Zeldar:
One more nitpick: if you don’t require that they survived seeing the event there are probably dozens to hundreds of catastrophes to be considered where those who saw it happen didn’t live to describe it to others. The WWII Japan bombs as an example.
Not trying to be picky for its own sake. Honest.
And the cloud rose to 60,000 feet. Thats almost 12 miles hign. Loads of people saw it who didn’t die.
Obviously nobody saw all of it live, but all of the 6.5 million people who participated in Hands Across America saw part of it.
Dewey_Finn:
I think the OP was looking for the largest number of people actually at the event, not watching on TV. And there’s a Wikipedia list of the largest peaceful gatherings. Some of these events, mostly religious gatherings, have many millions of people.
However, those viewers are spread out over the (approximately) 200km route of the race. To me that doesn’t qualify as viewers in one place.
Recently one of the space shuttles rode piggy back on a 747 to its retirement home and literally millions of Americans could see it in the sky.
OldGuy
July 9, 2014, 8:38pm
44
True, but his specific question was:
“Could this be a record for a live event, sporting or otherwise?”
Lukeinva:
However, those viewers are spread out over the (approximately) 200km route of the race. To me that doesn’t qualify as viewers in one place.
Recently one of the space shuttles rode piggy back on a 747 to its retirement home and literally millions of Americans could see it in the sky.
If you want to disqualify the Tour de France because they spectators are spread over the route of the race, how can you then suggest the millions of spectators seeing the space shuttle over its route?
Well, I wasn’t. Neither count (imo).