The oldest person who ever lived
On August 4, 1997, Jeanne Calment died in a nursing home in France. Of course, the Grim Reaper will come for all of us, but he took his time to see Mrs. Kalman. She died at the age of 122 years and 164 days, setting the official record for human longevity. Before her, the title of «the oldest person on the planet», according to the Guinness Book of Records, was carried by the Japanese Shigichiyo Izumi, who was born on June 29, 1865, and died on February 21, 1986, at the age of 120 years and 237 days. Interestingly, both Kalman and Izumi did not deny themselves either drinking or smoking. And unofficially, the oldest person on Earth was the Chinese Li Qingyun, presumably (since there are no documents confirming this) who was born in 1736 and died in 1933. Some sources even cite 1677 as the date of birth of Qingyun. That is, at the time of his death he was 256 years old. For most of his life, this man was engaged in collecting medicinal herbs in the Sichuan mountains and comprehending the secret of longevity. When Lee was asked about the secret of his fantastically long life, he replied, «keep your heart quiet, sit like a turtle, walk alert like a dove and sleep like a dog.» He also did qigong gymnastics and drank herbal infusion, the recipe for which has been lost.
List of the oldest inhabitants of the planet
This is what a dozen verified long-livers of the Earth look like, both now alive and have already left this world.
Zhanna Kalman — lived for 122 years.
Sarah Knauss — 119 years old.
Lucy Hannah — 117 years old.
Nabi Tajima — lived for 117 years.
Maria Louise Meyer — 117 years old.
Violet Brown — 117 years old.
Emma Morano — 117 years old.
Misao Okawa — 117 years old.
Kane Tanaka — 117 years old, alive.
Chiyo Miyako — lived for 117 years.
There is not a single man in the top 10 centenarians, because the oldest verified centenarians (Jiroemon Kimura) lived 116 years and 54 days.
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