Wacky World Records Abound in New Guinness Book
LONDON (Reuters) – Who discovered the world’s oldest vomit? Who stuffed the most live rattlesnakes in his mouth? Who has lived longest with a bullet in his head?
All is revealed in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, an international Who’s Who of the weird, wacky and wonderful, from the world’s longest tongue to the man with the biggest collection of traffic cones.
Competition for a place in the world’s most famous record book is as fierce as ever — the publishers said on Tuesday they have received 60,000 record claims in the past 12 months.
British scientists landed their coveted place in the book by unearthing the world’s oldest vomit, dating back 160 million years to the time of the dinosaurs, during a dig in eastern England.
American Jackie Bibby made his claim to fame by holding eight live rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth without any assistance.
Japan offers one of the most offbeat entries.
Schoolboy Satoru Fushiki was accidentally hit in his left eye by a bullet on January 23, 1943. The bullet was only removed on September 25, 2001 when the sight in his eye miraculously returned.
The French always pride themselves on being great lovers and the flame of Gallic love certainly still burned brightly for 96-year-old Francois Fernandez and 94-year-old Madeleine Francineau. They made this year’s edition for being the world’s oldest couple to marry.
The book even boasts a record of its own — it has now sold more than 95 million copies to become the world’s best-selling copyright book.The new edition, published in Britain on September 28 and around the world in the next two weeks after that, is printed in 23 different languages and will be available in over 100 different countries.
Guinness, one of publishing’s longest-running success stories, was launched in 1954. It was the brainchild of Hugh Beaver, managing director of the Guinness brewery. He was out shooting in Ireland and got into an argument about whether the golden plover ranked as Europe’s fastest game bird.
Beaver, believing that records sparked pub and bar disputes around the world, decided the time was right to produce the ultimate reference book for superlatives.
Twins Norris and Ross McWhirter, who were running a fact-finding agency for British newspapers, were picked to launch the book which has changed up to 25 percent of its records each year.