centenarians

Century’s …

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“Bacon makes everything better.”—a sign in Susannah Mushatt Jones’s kitchen.

The 19th Century came to a conclusion in the United States on Thursday night with the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones of Brooklyn, New York, who was born on July 6, 1899. She held the title of oldest person in the world since June 17 of last year. Every person alive in America right now was born after the dawn of the 20th Century or in this current one.

Every person who is not Emma Morano (pictured above) of Verbania, Italy, was born after January 1, 1900, too. Ms. Morano was born on November 29, 1899, and she is the oldest person alive on the planet now and is also the last human being who was here the century before last.
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Legacy Project

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“Bacon makes everything better.”—a sign in Susannah Mushatt Jones’s kitchen.

Susannah Mushatt Jones of Brooklyn, NY, is 116 years old today. She was born on July 6, 1899, in Alabama, and one of her grandparents was a slave. When Jeralean Talley died in June at the age of 116, Miss Jones became the oldest verified person on Earth. “I’m the oldest person in the world? No I’m not,” she is said to have exclaimed to her relatives.

At the moment, Mushatt Jones and Emma Morano of Italy, who was born in November 1899, are the last two people alive who were born in the 19th Century. The last breath of that century is upon us.
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