British woman becomes world's oldest person at 115

Ethel turned 115 in August 2025

Reaching more than one-hundred years of age is an impressive thing.

And if you live much longer than that, it can even be a record-breaking feat!

A woman from the UK has made it into the history books after becoming the world's oldest person at the age of 115 and 252 days.

Ethel Caterham, who lives in Surrey, officially took on the title after the death of Brazilian nun, Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, on Wednesday. She passed away at the age of 116.

Guinness World Records has confirmed Ethel is now the world's oldest person.

When asked about her long life after turning 115 last year, the centenarian said her secret was "never arguing with anyone, I listen and I do what I like".

Ethel's long life has seen her live through some of the world's biggest events in modern history. Read on to find out more.

The building of the Titanic

The Titanic sank on the 14 April 1912

Ethel was born on 21 August 1909, in the same year the Titanic was built.

The famous passenger ship was made in Belfast and it took around three years for its construction to be completed.

It cost around £1.5 million to make the Titanic, which is around £170 million today.

But it took just two hours and 40 minutes for the ship to sink after it hit an iceberg on its way to Southampton on the 14 April 1912.

World War One and World War Two

Ethel has lived through both World War One (WW1), which took place from 1914-1918 and World War Two (WW2), which began in 1939 and came to an end in 1945.

They were two of the most significant wars in modern history and had a massive impact on the world.

Millions of people lost their lives during both wars, including soldiers and civilians.

The 8 May is VE Day, which marked the end of the fighting in Europe during WW2 in 1945.

The war officially came to an end a few months later in August.

The Queen's Coronation

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning British monarch in history

Queen Elizabeth II was officially crowned the British monarch on 2 June 1953.

She was 27 years old and people travelled to Westminster from all over the country for the occasion, which is known as a Coronation.

The Queen was on the throne for 70 years, which makes her the longest ruling British monarch in history.

The first moon landing

US astronaut Neil Armstrong was one of the first two people to step foot on the moon

Humans are continuing to push the limits when it comes to space exploration, and the very first moon landing has an important part to play in the progress that's been made so far.

American astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first people to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969.

The mission, called Apollo 11, was a big success and the moment was transmitted to around 650 million people who watched the events unfold on television.

The invention of the World Wide Web

Tim Berners-Lee was awarded a knighthood for his work

The world wide web (WWW) was invented by a man called Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

Did you know it was actually created as a way to help scientists easily share data from their experiments?

It meant computers connected to the internet could share this data.

Up until this invention, there was no way to link up the internet, which is a huge network of computers, and all of the documents and data on it, which is what we called the world wide web.

Tim Berners-Lee was awarded a knighthood for his work in 2004.