London, UK (22nd of October, 2009) – The global authority on record-breaking achievement, Guinness World Records, today launched an exact replica of the very first “Guinness Book of Records” in a limited and individually-numbered facsimile edition available exclusively for purchase at the company’s website (www.guinnessworldrecords.com).

The phenomenon of Guinness World Records began in September 1955 when the Chairman of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, decided to publish a volume of definite facts, in hopes that such a book would put an end to pub arguments. The very first Guinness Book of Records was printed in 1,000 copies with a plastic cover to protect it from beer stains and despite an initial skepticism from retailers (WHSmith ordered five copies), the book became an instant hit, was reprinted and reached bestseller status by Christmas the same year.

55 years later, the current Guinness World Records 2010 edition is published in 26 languages, 3 million copies and sold in 100 countries around the world. Although the popularity of Guinness World Records has remained steady for half a century the world that the record-keeping company measures has certainly seen some changes.

Editor-in-Chief of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday, said: “The world is moving at a dizzying pace and we’ve been there documenting and celebrating the changes for half a century. By reproducing our very first edition, we can offer a snapshot of the world in the 1950s and a true sense of how our planet and its inhabitants have changed in the past 55 years.”

“Guinness Book of Records” will take today’s readers back to a time when the most expensive bottle of perfume was Jean Patou’s “joy” from Paris retailing at 103 s. 6d. per ¼ oz (£225 per pint), compared to the current record attributed to the limited edition of Clive Christian No.1 Collection priced at £115,000 ($205,000) per 500 ml (17 fl oz); and the tallest building  was the Empire State Building in New York at 448.7 m (1,472 ft), which is nearly half the size of the Burj Dubai, “Dubai Tower,” which today tops out at a record breaking 818 m (2,648 ft).

Readers will also notice that a category such as “uncontrolled drinking,” which is no longer monitored by Guinness World Records, appears in the very first edition with record holders Auguste Maffrey (France) and Spaniard Dionsio Sanchez (Spain),  who consumed 24 pints of beer in 52 minutes and 40 pints of wine in 59 minutes, respectively. Other records remain unbroken until this day, including the largest diamond (a 3106 carat diamond found in 1905 in South Africa) and the tallest man ever (American Robert Pershing Wadlow 2.72 m - 8 ft 11.1 in). Not to mention the largest pandemic (Black Death in 1347 eradicating around a quarter of the population of Europe and some 75 million worldwide) - a record which thankfully has not been surpassed in modern times.

"The Guinness Book of Records" facsimile edition is available exclusively on the Guinness World Records website www.guinnessworldrecords.com at £25 in a strictly-limited print-run of 5,000 copies. Each copy is individually numbered as a collector’s item.

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NOTES TO EDITOR:  Please contact press office for review copies or fact-checking of current records.

* Sample text from The Guinness Book of Records (1955) with present day comparisons:

Largest National Debt
• 1955: The country with the largest national debt is the United States with a gross public debt of $271,259 million (96,780 million) or $1,670 (£596) per head
• Present Day: The largest debtor nation in history is the United States. As of 9 January 2009, the US national debt stood at $10,635,772,096,222.74 (£6,963,531,082,944.11).

Highest newspaper circulation
• 1955: The highest circulation of any newspaper in the world is that of the London Sunday paper ‘News of the World’ printed in Bouverie Street, London, which rises to 9,000,000 copies with an estimated readership of over 19,000,000.  To provide sufficient pulp for the 62,400 five-mile reels, over half a million trees have to be felled each year.
• Present Day: The newspaper with the highest daily circulation is the Yomiuri Shimbun, founded in 1874 and published Tokyo, which had a combined morning and evening circulation of 14,532,694 in 2005. 
• Six out of the top ten biggest-selling daily newspapers in the world are Japanese. In the UK, The Sun is the biggest daily, with an average circulation in 2005 of 3,718,354. The only other non-Asian paper in the top ten is Germany's Bild-Zeitung (5th with a circulation of 5,674,400). 

African-American Rights
• 1955: Lynching still persists in the United States.  The worst year in the 20th Century was 1901 with 130 lynching’s (105 Negroes, 25 White) and 1952 the first year with no reported cases.
• Present Day: Barack Hussein Obama II (USA) was inaugurated as the 44th President of the USA on 20 January 2009.  Over 136 million voters turned out on election day – the most since 1960 – and more than two million descended on the Capitol in Washington, DC for his inauguration

Greatest Robbery of a Bank
• 1955: The biggest ‘inside job’ was that at the National City Bank of New York from which the Assistant Manager, Richard Crowe, removed $883,660 (£315,590).  He was arrested on 11th April, 1949.
• Present Day: The largest amount of money stolen from a bank by robbers is estimated at 164,755,150 Brazilian reais ($69.8 million, £38.6 million).

Deepest Lake
• 1955: The deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal, Central Siberia.  It is approximately 250 miles long abd between 20 and 45 miles wide.  It reaches depths of 5,650 feet.
• Present Day: Lake Baikal in the southern part of eastern Siberia, Russia is the deepest lake in the world. It is 620 km (385 miles) long and 32-74 km (20-46 miles) wide. In 1974 the lake's Olkhon Crevice was measured by the Hydrographic Service of the Soviet Pacific Navy and found to be 1,637 m (5,371 ft) deep, of which 1,181 m (3,875 ft) is below sea level.

Tallest Building
• 1955: The tallest building in the world is the Empire State Building, New York.  Standing on approximately two acres of ground, it is 1,472 feet high to the top of the television tower, which was added to the existing 1,250 feet building in 1950.
• Present Day: Taipei 101 (also known as the Taipei Financial Centre) is the world's tallest building at 508 m (1,666 ft). It overtopped the Petronas Towers in mid August 2003, and reached its maximum height in October 2003, although it was only due to be completed in the summer of 2004

Largest Holiday Camp
• 1955: The largest holiday camp in the world is Butlin’s FileyHoliday Camp.  Every year more than 150,000 people spend a holiday there, and, in 1955, 9,000 holiday makers were accommodated during the peak weeks
• Present Day: N/R

About Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records is the universally recognized authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the annual Guinness World Records book is published in more than 100 countries and 25 languages and is the highest-selling books under copyright of all time with more than 3 million copies sold annually across the globe. Guinness World Records celebrated its 50th anniversary edition in 2004, a year after the sale of its 100 millionth copy. Guinness World Records also annually publishes the Gamer’s Edition; a records book devoted solely to the world of computer gaming and high score record achievements. The Guinness World Records website (www.guinnessworldrecords.com) receives more than 11 million visitors a year. Guinness World Records is part of the Jim Pattison Group, one of Canada’s largest privately owned companies which is a conglomerate of interests, including advertising, broadcasting, grocery stores and automotive retailing.
Media Enquiries: Amarilis Espinoza or Karolina Thelin. Phone: 0207 891 4516/4584
Email press@guinnessworldrecords.com.