Guinness World Records confirmed her as the worldâs oldest living person. According to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which keep a list of supercentenarians aged over 110, the only other living person born in the 1800s is Emma Morano, of Verbania, Italy, who is a few months younger.
She scoured the archives for any and all information about emancipation day and the parades.5 Starting in 1991, Hanes organized events that would commit the day to public memory.6 Eventually, Emancipation Day was made an official public holiday in the District of Columbia in 2005.
Freedom Day - Emancipation Day. Juneteenth is the annual day of celebration started 135 years ago by former American slaves. As soon as the Civil War was over, almost all of the slaves in the South were freed  but not those in Texas. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was effective on January 1, 1863, the Texas slaves were not released until 1865. One year later, they began their celebration of freedom and called it Juneteenth, the shortened version of June 19th.