Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index 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 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. In the United States, centenarians traditionally receive a letter from the president upon reaching their 100th birthday, congratulating them for their longevity. 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. 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 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 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) Actors/filmmakers/entertainers 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) Artists 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) Authors/poets/journalists 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) Businessmen 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) Educators/school administrators 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 Explorers Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) Ardito Desio (1897-2001) Helge Ingstad (1899-2001) Freya Stark (1893-1993) Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (1766-1875) Jurists/practitioners of law 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) Military commanders 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 Musicians/Composers/music patrons 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 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) 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) Philosophers/theologians 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) Politicians/government servants 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 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) Relative of someone well-known 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. Religious leaders/Clergymen 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 Royalty Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (1901-Living) Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002) 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-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) Nathaniel Kleitman (1895-1999) discoverer of REM sleep Paul E. Klopsteg (1889-1991) 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 Sportspeople 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 Miscellaneous 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) 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-Living), probably oldest now living See also the list in supercentenarian, Last Surviving Veteran External links U.S. politicians who lived long BBC news report on Habib Miyan, who has collected old age pension for 65 years This article is from Wikipedia. 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