Year in World Records - December: Big mouths, iconic astronauts and super-sized board games
By Kevin Lynch
Published
With a year packed full of amazing world record achievements drawing to a close, Guinness World Records is taking a month-by-month look back over the most impressive, exciting and game-changing accomplishments that have happened in 2016.
Christian's feat was part of a radio contest to find a sports fan who could shout the longest “goal” in the style of Latin American soccer commentators who stretch their vowels.
The soccer fan yelled “Tor” – which is the German word for “goal” – for an impressive 43.56 sec.
The month also saw us shine a spotlight on an equally impressive German with a big mouth.
Students and staff of the Studentenvereniging Ceres (student association) in Wageningen, Netherlands passed Go and landed in the record books after creating the world’s Largest board game, Monopoly®.
Sponsored by the game’s producer Hasbro, the university students also created a massive die and houses to complete the game.
Once it was all put together on a sports field, the university students got a chance to play the giant game, with participants standing in for playing tokens and acting as the silver boots, iron, top hat and wheel barrow.
A key figure in the 20th century space race, Glenn set the title for world’s Oldest astronaut in 1998 at the age of 77 years and 103 days, after launching into space as part of NASA's Discovery STS-95 mission.
An equally important figure in the exploration of space, we were honoured to have Dr Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr provide an exclusive foreword in the new Guinness World Records 2017 Edition.
As you'd expect for December, the month was marked by a number of Christmas-themed record attempts. Arguably the most spectacular of the festive title bids took place in Latvia.
To make the act of switching on the town’s Christmas tree lights even more exiting, e-commerce company Scandiweb constructed the world’s Largest Rube Goldberg for the people of Riga.
Possibly the most elaborate way anyone has turned on some festive lights, the chain reaction consisted of 412 individual mechanical steps.
Led by professional race drivers Abdulhadi Al-Qahtani and Muath Al-Essa, the Al Jazirah team achieved a new Guinness World Records title for the Largest tyre mark image on the vast asphalt outside a car storage centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.