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A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. The term is associated with longevity due to the fact that average life expectancies across the world are still far from 100. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more.
Reaching an old age has fascinated people for ages. According to the Bible, Methuselah lived to be 969 years old (Genesis 5:27). Today some maintain that the unusually high longevity of Biblical patriarchs are the result of an error in translation: lunar cycles were mistaken for the solar ones, and the actual ages are 13.5 times less. This gives 72 years for Methuselah, which is still an impressive number, bearing in mind the life expectancy of these times. This theory however, seems doubtful to others since patriarchs such as Mahalalel (ibid 5:15) and Enoch (ibid 5:21) were said to have become fathers after 65 "years." If the lunar cycle theory were accepted this would translate to an age of about 4 years and 10 months.
Some of the (nonapocryphal) claimants to longevity records are (see also: "Known for attaining high age" below):
In the United States, centenarians traditionally receive a letter from the president upon reaching their 100th birthday, congratulating them for their longevity. Willard Scott of NBC's Today show has also named them on air since 1983. In the United Kingdom, the Queen sends greetings (formerly as a telegram) on the 100th birthday and on every birthday starting with the 105th.
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.
List of centenarians
Here is a list of well-known centenarians (with supercentenarians emphasized strongly).
This list is divided into sub-lists, according to how the centenarian became well known.
Activists/non-profit leaders
Actors/filmmakers/entertainers
Artists
Authors/poets/journalists
- Ba Jin (1904-Living), Chinese author
- Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963)
- Fulgence Charpentier (1897-2001), Canadian journalist and columnist
- Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999)
- Eve Curie LaBouisse (1904-Living), author of biography of her mother Marie Curie
- Geoffrey Dearmer (1893-1996)
- The Delany Sisters (1889-1999; 1891-1995)
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)
- Richard Eberhart (1904-Living), Pulitzer-Prize winning poet
- 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
- Frances Partridge (1900-2004)
- Fernando Pessa (1902-2002), Portuguese journalist and radio broadcaster
- Carl Rakosi (1903-2004)
- 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)
Businessmen
Educators/school administrators
Explorers
Jurists/practitioners of law
Military commanders
- Aaron Bank (1902-2004), "Father of Special Forces"
- Sir Philip Christison (1893-1993), British general
- Henry Fancourt (1900-2004), Royal Navy officer, pioneering Naval Aviator
- 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 Alward Van Fleet (1892-1992), US general
- Sir Provo Wallis (1791-1892), Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
Musicians/Composers/music patrons
- Irving Berlin (1888-1989), composer
- Eubie Blake (1883?-1983) Famed Jazz pianist and composer (may have been only 96)
- Irving Caesar (1895-1996)
- Jimmie Davis (1899-2000), singer, songwriter, Governor of Louisiana
- Anthony Galla-Rini (1904-Living), known as "Mister Accordion"
- Sidonie Goossens (1899-2004), harpist from famous music family
- 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)
- Tillit S. Teddlie (1885-1987), hymn composer
- Grete von Zieritz (1899-2001), pianist and composer
Nobility
- 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)
- Jean Pierre Francois Joseph Pineton, Marquis de Chambrun (1903-2004)
- Cora, Countess of Clancarty (1892-1993)
- Countess Elsa Bernadotte (1893-1996)
Philosophers/theologians
Politicians/government servants
- Mahmud Celal Bayar (1884-1986), President of Turkey
- Samuel Brawand (1898-2001), Swiss politician
- Nripen Chakraborty (1904-2004), Indian politician, former Chief-minister of Tripura
- 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
- Marinus van der Goes van Naters (1900-Living), Dutch politician
- John Netherland Heiskell (1872-1972), 2nd US senator to reach 100 years
- Naruhiko Higashikuni (1887-1990)
- Christopher Hornsrud (1859-1960), Prime Minister of Norway
- Piet Kasteel (1901-2003), Dutch diplomat, governor of Curaçao
- 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
- Edward 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 Súñer (1901-2003), Spanish politician
- Emanuel Shinwell (1884-1986)
- Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) (1898-2003)
- 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), US Congressman
- David Wark (1804-1905), Canadian senator
- Zhang Qun (1889-1990), Chinese politician
- Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsüeh-liang) (1901-2001)
- Xenophon Zolotas (1904-2004), former Prime Minister of Greece
Relative of someone well-known
- Brooke Astor (1902-Living), wife of W. Vincent Astor
- Marshall Collier (1838?-1954), great-grandfather of Oscar Robertson
- 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
- Martin Konigsberg (1900-2001), father of Woody Allen
- Eve Curie LaBouisse (1904-Living), daughter of Marie Curie
- 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.
Religious leaders/Clergymen
- Laban Ainsworth (1757-1858), American clergyman and pastor
- Saint Anthony (251-356)
- Corrado Cardinal Bafile (1903-2005)
- Henry Boehm (1775-1875)
- Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963) American clergyman, missonary and author
- Archbishop Alfonso Carinci (1862-1963), official of the Roman Curia
- Edward Howard (1877-1983), archbishop
- Francesco Minerva (1904-2004), Archbishop emeritus of Lecce, Italy
- John Linus Paschang (1895-1999), bishop of Grand Island, Nebraska
- Sophronius IV of Alexandria (1798-1899), Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria
- Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji (1828?-1963)
- 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
Royalty
Scientists/mathematicians
- 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 (1900-2004)
- Hans Erhard Bock (1903-2004), German physician, Tübingen
- Su Buqing (1902-2003)
- Henri Cartan (1904-Living), mathematician
- Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889)
- Harriette Chick (1875-1977)
- Rickard Christophers (1873-1978), protozoologist
- William David Coolidge (1873-1975)
- Ray Crist (1900-Living), chemist, retired from teaching post in 2004
- Lelia Denmark (1898-Living), pediatrician, discovered pertussis vaccine
- Gordon S. Fahrni (1887-1995), physician, expert on goiter
- Raymond Firth (1901-2002)
- Viktor Hamburger (1900-2001)
- Arthur R. von Hippel (1898-2003)
- Rudolf Hell (1901-2002)
- Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829)
- Ancel Keys (1904-2004)
- Nathaniel Kleitman (1895-1999), discoverer of REM sleep
- Paul E. Klopsteg (1889-1991)
- Jerome F. Lederer (1902-2004)
- Inge Lehmann (1888-1993)
- Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), biologist
- Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963)
- Franco Rasetti (1901-2001)
- Waldo Semon (1898-1999)
- Brian Shaw (1898-1999), chemist famous for his lectures on explosives
- Dirk Jan Struik (1894-2000)
- F. William Sunderman (1898-2003)
- Leopold Vietoris (1891-2002), mathematician
- Zheng Ji (1900-Living) professor of Nanjing University, Chinese pioneer of nutriology and biochemistry.
Sportspeople
- Constance M. K. Applebee (1873-1981), field hockey
- Jacques Gerschwiler (1898-2000), figure skating
- Fred W. Hooper (1897-2000), racehorse owner
- Ulrich Inderbinen (1900-2004), mountain guide
- Keizo Miura (1904-Living), Japanese skier and ski instructor
- Ted Radcliffe (aka "Double Duty Radcliffe") (1902-Living)
- James Stillman Rockefeller (1902-2004), rowing, Olympic gold medal (see also under Business)
- Herman Smith-Johannsen (1875-1987), cross-country skiing
- Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965), American football
- Leon Stukelj (1898-1999), olympian
- Rhys Thomas (1904-2004), rugby
Miscellaneous
Known for attaining high age
- 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 (1889-2004), among oldest recently documented
- Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan (1889-2004), documented in 2004 as slightly older than Benkner
- Hendrikje van Andel (1890-Living), oldest confirmed living person
- Fred H. Hale, Sr. (1890-2004), oldest man of the world
- Anne Samson (1891-2004), oldest nun ever documented
- Emma Verona Johnston (1890-2004), succeeded Benkner as oldest in United States
- Eleanor Plant (1893-2004), oldest Floridian
- Lina Zimmer (1892-2004), oldest German
See also
External links
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