Väinö Myllyrinne
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Väinö Myllyrinne, born in 1909 in Helsinki, and died in 1963 in Järvenpää, Finland, was first the tallest man in Europe and then from 1940 onwards the second tallest man in the world (half an inch behind Don Koehler). Myllyrinne is considered the tallest soldier ever, having served in the Finnish Defence Forces. He reached a height of 248 cm (8' 1.5"), and grew to this size due to suffering from acromegalic gigantism. Myllyrinne was voted 12th greatest Finn in the tv-show Suuret suomalaiset (spin-off of the BBC show Great Britons), largely due to a tongue-in-cheek Internet campaign criticising the idea of the show. The advocates of the campaign thought that because you can't pick just one person to be the Greatest Finn for their accomplisments, Väinö Myllyrinne would actually be the "greatest Finn", because of his height.
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