Guinness World Records

The unmatched authoritative collection of world class facts, figures and feats from around the globe. This newly revised 2000 edition contains in depth reports, incredible photographs, fascinating features, wacky record attempts, and information for hopeful record-breakers. A survey of the world's most extraordinary human achievements and natural phenomena, this astounding collection will continue to entertain millions.

Including exciting new records as seen on the amazing TV series Guinness World RecordsTM: Primetime!

The must-have, fun-to-read guide to every amazing fact, figure, and feat for the dawn of the new millennium!

From the fastest car to the most recently discovered element, from the wonders of nature to the wild world of extreme sports, Guinness World Records is the undisputed authority for every record that's worth knowing--fastest, tallest, smallest, most expensive--with photos to back them up!

Read about it here:

The hotel that's rebuilt completely--every year: the igloo that sleeps up to 150 guests!
Rush pizza delivery--in 9 hours: the New Zealand pizza parlor that airlifts pies to Antarctica!
Space--the final resting place: the mass funeral that launched the ashes of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry into orbit!

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Incredible new knowledge section
More sports records than ever
Entertainment, medical, Internet, and crime records

Courage: Space Heroes

Fastest Speeds Attained  The record for the greatest speed at which a human being has ever traveled is 24,791 mph, achieved by the crew of the command module of Apollo 10 (Col. Thomas Stafford, CDR. Eugene Cernan, and CDR. John Young, all US) on the craft's trans-Earth return flight in May 1969.

Greatest Altitude Attained by a Woman  Kathryn Thornton (US) attained an altitude of 375 miles after an orbital engine burn on December 10, 1993, during the STS 61 Endeavour mission.

Most Isolated Human Being  The greatest distance that a person has ever been from a fellow human being is 2,234 miles 1,330 yd. This was experienced by command module pilot Alfred Worden during the US Apollo 15 lunar mission, which lasted from July 30 to August 1, 1971. Fellow astronauts David Scott and James Irwin were at Hadley Base exploring the moon's surface.

Most Experienced Space Traveler  Russian doctor Valeriy Poliyakov clocked up 678 days 16 hr. 33 min. 16 sec. during two space missions.

Most People in Space at Once  On March 14, 1995, a record 13 people were in space at the same time: seven Americans aboard the US STS 67 Endeavour, three CIS cosmonauts aboard the Russian Mir space station, and two CIS cosmonauts and a US astronaut aboard the CIS Soyuz TM21.

Most Nationalities in Space  Five countries had astronauts or cosmonauts in space on July 31, 1992: four Russian cosmonauts and one Frenchman were aboard Mir, and one Swiss, one Italian, and five US astronauts were on STS 46 Atlantis.

On February 22, 1996, there were four US, one Swiss, and two Italian astronauts on STS 75 Columbia and one German and four Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station.

Biggest Shuttle Crew  Two shuttles have had a crew of eight: STS 61A Challenger, which was launched on October 30, 1995, and STS 71 Atlantis, which docked with the Mir space station on July 7, 1995.

Most People Aboard a Spacecraft  In June 1995, a record 10 people (four Russians and six Americans) were aboard the Mir station.

Longest Lunar Mission  The crew of Apollo 17 (Capt. Eugene Cernan and Dr. Harrison Hagen Schmitt, both US) were on the surface of the moon for a record 74 hr. 59 min. during a lunar mission lasting 12 days 13 hr. 51 min. (December 7 to 19, 1972).

Longest Shuttle Flight  Columbia's 21st mission, STS 80, began on November 19, 1996, and lasted for 17 days 15 hr. 53 min. 26 sec. (to main gear shutdown), beating its own previous record. Bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida meant that the landing had to be postponed for two days.

Longest Manned Spaceflight  Valeriy Poliyakov was launched to the Russian Mir space station aboard Soyuz TM18 on January 8, 1994, and landed aboard Soyuz TM20 on March 22, 1995, after a spaceflight lasting 437 days 17 hr. 58 min. 16 sec.

Most Trips Around Earth by a Space Station  By March 2, 1999, Mir had completed more than 75,000 trips around Earth. By the time of its scheduled landing, the station will have been in orbit for 13 years.

Biggest Space Funeral  The ashes of 24 space pioneers and enthusiasts, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and counterculture guru Dr. Timothy Leary, were sent into orbit in April 1997 on Spain's Pegasus rocket, at a cost of $5,000 each. They will stay in orbit for 3 1/2 to 10 years.

Farthest Final Resting Place  In January 1998, 1 oz. of the ashes of the celebrated geologist Dr. Eugene Shoemaker (US) was launched aboard NASA's Lunar Prospector as it set out on a one-year mapping mission above the moon's surface. When its power fails, the craft will crash to the moon's surface, carrying Shoemaker's remains with it. He once said that never having been to the moon was his greatest disappointment.

Largest Audience for a Space Event  The broadcast of the first moon walk by the Apollo 11 astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) in July 1969 was watched by an estimated 600 million people worldwide (about one-fifth of the world's population at that time).

Oldest Astronaut  The oldest astronaut is John Glenn Jr., who was 77 years 103 days old when he was launched into space as part of the crew of Discovery STS-95 on October 29, 1998. The mission lasted 11 days, landing on November 7, 1998.

Astronaut Responsible for Most Laptop Computers  Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque had to look after a total of 19 laptop computers aboard Discovery in October 1998.


Epic Adventurers

Biggest Ancient Civilization Discovery  In the late 1820s, deserting soldier Charles Masson discovered the ruins of the world's biggest ancient civilization--the Indus Valley civilization at Harappa, India (now Pakistan). Extensive excavations carried out at the site by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in 1920 indicated that the civilization dated back to 3300 b.c. The discovery of a second site at Mohenjo-daro showed that the Harappans used the same sized bricks and standard weights for 1,000 miles and that the civilization supported a population of 50,000 at certain periods. More recent excavations have shown that it extended even farther than had been thought, stretching along and beyond the banks of the ancient Ghaggar-Hakra (Saraswati) River and covering an area of 220,000 square miles from Baluchistan, Pakistan, in the west to Uttar Pradesh, India, in the east and Bombay (Mumbai), India, in the south. The majority of the civilization's cities have still to be excavated, and its script has not yet been deciphered.

Biggest Inca Discovery  The Yale University Peruvian Expeditions of 1911-12 and 1914-15, both led by US historian Hiram Bingham, resulted in the discovery of the "lost" Inca cities of Machu Picchu and Vitcos--two of the most important archaeological finds in the Americas.

Fastest Desert Crossing  In 1998, Moroccan adventurer Mohammed Ahansal completed the Marathon des Sables in a record time of 16 hr. 22 min. 29 sec. The marathon, which has been held every year since 1986, is a six-day event in which runners must cross 137 miles of the Sahara Desert, where temperatures regularly reach 120 degrees F. The runners carry food, clothes, a sleeping bag, and a first-aid kit with them and have to prepare their own meals. The youngest person to have competed in the marathon is a 16-year-old boy, and the oldest is a 76-year-old man. In April 1999, 584 people from 27 countries took part in the marathon.