Longest Speeches in History By etriplett [19 more lists]

"Wait, wait there's more" Muamar al-Gaddafi and his long speech really made news recently. Since he spent 96 minutes talking to the UN General Assembly about everything from the UN Security Council to Swine Flu to his individual theories about Lost, I decided to compile a list of other lengthy orators. Enjoy.

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Muammar al-Gaddafi

Muammar al-Gaddafi should have spent at least 20 minutes talking about his fashion trends, because that would have been more interesting. Seriously, have you seen the way this man dresses? (http://www.csmonitor.com/photosoftheday/index.php?image=1&date=specials/gaddafi_fashion/) I wonder if he just rambled on because no one would let him pitch his tent. Now, I speak about five phrases in Arabic, and I can't write or read it, but this picture of his notes ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/sep/23/muammar-gaddafi-photos?picture=353360891 ) doesn't make it seem there was a lot there. So he's good at improvising. Still at 96 minutes, Gaddafi is about 3 hours behind Fidel Castro, who holds the record for longest speech given before the General Assembly.

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2

Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez spoke for 8 hours on a television show, Alo Presidente! At the end of his speech, he grinned, looked into the camera and said "First time in history". Chavez used songs and jokes to fill part of the time.

Meanwhile, Fox wouldn't air Obama's speech on health care reform, possibly the most important issue to the American people, because they didn't want viewers to miss an episode of So You Think You Can Dance.

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3

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom almost beat Hugo Chavez's record for longest speech when he gave his state of the city address. The mayor of San Francisco spoke on familiar environmental themes, and was only 30 minutes short of beating Chavez's record of 8 hours. Next time, Gavin, do a little song and dance number. Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight is over 15 minutes long.

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4

Fidel Castro

Fidel's thrilling speech on "The Denouncement of Imperialism and Colonialism" is the longest speech given before the UN General Assembly, lasting almost 4 1/2 hours. Castro is known for his beard and his lengthy interminable speeches, the longest clocking in at 7 hours and 10 minutes from the 1986 Communist Party Congress. I wonder if he just tells stories about Che Guevara and how wild and crazy those revolutionary times were.

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5

Edward Everett

Edward Everett delivered a 13,607 word speech, clocking in at 2 hours to a distinguished crowd at Gettysburg in 1863, just to have every word immediately forgotten when President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous three minute address just moments later. Lesson: It's not how much you say, it's what you say.

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6

VK Krishna Menon

VK Krishna Menon spoke even longer then Fidel Castro, addressing the UN Security Council for over 8 hours on India's position on Kashmir. I could barely sit through a 2 hour lecture on India's position on Kashmir in my history of South Asia class.

If you are bored, and have loads of time, the transcript is available on the UN website and runs close to 160 pages.

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7

William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison holds the record for giving the longest and deadliest inauguration speech. He spoke for about two hours braving the weather on that cold and rainy day, wearing neither an overcoat nor a hat. Actually, he is not brave, but rather, an idiot, because he died of pneumonia 31 days later. But he's in the history books for 1) longest inaugural speech and 2) Shortest Presidency. Way to go, William Hank.

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8

Joseph Stalin

In Stalin's defense (wow I never thought I'd start a sentence with that phrase) he only spoke at length when delivering Central Committee reports at Congress. And in these reports he had to address economical, political, cultural and foreign policy developments and predictions of future happenings for the next 10 to 20 years. So it's understandable that speeches would drag on and on. Oh if you wanted to leave during the speech, that's cool. You'd just be arrested the next day, even after one account of an 11 minute standing ovation. That's a lot of sore hands.

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Hugo Chavez

VK Krishna Menon