In 1903, the year of his birth, the Wright brothers did the first motorized flight and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
Le Monde with AFP
She was officially recognized as the current dean of humanity. The Japanese Kane Tanaka died on April 19 at the age of 119, announced on Monday, April 25 the local authorities.
Kane Tanaka was born on January 2, 1903 in the Fukuoka department (southwestern Japan): that year, the Brothers Wright made the first motorized flight and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was relatively healthy until recently and lived in a retirement home in her natal department, where she loved board games, solving mathematics problems, soda and chocolate.
Younger, M me Tanaka had managed several businesses, including a noodle shop and a rice cake store. She had married in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth. She had planned to participate in wheelchair at the relay of the Flame of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but had given up because of the pandemic.
Mathematics, board games and calligraphy
When the Guinness Book of the Records had awarded him in 2019 the title of the oldest living person in the world, he had been asked what was the happiest moment in his life. His answer: “Now.”
His daily routine was described at the time as including an awakening at 6 o’clock in the morning and afternoons devoted to the study of mathematics and the practice of calligraphy. “One of his favorite hobbies is the game Othello, she became an expert in this classic board games and often manages to beat the staff of the house,” wrote the Guinness in 2019.
Japan has the oldest population in the world and about 86,500 of its inhabitants are centennials, according to the last estimate of the Ministry of Health, in September 2021.
The oldest person who has never lived and whose date of birth was attested remains French Jeanne Cament, Dead in 1997 at the age of 122 years.