Unfortunately or fortunately, human life is limited. Few people manage to live to see their centenary anniversary. In any case, they talk about centenarians and interview them, trying to revive memories of bygone times and the secrets of health. IN modern history There are a few people left who can safely be considered record holders in this area.

Those whose confirmed age exceeds 115 years can generally be called supercentenarians. Interestingly, some of them for a long time smoked, abused alcohol. Others cite exclusively healthy image life.

Of course, one can recall the Japanese Shigechiyo Izumi, whose age reached 120 years, or the legendary Azerbaijani shepherd Shirali Muslimov, who according to rumors lived to be 168 years old. However, such impressive figures have never been documented. We will tell you about those supercentenarians whose age has been verified.

Christian Mortensen (1882-1998). This man is officially considered the most important long-liver among the stronger sex. Born in Denmark, he lived most of his life in America. In total, Mortensen's age was 115 years and 252 days.

His birthday was August 16, 1882, and he died on April 25, 1998. The unusual thing about this centenarian is not only that he was a man. Indeed, among this category of venerable elders, nine out of ten representatives are women.

Mortensen managed to stand out because for 95 years of his life he smoked several cigars every day. Although scientists believe that marriage prolongs life, the man himself was single for most of his long life. He lived in marriage for only 10 years. In 1903, the Dane moved to the USA, where he worked as a tailor and milkman for a long time.

Maggie Pauline Barnes (1882-1998). This woman was born a slave on March 6, 1882. And she died 115 years 319 days later on January 19, 1998. Little is known about Maggie Barnes, but based on her impressive age, it can be assumed that her life was full of events. She passed through adversity with honor, including outliving 11 of her 15 children. The centenarian died from complications caused by a small infection in her leg.

Her record is also surprising because at the beginning of the 20th century, the average life expectancy for African Americans was 40-42 years, and for the white race it was slightly higher - 47 years. Although the gap is constantly narrowing, Barnes truly did the impossible - she lived 75 years longer than the average life expectancy in her time.

Bessie Cooper (1896 -). The already legendary woman was born on August 26, 1896. She has already celebrated her 116th birthday, becoming in 2011 the oldest inhabitant of our planet. She described the secret of her longevity simply - “I don’t pry into other people’s affairs,” adding, “I also don’t eat junk food.” Cooper's life spanned three centuries, she survived two world wars and witnessed significant turns in history.

Bessie started working as a teacher in Georgia. At the age of 28 she got married, her marriage lasted until the age of 69 with the death of her husband. Since then she lived alone family farm. At 105, Bessie moved into a nursing home. 4 children, 12 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson congratulated her on her 115th birthday.

Elizabeth Bolden (1890 - 2006). This woman was born on August 15, 1890 and lived until December 11, 2006. At that time she was 116 years and 118 days old. She was born in Tennessee, in a family of blacks freed from slavery.

Life has been pretty hard for Mrs. Bolden. Her longevity genes were not passed on to her children, so the woman was destined to outlive five of her seven children. But thanks to her, an enviable and numerous offspring appeared, which, most likely, will preserve the valuable longevity gene.

After Elizabeth Bolden's death, it turned out that she had more than 500 direct descendants, including 75 great-great-great-great-grandchildren. The woman worked on a farm all her life. She was always a family person and loved to give valuable advice.

In 2004, Elizabeth suffered a stroke, after which she began to speak little and sleep almost all the time. She died in a nursing home, having had time to taste ice cream and candy on her 116th birthday.

Thain Ikai (1879 - 1995). Ten Ikai has a confirmed lifespan of 116 years and 175 days. She is the most important centenarian, both in Japan and in Asia. She was born on January 18, 1879 in the city of Kansei, into a family of farmers. At the age of 20, the woman got married and had four children, all of whom she outlived by 1995.

Throughout her life, Thane enjoyed embroidery and ceramics. The basis of her diet was rice. Perhaps it was traditional Japanese food that saved her from cancer and heart disease. An autopsy of the woman after her death showed that she died of kidney failure. This is the only centenarian who underwent an autopsy procedure.

Maria Capovilla (1889 - 2006). This centenarian represents Ecuador. She was born on September 14, 1889, becoming the same age as the Eiffel Tower. As a result, Mary lived 116 years and 37 days. She went down in history as the oldest South American and oldest resident Southern Hemisphere. Capovilla died just a month before her 117th birthday.

The centenarian led a very healthy lifestyle. She never smoked, only occasionally drinking alcohol. Maria was born into the family of a colonel, her life began among the local elite. In 1917, the woman married an officer of Italian origin, Antonio Capovilla. The couple had five children, two of whom Maria eventually outlived.

At the age of one hundred, Maria almost died and even managed to take communion. However, she managed to recover without experiencing further health problems. The supercentenarian walked without a cane, read newspapers and watched TV. Her health declined rapidly, she stopped reading and talking.

Maria Louise Mailer (1880 - 1998). The woman died on April 16, 1998, when she was 117 years and 230 days old. One of her sons was with her in the same nursing home, and her daughter was already 90 years old at that time. And the French-Canadian centenarian was born in Quebec on August 29, 1880. At the age of 30, Maria Louise became a widow - her husband died of pneumonia.

After the tragedy, she moved to the Ontario-Quebec border, where she met her future second husband, Hector Mailer. Maria Louise herself believed that her longevity was her reward for her hard work. She really had a hard time - in two marriages she gave birth to 10 children. The centenarian liked to drink a glass of wine from time to time; she also smoked for a long time, getting rid of this addiction only at the age of 90.

Lucy Hannah (1875 - 1993). Surprisingly, this long-lived woman was never considered the oldest person on the planet. The fact is that she lived at the same time with Jeanne Kalman, the owner of such an honorary title. Be that as it may, Hannah lived to be 117 years and 248 days.

She is the oldest African American woman on the planet, and only two people have lived longer than her. modern history. Although her relatives claimed that due to confusion with documents, Lucy was a year older, this fact does not change her place in our ranking.

Lucy was born in Alabama on July 16, 1875. To escape racist persecution during the Great Migration, the woman moved to Detroit. In 1901 she married John Hannah and the couple had eight children. At the time of Lucy's death, only two of them were alive. It should be noted that Lucy owes her long life to her genes - her two sisters exchanged a hundred years, and her mother lived 99 years.

Sarah Knauss (1880 - 1999). Sarah is the second oldest person in history. She died when she was 119 years and 97 days old. She was born on September 24, 1880, and died just a few days before the new millennium. However, the honorary title of long-liver was of little concern to Sarah herself. When she was informed that she had become the oldest person on the planet, her only response was “So what?”

The woman lived all her life in Pennsylvania. She married at 21 and worked as a professional seamstress. Even your own Wedding Dress and Sarah sewed the tablecloths for the celebration herself. She started sewing at the age of 4. Sarah's daughter described her as very calm person, which nothing can disturb.

This is precisely where her secret of longevity lies, because it is known that stress greatly affects human health. Sarah had one child who lived to be 102 years old. She survived both her daughter and her husband, having been married for 64 years. Sarah Knauss survived 7 wars in America, the Great Depression, and lived under 23 US presidents. At the time of her death, she was older than the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

Sarah herself, at the age of 115, said that she liked living this long because she was still healthy enough to do some things on her own. Her passions became watching golf on TV and making sharp needles. She adored milk chocolate, nuts and chips.

Jeanne Kalman (1875 - 1997). This woman's record remains unsurpassed; she is the oldest person to ever live on the planet. It's hard to believe that anyone will soon be able to beat her record of 122 years and 164 days. Jeanne was born in Arles, France on February 21, 1875, and she died on August 4, 1997. During Jeanne's lifetime, humanity invented the automobile, cinema, learned to build airplanes and smelt stainless steel, and television appeared.

There was an amazing meeting in the life of Jeanne Kalman. At the age of 13, she met Vincent Van Gogh himself. She recalled that the great artist seemed dirty, gloomy and unkemptly dressed to her. Like Sarah Knauss, Zhanna's longevity is directly related to her immunity from stress. The woman was also witty, telling at each of her new birthdays about a new secret of her longevity.

On her 120th birthday, Jeanne was asked how she saw the future. To which she wittily and sadly replied: “Very short.” Up until she was a hundred years old, Jeanne Calment was still riding a bicycle and drinking port, and she generally smoked almost until her death. The woman claimed that she was able to deceive her age thanks to her strong stomach and physical activity. She advised people: "If you can't do anything about the problem, then there's no need to worry."

Interestingly, at the age of 90, Zhanna made a deal to sell her apartment to lawyer Raffrey. He undertook to pay a certain monthly amount to Mrs. Kalman, and after her death, the old woman’s property was to become his property. At that time, the cost of the apartment was equal to 10 years of contributions. As a result, Zhanna outlived the greedy lawyer by two years, living another 30 years after the deal was completed.

Long-lived- an ordinary representative of wildlife, characterized by a significant life expectancy compared to other representatives of its species.

Centenarians, a very definite concept, are not just older people. There are clear age limits, having stepped over which old man considered a long-liver.

True, in different countries these boundaries are defined in different ways. And yet the general world age for recognition as a centenarian is 90 years. In turn, in the USA this is 85 years, and in Russia a person who has reached the age of 90 is also considered to be a centenarian.

Research conducted by modern geneticists has revealed that on our planet, 5% of the population are carriers of a genetic combination that predicts extreme long life.

But, in order to become a long-liver, one healthy genome is not enough; our life expectancy is influenced by many factors, such as: lifestyle, diseases that have not yet been overcome, constant stress, environmental disasters and much more.

But as you can see, human life expectancy, despite all the costs of civilization, continues to grow. This is due to many discoveries in medicine and improved medical care. In this regard, the average life expectancy in the world since the time of homo sapiens, who lived on average 20 years, has increased to 70-75 years in our time.

Biblical centenarians.

If we turn to religious centenarians, the name of the biblical patriarch Methuselah, who allegedly lived 969 years, has become synonymous with centenarians. This is the most significant of those mentioned in different religions, myths and tales, the age of man, with the exception of the legendary Pan Ku, the supposed creator of the world, who, according to myths ancient China lived 18 thousand years, growing 3 m per day.

But Methuselah's age did not seem out of the ordinary among other biblical patriarchs. Just for seven years less veins his own grandfather, Jared.

Therefore, when talking about long-livers, in the 18th-19th centuries they used the term Aredian centuries, meaning the age of the patriarch Jared (Ared), who lived 962 years.

So, according to Old Testament, people before the Great Flood usually lived several hundred years: the first man on Earth Adam - 930 years, his son Seth - 912 years, his grandson Enos - 905 years, etc.

Subsequently, as the Bible says, due to increasing sinfulness, human life expectancy was reduced; and finally, according to Moses, it was established “in three terms and ten” (three times twenty and ten, i.e. seventy years).

True, some modern commentators on the Bible believe that the age of the Old Testament patriarchs could be measured according to the ancient Egyptian custom - at the rate of one month per year, or according to the custom of the ancient Jews - two months per year. Then there is nothing supernatural about the age of the biblical patriarchs.

Long-livers in the Guinness Book of Records.

To clarify the issue of maximum life expectancy,

The section dedicated to centenarians opens with a very pessimistic introduction, which states that not a single statistical question contains so many fabrications, rumors, and inaccuracies as the question of life expectancy.

Therefore, you can only focus on the life span of a particular person documented by the population census.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the recorded duration limit human life is 122 years old.

This longevity record belongs to the French woman Jeanne-Louise Calment (02/21/1875 - 08/04/1997).

Bess Cooper

The oldest living woman is 115-year-old American Bess Cooper, and the oldest man is 114-year-old Japanese Jiroemon Kimura, born on April 19, 1897.

Jiroemon Kimura

Jiroemon Kimura was born on April 19, 1897 in western Japan. After 40 years of working at the local post office, Kimura retired and farmed until he was 90 years old. In the winter of 2013, he was hospitalized due to poor health and was discharged on April 7. The record holder is currently feeling well.

It is reported that to this day, Jiroemon Kimura exercises on an exercise bike every morning, does not complain of appetite, and devotes several hours a day to reading.

He was presented with a certificate from the Guinness Book of Records, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a video congratulation to the hero of the day.

In total, only 12 people born in the 19th century are still alive in the world. He is the only man among them.

Why such low rates, although facts of much greater longevity are widely known? Yes, just for a record to be included in the Guinness Book of Records, it must be documented, with which, as mentioned above, problems arise.

With all due respect to the authority of the Guinness Book of Records, we can say that the data on longevity presented in this book are very incomplete. Thus, a reporter from the Cairo newspaper Al-Akhbar found a centenarian, who, according to him, is 195 years old. Ibrahim al-Karimi, who was allegedly born back in the eighteenth century, remembers the construction and opening of the Suez Canal.

The recent population census in Vietnam also brought a sensation.

A 142-year-old woman was discovered in Cun Khol County, Nget Tinh Province. Centenarian Ngan Thi Quang was born in 1847. She married three times and outlived three of her husbands.

A certain Jean Terel joined the French army in the 17th century and retired in the 19th century. It seems incredible: he served in the army for three centuries. So how long did he live?

Not as little, although not about three hundred, as it might seem. Jean Terel was born in Dijon in 1684, and joined the army at the age of sixteen, in 1699, at the end of the century. Participated in more than a hundred battles. In 1777, when he was 93 years old, King Louis XIV granted the old servant the rank of captain. In 1802 (Terel was already 118 years old), Napoleon found out about him. Contrary to the reluctance of the long-lived veteran, he gave him an honorable discharge, assigning him an annual pension of 1,500 francs. Jean Terel died in 1807, at the one hundred and twenty-third year of his life.

In honor of the centenarian Javier Pereira, who lived 169 years, a special postage stamp was issued in Colombia. This happened when Pereira turned 146 years old. On his birthday they came to congratulate him statesmen Columbia and asked the hero of the day for his consent to issue a commemorative stamp with his image. Pereira did not refuse the distinguished guests, but set one condition: at the bottom in the corner of the stamp it should be written: “I drink and smoke.”

A centenarian from Cuba celebrated her 127th birthday

Cuban resident Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodriguez, born in 1885, celebrated her next birthday in good health. The record holder was born on a small farm in the province of Granma and lives there to this day.

How are things going with long-livers in Russia?

In the USSR, 152-year-old centenarian Mahmud Bagir oglu Eyvazov (1808-1960) lived the longest. A postage stamp was also issued in his honor.

In general, life expectancy in modern Russia low: if average in Europe is 79 years for a woman and 71 for a man, while in Russia, according to data for 2003, these figures are 72 and 59, respectively.

You don't often see long-livers in modern Russia. If our ancestors had known about this, their surprise would have known no bounds: in the past, longevity was a very common phenomenon.

Which countries are the leaders among centenarians?

The leader in the number of centenarians is the Country rising sun. According to 2009 data, the number of centenarians in the country increased by 4 thousand compared to 2008 and exceeded 40,000 people. Such data was published by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.

Also, over the past thirty years, the number of Japanese over the age of 80 has doubled. The increase in life expectancy in Japan is largely due to a decrease in mortality from stroke and cancer. According to UN forecasts, by 2050 Japan will have almost a million inhabitants who have crossed the century mark.

If we do not go far from Mother Russia, then let us remember the youngest state that gained independence on the same day as South Ossetia- Abkhazia: here almost three percent of the population lived to reach the century mark.

Among the Abkhaz long-livers there were no gloomy and angry people; Abkhazians have a saying: “ Evil people They don’t live long.”

The United States, although a rather dynamic country, with at a fast pace life and not the best ecology, they can also boast big amount centenarians.

According to 2000 data, about 80 thousand live here. "centenarians".

The USA's neighbor is Cuba for 11 million. has three thousand inhabitants over a hundred years of age.

There is also a significant percentage of centenarians in Taiwan: data from October last year speaks of 1,223 residents over a hundred years of age.

The most famous centenarians:

According to unverifiable data, the oldest inhabitant of our planet was Chinese citizen Li Chung-yan (Qingyun), born in 1680 and died in 1933 at the age of 253 years;

According to his relatives, he was always doing exercises and breathing exercises, which apparently became the reason for such a long life, but the most important thing Li Qingyong taught his relatives was to remain calm, “you need to keep your heart calm and sleep like a last time“he said.

lived 186 years long-lived Zoltan Petrasz in Hungary;

lived 185 years his compatriot Peter Zortai (1539 - 1724);

The founder of the abbey in Glasgow, Cantigern, known as St. Mungo, lived for 185 years and died on January 5, 600;

The leader of the Mahammad Afziya tribe (Pakistan) lived 180 years; they claim that his father died at the age of more than 200 years;

Ossetian Tense Abzive also lived 180 years, and Arsigiri Khazitiev, a resident of the Grozny region, lived exactly the same amount of time;

Mr. Yorath, a subject of Her Majesty the Queen of England, was also 180 years old;

He lived for 177 years faithful wife Murphy Yorath;

170 years old - Albanian Khudiye, during this time his offspring reached two hundred people.

Japan sets a new record for the number of centenarians

Japan has set a new record for the number of centenarians who are over 100 years old. Behind last year there were 7 thousand more of them, and now there are about 32 thousand people. The government published these data today in connection with the upcoming national holiday on Monday - “Elderly Day”, ITAR-TASS reports.

Women account for about 86% of citizens born before 1908 - that is, 27,682 old women. For the 22nd year in a row, Japanese women remain first in the world in average duration life. Now it is 85.8 years. Japanese men are more than six years behind (79 years) and in this ranking are second on the planet after Icelanders (79.4).

However, Japan is proud that south island The oldest person on the planet, Tomoji Tanabe, lives in Kyushu in Miyazaki Prefecture. He is now 112 years old. The secret of longevity, as Tanabe himself believes, is that he does not drink alcohol or tobacco at all, carefully keeps a diary and regularly reads newspapers.

Japan has recently been officially recognized as the fastest aging country. One in five Japanese people is now over 65 years old. According to forecasts, by mid-century their number will double, and the population will decrease by 30% - to 90 million.

Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, 122 years old

She was the oldest inhabitant of our planet - she lived 122 years and 164 days. Jeanne was born on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997, survived both World Wars, during her life humanity landed on the moon and the Internet was born.

No one has yet managed to break her longevity record, and she is considered the oldest inhabitant of the planet. At the age of 115, Jeanne-Louise underwent surgery on her hip, and quit smoking when she was 117 years old, at the same time she gave up her daily glass of good port. She spent the last 12 years of her life in a nursing home, but remained sane, impressing the staff with her logic. Zhanna always tried to look impeccable, dressed in a strict black trouser suit and a white blouse, her handkerchief was always perfumed.

A curious case is also known: a certain unlucky notary volunteered to pay 92-year-old Jeanne-Louise life annuity for the right to inherit her small apartment, after which she lived for another 30 years, the notary himself died at the age of 77.

The oldest person to date

It is worth noting that the woman, by the way, who never went to school, cannot explain the reasons for her longevity.

Everyone jumped with the instructor. They spent half the height in free flight, after which the parachutes opened and the grandfather and grandson successfully landed on the Salisbury plateau, in the south of England.

British couple Ian and Jen Smith have been regularly participating in swingers' parties for more than 30 years, since the 70s of the last century, having already attended more than three hundred events.

The “King and Queen of Swingers” family includes eight grandchildren, and despite this, Ian and Jen claim that they continue to participate in orgies to feel young and healthy

THE MOST DEDICATED MARRIED COUPLE IN THE WORLD!

The Guinness Book of Records includes a stunning married couple- Karam, he is 107 years old, and his beloved wife is Katari Chand, she is 100 years old.

The couple has been happily married for 87 years.
The family first lived in the city of Punjab, India,

and now they live in Bradford, England.
Katari and Karam already have eight children and twenty-eight grandchildren.

Over 87 years of married life, they managed to understand the secret of how to live happily ever after.
The couple says that caring for each other and laughter are the source of... happy marriage. Karam said so: “My trick is that I constantly make Katari laugh. I tell her jokes and she smiles in response. Being funny is my way of being romantic."

This man helped deliver more than 18,000 babies during his 63 years of practice, and now, at the age of 100, he is still listed as a doctor in a hospital in Georgia, USA.

Now Walter Watson already has the well-deserved nickname “Papa Doc”, and among his patients there are entire families - from grandmothers to grandchildren.

Oldest employee at McDonald's

Most old instructor in yoga

Rajo Devi Lohan is an Indian woman who gave birth to her first child in November 2008 at the age of 70.

According to her, Rajo has been waiting for this moment for 40 years, and now she will raise the child and breastfeed him until at least three years old.

Ronnie and Donnie are twins conjoined from the waist down, who doctors said would not live a week.

Despite these predictions, these courageous people are now 58 years old, and have now given several interviews to preserve the details of their difficult lives for posterity.

Indian farmer Nanu Ram Jogi is already the father of 12 sons and nine daughters, as well as the grandfather of 20 grandchildren.

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 this institution several times, lived with relatives, but ultimately decided to stay in specialized institution, where there is adequate 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 of 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 the 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 catfish!

Geralian Talley's motto, which allows her to keep her spirits up and great mood every day, “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 in 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 one, fifth on the list, is a 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 first the director of technical and then 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 - the only men, which are included in the verified (confirmed) list of the planet's centenarians.

Required to prove

However there is a list oldest people planets whose status has not yet been confirmed by official bodies and relevant documents. Here men occupy dominant positions. And the age 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 passed the special medical examination to confirm your 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 and historical facts, which was witnessed by Mbah Gowo. 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 problems with health. 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".

Every person dreams of cheating time: prolonging youth, living a very long life. There is a whole list of people who have succeeded. Many of them were included in the Guinness Book of Records during their lifetime.

World statistics tell us that men live shorter lives than women. In this regard, it is quite logical that the most an old man there is also a woman in the world.

Born in 1875 in the south of France, in the city of Arles. Her parents also lived to be almost a hundred years old. However, these qualities were not passed on to her descendants. During her lifetime, she lost her daughter and grandson.

Jeanne-Louise in at a young age was acquainted with Vincent Van Gogh, who often visited her uncle's store. She later said that Van Gogh was a very unpleasant, rude person. She witnessed two World Wars and watched the construction of the Eiffel Tower. She passed away on August 4, 1997. At that time she was 122 years old.

After Kalman - also a woman. American Sarah Knaus was born in 1880. She lived to be 119 years old. There is practically no information about her life. What is known is that she died in 1990 in a nursing home.

The oldest person in the world (2012) is Bess Cooper. She was born in 1896 in American state Tennessee in and was the third child. Having successfully completed school, she moved to the town of Betwin, where she worked as a teacher. At the age of 28 she got married. She is currently 116 years old. She has four children, twelve grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

The oldest male person in the world was born in Japan in 1897. His name is Jiroemon Kimura. He worked as a postman for about forty years. After retirement I started working agriculture. When he turned 90, his health deteriorated. Today he rarely goes outside. However, he does exercises every day and rides an exercise bike. Kimura likes to read newspapers. Receives guests, is interested in politics and sumo.

He was born in 1882 and died at the age of 115 in 1998. He was born in 1882 and died at the age of 115. Christian was born in Denmark. Among the documents that were preserved after the census of those years, there are those confirming the date of his birth, and even his baptism. When Christian turned 21, he moved to America. He changed jobs many times. He was married, but not for long. I never had children in my entire life. It is known that he did not smoke and preferred water to other drinks. At the age of 90, Mortensen independently moved to a nursing home, where he lived until the end of his days. At the end of his life, Christian lost his sight and could only move with the help of a gurney. After his death, no close relatives could be found. Apparently, by this time they were no longer alive. Today, the title of “Oldest Man in the World” no longer belongs to Christian Mortensen. Nevertheless, he is the only native of Denmark to live to such an age.

These facts make us believe that there are no limits to human capabilities. The maximum age of a person increases with each generation.

There is such a wonderful phrase: “All people want to go to heaven, but are afraid to die.” That's why they dream of living long. And on Earth there are many cases where people lived to a very old age. Their life and secrets of longevity have always aroused the interest of society. Who are these long-livers? And how many years did the oldest man in the world live?

Would you like to know

About the old centenarian?

The oldest man in the world. Confirmed and unconfirmed facts about centenarians

Nowadays no one takes anyone’s word for it, so all any established achievements are recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

The first release of the Book took place on August 27, 1955, and since then the publication of a record in it has been officially registered.

But what then about the records that were set before the birth of the Book?

But no way. All that remains is to put the clause “according to eyewitnesses.”

So, “according to eyewitnesses,” the oldest person on Earth, Methuselah, lived 969 years.

• If you read the Bible, you will find a description that in those distant times people often lived to be 800 years old.
• Gradually, the threshold for longevity decreased, and today everyone who has crossed the 100-year mark is considered to be a centenarian.

By the way, there are not so few of them.

• Again, “according to eyewitnesses,” the oldest person in the world is Li Qingyun, who was born in China and lived 256 years.
• The same unconfirmed long-liver is the Azerbaijani shepherd Shirali Muslimov, who lived 168 years.
• Another unofficial centenarian is a resident of Georgia, Antisa Khvichava, who died at the age of 132.
• The oldest centenarian in Russia is considered to be Dagestani Magomed Labazanov, who died at the age of 123. They repeatedly wanted to register it in the Guinness Book of Records, but there was not enough time.
• Currently, the oldest resident of Russia, according to official data from the Russian Book of Records, is Tanzilya Bisembeeva, who still lives in Astrakhan region and reached 120 years of age. Her record is unofficial, as it has not yet been registered in the Guinness Book of Records.
• The leader among the world's documented centenarians is the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who lived 122 years, 5 months and 14 days.
• The official oldest person in the world is Emma Morano, who celebrated her 117th birthday on November 29, 2016.

How old is the oldest person in the world? Brief information about Emma Morano

Emma Morano lives in the small town of Verbania, located on the shores of Lake Lago Maggiore near the border of Italy and Switzerland.

She is believed to be the only living person born in the 19th century. Thus, she is a resident of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Emma survived three kings, eleven Popes and two world wars.

The centenarian was born into a large family.

• She was the eldest of eight children - five sisters and three brothers. All my life I worked at a jute factory, then as a cook.
• She was forcibly married to an unloved neighbor after her fiancé went missing during the First World War. According to her, the marriage did not last long - only two years, but actually lasted 13 years. Emma finally divorced her husband after the death of her only child, who died at the age of six months. The marriage was not happy - her husband often beat her.

Emma named the diet she has been following for almost 100 years as the secret to her longevity. At the age of 20, a doctor diagnosed her with anemia and advised her to eat three soft-boiled eggs, some meat, as well as fruits and vegetables.

Now the centenarian eats two raw eggs, one soft-boiled egg, a little finely chopped raw meat and a couple of cookies.

I eat little because I have no teeth

, she jokes.

Morano never smoked and drank alcohol very rarely. Despite her advanced age and problems with hearing and vision, she is of sound mind and strong memory. And even receives guests from different cities and countries.