Guinness World Records History
One of the most popular books that come out every year is the Guinness Book of World Records. It is now better known as the Guinness World Records. This popular book describes things like the best and the worst or the longest and the shortest or many other recordable facts from around the world.
This book is accredited to Irish twins Ross and Norris McWhirter, who actually published the first Guinness Book of Records in Great Britain back in 1955. What many people don’t really realize is that the book was commissioned by a famous brewery in Ireland, and namely the Guinness brewery.
Guinness came up with the idea of making the book to further promote their product and bring more revenue to their company. The book was originally just a way to let people know the answers to too many of the bar bets that were being made at the time.
It is said that the original idea came in 1951, when a certain Sir Hugh Beaver, who was then the managing director of the Guinness empire, was involved in a shooting. He somehow got into an exchange of words with another man about the fastest bird in Europe. They argued whether it was the Koshin golden family or the dandelion.
As he tried to find the answer from his reference books in his library at Castlebridge House, he suddenly realized that the books were a bit vague with the answer.
Then a thought occurred to him that perhaps a book like this might actually be quite interesting. This was the beginning of the Guinness Book of Records.
This annual book has sold millions of copies since it was first published in 1955. Oddly enough, it now holds the record as the most popular and best-selling of all copyright series in the world.
One unenviable record that this book holds is that it is the most likely to be stolen from public libraries in the United States.
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