For the week ending 13 November 2010, the album Speak Now by Taylor Swift (USA) sold a record 278,000 digital downloads.

In the week ending 6 February 2010, “Today Was A Fairytale” by Taylor Swift (USA) entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at No.1 and sold a US record 325,000 digital copies.

Released on 7 December 2010, the third expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Cataclysm, 3.3 million copies sold through as of its first 24 hours of release making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The record has previously been held by the game’s first two expansion pack, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

The fewest strokes taken to complete marathon distance playing golf is 494 strokes and was achieved by Jake Sand (United States) at Desert Mountain Golf Resort, Arizona, United States, on 28 May 2009. The event was to raise money for the Special Olympics and Jake and the other competitors including playing partner Shawn Gobden raised over USD40000. Shawn Gobden was the “fastest” competitor in terms of time, completing the marathon distance in 9 hr 57 min 14.69 sec compared to Jake Sand’s time of 9 Continue reading →

The fewest wins record by a team in a single National Hockey League season is eight by the Washington Capitals in 1974-75.

A short experimental movie entitled Audioscopiks (USA, 1935), filmed using the Norling-Leventhal 3-Dimensions process an anaglyph technique devised by John Norling and Jacob Leventhal (both USA) received Academy Award recognition in the category Best Short Subject, Novelty. The eight-minute reel showcased the 3D effect with a ladder being pushed out of a window, a sliding trombone, a woman on a swing and someone throwing a baseball.

The original “Ferris” wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr (1859-96), an American bridge and tunnel engineer, and was erected for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, USA at a cost of $385,000. The “Ferris” wheel as it became known reached a maximum height of 80 m (264 ft) above the ground, with a diameter of 76 m (250 ft) and a circumference of 240 m (790 ft). Each of the 36 fully enclosed gondolas carried upto 40 passengers in Continue reading →

The first actor to portray Sherlock Holmes on TV was Louis Hector (USA) in an experimental NBC (USA) production in 1937.

Barack Hussein Obama II (USA) was inaugurated as the 44th President of the USA on 20 January 2009, following a record-breaking campaign. In the September before election, Obama raised a monthly record of $150 million (£82.5 million), taking his fundraising total to over $605 million (£332.9 million) – also a record. Much of this went on advertising – an unprecedented $250 million (£137.5 million) was spent on TV ads in just five months. Over 136 million voters turned out on election day – the most since 1960 – and more than two Continue reading →

The first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) powered by liquid hydrogen is the Global Observer UAV, a 15-m (50-ft) wingspan prototype of which successfully flew at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, on 26 May 2005; results of which were announced at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems North America Conference in June 2005. The Global Observer UAV will enable communications relay, remote sensing for military and commercial missions. It uses fuel-cell-powered electric motors to drive eight propellers. It is Continue reading →