Notable Last Survivors -- History Division

May 6, 1937, 82 years ago today: The German zeppelin Hindenburg, with Nazi swastikas on it, catches fire and burns while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester, Ocean County, New Jersey, May 6, 1937. There were 36 deaths, but 62 survivors.

All of this information is based on available documentation, and any of it may be superseded by the discovery of new information.

479 BC: Aristodemus, the only survivor of the 300 Spartans who fought at the Battle of Thermopylae, August 20, 480 BC. 1 year.

AD 100: John the Evangelist, the last survivor of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus had been executed around AD 33, so, 67 years.

June 5, 1118, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, the last Norman nobleman to have fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, October 14, 1066. 52 years.

August 22, 1485: Last survivor of the Wars of the Roses: I couldn't find an authoritative answer.

October 12, 1492: Last survivor of Columbus' voyages: I couldn't find an authoritative answer.

July 16, 1557: Anna von Kleve, a.k.a. Anne of Cleves, 42, the last survivor of the 6 wives of England's King Henry VIII, who died in 1547. 10 years. Their marriage lasted just 6 months in 1540, did not produce a child, and was annulled. Predeceasing him: Catherine of Aragon, 24 years, produced Queen Mary I, annulled, died 1536, at 51; Anne Boleyn, 3 years, produced Queen Elizabeth I, executed 1536, at 35; Jane Seymour, 1 year, produced King Edward VI in 1537 but she died from complications of childbirth, at 29; Catherine Howard, a little over a year, no children, executed 1542, at 19; and Catherine Parr, 3 1/2 years, no children, she survived him in 1547, but died in 1548, at 36.

August 27, 1576: The last surviving Renaissance painter: I can't be absolutely certain, but it appears to have been Tiziano Vecellio, known in English as Titian, 88, who outlived Leonardo da Vinci by 57 years, Raphael da Urbino by 56, and Michelangelo Buonarotti by 12.

September 18, 1589: Don Mancio Sierra de Leguizamo, 77, the last original Conquistador, a participant in the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. 57 years.

1692: Edmund Ludlow, the last surviving regicide of Charles I (commissioner who signed his death warrant), January 30, 1649. 43 years.

November 28, 1699: Mary Allerton, 83, the last surviving passenger of the Mayflower, which landed at Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620. 79 years.

February 7, 1732: William Hiseland, 111, the last survivor of the English Civil War, which ended on January 30, 1649. 83 years. He fought on the Royalist side.

February 18, 1792: George Browne, 94, the last survivor of the Jacobite Rising of 1715. 77 years.

July 4, 1826: Thomas Jefferson, 83, the last survivor of the 1st Presidential Cabinet, which effectively took office with President George Washington on April 30, 1789. 37 years. However, if you count the Vice President of the United States as a member of the Cabinet, then John Adams outlived Jefferson, who had been Secretary of State, by a few hours. Adams, of course, succeeded Washington as the 2nd President, while Jefferson beat him in 1800 to become the 3rd President.

March 14, 1828: Paul François de Quelen de La Vauguyon, duc de La Vauguyon, 82, the last European survivor of the Seven Years War, known in North America as the French and Indian War, which ended on February 10, 1763. 65 years.

March 5, 1829: John Adams (not the 2nd President), 61, the last participant in the mutiny on the HMS Bounty, April 28, 1789. 30 years.

August 1, 1830: James Thompson, 97, the last participant in the Battle of Quebec, which ended French presence in North America, September 13, 1759. 71 years.

November 14, 1832: Charles Carroll, 95, the last surviving Signer of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. 56 years.

July 6, 1835: John Marshall, 79, the longest-serving Chief Justice of the United States, and the last surviving Justice that decided the case of Marbury v. Madison, February 24, 1803. 32 years.

June 28, 1836: James Madison, 85, the 4th President of the United States, the "Father of the Constitution," and the last surviving signer of that document, September 17, 1787. 59 years.

November 5, 1840: George Hewes, 98, the last survivor of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770; also the last survivor of the Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. 70 and 67 years.

August 26, 1841: Jonathan Benjamin, 103, believed to be the last survivor in America of the Seven Years War, known in North America as the French and Indian War, which ended February 10, 1763. 78 years. He fought for the British in that war, and for the Americans in the War of the American Revolution.

April 5, 1869: Daniel Bakeman, 109, believed to be the last surviving veteran of the War of the American Revolution, which effectively ended with George Washington's retirement dinner at Fraunces Tavern in what is now Lower Manhattan (but was then considered "downtown"), on December 4, 1783. 85 years. He and his wife Susan also have the longest marriage ever recorded in American history: 91 years.

April 2, 1870: Patrick Gass, 98, the last member of the Corps of Discovery, a.k.a. the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which completed its return on September 23, 1806. 63 years.

September 8, 1872: Arthur Dardenne, 96, the last surviving participant in the Storming of the Bastille, igniting the French Revolution, July 14, 1789. 83 years.

March 12, 1889: John Archibald Campbell, 77, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, that black people were officially not citizens of the United States, regardless of whether they were currently free or enslaved, and thus were not entitled to the protections of citizenship, March 6, 1857. 32 years. Campbell was part of the majority opinion, and should be condemned for this. This ruling was overturned by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868.

March 6, 1890: Joseph Sutherland, 101, the last survivor of the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, and the last British veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, which ended on June 18, 1815. 85 and 75 years, respectively.

May 24, 1895: Hugh McCulloch, 86, the last survivor of President Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, which ended with Lincoln's life on April 15, 1865. 30 years. McCulloch served as Secretary of the Treasury for the length of what was meant to be Lincoln's 2nd term, including under the next President, Andrew Johnson, 1865-69. He briefly returned to the office, 1884-85, under President Chester Arthur.

April 9, 1899: Stephen J. Field, 82, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in Minor v. Happersett, that the Constitution of the United States did not give women the right to vote, and that the States had to decide for themselves whether to allow women to do so, March 29, 1875. 24 years. It was a unanimous ruling, and Field should be ridiculed along with the other 8 Justices who decided it. This ruling was overturned by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920.

1902: Jean Adrin, 105, the last veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, which ended on June 18, 1815. 87 years.

May 13, 1905: Hiram Cronk, 105, the last U.S. veteran of the War of 1812, which ended on January 8, 1815. 90 years.

March 1, 1908: August Hejnek, 108, the last person known to have been born during the 18th Century, which ended on December 31, 1799 -- not December 31, 1800.

April 12, 1913: John B. Henderson, 86, Republican of Missouri, the last Senator who had voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trail, on May 26, 1868. 45 years.

September 22, 1913: William P. Zuber, 93, the last survivor of the Texas Revolution, which ended on April 21, 1836. 77 years.

October 15, 1914: Thomas Patrickson, 86, the last survivor of the voyage of HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin formed his Theory of Evolution, October 2, 1836. 78 years.

October 30, 1915: Charles Tupper, 94, the last politician present for the independence of Canada, July 1, 1867. 48 years. Canada calls its "Founding Fathers" the "Fathers of Confederation." Tupper also served as Canada's 6th Prime Minister, but, in contrast to his age (he remains the oldest to have held the office, 80), he was the short-serving, just 69 days, May 1 to July 8, 1896.

March 15, 1924: Charlotte Woodward Peirce, 94, the last participant in the Seneca Falls Convention, July 20, 1848. 76 years.

August 2, 1924: George Shiras Jr., 92, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in Plessy v. Ferguson, that segregation in public facilities, so long as the facilities were "separate but equal," was legal, May 18, 1896. The vote was 8-1, with only John Marshall Harlan (named for the early Chief Justice) dissenting, so Shiras should be ridiculed along with the other 7. This decision was overturned by a ruling in 1954, in which Harlan's grandson, also named John Marshall Harlan, participated in a unanimous vote.

November 3, 1924: Cornelius Cole, Republican of California, 102, the last Senator who had voted (unsuccessfully) to convict and remove President Andrew Johnson from the Presidency in his impeachment trial, on May 26, 1868. 56 years. Also the longest-lived person to have served in the U.S. Senate, topping Strom Thurmond, 100. Despite this longevity, he only served 1 term in each house of Congress: 1863-65 in the House of Representatives, and 1867-73 in the Senate.

April 18, 1927: Edwin Hughes, 96, last surviving veteran of the Charge of the Light Brigade, in the Battle of Balaclava, in Sevastopol, currently disputed between Russia and Ukraine. October 25, 1854. 73 years.

January 13, 1929: Wyatt Earp, 80, the last survivor of the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881. 47 years.

March 1, 1929: József Fischl, believed to be the last survivor of Europe's Revolutions of 1848. 79 years.

September 3, 1929: Owen Edgar, 98, the last survivor of the Mexican-American War, which ended on February 3, 1848. 79 years.

April 14, 1932: Thomas Kelly, 83, the last survivor of the sinking of HMS Birkenhead, February 26, 1852. 70 years.

July 15, 1932: Rebecca Tickaneesky Neugin, 97, the last survivor of the Trail of Tears, which ended on January 7, 1839. 93 years.

1935: Francisco Arellano Zenteno, the last surviving Mexican veteran of the French occupation, which ended on June 21, 1867. 68 years.

March 25, 1935: Margaret Isabella Breen McMahon, 89, the last survivor of the Donner Party, April 29, 1847. 88 years.

January 9, 1936: William Albert Norris, 93, last survivor of the Sultana steamboat fire, Memphis, April 27, 1865. 71 years.

February 15, 1940: Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton, 94, a pioneer in British electricity, and also the last surviving veteran of the Crimean War, which ended on March 30, 1856. 84 years.

January 9, 1942: Adrien Lejuene, the last surviving Communard, the fighters for the Paris Commune, which ended on May 28, 1871. 71 years.

1946: Petrus Verbeek, 95, a Dutchman who fought in the battles for the unification of Italy, achieved on July 1, 1871. 75 years.

August 27, 1948: Charles Evans Hughes, 86, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court who ruled in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States that the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 could break up corporate monopolies, on May 15, 1911. 37 years. Hughes had previously been Governor of New York, and resigned from the Court in 1916 to accept the Republican nomination for President against Woodrow Wilson. He nearly won. He was appointed Secretary of State by Warren Harding, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Herbert Hoover.

March 24, 1950: James R. Garfield, 84, the last surviving member of the Cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt, which left office on March 4, 1909. 41 years. The son of President James A. Garfield, he served as Secretary of the Interior for the last 2 years of TR's Presidency.

April 11, 1950: Bainbridge Colby, 80, the last surviving member of the Cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson, which left office on March 4, 1921. 29 years. He was Secretary of State for the last year of the Administration.

December 31, 1951: Pleasant Crump, 104, the last surviving confirmed Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, whose last shot was fired on June 22, 1865. 86 years. Others claimed to have been a surviving Confederate veteran, but Crump was the last for whom any documentation survived.

March 8, 1953: Charles Wallace Warden, 99, the last surviving British soldier of the Anglo-Zulu War, which ended on July 4, 1879. 74 years.

January 15, 1955 Charlie Miller, 105, the last surviving rider on the Pony Express, which ran from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. 94 years. Yes, you read that right: He was 11 years old when he was a Pony Express rider.

May 17, 1955: Owen Roberts, 80, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, that the National Recovery Act, a big part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which regulated prices of certain products, violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, May 27, 1935. 20 years.

This led to FDR's plan in 1937 to "pack the Court," adding a new Justice for every one then on the Court who was at least 70 years of age, raising the membership from the traditional 9 to 15. The plan didn't get enough support, but the threat was enough to give the Justices notice that maybe they should consider New Deal challenges more carefully. FDR would last long enough in office to replace all of the "Nine Old Men" except Roberts, whose tenure outlasted FDR by 3 months.

November 2, 1955: Wasú Máza, or "Iron Hail," bearer of the English name Dewey Beard, 96, the last survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a.k.a. Custer's Last Stand, June 25, 1876. 81 years. He was also the last Lakota tribesman known to have survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, December 29, 1890. 65 years. Charles Windolph was the last white survivor, dying at 97 on March 11, 1950. No, not every member of the 7th Cavalry was killed in the battle.

December 8, 1955: Seraphin Pruvost, 105, the last French veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, which ended on May 10, 1871. 84 years.

April 12, 1956: Samuel J. Seymour, 96, the last witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre, April 14, 1865. 89 years. He appeared on the TV show I've Got a Secret on February 9, 1856, 2 months before his death. The idea that a living person who had seen Lincoln had actually lasted long enough to be on television is a bit staggering.

August 2, 1956: Albert Woolson, 106, the last Union veteran, and probably the last veteran on either side, in the American Civil War. 89 years.

March 10, 1962: John Henry Turpin, 85, the last survivor of the sinking of the USS Maine, in Havana, Cuba, February 15, 1898. 64 years.

September 23, 1972: Peter Mills, 111, who appears to have been the last surviving person to have been legally enslaved in America, after the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. 107 years.

June 18, 1973: Frederick Fraske, 101, the last known veteran of the Indian Wars, serving until 1897. 76 years.

June 9, 1976: James A. Farley, 88, the last surviving member of the Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which left office with FDR's death on April 12, 1945. 31 years. For FDR's 1st 2 terms, Farley, an aide of his as Governor of New York, was both Postmaster General (which is no longer a Cabinet position) and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

August 24, 1977: Dorsie Wills, 91, the last surviving soldier accused in the Brownsville Affair, August 13, 1906. 69 years.

May 1, 1979: Yellow Shield, later taking the English name Louisa Motley, 95, the last survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre. 89 years.

April 2, 1980: Stanley F. Reed, 95, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that unanimously decided, in Brown v. Board of Education, that racial segregation in public facilities was unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson 58 years earlier, May 17, 1954. 26 years. Reed outlived William O. Douglas by a matter of weeks.

August 17, 1987: Rudolf Hess, 93, the last surviving major Nazi official, after V-E Day, May 8, 1945. 43 years.

October 25, 1987: Ivan Beshoff, 102, the last survivor of the Potemkin Mutiny, July 8, 1905. 82 years.

January 27, 1989: Clarence Norris, 75, the last survivor of the Scottsboro Boys, black teenagers falsely accused of raping a white woman in Scottsboro, Alabama, an incident alleged to have taken place on March 25, 1931. 58 years.

July 3, 1989: Verde Clark Graff, 97, the last survivor of the Iroquois Theatre Fire in Chicago, December 30, 1903. 86 years.

June 11, 1990: Vaso Cubrilovic, 93, the last surviving conspirator in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, sparking World War I, June 28, 1914.

July 2, 1992: Charles F. Brannan, 88, the last surviving member of the Cabinet of President Harry S Truman, which left office on January 20, 1953. 39 years. He was Secretary of Agriculture in the 2nd term.

September 10, 1992: Nathan Cook, 106, the last surviving veteran of the Boxer Rebellion, which ended on September 7, 1901. 91 years. He was also the last surviving veteran of the Philippine Campaign, which ended on July 2, 1902. 90 years.

April 12, 1993: George F. Ives, 111, the last known veteran of the Boer War, which ended on May 31, 1902. 91 years.

August 29, 1993: Jones Morgan, 110, the last surviving veteran of the Spanish-American War, April 21 to August 13, 1898. 95 years.

May 16, 1995: Harold Schultz, 69, the last survivor of the flag-raisers at the Battle of Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945. 50 years.

October 8, 1995: John Cairncross, 82, the last survivor of the Cambridge Five, British secret agents who were exposed as also working for the Soviet Union, exposed when Kim Philby's defection was announced on July 30, 1963. 32 years. The others were exposed years before, but Philby avoided prosecution before finally being revealed. Guy Burgess died within days of Philby's official defection. Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt both died in March 1983, and Philby died in 1988.

January 22, 1996: Lilly Kempson, 99, the last participant in the Easter Rising, considered the founding of the Republic of Ireland, April 30, 1916. 80 years.

March 20, 1997: Frank Shomo, 108, the last survivor of the Johnstown Flood in Western Pennsylvania, May 31, 1889. 108 years, as he was an infant at the time.

February 15, 1998: Martha Gellhorn, 89, the 3rd and last surviving ex-wife of Ernest Hemingway, who died in 1961. 37 years. Paul Pfeiffer, the 2nd wife, died in 1951. Hadley Richardson, the 1st wife, died in 1979. Mary Welsh, the 4th and last wife, died in 1986.

March 21, 1998: Albert H. Wolff, 95, the last survivor of Eliot Ness' Department of the Treasury team, known as "The Untouchables." Al Capone was convicted on October 17, 1931, so, 67 years.

January 24, 2000: Alexander Heron, 105, the last surviving builder of the Panama Canal, which was finished on August 15, 1914. 85 years.

January 2, 2001: William P. Rogers, 87, the last surviving member of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Cabinet, which left office on January 20, 1961. 40 years. He was Attorney General for "Ike"'s 2nd term. He was also Secretary of State for President Richard Nixon's 1st term, but Nixon usually sidestepped him for National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, until Rogers quit out of frustration on September 3, 1973.

February 15, 2001: Rose Freedman, 107, the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York, March 25, 1911. 90 years.

August 21, 2001: Gerard Zinser, 83, the last surviving crewman of John F. Kennedy's PT-109, sunk on August 2, 1943. 58 years.

April 15, 2002: Byron White, 84, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in Reynolds vs. Sims, that legislative districts within a State, for either Congress or the State legislature, had to be roughly equal in size -- a principle then known as "One man, one vote" (now, "One person, one vote"), June 15, 1964. 38 years.

White was also the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in United States v. Nixon, that President Richard M. Nixon had to turn all of the audiotapes recorded in the Oval Office over to the Office of the Special Counsel, investigating the Watergate scandal, August 5, 1974. 28 years. William Rehnquist lived until 2005, 31 years, but, because he was working in the U.S. Department of Justice when the taping system was installed, he correctly recused himself from the decision, and so the vote was unanimous, but 8-0 instead of 9-0.

White had been an All-America football and basketball player at the University of Colorado, and played in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers before leaving football for the legal profession.

May 11, 2002: Joseph Bonnano, 97, the last survivor of the men who gave their names to New York organized crime's "Five Families." Their founding dates are all separate, so it's pointless to say how many years it was. Tommy Lucchese died in 1967, Vito Genovese in 1969, Carlo Gambino in 1976, and Joseph Colombo in 1978.

August 4, 2003: John J. Rhodes, 86, the last surviving person in the Oval Office when Republican leaders of Congress went to see President Richard Nixon and told him that they didn't have the votes to prevent his impeachment and removal from office, and that the only way to avoid it was to resign, August 7, 1974. Rhodes, of Arizona, was the House Minority Leader. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania was the Senate Minority Leader, and he died in 1994. Senator Barry Goldwater, like Rhodes from Arizona, and considered the leader of the Republican Party's conservative movement, was also there, to let him know that the hardest core of his support was gone; he died in 1998.

August 16, 2003: Thomas J. Brewer, the last surviving juror of the "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee, who reached a verdict of "Guilty" on July 21, 1925.

January 26, 2004: Adella Wotherspoon, 100, the last survivor of the General Slocum Fire on the East River in New York, June 15, 1904. Just short of 100 years.

November 14, 2004: Maude Conic, 106, the last survivor of the Galveston Hurricane, September 12, 1900. 104 years.

March 17, 2005: Elma Damrell, 95, the last survivor of the Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, Michigan, December 24, 1913. 91 years.

September 3, 2005: William Rehnquist, 80, the last surviving Justice of the Supreme Court that decided, in Roe v. Wade, that the States had no right to ban abortions, January 22, 1973. 32 years. The vote was 7-2, and Rehnquist and Byron White were the dissenters.

September 1, 2006: Nellie Connally, 87, the last surviving person who had been in the car in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. 53 years. Her husband, Governor John Connally of Texas, died in 1993; JFK's wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, died in 1994; and the driver, Secret Service Agent William Greer, died in 1985. Technically, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, still alive at age 87, could be considered "the last surviving person who had been in the car," but he wasn't in it when the shots were fired.

December 26, 2006: Gerald Ford, 93, the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, tasked with determining, since there would be no trial as the main suspect had himself been killed, who killed President John F. Kennedy; who killed the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald; and whether there was a conspiracy to kill either.

The Commission issued its report on September 24, 1964. 43 years. Ford, who later served as the 38th President of the United States, insisted to the end, as did all members of the Commission, that Oswald acted alone in killing JFK, and that Jack Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald.

December 27, 2006: Boris Gudz, the last survivor of the October Revolution, a.k.a. the Bolshevik Revolution, November 7, 1917. 89 years.

October 2, 2007: Dan Keating, 105, the last surviving veteran of the Irish War of Independence, which ended on July 11, 1921. 86 years.

May 31, 2009: Millvina Dean, 97, the last survivor of the RMS Titanic, April 15, 1912. 97 years.

January 11, 2010: Miep Gies, 100, the last survivor of the group who hid the Frank family, including daughter Anne, in "the Secret Annex" in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, before they were arrested on August 4, 1944. 65 years.

April 24, 2010: W. Willard Wirtz, 98, the last surviving member of President John F. Kennedy's Cabinet, which left office with his assassination on November 22, 1963. 46 years. Wirtz served JFK and President Lyndon B. Johnson as Secretary of Labor from 1962 to 1969.

January 11, 2011: Audrey Lawson-Johnston, 95, the last survivor of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, May 7, 1915. 96 years.

February 27, 2011: Frank Buckles, 110, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, which ended on November 11, 1918. 93 years. He also served in World War II, and was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, spending 3 years as a prisoner of war.

February 4, 2012: Florence Green, formerly Florence Patterson, 110, the last surviving veteran, of any country, of World War I. 94 years.

March 8, 2013: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, 90, the last surviving participant in the 20 July Plot, which failed to assassinate Adolf Hitler, at his Wolf's Lair retreat in Rastenburg, Germany -- now Ketrzy, Poland -- July 20, 1944. 69 years.

September 14, 2013: Jerry Edgerton, 99, the last survivor of the fire aboard the SS Morro Castle, off the coast of Asbury Park, New Jersey, September 8, 1934. 89 years.

June 4, 2014: Chester Nez, 93, the last survivor of the Navajo Code Talkers, following the end of World War II on V-J Day, August 14, 1945. 69 years.

July 28, 2014: Theodore Van Kirk, 93, the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, which dropped the 1st atomic bomb in warfare, over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. 69 years.

November 24, 2014: Marion Eichholz, 102, the last survivor of the sinking of the SS Eastland in the Chicago River, July 24, 1915. 89 years.

December 14, 2014: Richard Hottelet, 97, the last survivor of "The Murrow Boys," correspondents that Edward R. Murrow gathered to report on World War II for CBS radio in 1942. 72 years.

January 11, 2016: Bill Del Monte, the last known survivor of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, April 18, 1906. 109 years.

February 28, 2016: Delmer Berg, 100, the last surviving veteran of the XV International Brigade, a.k.a. the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, that fought in aid of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, which ended on April 1, 1939. 77 years. As of April 1, 2019, the 80th anniversary of the war's end, there were believed to be 30 surviving veterans on the Republican side, and 8 on the Nationalist side.

December 8, 2016: John Glenn, 95, the last survivor of the Mercury Seven, selected on April 9, 1959. 57 years.

October 16, 2017: Freeman Bruce Olmstead, 82, the last survivor of the Soviet shootdown of a U.S. Air Force plane over the Barents Sea, July 1, 1960. 57 years. He and John McKone were held by the Soviets for nearly 7 months. Four others were killed.

March 8, 2018: Bernhard Heuer, the last surviving crewmember of the battleship Bismarck, sunk by Britain's Royal Navy on May 27, 1941. 77 years.

November 21, 2018: Olivia Hooker, 103, the last survivor of the Tulsa Race Riot, June 1, 1921. 97 years.

February 13, 2019: Richard Churchill, 99, the last surviving prisoner from Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland, who took part in what became known as "the Great Escape," March 25, 1944. 75 years. He went to his grave believing that the reason he was spared execution after being captured was a belief among his captors that he was related to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He did nothing to clear up that misunderstanding.

March 14, 2019: Ermenia Daley, 105, the last survivor of the Ludlow Massacre, in which striking coal miners were fired upon by the Colorado National Guard, Ludlow, Colorado, April 20, 1914. Almost 105 years.

Alive as of May 6, 2019:

* Jean Kennedy Smith, 91, the last survivor of the 9 children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, which included 3 U.S. Senators, 1 of which was President and another was his Attorney General. Jean served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. (UPDATE: She died on June 17, 2020.)

* There are 2 survivors of the Dionne Quintuplets, 5 babies born to Elzire and Oliva-Édouard Dionne, outside Ottawa in East Ferris, Ontario, Canada, on May 28, 1934. 85 years. Émilie Marie Jeanne died of a seizure in 1954, at age 20. Marie Reine Alma, known in married life as Marie Houle, died of a blood clot in 1970, at 35. Yvonne Édouilda Marie died in 2001, at 67. Annette Lillianne Marie, now Annette Allard, is still alive. So is Cécile Marie Émilda, now Cécile Langlois. Marie had 2 daughters, Annette 3 sons, and Cécile 3 sons, for a total of 8 grandchildren.

* Werner Doehner, 90, the last surviving passenger of the Hindenburg explosion, at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Manchester, Ocean County, New Jersey, May 6, 1937. 82 years ago today. (UPDATE: He died on November 15, 2019.)

* There are 6 surviving pilots of "The Few," who flew for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, officially running from July 10 to October 31, 1940, 79 years: Flight Lieutenant William "Terry" Clark, Wing Commander Paul Farnes, Squadron Leader John Hart, Flying Officer John Hemingway, Pilot Officer Archie McInnes and Flight Lieutenant Maurice Mounsdon. (UPDATE: McInnes died on August 2, 2019. Hart died just 22 days later. Mounsdon died on December 6, 2019. Farnes died on January 28, 2020, and Clark on May 7, 2020, leaving Hemingway as the last survivor.)

* Nick Clifford, 97, the last surviving builder of Mount Rushmore, on which construction was stopped on October 31, 1941. 77 years. (UPDATE: He died on November 23, 2019, having turned 98.)

* I can find no record of how many survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, are still alive after 77 years; or of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, after 75 years; or of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria, which killed 46 people off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts on July 26, 1956, after 63 years. But all have multiple survivors currently alive.

* Galina Brok-Beltsova, 94, the last survivor of the Soviet Air Force's female pilots, whom the Nazis dubbed Nachthexen, the "Night Witches," whose 1st mission was on June 12, 1942. 77 years.

* There are believed to be 5 survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire that killed 492 people on November 28, 1942, after 76 years. However, I don't have names for any of them, only that they are between 93 and 96 years of age.

* Traute Lafrenz, just turned 100, the last surviving member of the White Rose resistance movement against the Nazis, whose core group was arrested on February 18, 1943. 76 years.

* Aliza Melamed Vitis-Shomron, 90, the last surviving participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, May 16, 1943. 76 years.

* Gunther Schwägermann, 103, the last surviving person who had been in Adolf Hitler's Führerbunker when the Nazi leader committed suicide, April 30, 1945. 74 years. He was a Hauptsturmführer (equivalent in rank to Captain in the U.S. Army) in the SS, and an adutant to Joseph Goebbels, who killed himself and his family the next day. Schwägermann was among those who escaped, but was captured by U.S. troops, and held for nearly 2 years. He was never charged with war crimes.

* Levi Oakes, 94, the last surviving Native American "code talker" in World War II, which ended in 1945, on, depending on which you accept as official, Japan's surrender on August 14, V-J Day; or the official surrender signing ceremony on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor on September 2. Either way, 74 years. Oakes is a Mohawk. The better-known Navajo code talkers lost the last of their ranks, Chester Nez, on June 4, 2014, at age 93. 69 years. (UPDATE: Oakes died on May 28, 2019, 22 days after this post.)

* Ian Hamilton, 93, the last survivor of the thieves of the Stone of Scone from the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey in London on December 24, 1950. 69 years.

* Rafael Cancel Miranda, 89, the last survivor among the Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire in the House of Representatives chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 1, 1954, 55 years. Andres Figueroa Cordero died in 1979. Irvin Flores died in 1979. Lolita Lebrón died in 2010. (UPDATE: Cancel Miranda died on March 2, 2020.)

Representative Kenneth Roberts was the last survivor of the 5 Congressmen who were shot. A Democrat from Alabama, he served from 1951 to 1965, and died in 1989. Alvin Bentley, Republican of Michigan, serving 1953-1961, died in 1969. Ben Jensen, Republican of Iowa, serving 1939-1965, died in 1970. Clifford Davis, Democrat of Tennessee, serving 1940-1965, also died in 1970. George Fallon, Democrat of Maryland, serving 1945-1971, died in 1980. And Kenneth Roberts, Democrat of Alabama, serving 1951-1965, died in 1989.

* All but one of the Little Rock Nine, admitted to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, after President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division to protect them, on September 25, 1957, after 52 years, are still alive: Thelma Mothershed-Wair, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Terrence Roberts, Melba Pattillo Beals, Gloria Ray Karlmark and Carlotta Walls LaNier. Only Jefferson Thomas has died, in 2010, age 67. Mothershed-Wair is 78; Brown-Trickey, Green, Eckford, Roberts and Beals (born the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor) are 77; and Karlmark and LaNier are 76.

* There are 2 survivors of the Greensboro Four, whose sit-in at the lunch counter of a Woolworth's store in North Carolina began the fight against racial segregation of public accommodations that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on February 1, 1960, 59 years: Jibreel Khazan (then using the name Ezell Blair Jr.), and now-retired Air Force Major General Joseph McNeil. Both men are 77. David Richmond died in 1990, Franklin McCain in 2014.

* John Lewis, 79, the last surviving speaker at the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. 56 years. He was then the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and since 1987 has been a U.S. Representative from a district based in Atlanta. (UPDATE: He died on July 17, 2020.)

* There are 2 surviving members of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Cabinet, which left office with him on January 20, 1969, 50 years: Secretary of Transportation Alan Boyd (96) and Attorney General Ramsey Clark (91).

* There are 4 survivors of the Chicago Eight who were indicted on various charges relating to the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, on March 20, 1969. 50 years. Bobby Seale (81) had his case separated from the others, who then became known as the Chicago Seven. John Froines is 80. Lee Weiner is about to turn 80. Rennie Davis is about to turn 78. Abbie Hoffman committed suicide in 1989. Jerry Rubin died in 1994, from injuries sustained from being hit by a car. David Dellinger died in 2004, essentially of old age. Tom Hayden died of a stroke in 2016. (UPDATE: Rennie Davis died on February 2, 2021, leaving Seale, Froines and Weiner.)

* Jacques Rose, 72, the last surviving perpetrator of the October Crisis in Quebec, which began on October 5, 1970. 48 years.

* There are 4 living people who walked on the Moon: Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, 89, Apollo 11, July 20, 1969; David Scott, 86, Apollo 15, July 31, 1971; Charles Duke, 83, Apollo 16, April 21, 1972; and Harrison Schmitt, 83, Apollo 17, December 14, 1972. 46 years.

* Eugenio Martínez, about to turn 97, the last survivor of the team that burglarized the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, June 17, 1972, 47 years. Frank Sturgis died in 1993, Bernard Barker in 2009, Virgilio Gonzalez in 2014, James McCord in 2017. (UPDATE: Martínez died on January 30, 2021.)

* There are 9 surviving members of the House Judiciary Committee that voted on Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon on July 27, 1974, 45 years. 5 are Democrats, all of whom voted "Aye": John Conyers of Michigan (about to turn 90, and the last to serve, resigning his seat on December 5, 2017), Charles Rangel of New York (about to turn 89), Paul Sarbanes of Maryland (86, later a Senator), Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa (82, later convicted in ABSCAM, father-in-law of Chelsea Clinton), and Elizabeth Holtzman of New York (77).

4 are Republicans: Tom Railsback of Illinois (87), Harold V. Froehlich of Wisconsin (about to turn 87) and William S. Cohen of Maine (79, later a Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) voted "Aye." Trent Lott of Mississippi (later the Senate Majority Leader) is the last survivor to have voted "No." But all 11 Republicans voting "No" said they would change their minds and vote to impeach after hearing what became known as "The Smoking Gun Tape."

(UPDATE: Conyers died on October 27, 2019. Tom Railsback died on January 20, 2020. Sarbanes died on December 6, 2020, reducing the number to 6: Rangel, Mezvinsky, Holtzman, Froehlich, Cohen and Lott.)

* There are 3 surviving members of President Richard Nixon's Cabinet, which left office with him on August 9, 1974, 45 years: Secretary of Commerce Frederick Dent (86), Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (about to turn 96), and George Shultz (98), who served as Secretary of Labor and of the Treasury, and was later Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan. 

* There are 6 surviving members of President Gerald Ford's Cabinet, which left office with him on January 20, 1977, 42 years: Kissinger, Dent, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (87), Secretary of Agriculture John Knebel (82), Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare F. David Matthews (83), and Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Carla Anderson Hills (85).

(UPDATE: Dent died on December 10, 2019. Shultz died on February 6, 2021, leaving Kissinger as the last survivor of Nixon's Cabinet; and Kissinger, Rumsfeld, Knebel, Matthews and Hills from Ford's.)

There are 7 survivors from the Cabinet of Jimmy Carter, which left office with him on January 20, 1981, 38 years: Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal (93), Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti (about to turn 84), Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (90), Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare Joe Califano (about to turn 88), Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Maurice "Moon" Landrieu (about to turn 89, a Mayor of New Orleans, his son was also Mayor and his daughter was a Senator), Secretary of Transportation Neil Goldschmidt (about to turn 79), and Secretary of Energy Charles Duncan (92).

Most members of the Cabinets of Ronald Reagan, both George Bushes and Bill Clinton are still alive. All of those of Barack Obama and Donald Trump are still alive.