Do you enjoy reading books like the Guinness Book of World Records and finding out strange records like: Who can eat the most hotdogs in a minute or who can swallow the most swords without killing themselves? While I was looking for information I found some really amazing records and some that I thought were a waste of time even putting in the book. For example, did you know the record for the most kicks to someone’s own head is 77? It’s an actual record. If it’s that easy, maybe I could set a Guinness world record for stalling for the longest time before having to write a speech.
There must be some sort of criteria to fulfil in order to get a world record officially recognised.
And how did the Guinness Book of Worlds Records come about anyway?
Well in 1951 Sir Hugh Beaver, who used to be the managing director of Guinness Breweries, went on a bird shooting party in Ireland. He got into an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the Koshin Golden Plover or the Grouse. He realised that it was impossible to confirm without proper tests. Later that night Hugh Beaver knew that everyone in the world would be interested in finding out all kinds of answers to questions like that, so his solution was to create a book of records. This was how the Guinness World Book of Records was created.
During the 59 years there have been some amazing records set. In 1999 in London a man called John Evans balanced a 159.6 kg car on his head!
Do you know that a boy in India is living his life with twelve fingers and thirteen toes, if that boy was in our class I’m sure he would do well in our basic facts tests with all those fingers.
In China there is a man who is 7 ft 5 which is 2.57 metres high, and the smallest man in the world is from the same city as the tallest man in the world. The smallest man is 2 ft 5 which is 74 centimetres small! If you think that’s amazing then listen to this!
The oldest primary student is 90, he enrolled to go to school at 84 years old!
In 2008 a guy called Tom Sietas held his breath for 16 minutes and 13 seconds,
I struggle to hold my breath for 1 minute! And here is one really dangerous one: at least 12 people have been killed doing the bullet catching trick, in which a gun loaded with a bullet is fired at a magician who will try and catch the bullet between his teeth!! That’s pretty crazy! Don’t try it at home!
Anyway for one about food: the largest sushi roll ever made was 6 ft long, the Japanese must have some hungry people. The person who holds the most Guinness Worlds records is a man called Ashrita Furman who has set 4 records. He holds records for long distance pogo-stick jumping, most glasses balanced on the chin, most hopscotch games in 24 hrs and fastest time to pogo-stick up the CN tower
What drives people to try breaking these dangerous or downright stupid records? Amazingly, the Guinness Book of Records is the world’s most sold copyrighted book, (and also something to add in is that the Bible is the world’s most sold un-copyrighted book) what is people’s fascination with it? Consider the things in the Bible that mankind has searched for throughout history
- A search for truth
- A search for significance
- A search for the absolute limits
- A way to feel better about yourself
- A fascination with the unusual, extreme and even freakish!
These are the same things that make the Guinness Book of Records so attractive to us, although in a worldly way of course.
So go ahead, make a record get your name written in that book, but don’t forget there is another much more important book to have your name written into!!!
