Reaching an old age has fascinated people for ages. According to the ancient book Genesis (chapter 5 verse 27) Methuselah managed to become 969 years old.

Some of the (nonapocryphal) claimants to longevity records are (see also: "Known for attaining high age below):

• Jeanne Calment - oldest person ever whose age has been verified by modern documentation; born 1875, lived to the age of 122. This defines the human lifespan, which is set by the oldest documented individual who ever lived.
• Shigechiyo Izumi (1865-1986) - oldest male ever recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records
• Christian Mortensen (1882-1998) - oldest male widely accepted by scholars
• Habib Miyan - unauthenticated claim to be 132; believed by Indian court to be at least 125 (in 2003), having retired in 1938. If true--and assuming no other similarly unproven claim to be even older is also true-- then each day he lives would extend the human lifespan by one day.

Among Hindus, people who touch the feet of elders are often blessed with "May you live a hundred years". In Poland, Sto lat, a wish to live a hundred years, is a traditional form of praise and good wishes; the Jewish tradition, however, is more ambitious, "May you live as long as Moses", or 120 years. Chinese emperors were hailed to live ten thousand years.

Table of contents

1 List of centenarians 1.1 Activists/non-profit leaders 1.2 Actors/filmmakers/entertainers 1.3 Artists 1.4 Authors/poets/journalists 1.5 Businessmen 1.6 Educators/school administrators 1.7 Explorers 1.8 Jurists/practitioners of law 1.9 Military commanders 1.10 Musicians/Composers/music patrons 1.11 Nobility 1.12 Philosophers/theologians 1.13 Politicians/government servants 1.14 Relative of someone well-known 1.15 Religious leaders/Clergymen 1.16 Royalty 1.17 Scientists/mathematicians 1.18 Sportspeople 1.19 Miscellaneous 1.20 Known for attaining high age 2 External links

List of centenarians

Activists/non-profit leaders

• Albert Jean Amateau (1889-1996)
• Melchora Aquino (1812-1919) "Mother of the Filipino Revolution"
• Catherine Bramwell-Booth (1883-1987), Salvation Army Commissioner
• Ruth Ellis (1899-2000)
• Alice Hamilton (1869-1970)
• Mother Jones (1830-1930)
• Paul Moyer Limbert (1897-1998), YMCA Secretary General
• Margaret Murie (1902-2003), conservationist
• Scott Nearing (1883-1983)
• Sanzo Nosaka (1892-1993)
• Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000)
• Thomas Wyatt Turner (1877-1978)
• Irvin F. Westheimer (1879-1980)

• George Abbott (1887-1995)
• Rosa Albach-Retty (1874-1980)
• Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004)
• Margaret Booth (1898-2002)
• George Burns (1896-1996)
• Dorothy Dickson (1893-1995)
• Mary Ellis (1897-2003)
• Liane Haid (1895-2000)
• Johannes Heesters (1903-Living)
• Bob Hope (1903-2003)
• Frederica Sagor Maas (1900-Living)
• Ivan Novikoff (1899-2002), ballet teacher
• Risto Orko (1899-2001), Finnish film producer and director
• Irving Rapper (1898-1999), film director
• Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), German filmmaker
• Hal Roach (1892-1992)
• Tonio Selwart (1896-2002), actor and stage performer
• Athene Seyler (1889-1990)
• Ninette de Valois (1898-2001)
• Señor Wences (1896-1999)
• Estelle Winwood (1883-1984)
• Adolph Zukor (1873-1976)

• Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902-2002)
• Theresa Ferber Bernstein (1890-2002)
• Alphaeus Philemon Cole (1876-1988)
• Hiragushi Denchu (1872-1979), Japanese sculptor
• Grandma Moses (1860-1961)
• Beatrice Wood (1893-1998)

• Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963)
• Fulgence Charpentier (1897-2001), Canadian journalist and columnist
• Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999)
• Geoffrey Dearmer (1893-1996)
• The Delany Sisters (1889-1999; 1891-1995)
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)
• Juan Filloy (1894-2000), Argentine writer
• Dorothy Frooks (1896-1997)
• Gregorio Fuentes (1897-2002)
• Edward K. Gaylord (1873-1974), newspaper publisher and philanthropist
• Ernst Jünger (1895-1998)
• Joseph Nathan Kane (1899-2002)
• Arthur Lehning (1899-2000), Dutch writer and anarchist-archivist
• Fernando Pessa (1902-2002), Portuguese journalist and radio broadcaster
• Carl Rakosi (1903-Living)
• Robert St. John (1902-2003)
• George Seldes (1890-1995)
• Grace Zaring Stone (1891-1991), pseudonym: Ethel Vance
• Walter Trohan (1903-2003), Chicago Tribune bureau chief and reporter
• Phyllis A. Whitney (1903-Living)
• Frances Partridge (1900-2004)

• Edward Bernays (1891-1995)
• Andrew George Burry (1873-1975)
• Godfrey Lowell Cabot (1861-1962), Cabot Corporation
• Albert Hamilton Gordon (1901-Living), Kidder, Peabody & Co.
• Cecil H. Green (1900-2003), Texas Instruments co-founder
• Garnet Hercules Mackley (1883-1986), Head of New Zealand Railways
• R. Samuel McLaughlin (1871-1972)
• Roy Neuberger (1903-Living)
• Mohan Singh Oberoi (1898-2002)
• James Stillman Rockefeller (1902-Living), First National City Bank of New York
• Hermann von Siemens (1885-1986)
• Sir Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989), aircraft pioneer
• W. Clement Stone (1902-2002), insurance leader
• Sir James Swinburne (1858-1958)
• Abdul Majid Zabuli (1896-1998)

• John Morton-Finney (1889-1998)
• Emily Howland (1827-1929)
• Seymour Lubetzky (1898-2003), librarian
• Millicent Carey McIntosh (1898-2001), President of Barnard College
• Albert E. Meyzeek (1862-1963) "Dean of Negro Education"
• Norman Walker Porteous (1898-2003), Dean at University of Edinburgh
• Laura Woolsey Lord Scales (1879-1990), Dean at Smith College
• Louis Round Wilson (1876-1979) librarian

• Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969)
• Ardito Desio (1897-2001)
• Helge Ingstad (1899-2001)
• Freya Stark (1893-1993)
• Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (1766-1875)

• Sampson Salter Blowers (1742-1842)
• William A. Bootle (1902-Living)
• Melville Henry Cane (1879-1980), American lawyer and poet
• Lord Alfred Denning (1899-1999), Master of the Rolls
• Rush Limbaugh I (1891-1996)
• Harold Raymond Medina (1888-1990)
• L. Welch Pogue (1899-2003)
• Hartley Shawcross (1902-2003)
• Samuel Williston (1861-1963)
• Joseph William Woodrough (1873-1977)

• Aaron Bank (1902-Living), "Father of Special Forces"
• Sir Philip Christison (1893-1993), British general
• Sir George Higginson (1826-1927), British General
• John L. Hines (1868-1968), General, Chief of Staff US Army
• Stanislaw Maczek (1892-1994) Polish General
• James A. Van Fleet (1892-1992)
• Sir Provo Wallis (1791-1892), Admiral of the Fleet

• Irving Berlin (1888-1989), composer
• Eubie Blake (1883/1887-1983) - may actually have only been 96
• Irving Caesar (1895-1996)
• Jimmie Davis (1899-2000), singer, songwriter, Governor of Louisiana
• Anthony Galla-Rini (1904-Living), known as "Mister Accordion"
• Roy Henderson (1899-2000)
• Bill Johnson (1872-1972)
• Paul Le Flem (1881-1984) French composer
• Conrad Leonard (1898-2003), pianist and composer
• Sir Robert Mayer (1879-1985)
• Marcel Mule (1901-2001)
• Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia (1805-1906), music and singing teacher
• Leo Ornstein (1892-2002)
• Joseph Salemi (1902-2003), jazz trombonist
• Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995)

• Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne (1901-2002)
• Ethel Sydney Keith, Countess of Kintore (1874-1974)
• Frank Douglas-Pennant, 5th Baron Penrhyn (1865-1967)
• Judith, Countess of Listowel (1903-2003)

• Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002)
• Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000), pioneer of Process Theology
• Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983)
• Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890-1991)
• Alfred Vaucher (1887-1993), French theologian, church historian
• Paul Weiss (1901-2002)

• Mahmud Celal Bayar (1884-1986), third President of Turkey
• Samuel Brawand (1898-2001), Swiss politician
• Roswell Keyes Colcord (1839-1939)
• Cornelius Cole (1822-1924), longest-lived US senator
• Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (1721-1824)
• Georges-Casimir Dessaulles (1827-1930), Canadian senator
• Willem Drees (1886-1988), prime minister of the Netherlands
• Eleanor Lansing Dulles (1895-1996), U.S. diplomat
• Jules Ellenberger (1871-1973), British colonial administrator
• Josef Felder (1900-2000)
• Hamilton Fish III (1888-1991), US Congressman
• John Netherland Heiskell (1872-1972), 2nd US senator to reach 100 years
• Naruhiko Higashikuni (1887-1990)
• Christopher Hornsrud (1859-1960), Prime Minister of Norway
• George F. Kennan (1904-Living), Cold War policy architect
• Alfred M. Landon (1887-1987), governor of Kansas and presidential nominee
• Sir Moses Haim Montefiore (1784-1885)
• Sir William Mulock (1844-1944), Canadian politician and cabinet member
• Muhammad al-Muqri (c. 1840s? - 1957)
• George Alexander Parks (1883-1984), territorial governor of Alaska.
• Antoine Pinay (1891-1994), French prime minister
• Eduard Bernard Andrzej Raczynski (1891-1993), Polish diplomat
• Richard G. Reid (1879-1980), premier of Alberta
• Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977)
• Murray Seasongood (1878-1983), mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Ramón Serrano Suñer (1901-2003), Spanish politician
• Emanuel Shinwell (1884-1986)
• Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) (1897-2003)
• John Ward Studebaker (1887-1989)
• Reginald H. Sullivan (1876-1980), mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana
• Maurice H. Thatcher (1870-1973), US Congressman
• Strom Thurmond (1902-2003)
• David Wark (1804-1905)
• Zhang Qun (1889-1990), Chinese politician
• Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsüeh-liang) (1901-2001)

• Brooke Astor (1902-Living), wife of W. Vincent Astor
• Jean Faircloth (1898-2000), wife to Douglas MacArthur
• Mary Hanford (1901-2004), mother of Elizabeth Dole
• Rose Kennedy (1890-1995), mother of John F. Kennedy
• Richard Mudd (1901-2002), grandson of Samuel Mudd
• Ruby Muhammad (1897-Living) wife of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad
• Cecelia Gertrude Lenerz Pulvermacher (1895-1999), mother of Lucian Pulvermacher, self-made Antipope Pius XIII.

• Laban Ainsworth (1757-1858), American clergyman and pastor
• Saint Anthony (251-356)
• Corrado Cardinal Bafile (1903-Living)
• Henry Boehm (1775-1875)
• Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963) American clergyman, missonary and author
• Edward Howard (1877-1983), archbishop
• John Linus Paschang (1895-1999), bishop of Grand Island, Nebraska
• Tillit Sidney Teddlie (1885-1987), American hymnalist and pastor
• Daniel Waldo (1762-1864)
• Herbert Welch (1862-1969), Methodist Bishop and President of Ohio Wesleyan University

• Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (1901-Living)
• Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002)

• Charles G. Abbot (1872-1973), astronomer and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Wilson Baker, FRS (1900-2002) headed school of chemistry at University of Bristol, England
• Arnold O. Beckman (1900-Living)
• Su Buqing (1902-2003)
• Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889)
• Harriette Chick (1875-1977)
• Rickard Christophers (1873-1978), protozoologist
• William David Coolidge (1873-1975)
• Gordon S. Fahrni (1887-1995)
• Raymond Firth (1901-2002)
• Viktor Hamburger (1900-2001)
• Rudolf Hell (1901-2002)
• Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829)
• Ancel Keys (1904-Living)
• Nathaniel Kleitman (1895-1999) discoverer of REM sleep
• Paul E. Klopsteg (1889-1991)
• Jerome F. Lederer (1902-2004)
• Inge Lehmann (1888-1993)
• Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963)
• Franco Rasetti (1901-2001)
• Waldo Semon (1898-1999)
• Dirk Jan Struik (1894-2000)
• F. William Sunderman (1898-2003)
• Leopold Vietoris (1891-2002), mathematician

• Constance M. K. Applebee (1873-1981), field hockey
• Jacques Gerschwiler (1898-2000), figure skating
• Fred W. Hooper (1897-2000), racehorse owner
• Ted Radcliffe (also known as "Double Duty Radcliffe") (1902-Living)
• Herman Smith-Johannsen (1875-1987), cross-country skiing
• Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965), American football
• Leon Stukelj (1898-1999), olympian

• Henri Dufaux (1879-1980), aviator
• Eleanor Lambert (1903-2003), U.S. fashion pioneer
• Irene Wells Pennington (1898-2003), multimillionaire oil widow
• Connie Douglas Reeves (1901-2003), cowgirl
• Saadi (1184-1283/1291)

• Thomas Parr (1483??-1635), lived for 152 years according to his gravestone at Westminster Abbey, but probably a conflation of grandfather and grandson.
• Katherine Young (1901-Living), may be the oldest internet user
• Charlotte Benkner (1889-Living), probably oldest now living

External links

• U.S. politicians who lived long
• BBC news report on Habib Miyan, who has collected old age pension for 65 years