2015 in World Records - January: When Weibo made social media history and an Ebola fundraising appeal fed thousands

We begin with January, when the Weibo Night awards ceremony in Beijing, China went down in history for having the Most mentions of an event name on Weibo™ in 24 hours amassing an almost unbelievable number of postings.

 

Chinese film, TV and music celebs (including boyband TFBOYS – lead singer Wang Junkai a social media record-setter himself) were in attendance, as well as GWR Greater China President Rowan Simons who presented an official certificate to CEO of Weibo™  Wang Gaofei.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, 7473.99 km (4644.13 miles) away, more than 100 Australian drivers jump-started the year in top gear, setting a rather noisy record for the Largest simultaneous car-tyre burnout at the four-day Summernats 28 event in Canberra, Australia - breaking their own record.

 

 

 

Also in January, there was an exciting conclusion to our weekly Fan Choice series, during which our readers had the opportunity to vote for their favourite from five recently-verified records each week.

 

 

At the end of the year, fans were able to vote for the ultimate winner of 2015, and you chose Saveurs du Voyage magazine (France) for their Largest cork mosaic that was presented to the public in Bordeaux, June 2014.

 

 

 

Such is the nature of record-breaking, the record was bettered shortly after.

 

 

In the USA, we celebrated the making of basketball history as Globetrotter Big Easy Lofton scored the Furthest basketball hook shot and fellow player Bucket Blakes smashed the Most basketball underhanded half-court shots in one minute.

 

 

 

Although amazing records like these were being set all over the globe, no country was free from the extremely worrying threat of Ebola – a deadly disease that was spreading rapidly around West Africa, first identified in March 2014 (and still a serious concern now).

 

The most positive and inspiring record set in January 2015 was accomplished by a Chinese appeal to provide aid for those affected by the Ebola outbreak, during which Tencent QQ, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (both China) and United Nations World Food Programme received over 100,000 pledges, with all donations used to provide food for affected regions.