Emma Martina Luigia Morano (29 November 1899 – 15 April 2017) was an Italian supercentenarian. She was the world's oldest living person from 13 May 2016 until her death on 15 April 2017, aged 117 years and 137 days. At the time of her death, she was also the last living person verified to have been born in the 1800s. She is the oldest Italian person ever and the third-oldest European person ever behind Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) and Lucile Randon (1904–2023).
Washington Lloréns Lloréns (28 November 1899 – 21 June 1989) was a Puerto Rican writer, linguist, lexicographer, journalist and literary critic. Trained as a pharmacist and chemist, he applied his knowledge of science to vocabulary and linguistics, for which he had a passion. As a lexicographer, one of his notable achievements was the inclusion of over 50 Puerto Rican words in the nineteenth edition of the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language in 1970.
Fernand Fabre (1899–1987) was a French stage, television and film actor.
Lydia Cabrera (May 20, 1899, in Havana, Cuba – September 19, 1991, in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban independent ethnographer, writer, and literary activist. She was an authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions. During her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little of her work is available in English. Her most important book is El Monte (Spanish: "The Wilderness"), which was the first major ethnographic study of Afro-Cuban traditions, herbalism and religion. First published in 1954, the book became a "textbook" for those who practice Lukumi (orisha religion originating from the Yoruba and neighboring ethnic groups) and Palo Monte (a central African faith) both religions reaching the Caribbean through enslaved Africans. Her papers and research materials were donated to the Cuban Heritage Collection - the largest repository of materials on or about Cuba located outside of Cuba - forming part of the library of the University of Miami. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book Tres Tigres Tristes is written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice. She was one of the first writers to recognize and sensitively publish on the richness of Afro-Cuban culture and religion. She made valuable contributions in the areas of literature, anthropology, art, ethnomusicology, and ethnology.
In El Monte, Cabrera fully described the major Afro-Cuban religions: Regla de Ocha (commonly known as Santeria) and Ifá, which are both derived from traditional Yoruba religion; and Palo Monte, which originated in Central Africa.
Both the literary and anthropological perspectives in Cabrera's work assume that she wrote about mainly oral, practical religions with only an “embryonic” written tradition. She is credited by literary critics for having transformed Afro-Cuban oral narratives into literature, which is, written works of art, while anthropologists rely on her accounts of oral information collected during interviews with santeros, babalawos, and paleros, and on her descriptions of religious ceremonies.
There is a dialectical relationship between Afro-Cuban religious writing and Cabrera's work; she used a religious writing tradition that has now internalized her own ethnography.
Robert Raymond Arnoux (23 October 1899, in Lille – 13 March 1964, in Paris) was a French actor.
Pierre Gandon was a French illustrator and engraver of postage stamps. He was born on 20 January 1899 in L'Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) and died on 23 July 1990.
Felipe Pinglo Alva (July 18, 1899 - May 13, 1936), known as the father of Peruvian Musica criolla and nicknamed the "Immortal Bard" or ("Bardo Inmortal" in Spanish), was an influential and prolific poet and songwriter best known for his often covered "El Plebeyo" (The Commoner). In Peru and Latin America, Pinglo's name is most often associated with the Peruvian vals criollo, which is a uniquely Peruvian music, characterized by the 3/4 time, elaborate guitar work and lyrics about lost love or the Lima of yesteryear.
Dominique-Octave Mannoni (French: [manoni]; 29 August 1899, in Sologne – 30 July 1989, in Paris) was a French psychoanalyst and author.
Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing (Russian: Во́льф Григо́рьевич (Ге́ршикович) Ме́ссинг, Polish: Wolf Grigoriewicz Messing, Hebrew: וולף מסינג) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) was a self-proclaimed psychic, telepath and stage hypnotist.
Paul Béchard (25 December 1899, Alès – 26 April 1982) was a French politician. He represented the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in the Constituent Assembly elected in 1945, in the National Assembly from 1946 to 1948, from 1951 to 1955 and from 1958 to 1967 and in the Senate from 1955 to 1958. From January 27, 1948 to May 24, 1951 he was Governor of French West Africa. He was the mayor of Alès from 1947 to 1948 and from 1953 to 1965.