Celebrating 70 years of world record-breakers

Guinness World Records is celebrating 70 years since the first volume of its book was published on August 27, 1955. Robert White looks at its iconic celebration of the extraordinary

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GUINNESS World Records is celebrating its 70th anniversary by looking back at the extraordinary feats achieved since its inception - as well as unveiling 70 wacky unclaimed records.

The organisation’s first volume was published on August 27, 1955 and sparked worldwide curiosity about record-breaking achievements.

The inspiration for the book came from a debate at a shooting party in the early 1950s in County Wexford, Ireland, which was attended by Sir Hugh Beaver, the then managing director of the Guinness Brewery.

He and his hosts debated the question of the fastest game bird in Europe but failed to find an answer in any reference book.

In 1954, Sir Hugh had the idea of a Guinness promotion based on the settling of pub arguments, and recruited researchers from Fleet Street to compile a book of facts and figures, before publishing the first volume of the Guinness Book Of Records.