TOKYO -- A Japanese man who was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest person in recorded history died on Wednesday.
Jiroemon Kimura, a 116-year-old former post officer worker, was born in 1897 -- the same year as aviator Amelia Earhart and the year Britain's Queen Victoria marked her Diamond Jubilee. He died of natural causes in Kyoto prefecture.
In December, Kimura was recognized by Guinness as the oldest man documented in history when he reached the age of 115 years and 253 days. He was also dubbed "the last known man to live across three centuries," with Guinness noting:
When the supercentenarian was born, Marconi had yet to send the first radio communication over open sea, Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" had yet to be published, and the composer George Gershwin had not even been born.