About Emiliano Mercado del Toro
Emiliano Mercado del Toro (August 21, 1891 – January 24, 2007) was a Puerto Rican supercentenarian and military veteran who was, at age 115, the world's oldest person following the death of 116-year-old Elizabeth Bolden on December 11, 2006, until his own death on January 24, 2007. He had already been the world's oldest man from November 19, 2004, upon the death of Fred Harold Hale. At the time of his death in January 2007, aged 115 years and 156 days, Mercado was the second oldest fully validated male ever, behind Danish-American Christian Mortensen's record of 115 years 252 days. Japanese man, Shigechiyo Izumi, was still believed to be older at the time of Mercado's death, but his record was withdrawn by Guinness World Records in 2010. == Biography == Emiliano Mercado del Toro (known to his family as "Emilio") was born on August 21, 1891, in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico (at a time when Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony), the son of Delfín Mercado Cáceres and Gumercinda del Toro Padilla. Emiliano worked in the sugarcane fields until the age of 81. He never married and never had children, but said he had three "girlfriends" (love interests) in his life. === Accolades === Mercado first came to the attention of longevity researchers in 2001, after a story about a 110-year-old veteran in a parade in Puerto Rico. Researchers tried to track him down, but no documents were forthcoming until after the November 2004 death of Fred Harold Hale. By January 2005, Guinness had accepted Mercado as the oldest living man.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.