With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Oldest man in world dies at 116

Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early on Wednesday morning, Kyodo News cited the local government as saying.

Mr Kimura, from Kyotango in Kyoto Prefecture, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in December 2012 when a woman from the United States died at the age of 115.

On the 28th day of that month he broke another record, when he became the oldest man ever verified to have lived when he reached the age of 115 years and 253 days.

However, he was well off the all-time record set by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, making her the longest living person in history....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)