity - he believes that it all comes from the fact that he walks a lot, works just as much, and eats quite little. In addition, the oldest man in the world tries to eat as little noodles and rice as possible. The elder's main menu includes barley, potatoes, beans (he grows all of this himself) and lamb. Once, as a centenarian from Bolivia says, he managed to catch a fox, and he tasted its meat. The man had never drank alcohol in his life; even the taste of the “fiery” drink was unfamiliar to him. He drinks only the purest water, which flows from high mountain springs. Therefore, the man avoided any serious illnesses.
At 124 years old, the centenarian surprisingly has good eyesight. However, he no longer hears so well (sometimes his hearing even fails), and his teeth have long fallen out. He can neither write nor read, he speaks only Spanish. The centenarian very confidently says that he has long since passed one hundred, but he cannot say what his exact age is. During his life, Flores Laura raised three children, looked after 16 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren.
Among the people who claim to be the oldest in the world, and whose age can be documented, is also the Japanese centenarian Misao Okawa - today her age is 115 years. Before her, the Japanese centenarian was Jiroemon Kumura, who lived to be 116 years old. Also noted was the French centenarian Jeanne Calment, who died at the age of 122.
But still, the oldest in the entire history of mankind is considered to be the Chinese Li Ching-Yun, who died in 1933, when he turned 256 years old. This is undoubtedly worthy of being included in the Book of Records. There is very little information about the early life of this centenarian, but it is known that he was born and lived in Sichuan (province of China).
Many questioned the old man’s age, since it was not documented. In addition, this centenarian had a very vigorous appearance, and he could be given no more than 60 years old. Li Ching-Yun himself believed that the year of his birth was 1736. However, records found in 1930 showed that his birth year was 1677. Therefore, the Imperial Government of that time congratulated the centenarian on his 150th and 200th anniversary.
He was married 24 times (he outlived 23 of his wives) and managed to raise 180 heirs. They always followed a strict diet; he ate rice and drank herbal infusions. The centenarian always collected herbs himself. It was proper nutrition and mental balance that allowed him to live for many years.
But not everyone believes that Li Ching-Yun was really that old. It is conceivable that the man might have completely forgotten when exactly he was born. Therefore, it is impossible to know for sure whether this story is true or fiction - one can only guess. However, it is known that before his death, he gathered his relatives and informed them that his life’s journey was coming to an end. He urged those around him to always be calm, as this helps prolong life.