The Guinness Book of Records was created to settle bar arguments.

The official website of Guinness World Records confirms the claim.

The official website of Guinness World Records confirms the claim.In 1950, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, had an argument with his friends about which is the fastest game bird in Europe in a party in Wexford Country, Michigan and also realised that the answer to their argument was very hard to find in reference books.

Recalling the incident in 1954, he thought of creating a company helping to settle such arguments in drinking bars. So he invited the twin brothers Ross McWhirter and Norris McWhirter, who were fact-finding researchers from London, to compile a book of facts and figures from across the world. Work on the book started in two rooms of a converted gymnasium in London which went on to become a globally-recognized brand trusted for world records.

Thus, the Guinness Book of Records was initially started out as an idea for a book of facts to solve arguments in pubs.