The Guinness Book of World Records, now known as Guinness World Records, arose from two great Irish traditions: drinking and fighting. In 1951 Sir Hugh Beaver, director of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, was out shooting in North Slob in Wexford. The men in the party started one-upping each other, because let’s face it — that’s what guys do. Each man was he convinced that he knew which was the fastest game bird in Europe. Some said the grouse, others the golden plover. After lots of arguing, the men got very thirsty and retired to the house, where they drank beer and checked all the common references. But no book could settle the argument.

Human beings have a natural urge to triumphantly slap a pub table, point, and shout loudly, “HA! I TOLD YOU SO!” The Irish are no different. Scientific studies have proven that an Irishman will in fact explode from the pressure of not knowing if they have gotten the questions of a pub quiz correct. Sensitive to this predicament, Sir Hugh realized that there were over 81,000 pubs in Britain and Ireland, where countless arguments were left unsettled, and there was no book to consult to allow the peaceful resolution that comes when someone can finally rub victory in their drinking buddy’s face.

Leave it to Beaver! Sir Hugh sought out Norris and Ross McWhirter in London and found that the English loved to argue as much as the Irish did. In fact, British pubgoers loved fighting so much that the McWhirter twins had who had built a successful fact-finding business out of settling other people’s arguments. The McWhirters compiled what became the Guinness Book of World Records. 1000 copies were printed up and given away in the first edition of 1954. Guinness has always been socially conscious, offering generous pay, pensions, and holidays to its employees centuries before it was common. This small act of charity to loyal Guinness drinkers seemed like the right thing to do.

The book was a hit! Because as much as pub denizens enjoyed fighting, settling arguments with fistfights can get pretty old pretty quick. The book sold like hotcakes, and throughout England, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, black eyes and broken teeth were slowly replaced with wounded or bolstered egos. Although it was originally intended just to be a freebie from Guinness as an offering to pubgoers, it was wildly popular and the 1955 edition sold 70,000 copies in the United States alone. The McWhirter brothers shouldn’t have underestimated the needs of Yanks to argue too. After all, 34 million Americans are of Irish descent!

For over fifty years, the Guinness Book has been a perennial bestseller worldwide, leading to a beautiful discovery: not just the Irish, not just the English, but everyone is opinionated and everyone loves to be right. Isn’t that a beautiful thought?

So in the great human tradition of crowing over being right, don’t forget to help Firefox 3 become the right answer next time you get in a pub brawl over what software has the most downloads in the world. Mozilla will be sponsoring a Download Day in early June, and with your help you can perpetuate the great human tradition of winning arguments. For twenty-four hours, Mozillans will see if we can get almost two million downloads of Firefox 3. Then, the next time you’re taking a pub quiz and the question arises: “What is the software program with the most downloads for a twenty-four hour period?” you can slap your hand on the table, point, and shout proudly:

“HA! FIREFOX 3! YOU OWE ME A BEER!”