Domino Day

Domino Day is a world record attempt for the highest number of falling domino stones, organized each year by Robin Paul Weijers, also known as Mr. Domino.

The following are the subsequent records:

Year	Theme	Location	No. stones
1986	KLM Domino World Record	Lisse, Netherlands	755 836
1988	Europe in Domino	Rosmalen, Netherlands	1 328 101
1998	Domino D-Day: Visionland	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	1 605 757
1999	Domino Day: Europa ohne Grenzen	Zuidlaren, Netherlands	2 472 480
1999	Team from China & Japan *	Beijing, China	2 751 518
2000	Domino Day: Reaction	Zuidlaren, Netherlands	2 977 678
2000	Team from China & Japan & South Korea *	Beijing, China	3 407 535
2001	Domino Day: Bridging the World	Maastricht, Netherlands	3 540 562
2002	Domino Day: Expressions for Millions	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	3 847 295
2004	Domino Day: The Challenge	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	3 992 397
2005	Domino Day: Domino Theatre of Eternal Stories	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	4 002 136
2006	Domino Day: Music in Motion	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	4 079 381

* These world records are not related to Domino Day, but are listed here for completeness.

Domino Day 2005

Domino Day 2005 was held on November 18 under the theme "Domino Theatre of Eternal Stories"; 4,002,136 out of a total of 4,321,000 stones fell, setting a new world record. The initial world record of 4,155,476 had to be corrected after it was realized that in the final challenge, where one participant had to complete a line of dominoes while the other had to hold the bar the stones were placed on, the bar was held askew (not deliberately), therefore toppling stones that would not have toppled on their own. Since these few stones were necessary for a huge field containing 150,000 dominoes to topple, the whole field had to be excluded.

Main article: Domino Day 2005 sparrow

During preparations, a sparrow entered the studio and caused the premature fall of 23,000 stones before being shot to death; the organizers claim the hunter was called in as a last resort, after all efforts to catch the bird failed. The killing of the bird created great controversy, with seven agencies investigating the 'murder' (the bird was said to be an endangered species), the person who shot the bird receiving threats and a Dutch radio station DJ called Ruud de Wild having offered 3000 Euro to anyone who could sabotage at least one million stones before November 18.

Domino Day 2006

A new world record was set on 17 November on Domino Day. 4,079,381 stones were toppled out of the 4,400,000 that were set up. Four builders' challenges were set in which pairs of builders were chosen to complete vital parts of the set-up while the dominoes were already toppling. The first three builders' challenges failed so the success of the last challenge was crucial to setting the world record.

The design of the course took about a year and a team of 90 builders took around two months to build it.

External links

• Weijers Domino Productions
• Condolence register for the sparrow killed in 2005 (Dutch)
• Reuters article plus two minute video of Domino Day 2006 (URL last accessed 20 November, 2006)