Notable Last Survivors -- 2021 History Division

May 6, 1937, 84 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. There were 36 deaths, but 62 survivors. All 62 of those are gone now.

I first did this series 2 years ago. Significant updates need to be made.

All of this information is based on available documentation, and any of it may be superseded by the discovery of new information.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

* AD 675: Abu al-Ysur Ka'b ibn Amr, the last survivor of the soldiers who fought under the Prophet Mohammad, AD 624. 51 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.

* October 19, 1453: Last survivor of the Hundred Years' War I couldn't find an authoritative answer. I tried to narrow it down to the last survivor of the Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415, but I couldn't find one for that, either.

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

* October 12, 1492: Last survivor of the voyage of Christopher Columbus: I couldn't find an authoritative answer. The 2nd of his 4 voyages -- not the one on which Columbus "discovered America" -- included Bartolome de las Casas, who later became a monk and wrote a book about the voyage, including the horrible way Columbus and his men treated the natives. He lived until 1566, making him 74. 58 years.

* 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.

* Sometime in 1800: Ambrose Bennett, 106, the last surviving veteran of the War of the Spanish Succession, which ended on September 11, 1714. 86 years.

* February 11, 1824: Peter Grant, 110, the last survivor of the Jacobite Rising of 1745, including the decisive Battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746. 78 years. A story which probably isn't true has him being introduced to King George IV in 1822, as "Your Majesty's oldest enemy."

* 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.

* May 17, 1829: John Jay, 83, the last survivor of the charter Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, which was sworn in on September 26, 1789. 40 years.

* August 1, 1830: James Thompson, 97, the last participant in the Battle of Quebec, which ended the French dominance of 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. Also the last surviving author of The Federalist Papers, designed to persuade the State legislatures to ratify the Constitution, along with John Jay and the man who wrote the bulk of it, Alexander Hamilton, who died in 1804. They were written in 1787 and 1788, so 48 years.

* November 5, 1840: George Hewes, 98, the last survivor of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. 70 years. He also turned out to be the last surviving participant in the Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. 67 years.

* February 24, 1843: John Owen, 101,  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. 80 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.

* November 7, 1906: Apostolos Mavrogenis, 114, the last surviving veteran of the Greek War of Independence, which ended on September 12, 1829. 77 years. He was an army doctor.

* 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 briefest-serving, just 69 days, May 1 to July 8, 1896. He never sat in Parliamaent as Prime Minister, and never convened a Cabinet meeting.

* February 7, 1922: Samuel Fielden, 74, the last surviving defendant from the Haymarket Affair, a bombing at a labor rally in Chicago, May 4, 1886. 36 years.

* February 10, 1923: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, 77,the last survivor of the inaugural winners of the Nobel Prizes, 1901, a little over 21 years. He was honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics, for discovering X-rays.

* 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.

So far, he is 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. Contrary to the TV shows The Rousters (a 1983-84 NBC action-adventure-comedy) and Wynonna Earp (a 2016-21 Syfy drama), Wyatt is not known to have had any children, and thus no descendants.

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

* July 9, 1929: James Cummins, 82, the last survivor of Quantrill's Raiders, terrorists for the cause of slavery during the American Civil War, including Frank and Jesse James, whose efforts ended with the killing of "Bloody" Bill Anderson on October 26, 1864. 65 years.

He also turned out to be the last survivor of the James-Younger Gang, led by the James brothers, ending on October 4, 1882, with Frank surrendering, with Jesse having been killed on April 3 of that year. 47 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, off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa, 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.

* Somertime in 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.

* Sometime in 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.

Given recent instances of white supremacy, it's easy to believe that the Civil War isn't "really over." But 2020 saw the deaths of the the last surviving recipient of a pension from the war, and the last surviving widow of a veteran of the war.

Irene Triplett had collected a pension from the State of North Carolina since the death of her veteran father in 1938. She died at age 90 on May 31. Helen Viola Jackson married Union veteran James Bolin in 1936, when he was 93 and she was 17, and was widowed in 1939, but refused her pension from the State of Missouri after being threatened by Bolin's daughters from her previous marriage. She died at age 101 on December 26.

* December 1, 1952: Vittorio Orlando, 92, Prime Minister of Italy, last of the Big Four leaders at the Paris Peace Conference of January 18 to June 28, 1919. 33 years. President Woodrow Wilson died in 1924, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France in 1929, and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain in 1945.

* 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 of the Little Bighorn, 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.

* December 2, 1961: Laura Bullion, a.k.a. the Thorny Rose, 95, the last survivor of the Wild Bunch, the Wild West gang led by Robert L. Parker, a.k.a. Butch Cassidy, which broke up when Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid, fled America for Bolivia in 1901. 60 years.

The official story has it that Butch and Sundance were killed by the Bolivian Army in 1908. There is evidence, although hardly conclusive, that both men lived a bit longer than that. But there is, as yet, no evidence that they, or any other member of the gang, outlived Laura Bullion.

* 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 20, 1964: Jennings J. Dunlap, 84, the last survivor of "The Wreck of the Old 97," a Southern Railway mail train derailment that killed 11 people near Danville, Virginia on September 27, 1903. 61 years. The wreck inspired a folk song, and its melody inspired another, "M.T.A." (a.k.a. "Charlie on the... ").

* September 7, 1970: Donald B. MacMillan, 95, last survivor of the team that has gotten the official credit for being the 1st to reach the North Pole, commanded by Robert Peary, April 6, 1909. 61 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 of Topeka, Kansas, 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.

* December 24, 1985: Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, 81, the last known descendant of Abraham Lincoln, who died on April 15, 1865. 120 years. It still beats the last living descendant of George Washington, because Washington had no known children. Beckwith was a great-grandson of Honest Abe, his mother being Jessie Harlan Lincoln, whose mother was Robert Todd Lincoln, Abe's son.

* 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.

* May 9, 1989: Kenneth A. Roberts, 76, the last of the 5 Congressmen wounded in the U.S. Capitol shooting incident, March 1, 1954. 35 years. He was a Democrat from Alabama, and served from 1951 to 1965.

* 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. 76 years.

* February 16, 1992: Mamoru Etō, 109, the last surviving veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, which ended on September 5, 1905. 87 years.

* 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.

* March 16, 1993: Ralph Fults, 82, the last survivor of the Barrow Gang, whose reign of robbery ended when Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed by a posse outside Gibsland, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934. 59 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 15, 1995: Grace Hanagan, 87, the last survivor of the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland, in the St. Lawrence River outside Métis-sur-Mer, Quebec, on May 29, 1914. 81 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, 3 months after Nixon himself did. 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 PS 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.

* December 6, 2005: Gene Bruce, 98, the last survivor of the Honda Point Disaster, when 7 U.S. Navy destroyers ran aground at night near Lompoc, California, September 8, 1923. 82 years. 

* 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 89, could be considered "the last surviving person who had been in the car," but he wasn't in it when the shots were fired.

* September 27, 2006: Frank Sublett, 86, the last member of the Golden Thirteen, the 1st African-American U.S. Navy enlisted men who were made officers, March 17, 1944. 62 years.

* 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.

* January 2, 2009: Vasco Bruttomesso, 105, the last surviving veteran of the March On Rome that established Benito Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, October 29, 1922. 86 years. He later served as Mayor of Carbonate, Italy. To the end, he was unrepentant.

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

* December 25, 2009: Knut Haugland, 92, the last survivor of Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition, which completed its journey on August 7, 1947. 62 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.

* March 30, 2010: Juan Carlos Caballero Vega, 109, the last surviving veteran of the Mexican Revolution, whose official end was on May 21, 1920. 90 years. For 2 years, he was Pancho Villa's driver.

* 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.

* June 27, 2011: Richard Poff, 87, the last living member of Congress who had signed the Southern Manifeso, opposing desegregation, March 12, 1956.

A Republican from Virginia, by 1970 he had softened his opposition enough that President Richard Nixon thought he could be confirmed by the Senate for the U.S. Supreme Court. He turned the appointment down, because he was afraid the media would look into his background, and reveal that his 12-year-old son was adopted. He ended up telling his son anyway, and the son accepted it.

The elder Poff resigned from Congress to accept an appointment to his State's Supreme Court, and rose to become its Senior Justice.

* 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, the B-25 bomber 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 this post, there are believed to be 30 surviving veterans on the Republican side, and 9 on the Nationalist side.

* May 12, 2016: Susannah Mushatt Jones, the last living American to have been born in the 19th Century, July 6, 1899. Nearly 117 years. Born into a sharecropping family in Alabama, she became a nanny in Harlem.

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

* December 30, 2016: Tommy Wisbey, 86, the last known participant in the Great Train Robbery, at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, England, on August 8, 1963. 63 years.

* April 15, 2017: Emma Morano, 117, the last person known to have been born during the 18th Century, which ended on December 31, 1899 -- not December 31, 1900.

* 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.

* May 2, 2018: Mary Hall Daniels, 98, the last survivor of the Rosewood Massacre, in which 6 black people were murdered by white supremacists in Rosewood, Florida, on January 1, 1923. 95 years.

* July 9, 2018: Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, the last man to serve in the Cabinets of each of these Prime Ministers of Britain: Winston Churchill, who last left the post on April 5, 1955, 63 years; Anthony Eden, on June 9, 1957, 61 years; and Harold Macmillan, on October 18, 1963, 55 years. He also served in the Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher. His grandfather dropped the 2nd R from the family name, but the title kept the 2 R's.

* 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.

* May 28, 2019: Levi Oakes, 94, the last surviving Native American "code talker" in World War II, which ended on V-Day, August 14, 1945. 74 years. Oakes was 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. 

* 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.

* March 14, 2019: Birch Bayh, 91, the last surviving former U.S. Senator who had voted on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on June 19 of that year. 55 years. A Democrat from Indiana, he ran for President in 1976. His son Evan Bayh later served Indiana as Governor and Senator.

* September 16, 2019: Sander Vanocur, 91, the last on-screen participant in the 1st televised general-election Presidential debate, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, at the CBS studio in Chicago, September 26, 1960. Then with NBC News, Vanocur would, like the debate's moderator, Howard K. Smith of CBS, switch to ABC, and that's how I remember both of them.

* November 15, 2019: 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.

* November 23, 2019: Nick Clifford, 98, the last surviving builder of Mount Rushmore, on which construction was stopped on October 31, 1941. 78 years.

* March 2, 2020: 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, 56 years. 

* June 17, 2020: Jean Kennedy Smith, 92, 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.

* July 17, 2020: John Lewis, 80, the last surviving speaker at the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. 57 years. He was then the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1986, he was elected as a U.S. Representative from a district based in Atlanta, and was continually re-elected until his death.

* January 30, 2021: Eugenio Martínez, 98, 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, and James McCord in 2017.

* April 9, 2021: Ramsey Clark, 91, the last surviving member of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Cabinet, which left office with him on January 20, 1969. 52 years. He had been Attorney General from November 28, 1966 onward.

*

Alive as of May 6, 2021:

* Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, the last survivor of the Tulsa Race Riot, June 1, 1921. If she lives another 26 days, it will be exactly 100 years.

* 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. 87 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.

* John Hemingway, 101, the last surviving pilot of "The Few," who flew for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, officially running from July 10 to October 31, 1940, 81 years. 

* The best source I can find of how many survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, are still alive after 79 years says there are 322.

* Galina Brok-Beltsova, 96, 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. 79 years.

* There are believed to be 3 survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire that killed 492 people on November 28, 1942, after 79 years, all of them now 97 years old: Christian Murray-Allen, then a student at Radcliffe College, the feminine parallel to Harvard (not yet gender-integrated); Joyce Spector, then attending a secretarial school; and Robert Shumway, then a student at a nearby prep school. 

* Traute Lafrenz, just turned 102, 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, 92, the last surviving participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, May 16, 1943. 76 years.

* Johnny Johnson, 99, the last surviving participant in Operation Chastise, a.k.a. the Dambusters Raid, also on May 16, 1943. 76 years. (UPDATE: He died on December 7, 2022, at 101.)

* The best source I can find of how many survivors of the D-Day invasion at Aure sur Mer, France on June 6, 1944, are still alive after 77 years says there are fewer than 1,000.

* Gunther Schwägermann, 105, the last surviving person who had been in the Führerbunker when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide, April 30, 1945. 76 years. He was a Hauptsturmführer (equivalent in rank to Captain in the U.S. Army) in the SS, and an adjutant 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.

* John L. Tucker, 102, the last surviving scientist on the Manhattan Project, which produced the 1st atomic bomb, successfully tested near Socorro, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. 76 years.

* Ian Hamilton, 95, the last survivor of the thieves of the Stone of Scone from the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey in London on December 24, 1950. 70 years. (UPDATE: He died on October 3, 2022, at 97.)

* I can find no record of how many people who survived the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria, which killed 46 people off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts on July 26, 1956, after 65 years. But there are multiple survivors currently alive, and this website has the names of all who were aboard.

* 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 53 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 80; Brown-Trickey, Green, Eckford, Roberts and Beals (born the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor) are 79; and Karlmark and LaNier are 78.

* 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 79. David Richmond died in 1990, Franklin McCain in 2014.

* There are 2 men still alive who had been prisoners at the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, which closed on March 21, 1963, 58 years: Bill Baker, 87, convicted of check fraud; and Robert Schibline, also 87, bank robbery.

* The crew of Apollo 8 -- Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, both 93; and William Anders, 87 -- are all still alive. Time magazine named them their Persons of the Year for 1968. Given all that happened that year, it might have been a dubious selection. Nevertheless, not counting larger groups (such as the U.S. soldiers of the Korean War in 1950, the Hungarian Freedom Fighters of 1956, or "Twenty-five and Under" in 1966), they are the earliest surviving recipients of the distinction. (Contrary to what Donald Trump believes, it's not an "award" to be "won.")

* There are 3 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. 52 years. Bobby Seale had his case separated from the others, who then became known as the Chicago Seven. Seale is now 84. John Froines and Lee Weiner are both about to turn 82.

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. Rennie Davis died of lymphoma on February 2, 2021. (UPDATE: John Froines died of complications of Parkinson's disease on July 13, 2022. This leaves 2 of the 8: Seale, and Weiner as the last of the 7.)

* 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.

* Jacques Rose, 74, the last surviving perpetrator of the October Crisis in Quebec, which began on October 5, 1970. 50 years. The Quebec Liberation Front's (FLQ's) last surviving kidnap victim, British diplomat James Cross, died on January 6, 2021, at 99.

* 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": Charles Rangel of New York (about to turn 91), Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa (84, later convicted in ABSCAM, father-in-law of Chelsea Clinton), and Elizabeth Holtzman of New York (79).

4 of them are Republicans. Harold V. Froehlich of Wisconsin (about to turn 89) and William S. Cohen of Maine (80, later a Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) voted "Aye." Trent Lott of Mississippi (79, 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."

* Henry Kissinger, about to turn 98, the last surviving member of President Richard Nixon's Cabinet, which left office with him on August 9, 1974. 47 years.

* I had heard that, contrary to his mention in Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "the old cook" was sick, and didn't make the cargo ship's final voyage, sinking in Lake Superior between Wisconsin and Ontario on November 10, 1975. 45 years. And the song does get some of the details of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald wrong.

In this case, no such luck: Robert Rafferty was 1 of the 29 victims. But, at 62, he was the 2nd-oldest, behind the ship's Captain, Ernest McSorley, who was 63, and, Cliché Alert, retiring once the ship reached its homeport of Detroit. (Cleveland was where they were delivering the ore, not where they were based.)

* There are 5 surviving members of President Gerald Ford's Cabinet, which left office with him on January 20, 1977, 44 years: Kissinger, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (about to turn 89), Secretary of Agriculture John Knebel (84), Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare F. David Mathews (85), and Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Carla Anderson Hills (87). (UPDATE: Rumsfeld died on June 29, 2021, leaving 4: Kissinger, Knebel, Mathews and Hills.)

* There are 7 survivors from the Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter, which left office with him on January 20, 1981, 38 years: Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal (95), Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti (about to turn 86), Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (92), Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare Joe Califano (about to turn 90), Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Maurice "Moon" Landrieu (about to turn 91, a Mayor of New Orleans, his son was also Mayor, and his daughter was a Senator), Secretary of Transportation Neil Goldschmidt (about to turn 81), and Secretary of Energy Charles Duncan (94).

(UPDATE: Landrieu died on September 5, 2022, at 92. Civiletti died on October 16, 2022, at 87. Duncan died just 2 days later, at 96. That leaves 4: Blumenthal, Marshall, Califano and Goldschmidt.)

Carter's Administration has proven remarkably durable. He himself is still alive (96), as is his wife Rosalynn (93), making him the oldest and longest-lasting former President ever. They have the longest Presidential marriage ever, approaching 75 years. And Rosalynn has a chance to surpass Bess Truman (98) as the longest-lived former First Lady. Carter's Vice President, Walter Mondale, died this past April 19, at 93.

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