August 4, 1997: Jeanne Calment dies in Arles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France at the age of 122 years, 5 months and 15 days, officially of "natural causes." She had outlived her only child and both of her grandchildren, and is still officially listed by The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-lived human being with proof of age.
She was born on February 21, 1875, in Arles. At the time, France's Third Republic was new. So were the official nations of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy. Queen Victoria reigned over Britain, with Benjamin Disraeli as Prime Minister. The United States of America had 37 States, and its President was Ulysses S. Grant. The Napoleonic Wars, and even the French Revolution that helped to set them up, were within the lifetimes of people she could have met. Antonio López de Santa Anna was still alive.
Georges' Bizet's Carmen premiered a few days later. Johannes Brahms was at his peak, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was writing Swan Lake, and Richard Wagner was completing his Ring Cycle. Fyodor Dostoevsky published The Adolescent, Henry James The Passionate Pilgrim, George Sand Flamarande, and Anthony Trollope The Way We Live Now. Mark Twain was writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The first indoor hockey game was played on the same day as the Carmen premiere. The 1st Kentucky Derby was run 3 months later. Baseball was under the aegis of the National Association. Football was still collegiate-only, and resembled rugby more than the game we know today. Basketball wouldn't be invented for almost 17 years. Soccer was played pretty much only by England and Scotland. Professional boxing existed, but there was no officially recognized World Champion in any weight class. The telephone, the phonograph, the electric light, the motion picture camera, radio broadcasting, the automobile and the airplane had yet to be invented.
In 1888, at age 13, she had met the other person most often identified with Arles, the painter Vincent Van Gogh. She said he was "ugly" and "blighted by alcohol," and that he was a patron of a local brothel. In 1990, on the 100th anniversary of Van Gogh's death, she appeared in the film Vincent and Me. This made her, at 114, the oldest person ever to appear in a motion picture. It also made her, almost certainly, the last person to appear in movies who had been born prior to their invention.
She lived through Paris' World's Fairs of 1878, 1889, 1900 and 1937; the Olympic Games of 1900 and 1924; and the 1938 World Cup, with her just missing that of 1998. Her country went through the construction of the Eiffel Tower and the Paris Métro, the Dreyfus Affair, World War I, the Nazi Conquest of World War II and the fall of the Third Republic, liberation and the establishment of the Fourth Republic, defeat in their former colonies of Vietnam and Algeria, the fall of its Fourth Republic and the start of its Fifth, and the riots of 1968. It saw the entire lives of Charles de Gaulle, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior.
In 1896, when she was 21, Jeanne married Fernand Calment. Their paternal grandfathers were brothers, and their paternal grandmothers were sisters, making them each other's double second cousin. He was heir to a drapery business in Arles, and rich enough to afford servants. She never had to work, and enjoyed fencing, cycling, tennis, swimming, roller skating, playing the piano, and making music with friends.
In 1898, she had a daughter, Yvonne, who married and had a son, Frédéric, in 1926. She died of pleurisy in 1934, on her 36th birthday, and Jeanne raised Frédéric. They lived together until Fernand died in 1942, and Frédéric in a car accident in 1962, leaving her with no heirs at age 87.
She lived on her own until moving into a nursing home at the age of 110 -- not because she was afraid to live on her own, but because of a rough Winter that froze the water pipes in her house. At 111, she was recognized as France's oldest living person. At 112, she was recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest living person. At 120, Guinness recognized her as the oldest person, ever, anywhere in the world, whose age could be authenticated.
All her life, she took care of her skin with olive oil and a puff of powder. She claimed to have had a broken ankle in her 60s, but no other major injuries. She continued riding a bicycle until she was 100, when she had another major injury, a broken leg. She recovered quickly and was able to walk again. She continued to walk unaided until a fall at age 115, after which she used a wheelchair for the rest of her life. A CT scan at 118 showed no evidence of neurological disorder, and neuropsychological tests suggested an age in her 80s. Although mostly blind and mostly deaf, she seemed to be in good health until she finally died at 122.
Jeanne Calment lived on the planet Earth at the same time as Antonio López de Santa Anna, who was born in 1794 and became a legend in 1836; and at the same time as Rebecca Black, who sang "Friday" in 2011.
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August 4, 1997 was a Monday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Derek Jeter went 0-for-5, but Charlie Hayes hit 2 home runs, and Paul O'Neill hit 1. This enabled David Wells to take a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the 9th inning, but he ran out of gas, and he and Jeff Nelson allowed 4 runs between them. Mariano Rivera had to be brought in to slam the door. The last out was future Yankee nemesis, and hero, Johnny Damon.
* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Shea Stadium. Rick Reed was the winning pitcher, and had a hit in his own cause. Lance Johnson went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. John Smoltz pitched a 4-hit shutout.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati. J.T. Snow went 2-for-3 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 5 RBIs. Barry Bonds went 0-for-4 with a walk.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 11-5 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, 5-2 at Edison International Field (now Angel Stadium) of Anaheim.
* And the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Montreal Expos, the Oakland Athletics, the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners were not scheduled.
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