• The flagpole sitting fad began in 1924 when a friend dared actor Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly to sit on a flagpole.
• Kelly took the dare and commenced to sitting on the pole for 13 hours and 13 minutes.
• During the next five years flagpole sitters set records or 12 days, 17 days, and 21 days.
• In 1930, Bill Penfield sat on a pole for 51 days and 20 hours in Strawberry Point, Iowa.

H. David Werder sat on a pole for 439 days, 11 hours, and 6 minutes from November 1982 to 21 January 1984 to protest against the price of gasoline. Daniel Baraniuk, from Gdansk, Poland, sat on a 16-by-24-inch platform on an 8-foot pole for 196 days from May 15, 2002 to November 26, 2002. He had a ten minute break every two hours.

Peggy (Townsend) Clark held the record from 1964 till 1989 with a record holding 217 days sitting on a pole in Gadsden, Al.