Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 18 miles (29 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. It is famous for its limestone bluffs along the river north of the city, as the former location of the state penitentiary, and for its role preceding and during the American Civil War. It was the site of the last Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in October 1858. The former state penitentiary in Alton was used during the Civil War to hold up to 12,000 Confederate prisoners of war. Also, the tallest man in history, Robert Wadlow, was born and raised in Alton.
Martin Van Buren Bates, known as the Kentucky Giant, was an American man notable for his great height. He was 7 ft 9 in (2.36 m) tall and weighed 475 lb (215 kg).
Anna Haining Bates was a Canadian woman notable for her great stature of 7 feet 11 inches (2.41 m). She was one of the tallest women ever. Her parents were of average height and were Scottish immigrants.
Leonid Stepanovych Stadnyk was a Ukrainian man who claimed to have stood at 2.57 m though photographic evidence suggests he was not taller than 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m).
Eddie Carmel was an Israeli-born American entertainer with gigantism and subsequent acromegaly resulting from a pituitary adenoma. He was popularly known as "The Jewish Giant", "The Happy Giant," and "The World's Biggest Cowboy."
Zeng Jinlian was a Chinese teenage girl who held the world record of being the tallest woman verified in modern times, surpassing Jane Bunford's record. Following the death of Don Koehler, Zeng held the record of being the tallest living person from 1981 to 1982, during which time she surpassed fellow "eight-footers" Gabriel Estêvão Monjane and Suleiman Ali Nashnush.
Shurtleff College was a Baptist liberal arts school in Alton, Illinois until 1957.
Jóhann Kristinn Pétursson, also known as the Icelandic Giant and the Viking Giant, was an Icelandic circus performer and actor who at his peak measured 2.34 metres in height and weighed 163 kilograms (359 lb).
John Francis Carroll was an American giant and one of 23 known people in medical history to have reached a height of 8 feet (240 cm). He suffered from severe, 2-dimensional spinal curvature (Kyphoscoliosis) and acromegalic gigantism. He had a standing height of 8 ft 1⁄4 in (244 cm) on October 14, 1959, at age 27, but according to calculations, his height would have been 8 ft 8 in (264 cm), assuming normal curvature of the spine. In 1968, he was later measured at 7 ft 10+1⁄2 in (240 cm), having shrunk in stature due to his worsening spinal condition.
John Aasen was an American silent film actor and sideshow performer who was one of the tallest actors in history.
Clifford Marshall Thompson was one of the world's tallest men, the world's tallest lawyer, and remains the tallest man to ever appear in a Hollywood film.
Sultan Kösen is a Turkish farmer who holds the Guinness World Record for tallest living male at 251 cm.
Wadlow is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:
John "Bud" Rogan, was recorded as the tallest non-mobile person who ever lived, and the second-tallest person ever at 8 feet 9 inches (267 cm), behind only Robert Wadlow.
Alton Community Unit School District #11 in Madison County, Illinois is a public school district consisting of seven elementary schools, one high school, one middle school, an early childhood center, and an alternative education school.
The Alton Museum of History and Art, sometimes known as the Robert Wadlow Museum, in Alton, Illinois was founded in 1971 as a not for profit organization. It is located in Loomis Hall, named for Rev. Hubbel Loomis, on the grounds of the former Rock Spring Alton Baptist Seminary established by missionary John Mason Peck, later renamed Shurtleff College, and presently the home of the Southern IL University School of Dental Medicine. The building, which has Underground Railroad history, was constructed as the original chapel/classroom of the seminary c.1820 and the sanctuary was modified in the early 1900s to be a two-story building with a rear classroom and laboratory addition. The building is the state's second oldest remaining college building.
Jakob Hudson Nacken or Jacob Nacken was a German circus performer active in Europe and the United States. He began his career as an exceptionally tall person while a teenager, performing in a traveling circus, and appeared in the 1939 New York World's Fair. Nacken was the tallest soldier in the German Army during World War II at a height of seven feet three inches (2.21 m). He was employed as a giant Santa Claus and appeared on American television as a figure of high stature and in freak shows as the World's Tallest Man.
Siah Khan Ibn Kashmir Khan was a tall Persian man who lived in the Zarqan functions of Fars province in the early 20th century in Lepui, also suffered from physical and mental retardation and proteus syndrome.
Siddiqa Parveen is an Indian woman listed by Guinness World Records as the tallest living woman. She is also the tallest Indian woman in recorded history at 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m).
