GUWAHATI: Legendary singer-composer Bhupen Hazarika’s funeral has created a world record with the highest number of people paying tributes to him over two days though Michael Jackson memorial service holds record as the most watched funeral on television.
According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, more than five lakh people attended the funeral of ‘The Bard of the Brahmaputra’ and 30 lakh people watched it on television. Hazarika died on November five in Mumbai and his body lay in state at the historic Judges Field for two days from the night of November seven for people to pay their homage before cremation on November nine.
The Wikipedia has a list of notable funerals representing historical funerals, based on both the number of attendants and estimated television audience. The Michael Jackson memorial service on July 7, 2009, holds a record as the most watched funeral ever with 2.5 to 3 billion viewing it the world over.
More than two lakh people paid tributes to Princess Diana of Wales in September 1997 in London and Althorp, United Kingdom while 2.5 billion viewed it on television. The list includes, among others, the funerals of Elvis Presley, Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King Jr, Joseph Stalin, Joseph Tito, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Montazeri, Benigno Aquino, C R Annadurai and Aryton Senna. (PTI)