I was curious to know what age the oldest person to have ever lived got to. According to the Guinness World Record folk it’s Jeanne Louise Calment, from France, who sadly died in 1997, aged 122.

That means she was born in 1875. At the age of 14 she watched the Eiffel Tower being built. At age 85 she took up fencing as a sport. At 114 became the oldest film actress ever. 6 years later she became a recording artist.

New contenders have emerged since then, but it doesn’t look like the Guinness World Records folk have managed to authenticate them as yet.