World's oldest person Emma Morano dies at 117

The world's oldest person has died in Italy at the age of 117, reports say. Emma Morano was born on 29 November, 1899 in the Piedmont region of Italy. She was officially the last person born in the 1800s still living. She had attributed her longevity to her genetics and a diet of three eggs a day, two of them raw.

I want to know her secret! World's oldest person & last survivor of 19th century, Italian #EmmaMorano, dies at 117 https://t.co/IDeYtdZRhJ pic.twitter.com/Ct7nf2zrhH

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 15, 2017

Morano was the oldest of eight siblings, all of whom she has outlived. She died at her home in the northern city of Verbania. Her life not only spanned three centuries but also survived an abusive marriage, the loss of her only son, two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments.

'Good genes and eggs'

Morano had admitted that her longevity was partly down to genetics: her mother reached 91 and several sisters reached their centenary. But it was also down to a rather unusual diet of three eggs - two raw - each day for more than 90 years. It was a regime she took up as a young woman, after the doctor diagnosed her with anaemia shortly after World War I. [arve url="http://www.reuters.com/assets/iframe/yovideo?videoId=370585559"/] She had cut down to just two eggs a day, and a few biscuits recently. Her doctor of 27 years, Carlo Bava, had told AFP news agency that she rarely ate vegetables or fruit. "When I met her, she ate three eggs per day, two raw in the morning and then an omelette at noon, and chicken at dinner."

'I didn't want to be dominated'

Morano also credited her longevity to her decision, in 1938, to kick out her husband - a year after her baby boy died at just six months old. The marriage had never been healthy, she said. She had been in love with a boy who was killed during World War I, and had no interest in marrying someone else. But, she told La Stampa newspaper in an interview when she was a spritely 112 that she was left with little choice. Emma Morano, thought to be the world's oldest person and the last to be born in the 1800s, sits on her bed. Morano was born in November 1899, four years before the Wright brothers first took to the air. Her life has spanned three centuries, two World Wars and over 90 Italian governments REUTERS"He told me: 'If you're lucky you marry me, or I'll kill you'. I was 26 years old. I got married." Eventually, it became too much. Though they separated in 1938, they remained married until he died in 1978. Morano, who worked until she was 75, chose never to marry again. "I didn't want to be dominated by anyone," she told the New York Times.

The Oldest person in the world has died. Emma Morano was 117 years old & the last living person born in the 1800s. pic.twitter.com/QoAcg9diHb— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) April 15, 2017

She had only taken on a full-time carer a couple of years ago - but had not left her small two-room apartment for 20 years. According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG), the world's oldest human being is now Jamaican Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900.