Record-breaking best of 2024: Iconic meet ups, amazing animals and age-defying love

2024 has been a big year in the world of record breaking!

We kicked off our 70^th anniversary celebrations this year, we’ve had gigantic fruit, the world’s tallest and shortest people hanging out, people planking for incredible lengths of time and one very, very wide wig.

As the year comes to a close, let’s take a look back at which records have grabbed the attention of our website readers the most…

January

As the year kicked off, one California woman proudly unveiled her longest arm hair.

Macie Davis-Southerland had an arm hair measuring 18.40 cm (7.24 in) long.

That’s about as long as a hot dog.

Macie only realized in high school that she had a long arm hair after someone pointed it out, and rather than plucking it, she decided to keep growing it until it reached a record-breaking length.

A Taylor Swift superfan from Pakistan also joined the record breakers club by passing the ultimate music quiz.

Bilal Ilyas Jhandir broke the record for most Taylor Swift songs identified from their lyrics in one minute with an impressive total of 34.

And in Nigeria, an art student named Chancellor Ahaghotu performed the longest painting marathon.

He painted for 100 consecutive hours to break a record that had stood for a decade.

February

In February, an American woman proved she had the largest tongue circumference (female).

Jenny DuVander’s tongue measured 13.25 cm (5.21 in) all the way around – that’s bigger than the height of a soda can.

Her record was broken later in the year by Ambra Collina (Italy) with a measurement of 13.83 cm (5.44 in).

GWR fans got very excited when the world’s tallest man Sultan Kösen (Türkiye) and shortest woman Jyoti Amge (India) met up in America.

They were working together on a top secret project – which turned out to be this heart-warming surprise reunion in a YouTube video.

Meanwhile, a Transformers superfan unveiled his record-breaking collection to the world.

Mike Kaye (USA) owns the largest collection of Transformers memorabilia – 10,568 items.

March

In March, a behemoth blueberry grabbed headlines in Australia.

Grown by Costa Group horticulturists Brad Hocking, Jessica Scalzo and Marie-France Courtois at Costa’s berry farm in Corindi, New South Wales, the heaviest blueberry weighed 20.4 g (0.71 oz) – almost 70 times more than an average wild blueberry.

And over in Canada, an incredible grandmother-of-12 broke the record for longest time in an abdominal plank position (female).

DonnaJean Wilde held the position for 4 hr 30 min 11 sec.

April

In April, we brought you the sad news that the world’s oldest living conjoined twins had died.

Lori and George Schappell defied the odds by living until the age of 62.

The twins had partially fused skulls and shared vital blood vessels as well as 30% of their brains.

In the same month, JUJUTSU KAISEN was named the most in-demand animated TV show, taking the title from Attack on Titan which held it since 2020.

The show had a global demand rating 71.2 times greater than that of the average TV show, according to data-science firm Parrot Analytics.

In Japan, fitness enthusiast Kenta Adachi took the record for most pull ups in 24 hours (male).

He did 8,940 of them.

That record has since been broken by Doug "Censor" Martin (USA) with 9,250.

May

In May, record-breaking wig maker Helen Williams (Nigeria) returned to break another hair-raising record.

This time, she created the widest wig – one that measured 3.65 m (11 ft 11 in), which is wider than the length of a Mini Cooper.

In Ghana, a little boy named Ace-Liam Nana Sam Ankrah became the world’s youngest male artist.

He earned the record at just 1 year 152 days old.

A Harvard Law School lecturer known as “Professor Pull-Ups” smashed the record for most pull ups in one minute.

Adam Sandel performed 77 of them in the allotted time.

June

June saw the unveiling of Kevin the Great Dane as the world’s tallest male dog.

Kevin, whose personality was just as big, measured 0.97 m (3 ft 2 in) from his feet to his withers.

That’s the average height of a three-year-old child.

And the average male Great Dane is around 0.76 m (2 ft 6 in) to the withers.

Tragically, Kevin died just a few days after his record was announced. But he’ll always be a record breaker.

Six sisters from Missouri, USA, broke the record for the highest combined age of six living siblings.

The Overall sisters - Norma, Lorene, Maxine, Doris, Margaret and Elma – had a combined age of 571 years 293 days.

And one Boston grandmother who was still working hard at the age of 81, became the world’s oldest train operator.

Helen Antenucci (USA) works for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, driving trains on the Blue Line which services north-east Boston.

She’s become such a big part of some commuters’ lives that they specifically wait for her train to take them into the city each day.

July

July was all about the highly anticipated release of Deadpool & Wolverine, which quickly became a record breaker.

The movie had the most viewed movie trailer in 24 hours with 365 million views, and we surprised stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman with official GWR certificates during their appearance on UK show This Morning.

Wesley Snipes also earned a record by appearing in the movie.

His cameo as Blade, a half-vampire “daywalker” who hunts vampires, gave him the longest career as a live action Marvel character at 25 years 340 days.

August

In August, a Texas woman took the record for widest tongue (female).

Brittany Lacayo’s tongue measured 7.90 cm (3.11 in) at its widest point.

For context, that’s wider than a hockey puck and almost as wide as a credit card.

Fellow American Esperance Lumineska Fuerzina broke two records thanks to her love of body modification.

She’s the most tattooed person (female) – with 99.98% of her body covered - and has the most body modifications (female) with 89.

Meanwhile, footballing legend Cristiano Ronaldo extended his domination of social media by adding a YouTube record to his collection.

After launching his own channel, he nabbed the record for most YouTube subscribers gained in 24 hours after 19,729,827 people signed up to see his videos.

September

In September, an Indian student built the world’s smallest vacuum cleaner.

With a contraption measuring just 0.65 cm (0.25 in) at its shortest axis, Tapala Nadamuni finally claimed the record after two rejected attempts.

From small to big, YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss – AKA Arun Maini – created the largest smartphone replica.

The giant iPhone 15 Pro Max stood at over 2 m tall.

Also this month, we met up with Tomiko Itooka (Japan), who became the world’s oldest living woman and oldest living person at 116 years 116 days old.

She took both titles following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas Morera.

October

In October, daredevils James C Wigginton and Alex Coker (both USA) performed the highest tandem parachute jump (skydive) ever.

They jumped from an astonishing 42,018 ft (12,807 m).

A standard tandem skydive is done from between 8,000 and 14,000 ft and a commercial passenger plane usually flies at around 35,000 ft.

Dog lover Mitchell Rudy (Canada) took a 38-strong pack of pooches for walkies to break the record for most dogs walked simultaneously by an individual.

It was all part of a drive by Canadian charitable initiative BONK and Korean K9 Rescue (KK9R) (South Korea) to encourage more people to adopt dogs.

In other news, a superfan of The Weeknd broke a record with her knowledge of his lyrics.

Karla O’Brien (USA) became the first ever record holder for the most The Weeknd songs identified from their lyrics in one minute with an impressive total of 31.

She said his music had saved her life.

November

November was a big month for us, with the 20^th annual Guinness World Records Day bringing together the world’s tallest woman Rumeysa Gelgi (Türkiye) and shortest woman Jyoti Amge (India) for a very special meeting.

They headed to the posh Savoy Hotel in London for a spot of afternoon tea, where Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday presented them both with ICON certificates.

The meeting was covered across the media worldwide and was one of our most-read stories of the year.

DonnaJean Wilde (Canada) was back for more record-breaking action.

This time, she broke the record for most push ups in one hour (female) with an impressive 1,575.

We also welcomed a new oldest man to the Guinness World Records family following the death of the UK’s John Tinniswood at age 112.

João Marinho Neto (Brazil) was 112 years 52 days old, as confirmed by LongeviQuest in Apuiarés, Ceará, Brazil, on 26 November.

December

We’re only part-way through December and we’ve already seen some incredible record-breaking action.

UK brothers Owen and Conner Gray gave us a tour of their largest collection of Pokémon cards, which stands at a whopping 48,339 unique items.

We also said hello to adorable couple Marjorie Fiterman, 102, and Bernie Littman, 100.

They became the oldest couple to marry (aggregate age) with their combined ages of 202 years and 271 days when they tied the knot at the retirement home where they met in Philadelphia, USA.

And in Japan, a humanoid robot created by Toyota Motor Corporation made an awe-inspiring basketball shot.

CUE6 performed the farthest basketball shot by a humanoid robot from a distance of 24.55 m (80 ft 6 in).

An NBA court is 29 m (94 ft) long.

After so much incredible record-breaking action in 2024, we can’t wait to see what 2025 brings!