Hungary – the country with the weirdest Guinness World Record titles?
Having numerous Guinness World Record titles sounds good and definitely makes a country more interesting. While there are serious competitions all over the world where Hungarians achieve amazing results, it is also nice to look at the goofier side of Hungary sometimes and list some of the weirdest Guinness World Records that are to this day held by someone of Hungarian origins.
Art
The largest panoramic postcard in the world was created in Budapest – reports Kafkadesk. As a 14.4-metre high and 6-metre wide photo, it covered a surface of 86.4 square metres. It depicts eight Hungarian cities. Also related to art, in a way, is Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of the most well-known people abroad with Hungarian roots. Although she is not the only one to hold the title – she shares it with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner -, it still counts: she is one of the Hollywood stars who got married the most, eight times, to be exact.
Here, we have to make a note of one of the famous Hungarian inventions that conquered the world – the ballpoint pen. László BÃro and his brother György created the first ever ballpoint pen in 1938 that was commercially successful in the world.
Their project received support from an important institution quite early on – the Royal Air Force employed ballpoint pens as they had the handy characteristic of not leaking at high altitudes.
Sports
Hungary, despite being a small country, produces lots of successful sportsmen and sportswomen who excel at swimming, for example. The sports-related Guinness World Records are from other fields, though. In basketball, for example, it was Bálint Huszár who achieved the farthest forward flip trampette slam dunk, 6.18 metres to be exact.
Still to do with basketball, the title of the longest time spinning a basketball on a guitar is held by the Hungarian Anna Malik. She kept the ball spinning for 13.23 seconds, while absentmindedly strumming a tune. You can see for yourself below:
Although Hungary is in second place when it comes to the most Olympic medals won per capita, there are still some Guinness World Records connected to the Olympic Games. Aladár Gerevich was the member of the national sabre team between 1932 and 1960. That is a long time to compete, but he got the rewards – he holds the title of the most successive gold medals won in Olympic history, namely six.
Béla Ordódy is also connected to the Olympic Games – he shares the title of oldest (male) ice hockey player at the Winter Olympic Games. He and the German Alfred Steinka were both 48 at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The next two wins are related to sports from the other side of the coin. György Szepesi holds the title of the longest career as a sports commentator for
his work at the Hungarian Radio from 1945 on, covering over fifteen Olympic Games.
The title of the longest career as a football referee went to Géza Csernyi in 2007 for being an active referee for 57 years.
The weird ones
Although the previous wins were pretty strange themselves, they could at least fit into a certain category. These next examples are pretty out there, but there is still something cool about the fact that a Hungarian thought of them.
In 2012, the record of the world’s largest dance by couples was made in Budapest. 5188 people slow-danced on the bank of the Danube, winning Hungary the title that previously belonged to Paris. Another challenge also involving thousands was to get the title of most people simultaneously chalk drawing.
This project involved about 5400 people and had an additional motive – to raise awareness to environmental problems.
Last but not least, György Kovács, a Hungarian-born bartender in Liverpool, managed to get the title of most flips of a bottle on the back of the hand in one minute. He flipped it 146(!) times; luckily, you can watch the video below if you do not believe it:
There are other fascinating bits and pieces involving Hungarians, too. Just to name a few, the first artificially inseminated rhino was born in Budapest Zoo in 2007, while Hungarians also took part in making the largest hand-knitted blanket (1994 square metres) in Ireland last year.
WORLD RECORD: Hungarian village made a sausage more than 2400 metres long!
Featured image: youtube.com
Source: kafkadesk.org