Tall Facts & Trivia
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   Nearly Useless Facts -

  • Percent of US women that are 5'-10" or taller - 0.7%
  • Percent of US men that are 6'-2" or taller - 3.9%
  • The average US adult male is 5'-9.1"
  • The average US adult female is 5'-3.7"
         Source: US Dept. of Health and Human Services
  • Min. Height for US Astronaut - 4'-10.5"
  • Min. Height for US Space Shuttle Pilot - 5'-4"
  • Max. Height for US Space Shuttle crew (all) 6'-4"
        Source: NASA
  • Average Miss America Winner - 5'-6.6"
  • Tallest Miss America contestant - 6'-2" (Jeanne Robertson)
  • Optimum height for a Fashion Model (female) - 5'-9.5"
  • Optimum height for a Fashion Model (Male) - 6"-0"
  • Tallest US President - Abraham Lincoln, 6'-4"
  • Shortest US President - James Madison - 5'-4"

   Almost Completely Useless Facts-

  • The only mammal where the female is normally taller than the male is a type of antelope called the Okapi.
     
  • In the original Ian Fleming book, the character "Dr. No" was 6'-6" tall. No suitable Asian actors could be found of that size for the movie, however. In another James Bond book, the character "Auric Goldfinger" was only 5'-0". This was also altered in the film, so that a taller (6') Bond would not seem to be a bully
     
  • The first Hebrew king, Saul, was selected by the prophet Samuel to be king simply because he was very tall. (Samuel 1-23)
     
  • In the song, the "Girl from Ipenema" was described as tall and tan and young and lovely. In fact the girl stood only 5'-6" , but that was fairly tall for a Brazilian woman of that day.
     
  •  The Japanese word for tall - "takai" is the same word they use for "expensive". This gives new meaning to the term high prices!.
     
  •  The Watutsi, the African race of 7' tall giants portrayed in the film "King Solomon's Mines", are not generally tall at all. The average Watusi is about 5'-6",  common for bush people. Only a select inbred clan of tribal royalty grow to great height.
     
  •  It has often been said that the taller man always wins in U.S. presidential elections, with the shorter man winning only once in the history of the  presidency. While this "fact" has been quoted and re-quoted in dozens of newspapers, no one can find the original research. In fact, the exact height isn't known for many US presidents.
     
  • In 1876, the average man in the U.S. stood 5'-5" tall, four inches shorter than today's average. Half of that increase, a full 2" on average, has been since 1960 according to the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.
     
  •  Tsar Peter the Great wasn't all that great a guy ( he made Russian peasants dig the foundations of St. Petersburg with their bare hands ) But he was big, standing 6'-6 3/4" tall, ( really big for the 1700's) and he did bring modern technology and science to Russia.
     
  • The tallest bird alive today is the Ostrich, the Tallest mammal is the Giraffe.
     
  • The Tallest snake is the King Cobra, which can rear itself up to six feet and spread its "hood" nine inches.
     
  • The tallest man on record was Robert Pershing Wadlow  of Alton, Illinois at a height of  8' 11.1" according to the Guiness Book of Records. At the time of his death at the age of 22 he weighed 490 pounds.
     
  • The tallest woman ever recorded was born in 1616 in Holland, and her name was Trijntje Cornelisdochter. she died on the 2nd of July 1633: 17 years old and 2m54 (8'-4") tall. Find out more about her on Efron's web page.
     
  • The Tallest woman on record now is Sandy Allen,  7'-7 1/4"". Happily, Sandy is still alive and well.
     
  • Tallest Married Couple - According to the Guiness Book of World Records, Anna Hanen Swan (1846-1888) 7 ft 5 1/2 in. married Martin Van Buren Bates (1845-1919), who stood 7 ft 2 1/2 in, At the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, England, on June 17, 1871 making them the tallest married couple on record.
     
  • The tallest living thing is a Redwood tree in the American Northwest. At 368', it is known as "The Tall Tree" (clever, eh?)
     
  • The tallest office building is an area for discussion. While the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has ruled that the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are tallest at 1,483 Feet, many note that this includes the 242 foot ornamental spires on the tops of the buildings.

    Chicago's Sears Tower (1,454') still boasts the highest usable floor (and the longest elevator ride) 150 feet higher than Petronas. If you include the television antennas on Sears, the Chicago building is taller, but the CTBUH does not consider antennas. The whole discussion will be moot when the 1,509 foot World Financial Center in Shanghai is completed.

    Even at that height the clear winner for tallest structure (with or without offices) will remain the CN communication tower - 1,815' located in Toronto,  Canada. For more information consult the Tall buildings list.