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January 1, 2002
EXCERPTS: Rearing to be the first
Most Wimbledon wins
PETE Sampras (USA) won seven Wimbledon men’s singles tennis titles in 1993-95 and 1997-2000. This record was set after the Challenge Round was abolished in 1922. Before this, William Charles Renshaw (UK) won seven men’s singles titles in 1881-86 and 1889.
Martina Navratilova (USA) won a record nine Wimbledon women’s singles tennis titles in 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1990.
The most Wimbledon doubles tennis titles is 19, held by Elizabeth Montague Ryan (USA) who won them between 1914 and 1934. The 19 titles comprise 12 women’s doubles titles and seven mixed doubles titles.
The seven mixed doubles titles is a record in itself.
Billie-Jean King (nee Moffitt, USA) won a record 20 Wimbledon titles between 1961 and 1979, comprising six singles, 10 women’s doubles and four mixed doubles titles. This is the most Wimbledon titles won by a woman, King helped form the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1974, becoming its first president.
The most Wimbledon tennis titles won by a man is 13 by Laurie Doherty (UK), comprising five singles titles (1902-06) and eight men’s doubles titles (1897-1906). For his men’s doubles titles he was partnered by his brother Reginald Frank Doherty (UK).
Youngest Internet country code
Palestine, still battling for Internat recognition as an independent state acquired autonomy in cyberspace on 22 March 2000. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which regulates net addresses, granted the Palestinian National Authority its own two letter suffix for online real estate. As with other so-called country codes, such as ‘fr’ for France and ‘it’ for Italy, the Palestinian group will be able to register addresses under its own domain, ‘ps’.
Bloodiest siege
The worst siege in history was when Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), was besieged by the German army for 880 days from August 30, 1941 until January 27, 1944. It was estimated that between 1.3 and 1.5 million defenders and citizens lost their lives. This number included 641,000 people who died of starvation in the city and 17,000 civilians who were killed by shelling. More than 150,000 shells and 100,000 bombs were dropped on the city.
Ice cool
Covering 11.4 per cent of the planet, glaciers are mainly found in Antarctica and Greenland with about 13.5 million km (5.2 million miles) of Antarctica made of snow and ice. Glaciers are large, moving masses of ice formed where the rate of snowfall is greater than the rate of snow melting. As snow piles up, it is compressed into ice by the weight of more snow falling on top of it, and begins to slowly flow downhill under the force of its own weight.
Covering up to 1 million sq km (386,102 sq miles), the world’s largest glacier is the Lambert Glacier (below) in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Lambert is up to 64 km (40 miles) wide and measures at least 700 km (440 miles) in length — longer than the state of Florida.
The iceman cometh
Wim Hof (Netherlands) endured standing in a tub filled with ice cubes for a record 60 min 24 sec on December 20, 2000. Wearing only swimming trunks, he stood on a box so that his feet did not end up in a pool of water. Hof uses meditation, yoga and breathing techniques to regulate his body temperature and keep it at a normal 37xC (98.6xF), even in extreme cold. Hof has been involved in various extreme outdoor activities for over 20 years, including rock climbing, canyoning, waterfall climbing and ice diving.
Picture this
Portrait of Dr Gachet, by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), is the world’s most valuable painting. It sold in just three minutes for a record sum of $82.5 million at Christie’s, New York City (New York, USA) on May 15, 1990. The artist completed this work just weeks before his suicide. The sitter, Dr Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (France), was a friend and physician to van Gogh. Shortly before his death van Gogh had a burst of creativity, producing more than one painting a day, including several versions of Dr Gachet.
Power to the people
On August 28, 1963 civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr (USA) led more than 250,000 demonstrators in a march down the Mall in Washington DC, USA. The march was held to promote equal civil rights for all Americans, irrespective of race or colour, and was the largest racial-equality rally ever held. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his legendary “I have a dream” speech to the crowd.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr was a Baptist minister, a civil-rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace prize in 1964, at the time the youngest man ever to do so. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
W money
George W. Bush (inaugurated as the 43rd US President on January 20, 2001), has assembled the wealthiest cabinet in American history by appointing more multi-millionaires to the top rank of his government than any of his predecessors. Of the 16 full cabinet members at the heart of the Bush administration, 13 are millionaires, seven of whom own assets worth more than $10 million. His cabinet has acquired the nickname ‘tycoon’s club’. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill each have declared assets of at least $61 million, while Secretary of State Colin Powell has at least $18.5 million.
One for the books
Amazon.com, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos (USA) opened its virtual doors in July 1995 and has now sold products to more than 13 million customers in over 160 countries, making it the largest online bookshop. It has a catalogue of 4.7 million books, CDs and videos, including titles now out of print.Although there are three million books actively in print, no one could build a bookstore large enough to hold them. The largest known conventional bookstores carry 170,000 titles. When Bezos started this business, he worked out of an office from his garage in Seattle, Washington, USA — wrapping book orders himself and delivering them to the post office in his family car.
Read all about it
The most massive single issue of a newspapper was the Sept 14, 1987 edition of the Sunday New York Times. which weighed more than 5.4 kg (12 lb) and contained a staggering 1,612 pages. This newspaper has an average circulation of 1,650,000.
The longest newspaper published was the Dec 19, 1997 edition of the Brazilian daily newspaper Diario Oficial da Uniao. which ran to 2,112 pages and weighed 5.27 kg (11lb 8oz).
The worlds oldest exsiting weekly newspaper is the Swedish official journal Post och Inrikes, Tidningar, founded in 1645 and published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters . In 1766, Sweden became the first country to introduce a law guaranteeing freedom of the press.
Guinness world records, 2002
Guinness World Records, London
Distributed in Pakistan by Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400 Tel: 021-4310030.
Email: paramount@cyber.net.pk
ISBN 0-85112-124-1
288pp. £18
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