Jeanne Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment was born in February 1875 in France and lived through three centuries' worth of change. Census records show she outlived both her daughter and her grandson, a quiet inversion of the expected order. In January 1988, she was widely reported to be the oldest living person in the world. By 1995, at 120, she was declared the oldest person in history with a verified date of birth. She died in August 1997 at 122 years and 164 days — a lifespan that attracted media attention and medical studies, researchers searching her health and habits for clues. No one verified has matched he…