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Short Historical Figures

They stand tall in history (well, some of them do), but in real life they needed lifts! How many of these famous historical figures do you know?

Quiz by CBTemple

Last updated: January 11, 2013

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Hint	Ht.	Answer
British author of The Rape of the Lock	4'6	Alexander Pope
First prime minister of Israel	5'0	David Ben-Gurion
Steel magnate and philanthropist	5'0	Andrew Carnegie
Inventor of the geodesic dome	5'2	R. Buckminster Fuller
Murderous family cult leader	5'2	Charles Manson
First man in space	5'2	Yuri Gagarin
German composer known for nine symphonies	5'3	Ludwig Van Beethoven
Soviet premier before Brezhnev	5'3	Nikita Khrushchev
Led India to independence from the UK	5'3	Mahatma Gandhi
Cruel, licentious French marquis	5'3	Marquis De Sade
Fourth president of the U.S.	5'4	James Madison
French sculptor, created The Thinker	5'4	Auguste Rodin

Hint	Ht.	Answer
Soviet premier in WWII	5'4	Josef Stalin
Author, In Cold Blood	5'4	Truman Capote
Composer, Rite of Spring	5'4	Igor Stravinsky
Spanish painter, founder of cubism	5'4	Pablo Picasso
Greek tycoon; married JFK's widow	5'5	Aristotle Onassis
First Soviet premier	5'5	Vladimir Lenin
Wrote The Lord of the Rings	5'5	J.R.R. Tolkien
French emperor, 1804-1815	5'6	Napoleon Bonaparte
British PM during WW II	5'6	Winston Churchill
"I have a dream" speechgiver	5'6	Martin Luther King, Jr.
Famed British-Arab liaison during WWI	5'6	T.E. Lawrence
3rd-party candidate in 1992 & 1996	5'7	H. Ross Perot

quizzygirl

level 29

Jan 11, 2013

Napoleon wasn't actually THAT short...

tlebo

level 34

Jan 11, 2013

What about Adolf Hitler? He was 5'8.

kalbahamut

level 74

Mar 17, 2018

Taller than everyone else here.

alk17

level 18

Jan 11, 2013

How is 5'7'' short? I'm a girl and I'm 5'7''. I'm definitely not short!

aertzc

level 34

Jan 11, 2013

I think it's different for girls. I'm a 5'8" guy and I would consider myself short.

FirefromtheEast

level 51

Jan 11, 2013

Physical differences between genders. 5'7 is relatively short for a man, though tall for a girl (especially if you're not finished growing).

Ozchris

level 40

Jan 12, 2013

5 7' wasn't sure for the time. It was average height for men. Napoleon was taller than Wellington for instance.

Malbaby

level 66

Mar 17, 2018

Not correct, Wellington was 5'9 ........ Napoleon 5'7....... source: http://qi.com/infocloud/height

someone2018

level 59

Aug 1, 2018

Have you lived your whole life in a convent?

mac212121

level 37

Jan 11, 2013

lots of small Russians!!

What

level 32

Jan 11, 2013

It should be known by now that Napoleon was of over average height in his time and that this saying "small emperor" was based on an error in measurements (French and Englisch measures weren't the same) and that it was also partly British propaganda.

rocamorar

level 65

Dec 28, 2016

Yeah, I don't like Napoleon being included in this test (and having him in the picture) because it perpetuates this baseless factual error.

kalbahamut

level 74

Mar 17, 2018

but it list his actual height.

burntfrost

level 55

May 6, 2014

Hey! My husband is taller than almost all of these guys! :D

elginne

level 24

Jun 5, 2014

Oh man ... tried about 17 different spellings for Khrushchev ... but couldn't come up with this one.

sillie

level 79

Oct 9, 2014

Yep. It's a tough nut, I failed too.

Yossarian

level 66

Nov 2, 2015

I'm just reminded of the Time Bandits, with Napoleon lamenting the heights of various dictators

DonTheLamplighter

level 70

Feb 25, 2017

Manson. Can't believe that scum-sucking little weasel is still drawing breath.

MarlowePI

level 66

Mar 17, 2018

Not anymore!

kalbahamut

level 74

Mar 17, 2018

Hard to breathe with a mouth full of weasel scum.

zp88

level 49

Oct 28, 2017

I believe that Tolkien, Stalin, and others' heights are listed incorrectly here.

skukka

level 65

Mar 17, 2018

Metrics would be nice to include since inches make no sense to most of the world.

divantilya

level 39

Apr 13, 2018

Wow!!! - If true, then their inferiority complexes virtually forced many to become overachievers! -

POOCH

level 75

Aug 20, 2018

I know we always give credit for the geodesic dome to Fuller, but wasn't it actually invented by a guy named Bauersfeld about 30 years before Fuller patented the design?