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, and the world's oldest man from November 19, 2004 (death of Fred H. Hale, Sr.) until his own death on January 24, 2007. At the time of his death in January 2007, at the age of 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. (Although Shigechiyo Izumi was still believed to be older at the time of his death. Izumi's record was withdrawn by Guinness World Records in 2010.) Biography Emiliano (known to his family as "Emilio") was born 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 cane 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, when a story ran about a 110-year-old veteran in a parade in Puerto Rico. After that, researchers tried to track him down, but only after the November 2004 death of Fred H. Hale, Sr. did someone finally start sending in documents. Following Mr. Hale's death, Emiliano apparently became the oldest man in the world, with documents supplied so far including a birth certificate, baptismal certificate, 1910 census record, and veteran ID card. By January 2005, Guinness had accepted Emiliano as the oldest living man. In addition, Emiliano Mercado del Toro was 27 years old in October 1918 when the U.S. Army drafted him to serve in World War I. As a veteran of World War I he broke the record for longest-lived veteran of any military force, previously set by Antonio Todde (Mercado was still at a training camp in Panama when the November 11, 1918 armistice was declared). Mercado was discharged the following month, when he was still 27. In 1993, he was honored by U.S. President Bill Clinton with the medal commemorating the 75th anniversary of the signing of the truce that ended World War I. Mercado del Toro, the elder of two siblings, had to move