Guinness World Records Day

It’s been a long time since Record Breakers was on our screens, and despite the compulsory “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME” warnings, I’m sure we all pushed the boundaries in trying to break our own record.

I assure you, it is practically impossible to eat three dry crackers in a minute, without drinking water.

In honour of the day where 300,000 people all over the globe will be making quirky attempts to get their name marked down in history, here are a selection of some of the strangest, most interesting and impressive world records.

Heaviest living woman

The heaviest woman living is Pauline Potter from California, who weighed 291.6 kg – 643 lbs, nearly 46 stone – on 13 May last year.  (What the picture doesn’t show is that there were two dogs originally.)

Most push ups in 24 hours

Charles Servizio (USA) managed a whopping 46,001 push ups in one day on 24-25 April 1993.

Largest drugs haul by weight

On 9 June 2008, the world’s largest cannabis drug haul was made in Afghanistan. Worth about £225 million and weighing 237 tonnes – the approximate equivalent of 30 double-decker buses – and occupying six large trenches covering an area the size of two football pitches, the cannabis was later destroyed by Harrier fighter aircraft from the Royal Air Force’s coalition forces.

Longest jail sentence

The longest jail term to a single person on multiple counts went to Charles Scott Robinson, an American child rapist, who was sentenced on 23 December 1994 by a judge in Oklahoma City, USA, to 30,0000 years, the jury having recommended 5,000 years for each of the six counts against him.

I can’t help thinking it’ll be unlikely he serves the entirety of the sentence.

Highest cable walk

On 29 January 2011, Swiss high-wire artist Freddy Nock braved high winds and temperatures of -15° C rto perform a death-defying aerial walk 3,303 m above the Silvaplana ski resort near St Moritz, Switzerland. Despite the harsh conditions, Freddy performed his stunt without a harness or safety net and covered a distance of 575m.

Largest human centipede (no, not like the film)

The largest human centipede consisted of 2,961 people in an event at Ratchaborikanukro School in Thailand on 16 June 2010.

Shortest reign of a monarch

In July 1830, Louis-Antoine of France – the last “Dauphin”, or heir apparent – ascended the French throne as King Louis XIX, succeeding his father, Charles X, who had abdicated. Within 20 minutes, however, Louis-Antoine had also abdicated, making him the joint shortest reigning monarch in history. He shares the record with the unfortunate Crown Prince Luís Filipe of Portugal, who technically became King of Portugal for the same brief period following the assassination of his father, Dom Carlos I, on 1 February 1908. Luís Filipe was himself fatally wounded in the attack, but he survived his father by 20 minutes.

Largest order of mammals used in mine clearance

In Tanzania, rats are trained to sniff out landmines, having already been used successfully in Mozambique for this purpose. Out of nearly 2,000 species, the Giant African Pouched Rat (Cricetomys gambianus) is the favoured animal, as it is found everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa and is resilient to most tropical diseases. They are a cost effective and efficient way of undertaking what is otherwise a highly dangerous task for humans, as they are much lighter and therefore unlikely to trigger a mine. Training the rats to recognise the smell of TNT takes around nine months and two rats can clear an area of 200 square metres (2,150 square feet) in two hours, whereas human mine clearers would need a day for the same area. Such rats have already cleared almost two million square metres of land in Mozambique. The rats can also be trained to detect tuberculosis. Handy vermin to have around…

Highest insurance valuation for a painting

The highest known insurance valuation for a painting is $100million (£53.55 million) assessed for the move of The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519, Italy) from the Louvre in  Paris to Washington, DC, USA and then New York for a special exhibition in the sixties.

Heaviest birth

Anna Bates (Canada 1846-88) who was 7 ft 5.5 in tall, gave birth to a boy weighing 10.8kg (that’s 23lb 12 oz) on 19 January 1879. Ouch.

Longest distance swam underwater

The longest distance swam underwater by a female on one breath using fins is 100 m (328 ft 1 in) by Ai Futaki (Japan) at Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on 7 January 2011.

Fastest goal in a football match

The fastest goal in a World Cup finals match, as recognised by FIFA, is 11 seconds, scored by Hakan Sukur of Turkey against Korea Republic at Daegu, Korea on 29 June 2002. Back of the net.

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