Daisy and Violet Hilton

popular name: Elizabeth Glaser

date_of_death: December 3, 1994

age: 47

cause_of_death: Complications from AIDS

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Elizabeth Glaser was an actress, educator, activist, author, and founder of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Elizabeth Glaser. In fact, it was Elizabeth Glaser’s fight to save her HIV-positive children led to her creation of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation to save children worldwide from the devastation of AIDS. Shortly after her marriage to actor Paul Michael Glaser, while giving birth to Ariel, Elizabeth hemorrhaged and was transfused with seven pints of blood. It wasn't until four years later that Elizabeth found out that she had been infected with the AIDS virus through the blood transfusion, and passed it on through her breastmilk to Ariel, who later died at the age of seven years old. The couple also had a son, Jake, who was infected with the virus in utero. Upon the death of her daughter, Glaser raised awareness of pediatric AIDS and pushed to extend availability of the drug AZT to children. In 1988, Glaser founded the Pediatric AIDS Association. In 1992, she spoke at the Democratic National Convention, criticizing the government’s failure to address the AIDS crisis. Her 1991 book, In the Absence of Angels, was praised for its honest discussion of losing a child. Glaser lost her battle with AIDS in 1994.

popular name: Robert Wadlow

date_of_death: July 15, 1940

age: 22

cause_of_death: Wound infection

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as Alton's Gentle Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man who was the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He was born and raised in Alton, Illinois, a small city near St. Louis, Missouri. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone (HGH). By the time of his graduation from Alton High School in 1936, he was 8 feet 4 inches tall and measured almost 9 feet tall at the time of his death. Wadlow became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden in the center ring (never in the sideshow). During his appearances, he dressed in his everyday clothes and refused the circus's request that he wear a top hat and tails. In 1938, he began a promotional tour with the International Shoe Company, which provided him shoes free of charge, again only in his everyday street clothes. Wadlow saw himself as working in advertising, not exhibiting as a freak. He possessed great physical strength until the last few days of his life. He was buried at Alton Cemetery (aka Oakwood Cemetery) in Alton, Illinois.

popular name: Alfred Southwick

date_of_death: June 11, 1898

age: 72

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: In 1881 Alfred Southwick heard a story about an intoxicated man who touched a live electric generator. Given that the man died so quickly, Southwick concluded that electricity could be used as an alternative to hanging for executions. And while his background included stints as a steam-boat engineer and dentist, Alfred was credited with inventing the electric chair as a method of legal execution. He also served as a professor at the University of Buffalo school of dental medicine, now known as the State University of New York at Buffalo. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY.