Jeanne Calment - Record Breaking

Record Breaking

After her 1988 interview, at age 113, Calment was given the Guinness title "world's oldest living person". However, in 1989, the title was withdrawn and given to Carrie C. White of Florida, who was claimed to have been born in 1874, although this has been disputed by subsequent census research. On White's death on 14 February 1991, Calment, then a week shy of 116, became the oldest recognized living person.

On 17 October 1995, Calment reached 120 years and 238 days to become the "oldest person ever" according to Guinness, surpassing Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan, whose claim (120 years 237 days old at the time of his death on 21 February 1986, Calment's 111th birthday) has been discounted. Calment was believed to have been the first person verified to have reached 115 years of age, although Augusta Holtz has since been verified to have reached this age before her.

She is also the only person to have lived for 120 years. The person who came closest to this age was Sarah Knauss of the United States, reaching 119 years, 97 days on her death on 30 December 1999.

Calment also holds the record for being the oldest living person for the longest period of time, by far – with nearly nine years and seven months, counting from the death of Florence Knapp on 11 January 1988, to her own death on 4 August 1997.

Calment broke the record for longest confirmed lifespan (previously thought to have been held by Anna Eliza Williams, who died in 1987 at age 114 years, 208 days, subsequent research has proved that Augusta Holtz was the oldest ever person at this time, she died in 1985 at the age of 115 years, 79 days) by over seven years. Breaking a previous record for age by that amount was, in itself, a record. Before Calment, the only person who had surpassed a former longest confirmed lifespan with more than one year, was Delina Filkins who became the first 113-year-old in 1928. Filkins surpassed the by-then longest confirmed lifespan with just over two years.