Supercentenarian: Encyclopedia II - Supercentenarian - History

Supercentenarian - History

While claims of extreme age have persisted from the earliest times in history, the earliest supercentenarian accepted by Guinness World Records is Thomas Peters, who was born in Groningen, Netherlands, April 6, 1745, and died there March 26, 1857. (Guinness once accepted Pierre Joubert, but later dropped him). However, scholars such as Jean-Marie Robine consider Geert Adriaans Boomgaard of the Netherlands (1788-1899) to be the first verifiable case, as the alleged evidence for Peters has been "lost." The earliest supercentenarian to reach the age of 113 is Delina Filkins, who was born in Herkimer County, New York, May 4, 1815, and died there December 4, 1928.

Over eight hundred supercentenarians have been documented in history, and this is doubtless a fraction of the number who have really lived, but the majority of claims to this age do not have sufficient documentary support to be validated. This is slowly changing as those born after birth registration was standardized in more countries and parts of countries attain supercentenarian age.

The longest documented lifespan is the 122 years 164 days of Jeanne Calment (1875–1997). While her stories of meeting Vincent Van Gogh or attending the 1885 funeral of Victor Hugo might have been embellished, her life was documented in the records of her native city of Arles, France, beyond reasonable doubt.

The Guinness Book of World Records in 1978 accepted the claim that Shigechiyo Izumi was born June 29, 1865, and from the 1980 edition considered him the oldest person. He died February 21, 1986 (the 111th birthday of Jeanne Calment). However, there is still doubt as to whether he was wrongly conflated with a brother who died young.

For supercentenarians known for anything other than their extreme age, see centenarians.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki