History of Guinness World Records

One of the most popular books that come out everymanaging director of the Guinness Empire was
year is the Guinness book of records. This is nowparticipating in a shooting party. He somehow got into
more commonly known as the Guinness worldan exchange of words with another person about
records. This popular book chronicles things such asEurope's fastest bird. They argued about whether it
the best and worst or the longest and shortest orwas the Koshin Golden Plover or the Grouse.
many other recordable facts from throughout theWhilst he was trying to find the answer from his
world.reference books in his Castlebridge House library, he
This book is accredited to the Irish twins Ross andsuddenly realized that the books were a little vague
Norris McWhirter who actually published the firstwith the answer.
Guinness book of records in Britain as far back asThen a thought struck his mind that perhaps a book
1955. What a lot of people do not actually realizelike this could in fact be quite interesting. This was the
though is that the book is commissioned by a famousstart of the Guinness book of records.
brewery in Ireland namely the Guinness brewery.This annual book has sold millions of copies since it
Guinness came up with the idea of making the book inwas first published in 1955. Funnily enough it now holds
order to further promote their product and bring morea record itself as the most popular and best selling of
revenue into their company. The book initially was justall the copyrighted serial books in the world.
a way of letting people know the answers too manyOne unenviable record that this book holds is that it is
of the bar bets that were being run at the time.book most likely to be stolen from public libraries in the
It is rumored that the original idea came in 1951 when aUnited States.
certain Sir Hugh Beaver, who was at the time a