BETHEL, Ohio -- Steve Newman returned home to the arms of his mother Wednesday, exactly four years after he began a 21,000-mile walk around the world, the first person ever to perform the feat alone.
Newman, 32, wearing a large backpack with an American flag on the back, was accompanied by hundreds of people as he walked the last mile down Main Street.
City and school officials of the town of 2,200, about 35 miles east of Cincinnati, declared it an official holiday.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, no one has ever completed a walk around the world alone.
To substantiate his accomplishment, Newman had someone from every town he visited sign his log book. Newman said the log book would be presented to Guinness.
Newman said he passed through 22 countries on his 40 million-step, 21,000-mile trek. He began by walking to Boston, where he flew to Ireland and walked through Europe, stopping briefly in Africa. From there, he flew back to Yugoslavia and walked through Greece and the Middle East, going through Pakistan and India, before flying to Australia, he said.
From Australia, he said he flew to San Francisco, where he walked across the United States.
'I will never forget this day if I live to be 150,' Newman said after embracing his mother, Mary, on the front porch of their house. 'Just as the millions of others who helped me get around the world, you can include yourself in that.'
Newman's father, Edwin, died on Thanksgiving Day 1984, when Newman was walking through India.
