Record-Breaking PR Stunt Ends in Citywide Chaos

Balloonfest Made History

The city of Cleveland garnered plenty of attention from their publicity stunt—for all the wrong reasons. Balloonfest did succeed in breaking the record, and the event was featured in 1988's Guinness Book of World Records. However, in 1994, the record was broken once again when 1.7 million balloons were released in Hillshire, England, meaning that Cleveland's grand gesture was all for naught. Cleveland wasn't the only city to cause a manmade environmental disaster...

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The More You Know

  • One in four Americans thinks that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
  • In 1993, San Francisco held a referendum over whether a police officer called Bob Geary was allowed to patrol while carrying a ventriloquist’s dummy called Brendan O’Smarty. He was.
  • Your heart beats 100,000 times a day.
  • The stars and flashes of light you see when you rub your eyes are called "phosphenes."
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