Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen (16 August 1882 – 25 April 1998), known as an adult as Christian Mortensen, was a Danish-American supercentenarian. At the time of his death he was 115 years and 252 days old, the longest verified lifespan of any male in history. He was the first undisputed man to reach age 114 (in 1996) and 115 years of age (in 1997) and one of only three verifiably known to reach 115, the other two being Emiliano Mercado del Toro (in 2006) and Jiroemon Kimura (in 2012). Mortensen remains the only man in the list of top 10 oldest verified persons in history. In addition to being the oldest person born in Denmark, Mortensen is also distinctive as the oldest person ever of all the Nordic countries, the second-oldest person ever from Europe and the oldest emigrant ever.
Despite being the oldest man ever, Mortensen never became the oldest living person, since Sarah Knauss (born 1880) was still alive at the time of his death.
Mortensen was baptized in Fruering Church on December 26, 1882. Besides his baptismal record, other records include the 1890 and 1901 census enumerations in Denmark, and church confirmation in 1896.
Read more about Christian Mortensen: Biography
Famous quotes containing the word christian:
“On principle I dislike an oath which requires a man to swear he has not done wrong. It rejects the Christian principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it is enough if the man does no wrong hereafter.”
—Abraham Lincoln (18091865)