St George's Day

Today's the day every proud Englishman should celebrate - like the Irish on St Patrick's Day...or should we? St George was Turkish; St Patrick was actually Irish (and St David was Welsh). St George is also the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow, Scouting, as well as a wide range of professions, organizations and disease sufferers. St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland only.

So, our patron saint is really not ours alone, just one we've adopted as we couldn't find someone who is actually English!!

Your Thursday teasers are: -

1. Which Pink Floyd album finally left the Billboard 200 after 741 consecutive weeks today in 1988?

   
   
2. Actor Hervé Villechaize (right), who was born today in 1943, played which character in the film "The Man with the Golden Gun"?
   
   
3. Which order of chivalry, founded by Edward III, was announced today in 1348?

Yesterday's Answers: 1. Poland; 2. 3; 3. Robin Knox-Johnston

Annual Race Up the Empire State Building

I must admit, I thought this event had ceased to exist, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this on the BBC website. There are 1576 steps and the winners were German Thomas Dold, 24 (10 mins 7 secs) and Australian Suzy Walsham, 35 (13 mins 27 secs) who both retained their titles on Tuesday. And I thought that it was just we British who were daft!!

Here are today's questions: -

1. Which Prime Minister, who was born today in 1788, helped form the first modern police force and repealed the Corn Laws?
   
   
2. On which island was Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (right) born today in 1985?
   
   
3. Which charity event, usually occurring every two years, first took place today in 1988?

Interestingly, other footballers born today were: Carlos Tevez (1984); Giovanni van Bronckhorst (1975); Gheorghe Hagi (1965); Sven-Goran Eriksson (1948) and Cesare Maldini (1932) together with a fair number of American Footballers and Baseball players (Roger Staubach [1942] and Hank Aaron [1934] to name the two most prominent!). Must be something 'special' about February 5th!! Extra points if you can name the nationalities of the five footballers!

Yesterday's Answers: 1. Skiing; 2. Frank Sinatra; 3. Ukraine