They were the most famous conjoined twins chiefly because they were the first conjoined twins that most of the world had ever seen due to their extreme rarity. They were born in Siam (now Thailand) in 1811 at a time when most conjoined twins died in childbirth due to the intense danger and difficulty of removing them from the womb. The six-inch band of tissue that joined Chang and Eng at the waist initially had them face to face but a doctor early in their lives taught them how to stretch it so that they could stand side by side. In 1829, a visiting Scot convinced the government to allow the brothers to leave Siam for a tour of the United States. They became an extremely popular attraction in sideshows and eventually toured England. They were so famous in fact that the term Siamese Twins (because of their birthplace Siam) became the lay person's term for conjoined twins. They retired from the sideshow circuit in 1839 while they were working for P.T. Barnum. They retired to Wilksborough, North Carolina but in order to become citizens they had to adopt a last name which became Bunker (for reasons unknown). In 1844, the brothers met and fell in love with sisters Adalaide and Sarah Yates, daughters of a local minister. The brothers had been content with their joined bodies but when the Yates’ parents met their marriage proposal with blinding disapproval Chang and Eng decided to try surgery to separate them. But doctors feared separating them would kill one or both because they weren’t sure what was contained in the band of tissue that was holding them together. At the time there were no X-ray machines and no treatment for infection. Despite the difficulty of the living conditions the brothers did marry the sisters and produced over 20 children. Years later Chang became an alcoholic and the two brothers fought incessantly. In 1874 Chang suffered a stroke and was bed-ridden and a short time later died of bronchitis. Eng could do nothing and two hours after his brother’s death died apparently of shock. When they died they were 63 years old, a phenomenally long life for conjoined twins at the time.
May 11, 1811-Jan17, 1874