The greatest of ancient naval battles in recorded history was the Battle of Salamis, which took place in the straits at Salamis, between the island of Salamis and the port city of Piraeus, (the city-port of Athens), Greece in September 480 BC. There were an estimated 800 vessels in the defeated Persian fleet and 370 in the victorious fleet of the Athenians and their allies, with a possible involvement of 200,000 men. The Greeks sank about 300 Persian vessels and lost about 40 themselves. The
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The largest conductor’s baton measured 4.25 m (13 ft 11 in) and was manufactured by the Harmonie Amicitia Roggel (Netherlands). The baton was used by conductor Bas Clabbers (Netherlands) during a concert in Heythuysen, Netherlands, on 30 October 2010. The original baton was 45.2 cm (1 ft 5 in) long.
The largest battleships ever to enter service were the Japanese vessels Yamato, commissioned in December 1941 and sunk by 11 torpedoes and 7 bombs south-west of Kyushu, Japan, by US planes on 7 April 1945) and Musashi, commissioned in August 1942 and sunk in the Philippine Sea by 20 torpedoes and 17 bombs on 24 October 1944. Both ships had a full load displacement of 71,111 tonnes (156.7 million lb), an overall length of 263 m (863 ft), a beam of 38.7 m (127 ft)
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Peter Jackson’s (New Zealand) Lord of the Rings (NZ/USA, 2001–03) trilogy featured battle scenes with over 200,000 fighting characters. To achieve this, Weta Digital (New Zealand) wrote bespoke crowd-simulation software called “Massive”, which combined digital animation with an artificial intelligence that governed how the characters interacted.
The largest beach towel measured 87.14 m (285 ft 10 in) in length and 25.20 m (82 ft 8 in) in width and was manufactured by Fateka S.L. on behalf of Compañía Cervecera de Canarias (Tropical brand). The towel was displayed at Playa de las Canteras in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, on 5 June 2010. The towel was plain green in colour. The planning of the towel took one month and the production 8 days.
The record for the largest beach volleyball tournament is for the senior male division of the Usedom BeachCup 2007 with 236 players in the division, played in Karlshagen, Insel Usedom, Germany, from 27 to 29 July 2007. The entire event consisted of 890 participants across six different divisions. The tournament was formed by 334 teams, divided in 118 senior male teams, 83 senior female teams, 37 older male teams, 74 mixed teams, 5 older female teams, and 17 one-day teams. The winner couple were Christian
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The largest bead mosaic measured 35.67 m² (384 ft²), and was achieved by Stephan Wanger (Germany) with the help of the Cane River National Heritage Area at the Hanchey Gallery at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA on 4 December 2013. The mosaic measured 14.63 m (48 ft) long and 2.43 m (8 ft) tall and depicted a street scene in downtown Natchitoches. Over 2 million beads were used to make the mosaic.
With a total surface area of 838 sq m (9,020 sq ft), the largest beer barrel logo used 5,237 empty 50-litre (13.2 US gallon) beer barrels from the Karlsberg Brewery to compose the logo of German cycling race Deutschlandtour in Gersheim, Germany on 7 June 2003.
The largest beard and moustache championship involved 462 participants and was organised by the Newport Winter Carnival (USA), in Newport, NH, USA, on 12 February 2011. The overall winner of the competition was Steve Lucas (USA), who was chosen by the judges as having the “Grand Stache”.
The largest bean mosaic measures 300.85 m² (3238 ft² 44 in²), and was created by the World Largest Seed Art Production Committee (Japan) in Minamisouma, Fukushima, Japan, on 23 March 2014. The beans used in the mosaic were black and white soy. The challengers used 1,864,320 black soy beans and 2,096,640 white soy beans.