I discovered a small number of centenarians at the Crescent Grove Mausoleum within Crescent Grove Cemetery. I located a
website that was able to prove Mary Faltys lived to be 102. Mary was born on November 3, 1906. She died on March 30, 2009 at 102 years old.
1906 - In the year that Mary A Faltys was born, Finland became the first European country to give women the vote and to allow them to run for political office. (Women in Australia and New Zealand already had that right but couldn't run for office.) Although Finland belonged to the Russian Empire, there was great unrest and the Tsar wanted to broker a quick peace. As a part of the brokered peace, women got the vote.
1916 - At the age of just 10 years old, Mary was alive when the Battle of Verdun was fought from February through December. It was the largest and longest battle of World War I, lasting 303 days. The original estimates were 714,231 casualties - 377,231 French and 337,000 German, an average of 70,000 casualties a month. Current estimates are even larger. The Battle of the Somme was also fought from July through September of the same year. Original estimates were 485,000 British and French casualties and 630,000 German casualties.
1937 - By the time she was 31 years old, on May 6th, the German zeppelin the Hindenburg caught fire and blew up. The Hindenburg was a passenger ship traveling to Frankfurt Germany. It tried to dock in New Jersey, one of the stops, and something went wrong - it blew up. Thirty-six people were killed out of the 97 on board - 13 passengers, 22 crewmen, and one ground worker. The reasons for the explosion are still disputed.
1959 - Mary was 53 years old when on August 8th, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States. The US flag was changed to show 50 stars.
1981 - Mary was 75 years old when on August 1st, MTV debuted. It was the first music video TV channel. The first music video played was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" - the second was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run".