I know this is an old thread, but figured I would go ahead and toss this in for posterity.The last known survivor of the Titanic, Millvina Dean, died 31 May 2009 in England. What is interesting is she was also the youngest person on the ship.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millvina_Dean
Interesting – I did not know that the last survivor had died since I started this thread. Stories like this really bring history into the present. I remember as a kid being amazed when I found out that my grandma was alive when the Titanic went down.
What I like about stuff like this is I tend to discover OTHER things that are equally as interesting.Example, I read this and wondered if any were still alive, found that indeed, there were no more survivors alive, but in finding the details about Mrs Dean I started thinking about those alive today that were born before the turn of the century, so, I proceeded to do more looking and ended up reading a really interesting piece about a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old and now stands as the oldest person to have documented proof of her age (she was born in 1875 and died in 1997). And in turn have found quite a few other stories about people who are still alive that were born prior to the turn of the century. Very fascinating.
I proceeded to do more looking and ended up reading a really interesting piece about a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old and now stands as the oldest person to have documented proof of her age (she was born in 1875 and died in 1997).
I remember when she died. What I found amazing was that she actually had some contact with Vincent Van Gogh when she was 14 years old. It was really interesting for since around that time I was writing a paper on Van Gogh. I also recall that when she was already old (maybe in her 80s) she entered into some common type of real estate deal with someone who was younger than her. I forget the details, but it was something like she agreed to pass title to her house to the other person, who would pay the monthly rent/mortgage. The plan was that when she died, the younger person would get full ownership. The problem was that Ms. Calment lived so long that she survived the younger person! Anyway, interesting story indeed.