Happy 190th Birthday to Jonathan, still going strongl Jonathan is a tortoise who holds the Guinness Book of World records title as the world’s oldest living land animal. He is believed to have been born in 1832 — he won’t reveal his exact birthdate — and you can read more about him using the link below. To provide some context, today’s Beautiful Music was composed at around the time Jonathan was born: the DIABELLI VARIATIONS by Ludwig van Beethoven, played by pianist Sangyoung Kim in 2012 at Williams Hall, New England Conservatory in Boston, MA.