World's Oldest Man Turns 114

A Montana resident believed to be the world's oldest man celebrated his 114th birthday today at a retirement home in Great Falls. Walter Breuning was born on Sept. 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minnesota, and moved to Montana in 1918, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years. Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world's oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113.

The Guinness organization and the Gerontology Research Group each have verified Breuning as the world's oldest man and the fourth-oldest person. Three women were born earlier in the same year as Breuning. His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children. (More Walter Breuning stories.)