On 4th May 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then Managing Director of Guinness breweries, was on a shooting party with friends. He became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, and realised there was no publication in which he could look up this fact, and thought that such a book might prove popular. He then commissioned twins Norris and Ross McWhirter to compile such a book, The Guinness Book of Records, in August 1954 - 1,000 copies were printed and given away. Following this success, the first 197-page edition was bound on 27 August 1955, and went straight to the top of the best-sellers list. Since then, Guinness World Records has released a book every year around October/November, and it is the world's best selling copyright book, with over 100 million copies sold in 37 languages.
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