No one likes hiccups. Luckily, these involuntary spasmodic interruptions usually last only a few minutes. On rare occasions, hiccups persist for a few days, and even more rarely still they persist for longer than a month (in which case they can be considered "intractable"). Have you ever had hiccups that lasted more than a few minutes?

There's the strange case of Charles Osborne, who was afflicted with a continuous case of hiccups for 68 years, recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest case of hiccups in history. Osborne's story began with an accident on June 13, 1922, in which he accidentally slipped and fell. His doctor later said he popped a blood vessel in his brain the size of a pin, and theorized that Osborne must have damaged the incredibly small area of the brain that controls and inhibits hiccups. Have you ever heard of this unfortunate record set by Charles Osborne?

Osborne's diaphragm had spasms 20 to 40 times a minute on average, during his waking hours, meaning he hiccuped roughly 430 million times throughout his life. To cope with this never-before-seen disorder, Osborne learned breathing techniques that effectively masked his constant hiccuping. Later in life, Osborne appeared in magazines and on late-night television shows to talk about his ailment. In 1978, Osborne told the Associated Press that he'd "give everything I got in the world if I could get rid of them." Have you ever had any chronic ailments or conditions that you have to learn to cope with it through adapted measures or lifestyle's changes?

Although he traveled the world in search of a cure, even offering $10,000 to anyone who could find one, the best he could do was to cope with the affliction. Finally, in 1990, his diaphragm suddenly ended its 68-year-long spasmodic episode on its own. Sadly, Osborne died less than a year later, but he was at least able to experience the final days of his life without hiccups. Have you ever tried any of the tricks shown in the picture to stop hiccups?