How long did the oldest man in the world live? The longest living people on the planet - who are they?

The Question of Duration human life has occupied the minds of scientists from all countries and peoples for many centuries.

What affects life expectancy?

Factors that undoubtedly influence a person’s life span are: place of residence (from climatic features territory up to cultural traditions of the peoples inhabiting it), attitude to health and nutrition, as well as genetic predisposition (if there were already long-livers in the family of this individual).

The oldest people on Earth who manage to live a long time certainly arouse interest from scientists. Many are convinced that it is in their lifestyle that the key to longevity should be sought. The most comprehensive work in this direction was carried out by the team of searching for records from the well-known book of the same name. Finally, it was possible to establish the names and identities of long-lived heroes not only in the present, but also in the distant past.

The record was set

Over the entire existence of the Guinness Book of Records, hundreds of people have submitted applications to it who want to immortalize themselves or their loved ones and enter world history as "the most an old man on Earth." It’s no secret that our average life expectancy is considered to be from 65 to 80 years. However, this does not prevent many people from overcoming this milestone and easily living two or even three lives of an average person. So who is are they people who have seen several eras?

As already mentioned, there are surprisingly quite a lot of them. However, among those living and those who have already died, only four are worth mentioning. The oldest people on Earth are Jeanne Louise Calment, Shigechio Izumi, Thomas Peter Thorvald Christian and Anna Eugenie Blanchard. They were the ones who managed to be included in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest people in our history.

Zhanna Kalman

He is considered the undisputed favorite in this race. Today she is the longest-lived living and deceased person and bears the title of “the oldest person on Earth”, posthumously.

It is not surprising that a woman occupies a leading position. Scientists have long established that representatives fair half On average, humanity manages to live 15-20 years longer than men.

Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment was born almost a century and a half ago, back in 1875. She passed away at the age of 122, on August 4, 1997. Almost 45 thousand days of life is the longest period ever recorded. She managed to outlive her own children and even some grandchildren.

For my amazing life Zhanna Kelman managed to witness many historical events. She was 14 years old when the legendary architect Alexander Eiffel finished building his tower. At the same age she met Vincent Van Gogh and, according to her, great artist Jeanne did not like the post-impressionist at all, as he was very gloomy and unkempt. Zhanna Kelman also attended the funeral of the poet Victor Hugo.

Contrary to popular belief that smoking is one of the most harmful habits affecting life expectancy, Zhanna, the oldest person on Earth, became addicted to cigarettes in at a young age. According to her relatives, she smoked at least twice a day for most of her life.

Until her 110th birthday, Zhanna Kelman lived independently, without requiring any help or support. She then moved into a nursing home, where she spent the rest of her life. Zhanna is known as the oldest person on Earth; her photo can be seen below. She managed to give many interviews and participate in the filming of several documentaries.

Second place

These two centenarians currently share second place in the Guinness Book of Records. Due to bureaucratic nuances and the lack of reliable information, it was not possible to establish who is older. Only one thing is clear - both Izumi and Christian are by far the oldest among men.

A native of Denmark, Thomas Peter, lived 115 years, and the Japanese Shigechio Izumi, according to some sources, 105, and some others - 120 years. Representatives of the Book of Records are inclined to the second option and conditionally give the silver medal for Izumi’s longevity, but this must be proven and certified this fact, unfortunately, it is not possible.

Shigechiyo Izumi

Shigechio Izumi is the oldest male person on earth in history. He was born in 1865 and died in 1986. Unfortunately, there are simply no documents that could confirm his date of birth, and this figure is known literally from the words of his relatives and Izumi himself. In addition to the record of longevity, he is also registered as a person who has worked for more than 98 years - the longest period of working life. This is much longer than the average life expectancy in some states. The Japanese man's name appears in one of the oldest censuses ever conducted, which took place in his home country in 1871. According to family records, Shigechio died at the age of 105, but the reliability of this information is highly questionable.

Thomas Peter Thorwald Christian

Thomas Peter Thorwald Christian was born in 1882 and died in 1998. The data on his life expectancy from birth to death is not questioned, and it is 115 and a half years. This is confirmed by the date of Peter’s baptism recorded in the church, and by population censuses conducted in Denmark.

The oldest person on Earth still living

Whether the agreed top three will remain with their records these days largely depends on one person. Frenchwoman Anne Eugenie Blanchard recently celebrated her 119th birthday. She is the oldest person on Earth. Walter Breuning, one of the representatives of the male half of the planet's population, is still alive and the oldest US citizen. As for Anna Eugenie Blanchard, at present, she occupies the absolute leading position among those still alive and has already overtaken Torvald in age, currently catching up with Izumi.

How many years would you like to live? 70-80? Or maybe 100? But is this possible? Quite! Many countries and territories are home to people who have managed to maintain relative health and memory even after the hundredth anniversary of their birth. So, who are the oldest people in the world?

Chinese Lee Ching-Yun

Lee claimed that he was born in 1736 and lived to be 197 years old! And in 1930, a professor at Minkuo University, By Chang-shin, discovered curious records indicating that Li Ching-yung was born not in 1736, but in 1636, and telling how the Chinese Government congratulated him on his 150th and 200th birthdays. -summer anniversaries! How so? Perhaps there was another person named Lee Ching-Yun, or Lee himself forgot the year, or rather the century, of his birth. Since the case is old, now no one can say for sure how this story actually unfolded. One thing is clear, Lee lived long life and died at a ripe old age, “fed up with days.” He was born and lived his entire long life in the Chinese province of Sichuan. Over the years of his life, he buried 23 wives and raised 180 children. They say Lee was a very calm and self-possessed person. In any situation I tried to maintain peace of mind, and nothing could unsettle him. Maybe this is the secret of longevity?

Tuti Yusupova is the oldest living person

Tuti Yusupova is a citizen of Uzbekistan, Karakalpak by nationality, born on July 1, 1880. She recently celebrated her 133rd birthday on July 1, 2012. In 2010, in Uzbekistan, she was filmed as the oldest inhabitant of the Earth. documentary"Witness of three centuries."

Grandmother Tuti lives with her family in the village of Karakalpakia, and works hard all her life for the good of her homeland and her family. Tootie has been married since she was 17 and has now lived as a widow for many years since her husband died in the 1940s. She raised children from whom Tootie now has more than 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A citizen of Georgia, Antisa Khvichava was born on July 8, 1880 in the Tsalenjikha region (village of Sachino). At 130 years old, she retained clarity of thought and could play backgammon. Not only friends and relatives, but also representatives of various public services and the district administration, even a rural folk group performed their songs for her.

Antisa Khvichava worked all her life in her village in agriculture, retired only when she was well over 80. She died not so long ago, on September 30, 2012, at a good old age, at the 133rd year of her life. More than 1,000 people attended her funeral. Relatives, friends, and fellow villagers gathered to honor the memory of grandmother Antisa, the oldest person in Georgia.

Born in 1875 in France. She died in August 1997 at the age of 122 years, 164 days. Her active image Even young people can envy their life. At the age of 80, Zhanna began fencing, and at the age of 100 she was riding a bicycle with all her might. She is survived by her family: husband Fernand Calment, daughter Yvonne, grandson Frederic. Unfortunately, in our time people die not only from old age and illness, but also from coincidences, accidents, murder and similar, less pleasant things. Yvonne died in 1934 from pneumonia, and Frederic died in a motorcycle accident in 1963.

Jeanne also survived the lawyer Francois Raffret, who made a deal with her to purchase the old woman’s property after her death. This was in 1965, when Zhanna was 90 years old and the lawyer was 47. Raffray agreed to pay Zhanna a certain amount every month. But he died before Jeanne, never living to receive the inheritance. At the time of his death, Raffray was 77 years old, and Jeanne survived him by two years, regularly receiving his widow's payments. All my long and rich life she lived in the provincial town of Arles in France.

Madame Kalman believes that the secret of her longevity is that she was quite spoiled in life and never worked. Her health was quite good, taking into account the fact that Zhanna smoked all her life, drank alcohol in moderate doses and never followed a diet. She liked spicy and vegetable foods, sweets and good wine. Not a day went by without chocolate, a glass at lunch and my favorite cigarettes. However, Zhanna retained her femininity into old age. I always tried to look elegant and took care of myself. Madame Calment died in a nursing home in Arles.

Surprisingly, the oldest people on the planet at their age are able to jump with a parachute (George Moise, 97 years old); work in medicine (Walter Watson, more than 100 years); becoming a father (Nanu Ram Jogi, 90); work as a yoga instructor (Betty Culmon, 83); give birth to children (Rajo Devi Lohan, 70 years old) - the age of these people is not indicated today, but at the time of their achievements. Some of them plan to live many more years and accomplish a lot. Well, we are very happy for them!

In Russia, life expectancy is also not so bad. Unfortunately, the oldest resident of Russia, Dagestani Magomed Labazanov, died in September 2012, before his 123rd birthday. His birth details have been fully established and verified. The long-lived Russian lived in the village of Staraya Serebryakovka. Even the name of the area is quite appropriate.

Other oldest people in Russia:

• Sarhat Ibragimovna Rashidova, Azerbaijani by nationality - born in 1885 in the village of Verkhniy Zidyan (Dagestan), having lived 132 years, died in January 2007.
• Zakurdaeva (Lavkina) Pelageya Osipovna– lived in Altai. Born in 1886 in the village of Novaya Barda. She lived in Uzbekistan for some time, but then returned to her homeland on her centennial. In March 2005, just shy of her 119th birthday, Pelageya Osipovna died from complications caused by the flu.
• Afanasy Ivanovich Tarasov, a resident of Vladivostok, died in 2003 at the age of 116.

The oldest people living on Earth today:

• Bess Cooper (USA) – born August 26, 1896
• Jiroemon Kimura (Japan) – born April 19, 1897
• Delma Collar (USA) – born October 31, 1897
• Misawo Okawa (Japan) - born March 5, 1898
• Marcel Narbonne (France) - born March 25, 1898.

The oldest person in history is Methuselah. His age, according to the Holy Scriptures, is 969 years old; he lived at the very beginning of human history. The very first man, Adam, lived 930 years according to biblical data. Gradually, people's life expectancy became shorter and shorter, and for many years people who have crossed the 90-year threshold have been considered centenarians.

One of the oldest women in Italy, Theresia Staffler, died on Monday evening in the mountain town of Santa Valpurga in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige at the age of 112. Staffler was far from the only famous centenarian whose age exceeded 100 years.

The length of human life depends on many reasons. This is both a genetic predisposition and environment, and a person’s mood, his desire to live. Only people live to be a hundred years old small share percent of the total number of people on Earth.

According to gerontologists, life expectancy modern man 40% less than what is allotted to it by nature: 100-120 years of active and full life not the limit for the human body.

By classification World Organization In healthcare, long-livers include elderly people who have crossed the 90-year mark.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the limit for human life expectancy is 122 years. Jeanne Louise Calmat, a resident of France, born on February 21, 1875 in Arles, lived this long. Japanese resident Shigechio Izumi, who was born in 1865 and died of pneumonia in 1986, lived two years less.

But many scientists and journalists believe that the Guinness Book of Records does not have all the data on centenarians. Thus, a reporter from the Cairo newspaper Al-Akhbar talks about a man who, according to him, is 195 years old and perfectly remembers the opening of the Suez Canal.

The population census in Vietnam in 1991 also made its own adjustments to the question of centenarians. A man aged 142 was discovered in Cun Khol County, Nget Tinh Province. There, in Vietnam, they found a centenarian who was born in 1847, outlived her three husbands and has four children who are already over 100 years old.

According to unverified data, one of the oldest inhabitants of the planet was Chinese citizen Li-Chgung-yan, who was born in 1680 and died in 1933 at the age of 253 years. However, these reports are not documented.

One of the oldest inhabitants of Colombia, Javier Pereira, lived to be 169 years old. A special edition was issued in his honor Postage Stamp. On the day Pereira turned 146 years old, government officials and senior officials came to congratulate him. They asked the hero of the day for his consent to issue a commemorative stamp with his image in his honor. Pereira agreed, but set a condition: at the bottom corner of the stamp it should be written: “I drink and I smoke.”

In the Soviet Union, a postage stamp was also issued in honor of the long-lived Mukhamed Eyvazov (he was 148 years old at the time). After this, Eyvazov lived for another three years. He died in August 1959.

An interesting case is described by English historians. In 1635, the peasant Thomas Parr came from the provinces to London to appear before King Charles as a miracle of longevity. Parr claimed that he had outlived nine kings and was 152 years old. In honor of the long-liver, the king threw a magnificent feast, after which Thomas Parr suddenly died. It was opened by the famous English doctor William Harvey, who discovered blood circulation. According to Harvey, Parr died of pneumonia, but, as legends say, the cause of his death was the rich treat at the king's table. Parr was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey.

Of the most famous centenarians, the following can also be noted:

Zoltan Petridzh (Hungary) - 186 years old.

Peter Zortai (Hungary) - 185 years old (1539-1724).

Cantigern is the founder of Glasgow Abbey. Known as Saint Mungo. Lived 185 years.

Tense Abziva (Ossetia) - 180 years old.

Huddiye (Albania) - 170 years old. His offspring numbered 200.

Hancer Nine (Türkiye). Lived 169 years. Died in 1964.

Sayyad Abdul Mabud (Pakistan) - 159 years old.

IN developed countries There is a constant struggle in the world for the survival and improvement of the nation, for increasing the life expectancy of each person. Increasing life expectancy in all countries of the world is achieved by reducing child mortality and reducing mortality from cancer and heart diseases. Thus, by defeating diseases, humanity strives to get closer to achieving the upper limit of human life.

Leonard Hayflick, professor of anatomy at the University of California, based on his human survival charts for individual countries and different periods obtained a theoretical curve with an upper limit of 115 years. At the same time, Hayflick discovered another interesting pattern: it turns out that a person’s life expectancy is proportionally related to the ratio of brain weight to body weight. The greater this ratio, the longer life, and this has changed quite dramatically at certain periods during evolution. Last time its strong increase occurred 100 thousand years ago, after which it practically did not change, just as the ratio of brain weight to body weight did not change.

Leonard Hayflick also expressed an original point of view on the aging of the body. According to him, aging occurs after growth stops, and those creatures whose growth does not stop over time (shark, sturgeon, Galapagos tortoise) age very, very slowly.

About the upper limit of human life various world scientists they say differently. The famous medieval physician Paracelsus believed that a person could live 600 years. Albrecht von Haller and Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (scientists of the 18th century) considered the age of 200 years to be the limit of human life. Russian scientists Ilya Mechnikov and Alexander Bogomolets spoke about 160 years.

As paradoxical as it may sound, rarely do any long-livers die a natural death directly from old age. Almost always the cause of death is various diseases - cardiovascular, oncological, infectious.

In his “Etudes of Optimism,” Mechnikov pointed out that “in 1902 in Paris, out of 1000 deaths between 70 and 74 years, only 85 people died of old age. Most old people died from contagious diseases: pneumonia and consumption, from heart disease, kidney disease or cerebral hemorrhage." Even the famous long-livers, the Englishman Thomas Parr (152 years old) and the Turk Zara Aga (156 years old), died not from age, but from disease (the first from pneumonia, the second from uremic coma caused by prostate disease).

Among centenarians, drunkards are often found. The surgeon Politiman died at 140 years old (1685-1825); From the age of 25, he used to get drunk every day after finishing his studies. Gascony, a butcher in Trieu (Pyrenees), who died in 1767 at the age of 120, got drunk twice a week. The example of one Irish landowner Brown, who lived to be 120 years old, is striking. He bequeathed a tombstone inscription to be made for him, stating that “he was always drunk and so terrible in this state that death itself was afraid of him.”

But some centenarians loved wine, others coffee. So, for example, the famous Voltaire loved coffee very much, and when one doctor began to tell him that coffee is poison, Voltaire replied: “It will be 80 years since I have been poisoned by this poison.” Coffee lover Elizabeth Durien lived to be 114 years old.

They say that smoking shortens life. However, many centenarians smoked. Ross, who received the Longevity Award at age 102 (1896), was a heavy smoker.

Scientists have always been interested in the so-called “foci of longevity,” isolated areas where people live much longer than in other places and retain vitality and energy until the end of their lives. One such region is Abkhazia, where almost 3% of the population are centenarians, over 100 years old.

In 2000, there were an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people in the United States aged 100 years or older. Centenarians represent one of the fastest growing age groups in the US population.

The average life expectancy in Cuba, a neighbor of the United States, is one of the highest in the world: 76 years. At the same time, for the country's 11 million population, there are about 3 thousand people who have crossed the century mark.

Taiwan boasts the number of its centenarians over 100 years of age. According to the Xinhua Agency as of October 2009, there are 1,223 of them in the state. Among the elderly people, 853 are women and 370 are men. The oldest of them are a 116-year-old resident of Kaohsiung City and a 113-year-old resident of Lianhua County, Taipei City.

In November 2009, peasant Halima Solmaz, the oldest woman on the planet who lives in eastern Turkey in the highland province of Diyarbakir, turned 125 years old. In confirmation of this, a representative of the provincial census bureau showed the identity card of the ecumenical hero of the day, which recorded the date of birth of grandmother Halime - 1884.

On January 11, 2010, at the age of 112, one of the oldest women in Italy, Theresia Staffler, died in the mountain town of Santa Valpurga in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige.

Staffler, who was born in 1898, managed to live in the 19th, 20th and XXI centuries. She ranked 45th on the world list of centenarians.

Teresia will be buried by her two daughters, who are 88 and 85 years old, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The title of “longest living” woman on the planet goes to an American Gertrude Weaver. She was born in peasant 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 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 most old woman 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 she never found out that her mother was one of the top five world 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 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 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 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 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 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".

Not everyone knows about this person. And when a ranking of the planet’s longest-livers is created, for some reason they don’t always remember about it. But there was such a person as Lee Ching-Yun. The man lived to be 256 years old! A striking note about the death of this old man appeared in 1933 in the most famous magazines.

In the entire history of the world, only this man lived to such a respectable age. Interestingly, Lee Ching-Yun happened to become the father of 180 children! And during his own long life, the man managed to change more than 20 wives.

Although Kalman did not live to see the twenty-first century, as she died in 1997, she did see the very first car. In addition, she lived during the birth of cinema and television. Zhanna also saw the very first planes.

3rd place

Shigechiyo Izumi takes an honorable 3rd place in this ranking. The man lived 120 years. It's amazing that until the age of 105, Izumi worked as a school teacher!

The wife of this centenarian was 90 years old when he buried her. Izumi himself was then about 100 years old.

Sarah Knauss rightfully ranks 4th in the ranking. The woman herself did not care one bit that she was the most important person in American history. old woman. Having died on the 30th of December 1999, Sarah was not able to live into the 21st century quite a bit.

The Knauss daughters said that their mother’s calmness could always be envied. Not a single stress touched her during her long life of 119 years. This American woman lived with her husband in happy marriage 64 years old!

Knauss had the opportunity to witness 7 wars in her country.

The ranking of centenarians simply could not do without Lucy Hannah, who lived 117 years. This is the oldest African American woman in world history. Lucy died in 1997. Over her long life, Hannah gave birth to eight children. At the same time, this amazing woman buried six of her own offspring.

6th place

Maria Louise Mailer rightfully takes 6th place in the ranking. This woman died at the age of 117. Together with her own son, Maria was in a nursing home. Actually, her daughter was 90 years old at that time.

During her long life, Maria managed to become the mother of ten children. And this woman was married twice. Maria loved to smoke. She managed to get rid of the bad habit almost 30 years before own death. The woman also did not disdain alcohol.

7th place

Maria Capovilla, who lived 116 years, could not appear in this ranking. This woman's life was amazing. Maria happened to be born into a wealthy military family. Throughout his life, Capovilla did not have a single bad habit.

At the age of 99, Maria suddenly became seriously ill. Doctors didn't think she could survive. However, everything happened differently. When Capovilla recovered, she was able to walk on her own. IN South America Mary was the oldest woman in history. Capovilla managed to live in three centuries, since she was born in 1889 and died only in 2006.

In Asia, this woman was recognized as the oldest in history. Tane loved embroidery and stucco. Surprisingly, the Japanese woman had to survive her own four children!

9th place

Elizabeth Bolden, like the two previous representatives of the rating, lived to be 116 years old. But after the designated date, Elizabeth lived only 118 days, which is why she ended up in 9th place in the ranking.

At the time of Bolden's death, two of her seven children were still alive.

American Bessie Cooper also lived to be 116 years old. But after this date, the woman lived 102 days. Cooper became a widow at age 68. She then went to a farm and lived there until she moved into a nursing home.