☞Today in History -- On today’s date 177 years ago, Tuesday, July 14, 1846


☞Today in History -- On today’s date 177 years ago, Tuesday, July 14, 1846, world–renowned Norwegian-American pogonotrophist-extraordinaire Hans Nilson “King Whiskers” Langseth (1846-1927) was born at the village of Eidsvoll in Akershus County, Norway.

☞Hans Langseth’s claim to fame is his beard, which was the longest ever recorded at 18 feet 6 inches when it was measured at the town of Barney, North Dakota in 1912 when he was 66 years of age. 

☞In 1867, Hans Langseth emigrated to the United States. He spent much of his life as a farmer, but for a while he toured with a travelling freak show, exhibiting his beard to the public. He eventually tired of show business & left the freak show after numerous nonbelievers yanked his whiskers to see if they were real. Late in his life, Langseth made the decision to cut off his beard, but he only got part way through it & couldn’t finish the job.

☞Langseth met his earthly demise at the venerable age of 81 on November 10, 1927 when he died from the effects of unspecified natural causes at the town of Wyndemere, in Richland County, North Dakota. He was buried in Elk Creek Church Cemetery in Kensett, Iowa. When he died, his beard measured 17 feet, 5 inches. 

In 1967, Hans Langseth’s famous beard was donated to the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

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