Christian Mortensen
Christian Mortensen (born Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen ; born August 16, 1882 in Skaarup near Skanderborg , Denmark ; † April 25, 1998 in San Rafael , California ) was a Danish -American age record holder . From 1996 to 2012 he was known to be the oldest man in the world . He was the first man known to live to be 114 and 115 years old.
Life
In Denmark he first earned his living as a farm worker and completed an apprenticeship as a tailor . Mortensen emigrated to the United States in 1903 , lived there in various areas and worked, among other things, as a milkman and in a canning factory. He was only briefly married and had no children. Occasionally he smoked cigars . In 1978 he moved to a retirement community in San Rafael, California , where he spent his old age .
After Frederick Frazier's death in June 1993, Mortensen became the oldest living man, but this rubric did not yet exist in the Guinness Book of Records at the time . On January 2, 1996, he surpassed Frazier's age record and has been considered the oldest man ever since. In anticipation of the title “ oldest living man ” after the death of Jeanne Calment , he said angrily in 1997, after the Guinness editorial staff had awarded the award to the then 116-year-old Canadian Marie-Louise Meilleur : “They only did it to mine To spoil birthday. "
While there is no conclusive evidence of the age of the supposedly 120-year-old Shigechiyo Izumi, who was then still recognized by the Guinness Book , and his age is no longer verified in research, Mortensen's information does not raise any concerns: Entries in the baptismal register (December 26th 1882), in the confirmation book in 1896 and in the registers of the Danish censuses in 1890 and 1901 document his life data.
Mortensen died at the age of 115 years and 252 days. His age record was exceeded on December 28, 2012 by the Japanese Jiroemon Kimura .
See also
Web links
- John R. Wilmoth: Christian Mortensen, 1882-1998
- Christian Mortensen, 115, Among Oldest . In: The New York Times , May 3, 1998
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mortensen, Christian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mortensen, Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand (birth name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | oldest man (1996–2012) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 16, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skaarup , Denmark |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1998 |
| Place of death | San Rafael , California |