Records Facts

Salvatore Pagliuca was stuck in a wooden hut atop Mount Washington on April 12, 1934. Two other observers were there. Ice was jamming their wind gauge in a growing storm. One of them went outside into 150 mph winds. He knocked the gauge clear with a wooden club. Hours later, Pagliuca clocked a gust at 231 mph. It's still the fastest wind ever measured by a person at a staffed weather station.

A Stegosaurus skeleton nicknamed "Apex" sold at Sotheby's on July 17, 2024 for $44.6 million - the most ever paid for a fossil at auction. Sotheby's had estimated it at $4 to $6 million; bidding ended in 15 minutes. Of its 319 visible bones, 254 are original fossil. The rest are sculpted.