10 Strangest World Records You Probably Never Knew Existed

by Janhabi Banerjee3 years ago

6 Randy Gardner is an American from San Diego, California, who set the record for the longest amount of time a human has gone without sleep. The duration was 11 days, 25 minutes.

Randy Gardner
Image Credit: rrgomes via youtube.com , Lavozdelmuro.net

Randy Gardner’s sleep deprivation experiment took place in 1963-64, where he managed to set one of the world records by staying awake for 11 days and 25 minutes (264.4 hours).

An experiment that started as a plan for the school science fair ended up being the third-most-talked-about news in the whole of America after Kennedy’s assassination and The Beatle’s visit. Although many sources claim that Randy’s record has been broken several times, it is the most heavily documented experiment of all.

On the eleventh day, his doctors instructed him to subtract seven repeatedly from 100, after counting to 65 he stopped because he forgot what he was doing.

His school friends and the sleep researcher William Dement had a hard time keeping him awake at night, as Randy could fall asleep the moment he shut his eyes. The experiment was successful without any side effects, but for decades, he suffered from extreme insomnia. (source)

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7 The primary school teacher from Belfast, Annalisa Flanagan holds the Guinness World Record for the loudest shout ever as she lashed out at her students by uttering the word “Quiet!” at 121.7 decibels, which is equivalent to the roar of a jet engine.

Annalisa Flanagan
Image Credit: Genk.vn, BBC.com

Annalisa Flanagan, an Irish primary school teacher in Belfast, made her way to the Guinness Book of World Records with the loudest shout ever possibly made in the history of mankind. Annalisa, in the year 1992, while attending a church summer camp went ahead to a shouting competition and won over her own twin sister. Her winning shout was at 119.4 decibels, which was already more than insane.

A couple of years later, Annalisa Flanagan smashed her own record when invited to an event at Belfast. She shouted “Quiet!” at an earth-shattering, thunderous volume of 121.7 decibels and left all in the classroom completely shaken. The shout was loud enough to be more than the sound of a jet engine or a high-voltage rock concert.

It has been more than two decades and she still managed to top the chart with her loudest shout. Annalisa Flanagan made her way to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1994. (1, 2)

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8 Betty Lou Oliver is the woman who survived the longest elevator fall making her a world-record holder. A huge plane crash took place at the Empire State Building in 1945, and a few damaged parts of the plane severed the cables of her elevator making her fall 75 stories to the basement.

Betty Lou Oliver
Image Credit: Pixabay.com, Worldwarwings.com

On 28th July 1945, a bomber of the United States Army Air Forces collided with the Empire States Building due to thick fog. Fourteen people died in this tragic accident including the three people flying the bomber.

Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was on her elevator car on the 80th floor when the plane crashed on 79th. Betty was thrown out of the elevator car and she suffered injuries from burning. After receiving first aid, she moved to another elevator to evacuate the building.

However, the cables holding the elevator car were already damaged due to the plane crash. So when they tried to send her down, the cable broke, and Betty fell 75 stories crashing onto the basement.

Betty was recovered from the elevator shaft with a broken pelvis and back. However, she managed to survive and achieved one of the weirdest world records for the “longest survived elevator fall.” (1, 2)

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9 An adult who put his life at risk by drinking a quart of soy sauce managed to ditch the death and make a world record.

Soy Sauce
Image Credit : Pixabay.com

The dare-to-do tasks can put your life at risk, but have you ever thought that it can make someone so famous and make a world record? Well, in 2011, the 19-year-old man, who is yet not identified, took the challenge of drinking almost a liter of soy sauce that increased the sodium amount in his body.

The man who used to consume 3,400 mg of sodium daily was taken to the hospital after two hours of the incident, as he was having seizures and foaming from the mouth for drinking such an excessive amount of soy sauce deliberately.

In fact, he consumed around 56,000 milligrams of sodium that made his body release excessive water to dilute the salt that caused hypernatremia, and his brain went into a coma. However, doctors saved his life by supplying six liters of fluid containing water and dextrose. The man got his senses back after three days of coma.

As per The Journal of Emergency Medicine, the doctors of that hospital exclaimed that it was the highest documented level in an adult patient to survive acute sodium ingestion without neurologic deficits. (source)

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10 In 1986, a man in India set a world record for spending 72 hours inside a cage with 72 of the most venomous snakes found in the country. His aim was to prove and spread awareness about the fact that snakes don’t bite unless provoked. He came out of the cage unharmed, without a single bite.

Neelim Kumar Khaire
Image Credit: Indiatoday.in, Unsplash.com

Neelim Kumar Khaire, the man who shocked the world with his bravery had a point to prove.

At the beginning of his career, he was appointed as a manager of a holiday home. Sudden encounters with snakes were quite a frequent deal there. Khaire never considered killing them as an option. He put his efforts into catching them and then liberating them in the Sahyadri hills. He was asked not to perform this dangerous act as it was life-threatening.

This is what prompted him to break the unrivaled record of Peter Snyemaris who stayed with 18 venomous and six semi-poisonous vipers for 50 hours in Johannesburg. But, it was not easy to get permission to do this from the police.

Finally, on January 20, 1986, he managed to stay with 24 Russell’s vipers, nine binocellate cobras, 27 monocellate cobras, eight banded kraits, and four other snakes in a glass cage at Pune’s Medical College Campus, and he established that snakes don’t attack people unless provoked. He came out of the cage without a single bite and proved his point as well as owned one of the strangest world records.

As a snake enthusiast, Neelim always wanted to stop people from killing beautiful creatures. When asked about his adventure, he stated that India should have held a record like this for India carries a worldwide identity as a ‘country of snakes.’ (source)

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