This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that flips through the pages of history to deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gabeluesier, and today we're examining the chain of events that turned an Irish beer brewery into the most trusted name in world record keeping. The day was August twenty seventh, nineteen fifty five. The first copies of the Guinness Book of Records were printed and distributed for free in pubs across England and Ireland. A clever bit of marketing on the part of the Guinness Brewery, the book was billed as a way to help settle friendly disagreements among patrons. It proved so popular that many copies went missing from their home pubs, prompting Guinness to begin selling the book later that fall. The first commercial edition of the Guinness Book of Records was released in early October, and by Christmas time it had become a best seller. Known today as the Guinness World Records Book, the now annual publication is distributed in more than one hundred countries, where it continues to help settle bets and end arguments among trivia buffs of all ages. The book's origin story began with an Irish hunting trip in nineteen fifty one. On an unknown day that November, the managing director of Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, was out shooting with some friends in County Wexford, Ireland. The group tried and failed to bag a game bird known as the Golden plover, and the embarrassing miss led Beaver to conclude that the plover must be the fastest game bird in all of Europe. Other members of the party disagreed with him, but after scouring through Beaver's extensive home library, they were unable to find a definitive answer one way or the other. The inability to settle this debate nod at Sir Beaver, and he knew he probably wasn't the first to feel that way. Similar arguments were surely playing out every night in the same Irish and British pubs where Guinness beer was served. With that realization in mind, Beaver decided to help out his patrons and promote his business by providing a trusted resource for fact based answers right there in the bar. British runner and future politician Chris Chataway happened to work for Guinness at the time, and he put Beaver in touch with two of his old university friends, twin brothers, Norris and Ross mcwherder. They had both sprinted with Chataway at Oxford and had since founded a London based fact finding agency that provided information and statistics to newspapers. In September of ninth, teen fifty four, the mcworders were invited to discuss the proposition of compiling a book of records for publication. According to company legend, the Guinness board tested the brother's knowledge by asking them to name the language with the fewest irregular verbs. They immediately gave the correct response, which is Turkish, and were duly commissioned on the spot. What the brothers signed up for was no easy task. First, they had to identify all, or at least most, of the questions that seemed most likely to come up in a social setting, and then, for the truly tricky part, they had to hunt down all the correct answers. To do this, the mcworders corresponded with experts in a variety of fields, from astrophysics to zoology. Then, once their extensive fact gathering mission was complete, the brothers wrote up all their findings. That final phase of the project was the most intensive. It took thirteen and ns and half ninety hour weeks, including weekends, to put all the various records together. Finally, on August twenty seventh, nineteen fifty five, the very first copies of the Guinness Book of Records were printed, bound and given away free of charge. Initially, Guinness produced just fifty thousand copies of the slim one hundred ninety eight page volume, which had supplied to pubs throughout Ireland and Britain. In an impressive display of forethought, the book's covers were made waterproof to help guard them against the inevitable spills, but alas there was no way to protect them from being stolen by customers. The growing calls for replacement copies convinced Guinness that what had started out as glorified marketing material might actually have retail possibilities. The editors got right back to work, and on October third, nineteen fifty five, the Guinness Book of Records appeared on store shelf in the UK for the first time, following swift sales through the holiday season. In American edition of the book was released the following year. It was quickly followed by editions for a host of other countries, and pretty soon the mcwerders found themselves traveling the globe to research and verify new records. The brothers would continue to edit and consult on new editions of the book for the rest of their lives. In nineteen seventy four, the Guinness Record Book hit a milestone when it became the top selling copyright book in history, allegedly outsold only by the Bible, the Quran and Chairman Mao's Little Read Book. In two thousand one, the owners of Guinness decided to sell off all assets not directly related to the brewery, including the rights to the world's foremost record book. The new owner was allowed to continue using the iconic Guinness name, but the title was tweaked ever so slightly from the Guinness Book of Records to simply Guinness World Records, which it's still called today. Over the last seven decades, a new edition of the book has been released just about every year, both to update records that have been broken and to report on all new ones. The scope of the records has also grown remarkably broad in that time, covering achievements in sports, engineering, science and technology, arts and entertainment, as well as a host of strangely specific superlatives. For instance, there are records for the world's largest kidney stone, which is five point two six inches by four point one five inches, and for the most jelly eaten with chopsticks in one minute, which is one pound six ounces. Every claim submitted to Guinness, no matter how ridiculous, is meticulously checked and authenticated by an in house team. The company receives about a thousand of these applications every week, but the vast majority, about ninety two per cent of them are rejected due to a lack of evidence. A handful of records have also been retired over the years due to ethical concerns, including heaviest pet and most hamburgers eaten in a single sitting. And while many records are frequently broken, like most tennis balls held in one hand or oldest living person, there are others, like Elon Musk's largest loss of personal Fortune, that most people would rather not break. Amazingly, there are even a few records still standing from the book's first edition way back in nineteen fifty five. For example, the highest grossing movie adjusted for inflation, is still Gone with the Wind with just under three and a half billion dollars. The Guinness Book itself is also a world record holder, with more than one hundred and fifty million copies sold since nineteen fifty five, it's the best selling annual publication in history. Oh and in case you're curious, the question of Europe's fastest game bird was never taken up by Guinness, as the book focuses purely on world records. The most likely answer, though, according to Guinness, is the red breasted merganser, which has a recorded level flying speed of eighty one miles per hour. That makes the merganser the fastest game bird in the world, and, since Europe is one of its native habitats, the fastest there as well. I'm Gay, Blues Gay, and hopefully you now know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day in history class.

This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that flips through the pages of history to deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gabeluesier, and today we're examining the chain of events that turned an Irish beer brewery into the most trusted name in world record keeping. The day was August twenty seventh, nineteen fifty five. The first copies of the Guinness Book of Records were printed and distributed for free in pubs across England and Ireland. A clever bit of marketing on the part of the Guinness Brewery, the book was billed as a way to help settle friendly disagreements among patrons. It proved so popular that many copies went missing from their home pubs, prompting Guinness to begin selling the book later that fall. The first commercial edition of the Guinness Book of Records was released in early October, and by Christmas time it had become a best seller. Known today as the Guinness World Records Book, the now annual publication is distributed in more than one hundred countries, where it continues to help settle bets and end arguments among trivia buffs of all ages. The book's origin story began with an Irish hunting trip in nineteen fifty one. On an unknown day that November, the managing director of Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, was out shooting with some friends in County Wexford, Ireland. The group tried and failed to bag a game bird known as the Golden plover, and the embarrassing miss led Beaver to conclude that the plover must be the fastest game bird in all of Europe. Other members of the party disagreed with him, but after scouring through Beaver's extensive home library, they were unable to find a definitive answer one way or the other. The inability to settle this debate nod at Sir Beaver, and he knew he probably wasn't the first to feel that way. Similar arguments were surely playing out every night in the same Irish and British pubs where Guinness beer was served. With that realization in mind, Beaver decided to help out his patrons and promote his business by providing a trusted resource for fact based answers right there in the bar. British runner and future politician Chris Chataway happened to work for Guinness at the time, and he put Beaver in touch with two of his old university friends, twin brothers, Norris and Ross mcwherder. They had both sprinted with Chataway at Oxford and had since founded a London based fact finding agency that provided information and statistics to newspapers. In September of ninth, teen fifty four, the mcworders were invited to discuss the proposition of compiling a book of records for publication. According to company legend, the Guinness board tested the brother's knowledge by asking them to name the language with the fewest irregular verbs. They immediately gave the correct response, which is Turkish, and were duly commissioned on the spot. What the brothers signed up for was no easy task. First, they had to identify all, or at least most, of the questions that seemed most likely to come up in a social setting, and then, for the truly tricky part, they had to hunt down all the correct answers. To do this, the mcworders corresponded with experts in a variety of fields, from astrophysics to zoology. Then, once their extensive fact gathering mission was complete, the brothers wrote up all their findings. That final phase of the project was the most intensive. It took thirteen and ns and half ninety hour weeks, including weekends, to put all the various records together. Finally, on August twenty seventh, nineteen fifty five, the very first copies of the Guinness Book of Records were printed, bound and given away free of charge. Initially, Guinness produced just fifty thousand copies of the slim one hundred ninety eight page volume, which had supplied to pubs throughout Ireland and Britain. In an impressive display of forethought, the book's covers were made waterproof to help guard them against the inevitable spills, but alas there was no way to protect them from being stolen by customers. The growing calls for replacement copies convinced Guinness that what had started out as glorified marketing material might actually have retail possibilities. The editors got right back to work, and on October third, nineteen fifty five, the Guinness Book of Records appeared on store shelf in the UK for the first time, following swift sales through the holiday season. In American edition of the book was released the following year. It was quickly followed by editions for a host of other countries, and pretty soon the mcwerders found themselves traveling the globe to research and verify new records. The brothers would continue to edit and consult on new editions of the book for the rest of their lives. In nineteen seventy four, the Guinness Record Book hit a milestone when it became the top selling copyright book in history, allegedly outsold only by the Bible, the Quran and Chairman Mao's Little Read Book. In two thousand one, the owners of Guinness decided to sell off all assets not directly related to the brewery, including the rights to the world's foremost record book. The new owner was allowed to continue using the iconic Guinness name, but the title was tweaked ever so slightly from the Guinness Book of Records to simply Guinness World Records, which it's still called today. Over the last seven decades, a new edition of the book has been released just about every year, both to update records that have been broken and to report on all new ones. The scope of the records has also grown remarkably broad in that time, covering achievements in sports, engineering, science and technology, arts and entertainment, as well as a host of strangely specific superlatives. For instance, there are records for the world's largest kidney stone, which is five point two six inches by four point one five inches, and for the most jelly eaten with chopsticks in one minute, which is one pound six ounces. Every claim submitted to Guinness, no matter how ridiculous, is meticulously checked and authenticated by an in house team. The company receives about a thousand of these applications every week, but the vast majority, about ninety two per cent of them are rejected due to a lack of evidence. A handful of records have also been retired over the years due to ethical concerns, including heaviest pet and most hamburgers eaten in a single sitting. And while many records are frequently broken, like most tennis balls held in one hand or oldest living person, there are others, like Elon Musk's largest loss of personal Fortune, that most people would rather not break. Amazingly, there are even a few records still standing from the book's first edition way back in nineteen fifty five. For example, the highest grossing movie adjusted for inflation, is still Gone with the Wind with just under three and a half billion dollars. The Guinness Book itself is also a world record holder, with more than one hundred and fifty million copies sold since nineteen fifty five, it's the best selling annual publication in history. Oh and in case you're curious, the question of Europe's fastest game bird was never taken up by Guinness, as the book focuses purely on world records. The most likely answer, though, according to Guinness, is the red breasted merganser, which has a recorded level flying speed of eighty one miles per hour. That makes the merganser the fastest game bird in the world, and, since Europe is one of its native habitats, the fastest there as well. I'm Gay, Blues Gay, and hopefully you now know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day in history class.