Topic summary
The Guinness Book of Records
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Guinness World Records.
History
A thousand copies of The Guinness Book of Records were distributed for free to pubs across Britain and Ireland as a promotional asset for the Guinness brand, and they became immensely popular with customers; as a result a proper book of records for retail was commissioned. Guinness employee Christopher Chataway recommended university friends Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in London. On 14 September 1954 the twin brothers were commissioned to compile The Guinness Book of Records.