126 Fun Facts About World Records

Which skyscraper succeeded Taipei 101 as the world's tallest building?

Burj Khalifa in Dubai rises 828 metres (2,717 feet), roughly 320 metres more than Taipei 101, the skyscraper it replaced as the world's tallest building.

Who holds the record for the oldest person ever whose age has been fully authenticated?

Jeanne Louise Calment, from France, lived to the extraordinary age of 122 years and 164 days, making her the oldest person ever whose age has been fully authenticated.

What is the fastest land animal?

Cheetahs sprint at roughly 100–120 km/h (60–75 mph), the fastest of any land animal, but only for a few hundred metres; the pronghorn is faster over long distances.

Which athlete holds the record for the most Olympic medals won by an individual?

Michael Phelps won 28 medals across four Olympic Games, 23 of them gold; gymnast Larisa Latynina's 18 had been the record before him.

What is generally considered the longest river in the world?

The Nile flows about 6,650 km through northeastern Africa to the Mediterranean and its basin spans eleven countries, though it carries far less water than several shorter rivers.

What is the smallest independent state by area in the world?

Vatican City, an independent city-state located within Rome, Italy, is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population.

Which mountain is recognized as the highest above sea level?

Mount Everest's summit stands 8,848.86 metres above sea level, a figure jointly announced in December 2020 after new surveys from both sides of the border.

What is the deepest known oceanic trench on Earth?

The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep lies in the ocean territory of the Federated States of Micronesia, nearly 11 km down.

Which music group holds the record for the most record sales worldwide?

The Beatles' estimated sales top 600 million units worldwide, making them the best-selling music act of all time.

Which country set the Guinness record for the longest human chain in 2004?

On December 11, 2004, over 5 million people in Bangladesh formed a human chain stretching 1,050 km (652.4 miles) from Teknaf to Tentulia.

Which Savannah cat was recognized by Guinness in 2021 as the tallest living domestic cat?

Fenrir, a Savannah cat from Michigan, USA, was recognized as the tallest living domestic cat in 2021, measuring 47.83 cm (18.83 inches). His late brother Arcturus holds the title of tallest domestic cat ever.

Which snake is considered the most venomous land snake based on the toxicity of its venom?

The inland taipan, also known as the small-scaled snake, is recognized as the most venomous land snake, possessing the most toxic venom of any terrestrial snake.

Who holds the record for the deepest SCUBA dive (male)?

Ahmed Gabr, an Egyptian diver, reached 332.35 m (1,090 ft 4.5 in) off Dahab in the Red Sea in September 2014, the deepest verified scuba dive.

Which large rodent is known as the biggest in the world?

Capybaras, the world's largest rodents, can weigh over 60 kg; they are native to every South American country except Chile and have become an internet favourite.

How long were the longest fingernails ever recorded on a pair of female hands, combined?

About 43 feet in total: Diana Armstrong of the USA had her nails measured at 1,306.58 cm (42 ft 10.4 in) by Guinness in March 2022, the longest ever on a pair of female hands.

In NBA history, who holds the record for the most points scored in a single game?

Wilt Chamberlain holds the NBA record for the most points scored in a single game, achieving an astonishing 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in 1962.

What is the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction?

The CTF Pink Star, a 59.60-carat fancy vivid pink diamond, sold for a record-breaking $71.2 million at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong in 2017.

Which country has the most species of venomous snakes?

Australia has roughly 100 venomous land snake species, more than any other country, plus about 30 venomous sea snakes in its surrounding waters.

The longest human chain formed across multiple countries was in which region?

On 23 August 1989 about two million people in the Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — linked hands in the 675 km 'Baltic Way', protesting the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Which mountain is the tallest on Earth when measured from base to summit?

Mauna Kea, a dormant Hawaiian volcano, rises about 10,200 metres from its base on the sea floor, though only 4,207 metres of that stand above sea level.

Which two birds were disputed as Europe's fastest game bird, sparking the Guinness Book of Records?

Golden plover and red grouse were the rivals: on a 1951 shoot at the North Slob in County Wexford, Guinness's managing director missed a golden plover and could find no book to settle which bird was faster.

Which twin brothers compiled the first Guinness Book of Records in 1955?

Norris and Ross McWhirter ran a London fact-finding agency and compiled the 1955 edition; after Ross was murdered in 1975, Norris carried on as sole editor.

How was the first Guinness Book of Records distributed in 1955?

Given away free to pubs: a thousand promotional copies went out to settle bar arguments, and demand was such that a retail edition topped the UK bestseller list by Christmas 1955.

Robert Wadlow, the tallest person in recorded history, reached what height?

8 ft 11 in (2.72 m) was Robert Wadlow's height at his last measurement in June 1940; he wore size 37AA shoes and was still growing when he died that year.

Chandra Bahadur Dangi, the shortest adult human ever recorded, came from which country?

Nepal's Chandra Bahadur Dangi measured 54.6 cm (21.5 in) when Guinness verified him in February 2012, aged 72, in his home district of Dang.

Usain Bolt's 100 m world record of 9.58 seconds was set at the 2009 World Championships in which city?

Berlin's Olympiastadion hosted the 2009 World Championships, where Bolt ran 9.58 on 16 August; the city's mayor later presented him with a section of the Berlin Wall.

Which American holds the record for the most Guinness World Records, having set more than 700 since 1979?

Ashrita Furman, a health-food store manager from Queens, New York, set his first record with 27,000 jumping jacks in 1979 and went on to set hundreds more, including pogo-stick jumping underwater.

Which species is the largest animal ever known to have lived?

The blue whale's heart alone can weigh 180 kg, going by one stranded specimen, and its calls reach 188 decibels.

Angel Falls, the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, is in which country?

Venezuela's Auyán-tepui is the tabletop; the falls sit in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO site, and are named for US aviator Jimmie Angel.

Jonathan, hailed in 2022 as the oldest living land animal at about 190, is what creature?

A Seychelles giant tortoise, Jonathan was brought to Saint Helena in 1882 already about 50 years old; Guinness recognised him in 2022 as the oldest living land animal, aged about 190.

Which body of water is both the deepest in the world and the largest freshwater one by volume?

Baikal, in Siberia, is 1,642 m deep and holds about 23,600 km³ of water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined; at 25–30 million years it is also the world's oldest lake.

In which California basin was Earth's record 134°F air temperature measured at Furnace Creek in 1913?

Death Valley's Furnace Creek logged 134°F (56.7°C) on 10 July 1913, the WMO-recognised world record; some experts doubt that reading and point instead to the 130°F measured there in 2020 and 2021.

The lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth, -89.2°C, was recorded at which Antarctic base?

Vostok, the Soviet-founded station at the southern Pole of Cold about 1,300 km from the geographic South Pole, recorded -89.2°C on 21 July 1983.

Mawsynram, reportedly the wettest place on Earth, is in which Indian state?

Meghalaya's Mawsynram, in the Khasi Hills, averages about 11,872 mm of rain a year and received over 1,000 mm in a single day in June 2022.

Hyperion, the world's tallest known living tree at over 116 m, is what species?

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the species; Hyperion was found in 2006 in a remote part of Redwood National Park and measured 116.07 m in 2019.

By volume, the largest known living single-stem tree is a sequoia named after which figure?

General Sherman stands in Sequoia National Park's Giant Forest with a trunk volume of about 1,487 m³; naturalist James Wolverton, who had served under the general, named it in 1879.

Pando, held to be the world's heaviest single organism, is a clonal colony of which Utah tree?

Quaking aspen stems — an estimated 47,000 of them — make up Pando, which shares one root system spanning about 106 acres of Utah's Fishlake National Forest.

Which seabird has the greatest wingspan of any living bird, reaching up to 3.7 metres?

Snowy (wandering) albatross wingspans reach about 3.7 metres, the largest of any living bird; some individuals circle the Southern Ocean three times in a year and can glide for hours without flapping.

Roughly how much does the Etruscan shrew, the smallest mammal by mass, weigh?

1.8 grams is about the weight of a paperclip; the Etruscan shrew's body is only about 4 cm long and it must eat 1.5 to 2 times its own weight every day to survive.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, the world's longest rail line, runs from Moscow to which Pacific port?

Vladivostok is the eastern terminus; the 9,289 km line from Moscow crosses eight time zones and takes about a week to ride end to end.

Whose 72-year reign remains the longest of any sovereign monarch in recorded history?

Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, reigned 72 years and 110 days from 1643 to 1715; he took the throne at four and died of gangrene four days short of his 77th birthday.

Which parasitic plant of Sumatra and Borneo produces the largest individual flower on Earth?

Rafflesia arnoldii blooms up to a metre across and smells of rotting flesh, earning the nickname corpse flower; it is one of Indonesia's three national flowers.

Which coaster opened in 2005 as the world's fastest, launching to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds?

Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey launched hydraulically to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds and topped 456 feet, only the second strata coaster after Top Thrill Dragster.

Which Guinness Breweries managing director conceived the Book of Records in 1951?

Sir Hugh Beaver, Guinness's managing director, conceived the book after a 1951 shooting party in County Wexford where a missed shot at a game bird started an argument no reference book could settle.

Which Guinness employee and athlete recommended the McWhirter twins to compile the book?

Christopher Chataway, an underbrewer at Guinness's Park Royal brewery and Roger Bannister's pacemaker in the 1954 four-minute mile, knew the twins from athletics and recommended their London fact-finding agency.

How many pages did the first edition of The Guinness Book of Records have in 1955?

About 200 — precisely 198 pages — made up the first edition, bound on 27 August 1955 at Ludgate House on Fleet Street; it topped the UK bestseller list by Christmas.

Roughly how many copies has Guinness World Records sold worldwide?

More than 150 million copies have been sold since the first edition in 1955; the book appears in some 40 languages across 100 countries.

Which BBC children's series, based on the book, ran from 1972 to 2001?

Record Breakers, presented for two decades by Roy Castle, ran on BBC One from 1972 to 2001; the McWhirter twins appeared answering children's record questions from memory.

Ross McWhirter was assassinated in 1975 by members of which group?

The Provisional IRA shot Ross McWhirter at his north London home in November 1975, weeks after he had offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of its bombers.

Which company has owned Guinness World Records since 2008?

The Jim Pattison Group, a Canadian conglomerate, bought Guinness World Records from HIT Entertainment in 2008; it also owns Ripley Entertainment, which runs the Guinness attractions.

Which date did Guinness designate as International Guinness World Records Day in 2005?

9 November was designated International Guinness World Records Day in 2005; in 2006 an estimated 100,000 people in more than 10 countries took part in record attempts.

Which section of records did Guinness drop in 1991 over fears competitors could harm themselves?

Eating and drinking records — including all spirit, wine and beer drinking marks — were dropped in 1991 over fears competitors could harm themselves; speed beer drinking returned in the 2008 edition.

Why did Guinness drop the "heaviest pet" record?

Owners overfed pets to compete for the title, so Guinness retired the category; it likewise refuses records that involve harming animals.

Which country has the longest total coastline in the world?

Canada's coastline, counting its Arctic islands, measures about 202,000 km, several times the length of Russia's or Indonesia's.

Why does Guinness reject a "fastest violin player" record?

It cannot verify every note is played correctly at extreme speed, so Guinness no longer monitors a 'fastest violin player' title; it also refuses beauty records as not objectively measurable.

Who, aged 21 in 2019, became the Guinness-recognised youngest person to visit every sovereign country?

Lexie Alford, a Californian travel blogger, completed her final country in 2019 aged 21; Guinness credited her as the youngest person to travel to all sovereign countries.

Which lake is the deepest in Africa, reaching about 1,470 metres?

Lake Tanganyika reaches about 1,470 m, the deepest lake in Africa and the second deepest in the world; Tanzania, the DR Congo, Burundi and Zambia share its shores.

Which two governing bodies agreed in 1964 to jointly recognise the absolute land speed record?

The FIA and FIM, the car and motorcycle federations, agreed in 1964 to jointly recognise the absolute record: two runs in opposite directions within an hour, averaged, beating the old mark by one percent.

Why was Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America not recognised by the FIA in 1963?

Three wheels and no wheel drive put it outside FIA car rules, so the FIM certified its 407 mph as a motorcycle record instead and the FIA later created a jet-and-rocket class.

Until 1829, what was the fastest form of land transport?

Horses were unbeaten on land until steam locomotives arrived: Stephenson's Rocket topped about 30 mph at the Rainhill Trials of 1829.

Who set the women's absolute land speed record in 1976 in the SMI Motivator?

Kitty O'Neil, a deaf stuntwoman, drove the rocket-powered SMI Motivator to 512.7 mph on Oregon's Alvord Desert in December 1976, a women's record that stood for decades.

Which project was launched in 2008 aiming to push the land speed record to 1,050 mph?

Bloodhound SSC, later renamed Bloodhound LSR, was unveiled in October 2008 with a jet-and-rocket design meant to beat ThrustSSC's 763 mph record of 1997.

Who drove ThrustSSC to the land speed record of 763 mph in 1997?

Andy Green, an RAF fighter pilot, drove ThrustSSC to 763.035 mph on 15 October 1997, making it the only land vehicle officially to have broken the sound barrier.

On which desert playa did ThrustSSC set its 1997 record?

Black Rock Desert's playa in northwestern Nevada hosted ThrustSSC's runs in October 1997; the car's two Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans came from British F-4 Phantoms.

Who set the standing water speed record of 511 km/h in 1978?

Ken Warby, a Sydney boatbuilder, reached 511 km/h (317.6 mph) on Blowering Dam in New South Wales on 8 October 1978; the mark stood unbroken for decades.

Where was the Spirit of Australia, the record-holding speedboat, built?

A Sydney backyard was where the self-taught builder assembled the boat around a surplus Westinghouse J34 jet engine; on Blowering Dam it averaged 511 km/h, peaking at about 555 km/h.

Which inventor's HD-4 hydrofoil set a 1919 water speed record on Bras d'Or Lake?

Alexander Graham Bell's HD-4, piloted by Casey Baldwin, reached 114 km/h (70.86 mph) on Bras d'Or Lake at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in September 1919.

Which boat name did Garfield Wood reuse across ten record-breaking craft?

Garfield 'Gar' Wood named ten successive record boats Miss America; Miss America X took the water speed record to 124.86 mph in Michigan in 1932.

What official speed record does the SR-71 Blackbird hold for crewed air-breathing jets?

3,529.6 km/h (2,193 mph) was set on 28 July 1976 by Eldon Joersz and George Morgan, the absolute record for a crewed air-breathing jet; pilot Brian Shul later claimed to top Mach 3.5 over Libya in 1986.

Of the 32 SR-71 Blackbirds built, how many were lost to enemy action?

None of the 32 SR-71 Blackbirds built was ever lost to enemy action; the twelve that were lost went down in accidents.

Which pilot flew the X-15 to its record 4,520 mph in October 1967?

William J. Knight, known as Pete, took the X-15A-2 to Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph) at about 102,100 feet on 3 October 1967, the record for a piloted rocket-powered aircraft.

Ruth Chepng'etich set the women's marathon record of 2:09:56 in October 2024 at which race?

Chicago's flat course hosted her 2:09:56 on 13 October 2024, the first women's marathon under 2:10; the previous record was Tigst Assefa's 2:11:53 from 2023.

Why are fast times on the Boston Marathon course ineligible for world records?

Its elevation drop and point-to-point layout break World Athletics' limits (over 1 m/km of net descent and start-to-finish separation beyond half the distance), so Geoffrey Mutai's 2:03:02 there in 2011 was only 'the fastest marathon ever run'.

Whose 1968 Olympic 100 m in 9.95 was the fastest fully electronic time to that date?

Jim Hines ran 9.95 in the Mexico City Olympic final on 14 October 1968, the first fully automatic time under 10 seconds; the mark stood as the record until 1983.

Whose 1988 women's 100 m record of 10.49 seconds is clouded by doubts about the wind reading?

Florence Griffith Joyner ran 10.49 at the 1988 US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis; the gauge read 0.0 wind while a nearby triple-jump gauge showed a strong tailwind, so many doubt the mark.

Which pole vaulter raised the world record to 6.30 m outdoors in 2025?

Armand Duplantis cleared 6.30 m at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, adding another centimetre to a record he had first claimed in 2020 with 6.17 m indoors.

Which two pole vaulters were criticised for breaking their own records by tiny margins?

Sergey Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva both raised their marks a centimetre at a time — Bubka took the men's record from 5.85 m to 6.14 m across 35 improvements — collecting appearance bonuses each time.

Which firm designed the Burj Khalifa?

SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) designed it, with Adrian Smith as lead architect; the tower stands 828 m to its architectural top and 829.8 m to the tip.

On what date did the Burj Khalifa officially open?

4 January 2010 was the official opening, marked by a fireworks display; excavation had begun in January 2004 and the exterior was completed in October 2009.

How many elevators does the Burj Khalifa have?

About 60 — 57 elevators plus eight escalators — serve the tower's 163 floors; it was renamed from Burj Dubai at its opening to honour Abu Dhabi's ruler, Sheikh Khalifa, after Abu Dhabi bailed out Dubai in the Great Recession.

Roughly how long is the Great Wall of China's total system of fortifications?

About 21,000 km — 21,196 km by China's 2012 survey — counting every dynasty's walls, trenches and natural barriers from Liaodong in the east to Lop Lake in the west.

Which river's supporters measured the Pará estuary and a tidal canal to claim it beat the Nile?

Amazon supporters routed a 2007 Brazilian measurement through the Para estuary and the Breves canal to claim 6,992 km; a 2009 peer-reviewed study concluded the Nile is longer.

Which river is the longest in Europe, at about 3,530 km?

The Volga flows about 3,530 km from the Valdai Hills to the Caspian Sea, making it the longest river in Europe; the Danube is second at roughly 2,850 km.

Which US Navy bathyscaphe made the first descent to the Challenger Deep in 1960?

Trieste, a Swiss-designed bathyscaphe bought by the US Navy, carried Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh to the Challenger Deep on 23 January 1960, reaching about 10,900 m.

Which Japanese skier became the oldest Everest summiteer at 80 in 2013?

Yuichiro Miura summited on 23 May 2013 aged 80, having skied down from the South Col in 1970 and reached the top at 70 in 2003 and at 75 in 2008.

Who became the first woman to summit Everest, in 1975?

Junko Tabei reached the summit on 16 May 1975 via the South Col, twelve days after an avalanche had buried her camp; she later became the first woman to climb the Seven Summits.

Which Nepali guide has climbed Everest more times than anyone, passing 24 ascents in one May?

Kami Rita Sherpa summited twice within a week in May 2019 for his 23rd and 24th ascents, extending a record he had taken from Apa Sherpa's 21 climbs.

Which town was Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever, born in?

Alton, Illinois, on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis, was his birthplace in February 1918; the 'Alton Giant' weighed about 199 kg (439 lb) at his death.

What caused Robert Wadlow's extraordinary growth?

Hypertrophy of the pituitary gland flooded his body with growth hormone; no treatment existed in the 1930s, and he was still growing when he died.

What killed Robert Wadlow in 1940?

An infected blister from a leg brace, rubbing his ankle during a July 1940 appearance in Michigan, turned septic; he died on 15 July 1940 aged 22 and was buried in a coffin over three metres long.

Which sport did Jeanne Calment take up at the age of 85?

Fencing was the sport Jeanne Calment took up at 85; she was still riding a bicycle at 100 and did not give up smoking until she was 117.

Which painter did Jeanne Calment claim to have met as a teenager in her uncle's shop in Arles?

Vincent van Gogh lived in Arles from February 1888 to May 1889; Calment said he came into the family's fabric shop to buy canvas and was 'dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable'.

Sultan Kosen, named by Guinness the tallest living man in 2009, hails from which country?

Sultan Kosen, born in Mardin, Turkey, in 1982, stands 251 cm; his gigantism came from a pituitary tumour treated at the University of Virginia in 2010.

Whom did Sultan Kösen overtake as tallest living man in 2009?

Bao Xishun, a herdsman from Inner Mongolia who stood 236.1 cm, was Guinness's tallest living man until Kösen's 2009 certification.

How many letters are in pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the longest major-dictionary word?

It names a lung disease from inhaling very fine volcanic silica dust.

Roughly how many letters long is the full chemical name of the protein titin?

189,819 letters long, the full IUPAC name of titin takes over three hours to read aloud; because chemical nomenclature is open-ended it is not counted as a real dictionary word.

Which film is the highest-grossing of all time when adjusted for inflation?

Gone with the Wind (1939) tops Guinness's inflation-adjusted list at more than $3 billion; its nominal record stood until The Sound of Music overtook it in 1966.

Which superhero film sat second on the all-time nominal box-office chart at the end of 2024, behind only Avatar?

Avengers: Endgame briefly held the outright record in 2019 before an Avatar re-release reclaimed it; four Avengers films were in the top twenty.

Roughly how many copies has Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold?

Over 120 million copies have sold since its 1997 debut, among the highest verified totals for any novel; older books like Don Quixote carry only claimed, unverified figures.

What top speed did Ken Franklin record for a stooping peregrine falcon in 2005?

389 km/h (242 mph) was clocked by a falcon named Frightful, trained by Ken Franklin and released from an aircraft to stoop; that makes the peregrine the fastest animal in a dive.

Research in 2015–16 found sailfish top out at what speed, far below older estimates?

10–15 m/s (36–54 km/h) was the ceiling researchers found from sailfish muscle-twitch timing and filmed bursts; the fish had previously been credited with 35 m/s, about 125 km/h.

How fast can an ostrich run, making it the fastest bird on land?

About 70 km/h (43 mph) in a sprint makes the ostrich the fastest bird on land; adults weigh 63–145 kg and lay the largest eggs of any living land animal.

What is the maximum confirmed length of a blue whale?

29.9–30.5 m is the reliably confirmed maximum; the IWC whaling database lists 88 individuals over 30 m, including one of 33 m, but doubts about how they were measured make longer claims suspect.

Besides being the tallest land animals, giraffes are the largest what?

Ruminants — cud-chewing animals with a four-chambered stomach — count the giraffe as their largest member; bulls stand up to about 5.5 m and weigh 1,200 kg or more.

In which country was Lolong, the largest crocodile ever held in captivity, captured in 2011?

The Philippines' Bunawan township in Mindanao caught Lolong in September 2011; at 6.17 m and 1,075 kg, Guinness named him the largest crocodile in captivity.

Which species is the largest living fish, reliably measured at up to 18.8 m?

Whale shark, a slow filter-feeder, is the largest living fish; the largest reliably measured individual was 18.8 m (61.7 ft) long.

Which bird makes the longest known migration, about 70,000 km a year?

The Arctic tern breeds in the Arctic and winters off Antarctica; geolocator tracking published in 2010 showed round trips averaging about 70,000 km a year, the longest known migration.

How long did the Isner–Mahut match at Wimbledon 2010 last?

11 hours 5 minutes of play spread over three days, 22–24 June 2010, ended with John Isner beating Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set on Court 18.

Which two players contested the longest women's tennis match, in Richmond in 1984?

Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner played 6 hours 31 minutes at a 1984 tournament in Richmond, Virginia, including a 643-shot rally lasting 29 minutes; Nelson took the second-set tiebreak 13–11.

How many innings long was the longest professional baseball game, played in 1981?

33 innings: the game began on 18 April 1981, was suspended at 4:07 a.m. after 32 innings, and the 33rd was played on 23 June, the home side winning 3–2.

Which two Triple-A teams played baseball's longest game, in 1981?

Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings, affiliates of Boston and Baltimore, played the 1981 marathon at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island; future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. (Rochester) and Wade Boggs (Pawtucket) both played in it.

In which Pennsylvania town did Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points on March 2, 1962?

Hershey's Hersheypark Arena hosted the game because the Philadelphia Warriors played several 'home' dates there; only about 4,124 fans attended and no film of the game exists.

Why does no video footage of the NBA's only 100-point game exist?

It was not televised — the only surviving audio is a radio call of the fourth quarter — so the 169–147 scoreline and Chamberlain's 36-of-63 shooting live on through box scores and photographs.

What maximum depth did the Kola Superdeep Borehole reach in 1989?

About 12 km — 12,262 m — was reached in 1989 after drilling began in 1970; the hole was abandoned when temperatures near 180°C made going deeper impractical.

Which oil field's borehole surpassed Kola's measured length in 2008?

Al Shaheen, Qatar, is where Maersk Oil's BD-04A well ran 12,289 m in measured length in 2008, beating Kola's total, though Kola stayed the deepest by true vertical depth.

What top speed did Felix Baumgartner reach in his 2012 stratosphere jump?

1,357.64 km/h (Mach 1.25) was the revised official figure for his 14 October 2012 jump from 39 km above Roswell, New Mexico, making him the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall.

Which Google executive broke Baumgartner's altitude record in 2014?

Alan Eustace, then a Google senior vice-president, jumped from 135,890 feet (41,419 m) over New Mexico on 24 October 2014 using a balloon-lifted pressure suit, beating Baumgartner's 2012 altitude.

Which Hungarian architecture professor invented the world's best-selling puzzle, a 3D cube, in 1974?

Ernő Rubik built the first cube in 1974 as a teaching aid for spatial relationships; businessman Tibor Laczi took it to the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1979, from where it went global.

Which body governs speedcubing competitions and keeps the official records?

The World Cube Association regulates speedcubing competitions worldwide and keeps the official records, its database starting with the 2003 World Championship in Toronto; a standard cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible arrangements.

For which commercial practice has Guinness been criticised since the late 2000s?

Creating records as publicity for paying clients — companies hire Guinness to devise, adjudicate and promote an attempt — became a major revenue stream and drew criticism that titles were effectively bought.

Which New York publisher introduced the Guinness book to the US in 1956?

David Boehm, founder of Sterling Publishing, brought out the first American edition in 1956 after licensing it from Guinness; Sterling went on publishing the US editions for more than three decades.

Which Alpine country is home to the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel?

Switzerland's 57.09 km tunnel is also the deepest traffic tunnel on Earth, running up to 2,450 m beneath the Alps.

Leonardo's Salvator Mundi set the auction record for a painting in 2017 at roughly what price?

$450 million including fees ($450.3 million) was paid at Christie's New York on 15 November 2017 by Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud, reportedly acting for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; the painting then vanished from public view.

The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, the world's longest bridge, carries which rail line?

Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway trains cross the 164.8 km viaduct, built by 10,000 workers over four years and including a 9 km stretch over Yangcheng Lake.

Which Pyongyang venue hosted the record largest gymnastics display, with 100,090 participants?

Rungrado 1st of May Stadium staged the Arirang mass games recognised by Guinness in 2007; it also hosted 1995's Collision in Korea, the largest pro-wrestling attendance ever recorded.

For how much was Salvator Mundi sold at a 1958 auction, when attributed to a Leonardo pupil?

It was then credited to Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio; in 2005 dealers bought it in New Orleans for $1,175 before its restoration and reattribution.