Lexington, Kentucky is full of a wide array of interesting trivia and historical facts– from its longstanding and famous traditions of bourbon, basketball, and thoroughbreds to more lesser-known Bluegrass knowledge. What you might not know is that Lexington is home to a number of world records– here are just a few.
The Guinness World Record for the largest water balloon fight belongs to the Christian Student Fellowship at the University of Kentucky, which conducted a water balloon fight of almost 9,000 people in August of 2011. According to Guinness, 175,141 water balloons were thrown in the fight– and you can watch some highlight clips of the good-natured chaos here.
Lexington’s Jif Peanut Butter is the largest peanut butter factory in the world. Located right on Winchester Road, the tasty scent of roasted peanuts is one that any Lexington inhabitant is all too familiar with– and that’s all thanks to the largest producer of spreadable peanuts sitting right outside your door, providing aromatic pleasantries to the downtown Lexington area for almost eighty years. The factory originally produced Big Top brand peanut butter before it began producing Jif in the 1950s.
The largest ceiling clock in the world can be found at the Lexington Public Library, in the Central Library’s rotunda. Finished in 2001, the clock sits high above the sprawling downtown library, where you can also find an impressive Foucault Pendulum. The ceiling clock features 60 different light-up horses surrounding its display, which are designed to simulate movement. These horses are based on the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge, whose capturing of horses’ movements while galloping formed the basis of the motion picture concept.
In November of last year, a Lexington man broke the world record for the most chin-ups completed in a 24-hour period, doing a whopping 5,555 chin-ups. Besides appearing on the hit show American Ninja Warrior a total of five times, chin-up record holder Brendan Kelly also holds the world record for the fastest mile run backwards (just under six minutes.) Kelly began the challenge at eight in the morning and completed his final push-up at three am the following morning.
While the record holder for the fastest Rubik’s cube ever solved is an ever-changing position thanks to the wildly popular nature of the classic puzzle, the first person to solve the Rubik’s cube in under five seconds was Lexington’s own Lucas Etter in 2015. He holds not only four speedcubing championship wins on a national level, but four world records for his achievements.