Posted Dec. 29, 2008 – We may never know the secret to having a long life, but George Francis apparently had it for 112 years and 204 days.

Francis, who lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first Black president, died at a nursing home Monday at the age of 112 due to congestive heart failure.

Dr. Stephen Coles, a gerontologist at the University of California in Los Angeles who maintains a list of the world’s oldest people, said Francis was the oldest man living in the United States.

Maria de Jesus, of Portugal, who is 115 years and 109 days old, is now the world’s oldest living person, Coles said.