Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first edition of The Guinness Book of Records was bound on the 27th of August 1955. Sir Hugh Beaver commissioned Norris and Ross McWhirter in August 1954 to create this reference book after missing a shot at a golden plover during a shooting party on the 10th of November 1951.
The Jim Pattison Group has owned Guinness World Records since early 2008. The franchise headquarters moved to South Quay Plaza, Canary Wharf, London, in 2017 while offices remain open in New York City and Tokyo.
Applications for existing categories remain free of charge but an administration fee of £5 or $5 applies to propose new titles. Fees ranging from US$12,000 to US$500,000 offer advisors and adjudicators for corporations seeking publicity stunts.
Guinness World Records removed categories posing threats to health or the environment such as eating and drinking records which dropped in 1991 over self-harm concerns. Animal welfare concerns led to dropping camel wrestling records following the 1994 Camel Wrestling Festival in Selçuk, Turkey.
Ross McWhirter was assassinated by two members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975. His brother Norris continued the television series Record Breakers which aired on BBC from 1972 to 2001 before it became Norris on the Spot after his death.