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Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as
The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous
United States editions
The Guinness Book of World Records), is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of world records, both human achievements and the extreme of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series.Watson, Bruce. (
August 2005). "World's Unlikeliest Bestseller".
Smithsonian (magazine), pp. 76–81.
Origins
On 10 November 1951, Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the
St. James's Gate Brewery, went on a shooting party in
Wexford Harbour, by the
River Slaney in
County Wexford,
Ireland. He became involved in an argument: which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the Eurasian Golden Plover or the
grouse? That evening at Castlebridge House, he realized that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird. Early history of Guinness World Records - page 2
Beaver thought that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in the 81,400 pubs in Britain and Ireland, but there was no book with which to settle arguments about records. He realized then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular.
Beaver’s idea became reality when Guinness employee
Christopher Chataway recommended student twins
Norris McWhirter and
Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in
London. The brothers were commissioned to compile what became
The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away.
After founding the
Guinness Book of Records at
Fleet Street, the first 198-page edition was bound on 27 August 1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by Christmas. "It was a marketing give away—it wasn't supposed to be a money maker," said Beaver. The following year it launched in the U.S., and it sold 70,000 copies.
After the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in October to coincide with Christmas sales. The McWhirters continued to publish it and related books for many years. Ross was
assassination by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975. Both brothers had an encyclopedic memory — on the TV series
Record Breakers, based upon the book, they would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records, and would usually be able to give the correct answer. Following Ross McWhirter#Death, the feature was called "Norris on the Spot".
Evolution
, minutes away from breaking the ironing world record at 55 hours and 5 minutes, at Shoppers World, Brampton.
Recent editions have focused on record feats by
human competitors. Competitions range from obvious ones such as
weightlifting to the more entertaining such as longest egg (biology)-throwing distance or the number of hot dogs that can be consumed in ten minutes - although competitive eating and
Drinking game#World record entries are no longer accepted, possibly for fear of litigation. Besides records about competitions, it contains such facts as the heaviest tumor, the most poisonous plant, the shortest river (Roe River), the longest-running drama (
Guiding Light), the longest serving members of a drama series (
William Roache for
Coronation Street in the UK,
Kate Ritchie and
Ray Meagher for Home and Away in Australia), the world's most successful salesman (Joe Girard), the most successful
reality television musical group (
Girls Aloud), and the only brother and sister to have solo number one singles in UK chart history (Daniel Bedingfield and Natasha Bedingfield). Many records also relate to the youngest person who achieved something, such as the youngest person to visit all nations of the world, being
Maurizio Giuliano.
Each edition contains a selection of the large set of records in the Guinness database, and the criteria for that choice have changed over the years.
The ousting of Norris McWhirter from his consulting role in 1995 and the subsequent decision by Diageo plc to sell the Guinness World Records brand have shifted it from a text-heavy reference book to a highly-illustrated, colourful product.
These changes have done no harm to its commercial success: the
Guinness Book of Records is the world's most sold
copyrighted book, thus earning it an entry within its own pages. A number of
spin-off books and television series have also been produced. Again the emphasis in these shows has been on spectacular, entertaining stunts, rather than any aspiration to inform or educate. The Guinness World Record brand is now owned by HIT Entertainment. is the most successful female recording artist in the music history and she is the highest earning female singer of all time, according to the 2007 Guinness Book of Records. Queen of Pop Madonna crowned highest earning female singer on earth Daily Mail, 2006-09-28
Guinness World Records do not monitor the category of 'Person with the most records' as this changes too frequently, and records that once existed may now have been 'rested' and therefore this would not be a fair category.
In 2005, Guinness designated
9 November as
International Guinness World Records Day to encourage breaking of world records; it was described as "phenomenally successful". The 2006 version was dubbed as, "the world’s biggest international event" with an estimated 100,000 people participating in over 10 countries. The promotion has earned Guinness a whopping 2,244 all-new valid records in 12 months, which is a 173% increase over the previous year.
In 2006,
Michael Jackson visited the Guinness World Records office in London to collect 7 Official Records Certificates related to his successful career as a vocalist and song writer.http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/mediazone/pdfs/entertainment/061114_michael_jackson.pdf/
On 9 January
2007, Guinness announced it was working with
AskMeNow to offer mobile access to the Guinness World Records databases. The company has been collaborating with the UK-based firm
Texperts for several years already, and it offers both companies exclusive access to their database.
Ethical issues
, drinking 500 ml beer in 0.4 seconds in June 1977. Guinness accepted only the record for one litre, but later dropped all beer and alcohol records from their compendium in 1991.Several world records that were once included in the book have been removed for ethical reasons. By publishing world records in a category, the book may encourage others to try to beat that record, even at the expense of their own health and safety. For example, following publication of a "heaviest cat" record, many cat owners overfed their pets beyond the bounds of what was healthy, so entries such as these were removed. The Guinness Book also dropped records within their "eating and drinking records" section of Human Achievements in 1991 over concerns that potential competitors could do harm to themselves and expose the publisher to potential
lawsuit. These changes included the removal of all liquor,
wine and beer drinking records, along with other unusual records for consuming such unlikely things as bicycles and trees.Guinness Book of World Records 1990 edition, p. 464
Other records, such as
sword swallowing, were closed to further entry as the current holders had performed beyond what are considered safe human tolerance levels. There have been cases where closed records have been reopened. For example, the sword swallowing record was listed as closed in 1990 Guinness Book of World Records, but the
Guinness World Records Primetime TV show, which started in 1998, accepted three sword swallowing challenges.
Chain letters are also not allowed. "Guinness World Records does not accept any records relating to chain letters, sent by post or e-mail. If you receive a letter or an e-mail, which may promise to publish the names of all those who send it on, please destroy it, it is a hoax. No matter if it says that Guinness World Records and the postal service are involved, they are not."http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/member/faqs.aspx
Museums
In recent years the Guinness company has permitted the franchising of small
museums with displays based on the book, all currently (as of 2005) located in towns popular with tourists:
Tokyo, Surfers Paradise, Queensland,
Copenhagen,
San Francisco,
San Antonio, Niagara Falls, Ontario,
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California,
Atlantic City,
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and
Gatlinburg, Tennessee. There was also once a Guinness World Records exhibition at the
Trocadero (London) in London. While some displays are dramatic, like the statues of the world's tallest and shortest people, or videos of records being broken, much of the information is presented simply with text and photos.
See also
References
External links
- Guinness World Attractions (the official Museum website)
- Guinness World Records (the official Book website)
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as
The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous United States editions
The Guinness Book of World Records), is a
reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of world records, both human achievements and the extreme of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series.Watson, Bruce. (
August 2005). "World's Unlikeliest Bestseller".
Smithsonian (magazine), pp. 76–81.
Origins
On 10 November 1951,
Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the
St. James's Gate Brewery, went on a shooting party in
Wexford Harbour, by the
River Slaney in
County Wexford, Ireland. He became involved in an argument: which was the fastest game bird in
Europe, the Eurasian Golden Plover or the
grouse? That evening at Castlebridge House, he realized that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird. Early history of Guinness World Records - page 2
Beaver thought that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in the 81,400 pubs in Britain and Ireland, but there was no book with which to settle arguments about records. He realized then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular.
Beaver’s idea became reality when Guinness employee Christopher Chataway recommended student twins
Norris McWhirter and Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in London. The brothers were commissioned to compile what became
The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away.
After founding the
Guinness Book of Records at Fleet Street, the first 198-page edition was bound on 27 August
1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by Christmas. "It was a marketing give away—it wasn't supposed to be a money maker," said Beaver. The following year it launched in the U.S., and it sold 70,000 copies.
After the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in October to coincide with Christmas sales. The McWhirters continued to publish it and related books for many years. Ross was assassination by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975. Both brothers had an encyclopedic memory — on the TV series
Record Breakers, based upon the book, they would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records, and would usually be able to give the correct answer. Following Ross McWhirter#Death, the feature was called "Norris on the Spot".
Evolution
, minutes away from breaking the ironing world record at 55 hours and 5 minutes, at Shoppers World, Brampton.
Recent editions have focused on record feats by
human competitors. Competitions range from obvious ones such as
weightlifting to the more entertaining such as longest egg (biology)-throwing distance or the number of hot dogs that can be consumed in ten minutes - although
competitive eating and
Drinking game#World record entries are no longer accepted, possibly for fear of
litigation. Besides records about competitions, it contains such facts as the heaviest
tumor, the most poisonous plant, the shortest river (
Roe River), the longest-running drama (
Guiding Light), the longest serving members of a drama series (William Roache for Coronation Street in the UK, Kate Ritchie and
Ray Meagher for
Home and Away in Australia), the world's most successful salesman (
Joe Girard), the most successful reality television musical group (
Girls Aloud), and the only brother and sister to have solo number one singles in UK chart history (Daniel Bedingfield and
Natasha Bedingfield). Many records also relate to the youngest person who achieved something, such as the youngest person to visit all nations of the world, being
Maurizio Giuliano.
Each edition contains a selection of the large set of records in the Guinness database, and the criteria for that choice have changed over the years.
The ousting of Norris McWhirter from his consulting role in 1995 and the subsequent decision by Diageo plc to sell the Guinness World Records brand have shifted it from a text-heavy reference book to a highly-illustrated, colourful product.
These changes have done no harm to its commercial success: the
Guinness Book of Records is the world's most sold
copyrighted book, thus earning it an entry within its own pages. A number of
spin-off books and television series have also been produced. Again the emphasis in these shows has been on spectacular, entertaining stunts, rather than any aspiration to inform or educate. The Guinness World Record brand is now owned by
HIT Entertainment. is the most successful female recording artist in the music history and she is the highest earning female singer of all time, according to the 2007 Guinness Book of Records. Queen of Pop Madonna crowned highest earning female singer on earth
Daily Mail, 2006-09-28
Guinness World Records do not monitor the category of 'Person with the most records' as this changes too frequently, and records that once existed may now have been 'rested' and therefore this would not be a fair category.
In 2005, Guinness designated 9 November as
International Guinness World Records Day to encourage breaking of world records; it was described as "phenomenally successful". The 2006 version was dubbed as, "the world’s biggest international event" with an estimated 100,000 people participating in over 10 countries. The promotion has earned Guinness a whopping 2,244 all-new valid records in 12 months, which is a 173% increase over the previous year.
In 2006, Michael Jackson visited the Guinness World Records office in London to collect 7 Official Records Certificates related to his successful career as a vocalist and song writer.http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/mediazone/pdfs/entertainment/061114_michael_jackson.pdf/
On 9 January 2007, Guinness announced it was working with AskMeNow to offer mobile access to the Guinness World Records databases. The company has been collaborating with the UK-based firm
Texperts for several years already, and it offers both companies exclusive access to their database.
Ethical issues
, drinking 500 ml beer in 0.4 seconds in June 1977. Guinness accepted only the record for one litre, but later dropped all beer and alcohol records from their compendium in 1991.Several world records that were once included in the book have been removed for ethical reasons. By publishing world records in a category, the book may encourage others to try to beat that record, even at the expense of their own health and safety. For example, following publication of a "heaviest cat" record, many
cat owners overfed their pets beyond the bounds of what was healthy, so entries such as these were removed. The Guinness Book also dropped records within their "eating and drinking records" section of Human Achievements in 1991 over concerns that potential competitors could do harm to themselves and expose the publisher to potential lawsuit. These changes included the removal of all liquor, wine and beer drinking records, along with other unusual records for consuming such unlikely things as bicycles and trees.Guinness Book of World Records 1990 edition, p. 464
Other records, such as sword swallowing, were closed to further entry as the current holders had performed beyond what are considered safe human tolerance levels. There have been cases where closed records have been reopened. For example, the sword swallowing record was listed as closed in 1990 Guinness Book of World Records, but the
Guinness World Records Primetime TV show, which started in 1998, accepted three sword swallowing challenges.
Chain letters are also not allowed. "Guinness World Records does not accept any records relating to chain letters, sent by post or e-mail. If you receive a letter or an e-mail, which may promise to publish the names of all those who send it on, please destroy it, it is a hoax. No matter if it says that Guinness World Records and the postal service are involved, they are not."http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/member/faqs.aspx
Museums
In recent years the Guinness company has permitted the
franchising of small
museums with displays based on the book, all currently (as of 2005) located in towns popular with tourists: Tokyo,
Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Copenhagen, San Francisco, San Antonio, Niagara Falls, Ontario,
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California,
Atlantic City,
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. There was also once a Guinness World Records exhibition at the
Trocadero (London) in London. While some displays are dramatic, like the statues of the world's tallest and shortest people, or videos of records being broken, much of the information is presented simply with text and photos.
See also
- Ashrita Furman of Queens, New York, who is generally recognized as the individual with the most current records, although Guinness no longer counts having the most records as a Guinness record itself.
- Ripley's Believe It or Not!
References
External links
- Guinness World Attractions (the official Museum website)
- Guinness World Records (the official Book website)
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