The idea for the Guinness Book of World Records came out of an argument Sir Hugh Beaver, managing director of the Guinness Brewery, had on a hunting trip in the early 1950s. He wasn't able to find the answer to the fastest game bird in any reference book. Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records and in previous United States editions as The Guinness Book of World Records, is a reference book published annually, listing world records both of human ...