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Angus MacAskill, The Strongest Man Who Ever Lived
The massive Canadian awed people during his lifetime with his amazing size and strength
At 7'9" and 510 pounds, Angus MacAskill was a veritable mountain of a human being. Living in the 19th century, he gained a widespread reputation not only for his size but also for his unbelievable strength. His life was filled with anecdotes and accomplishments that spoke to his incredible muscle, which was enough to lead to him being posthumously recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the strongest man who ever lived.
Born in Scotland in 1825, he and his family moved to Cape Breton in Canada when he was around the age of six. One of 13 children in the family, including several who died early in life, he was said to have been a baby of a normal size.
Although MacAskill was an average size child and his parents weren’t particularly large (his father Norman was around 5'9”), he began to grow like a weed as he entered adolescence. By the time he was 20, he had reached the height of 7 ‘4,” topping out at 7’9” a couple of years after that. As a young man, he weighed approximately 510 pounds, adding on more weight as he progressed into life. What was most remarkable about him was that he did not suffer from gigantism or any glandular abnormality. It is thus believed that he was the tallest ever non-pathological giant in recorded human history.
It wasn’t just that he was tall. He was truly massive in all regards. His chest measurements of 80 inches remain the largest ever for any male who was not obese. Because of how he stood out, he earned several nicknames from his community, including “Gille Mor” (Big Boy), “Giant MacAskill” and The Cape Breton Giant.”
Then there was the unusual strength of MacAskill, which was so great that during his life there was an ongoing accumulation of stories attesting to his brute brawn.
When he was 14, he was working on a fishing vessel when his fellow sailors decided to have a lark and brought him to a dance. Accosted by a man at the party, the growing boy lashed out and punched him in the jaw — sending him sprawling unconscious among the revelers. The man failed to regain consciousness after some time, causing a nearly hysterical…
