Not many players in the history of baseball have come close to matching the accomplishments and consistency of Stan Musial. Fewer engendered the admiration and affection of fans at home and in every ballpark on the circuit as did this Polish-American ballplayer from a small steel-mill town in Pennsylvania.Musial signed as a pitcher when he was seventeen, Stan was 15-8 in two seasons with Williamson, West Virginia, and the scouting report filed on the young lefty recommended his release because he was wild and inconsistent. Despite the report, he was sent to Florida as a pitcher for the full 1940 season and, under the tutelage of former Chicago White Sox great Dickie Kerr, he compiled an impressive 18-5 record. Kerr, who often had small squads and as few as 15 players on his roster, also played Stan in the outfield. Musial responded by batting a lofty .352. Later in the season, he made a spectacular diving catch in the outfield, landing on his left shoulder, and the injury finished him as a pitcher. Musial remained in baseball as an outfielder. The next year he tore through Class C and the International League with Rochester before hitting .426 in a late September call-up with the St. Lous Cardinals.

That was the beginning of a long love affair with St. Louis that would keep Musial a ST. Louis Cardinal for a very long 22 seasons, a team record. After his playing career,  he served as the club’sgeneral manager, and senior vice president for more than 25 years.

The lefthanded-hitting Musial had pretty good speed and was finamous for his compressed, very closed batting crouch, from which he appeared to be peering at the pitcher. He won his first National League batting title in only his second full year and led the league in hits six times, doubles eight times, triples five times, runs five times, while winning five more overall batting titles. Preacher Roe claimed to have the best way to pitch Musial: “I throw him four wide ones and then I try to pick him off first base.” Although not expected to be a home-run hitter, Musial developed his power without increasing strikeouts, and averaged an amazine 31 home runs per season from 1948 to 1957. Musial once told Roger Kahn that he hit so well because he always seemed to know what the pitch was by seeing the rotation of the ball as it approached the plate. When he retired, Musial owned or shared 29 league records, 17 major league records, 9 All-Star records, including the most home runs (6), and almost every St. Louis Cardinals career offensive record. In 1956 The Sporting News named Musial its first Player of the Decade.

For one who played so long, Stan Musial was unbelievably consistent. He whacked 1,815 hits at home and the exact same number on the road. He scored a whopping 1,949 runs and drove in 1,951. He batted .310 or better 16 straight seasons and added a .330 season when he was 41. Over a full 21 seasons he averaged a spectacular 172 hits, 92 runs scored, 92 RBI, 34 doubles, and 23 home runs per year. His best offensive year was 1948, when he hit a career-high .376 and just missed the NL Triple Crown by only a single homer. That year he led the National League in batting average, slugging, hits, doubles, triples, runs, and RBI. On May 2, 1954, he set a Major League record with an incredible five home runs in a doubleheader. And on a hot July evenin, July 12, 1955 his 12th-inning home run won the All-Star Game for the NL. Brooklyn, New York fans labeled him “Stan the Man” for the barrage he wreaked on Brooklyn pitching every time he came to Ebbets Field. Stan rarely experienced long slumps at all; he put together strong starts, very solid mid-seasons, and many great season finishes. He hit .323 or higher in each month of the season, with September-October his best months. He was also the very first man to play more than 1,000 games at each of two positions.

Immediately following Stan Musial’s retirement as an player in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson named him the director of the National Council on Physical Fitness. For a single season, 1967, Musial was the St. Louis Cardinal general manager. With Musial’s longtime  close friend Red Schoendienst as the Cardinal field manager, the Cardinals romped to a league pennant and beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

On or off the field Musial wore a genuine smile. Although he did not always agree with umpires or managers, he did not argue calls or managerial decisions. He made quality time for his family, fans, church, and community organizations. A bronze statue stands in front of Busch Stadium as a tribute to the greatest St. Louis Cardinal, Stan the Man. And in 1972 he achieved the very unique distinction of becoming the first foreign-born player to receive the Polish government’s Merited Champions Medal, their most presitigious sports award.

The Beatles are the most successful band that has ever been. The band’s principal members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

In the United Kingdom, The Beatles released more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one. This commercial success was repeated in many other countries; their record company, EMI, estimated that by 1985 they had sold over one billion records worldwide. The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles #1 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to that same magazine, their innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s and their influence on pop culture is still evident today.

John Lennon says Elvis was his main inspiration, as the Beatles formed under many different names with multiple different members from 1957-1960.

On February 9th, 1964, The Beatles would play on the Ed Sullivan show in an infamous performance that would pave the way for Beatlemania.

In June 1965, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed the four Beatles Members of the Order of the British Empire, MBE. Some conservative MBE members returned their insignias in protest of the Beatles being granted these titles. On 25 June 1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted on television, before an estimated 400 million people worldwide. The band appeared in a segment within the first-ever worldwide television satellite hook-up, a show titled Our World. The Beatles were transmitted live from Abbey Road Studios, and their new song “All You Need Is Love” was recorded live during the show, albeit to the accompaniment of a backing track they had spent five days recording and mixing in the studio prior to the broadcast.

The Beatles continued to record and play until finally breaking up in 1975. In 1988, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a group during their first year of eligibility.[99] On the night of their induction, Harrison and Starr appeared to accept their award along with Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and his two sons. McCartney stayed away, issuing a press release citing “unresolved difficulties” with Harrison, Starr, and Lennon’s estate. Solo Beatles later inducted were Lennon in 1994, McCartney in 1999 and Harrison in 2004.

• The Beatles are the best-selling musical group of all time, estimated by EMI to have over one billion discs and tapes sold worldwide.
• The Beatles have notched up the most multi-platinum selling albums for any artist or musical group (thirteen in the U.S. alone).
• The Beatles have a record six diamond-selling albums (10 million copies): Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, Abbey Road, The Beatles: 1962-1966, The Beatles: 1967-1970, and The Beatles 1.
• The Beatles have had more number one albums than any other group (19 in the U.S. and 15 in the United Kingdom).
• The Beatles spent the highest number of weeks at number one in the albums chart (174 in the UK and 132 in the U.S.).
• The most successful first week of sales for a double album (The Beatles Anthology Volume 1, which sold 855,473 copies in the U.S. from 21 November to 28 November 1995).
• The Beatles have the fastest selling CD of all time with 1. It sold over 13 million copies in four weeks.

As a child, you may have played the game Bloody Mary, wherein you go into a dark bathroom, chant “Bloody Mary” a bunch of times while spinning in a circle until finally you stop and look in the mirror and a woman appears.

There are actually many variations of this. Bloody Mary has gone by many other names, including: Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Whales, Mary Johnson, Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Sally, Kathy, Agnes, Black Agnes, Aggie, and Svarte Madame.

The legend was furthered by the movie “Urban Legend” where two co-eds try to summon Bloody Mary. The legend has also appeared in the 1992 film “Candyman” as well as the TV show “The X-Files.”

Although it isn’t known when this urban legend came about, it was wildly popular at girls sleepovers in the 1970’s and even published by folklorist Janet Langlois in an essay in 1978.

Mary is said to be a witch who was executed a hundred years ago for plying the black arts, or a woman of more modern times who died in a local car accident in which her face was hideously mutilated.

Some confuse the mirror witch with Mary I of England, whom history remembers as “Bloody Mary.” An expanded version of that confusion has it that this murdering British queen killed young girls so she could bathe in their blood to preserve her youthful appearance. This is actually untrue, and the only connection is the name similarity.

Wayne Gretzky was born Wayne Douglas Gretzky on January 26th, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario. Nicknamed “The Great One,” Gretzky is generally not only regarded as the best hockey player in history, but one of the best athletes ever.

Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, he held forty regular season records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records. Furthermore, he is the only player to reach over 200 points in a single season, an astonishing feat he has managed four times in his career. He tallied over 100 points per season for 15 seasons, 13 consecutively, and the NHL has had his number, 99, retired league-wide, so that no one may ever use it ever again in homage to him.

Wayne Gretzky also was immediately put into the Hockey Hall of Fame, bypassing the three-year waiting rule. Currently, he coaches the Phoenix Coyotes, of which he is also part-owner.

Wayne had been a hockey prodigy from the beginning. When he was only 6, he was playing with 10 year olds. By age 10 he had scored 378 goals and 139 assists in only 85 games. He was the youngest player to compete in the World Junior Championships by far at age 16, yet managed to be the leading scorer and was voted to the All-Star team and was regarded as the best forward in the tournament.

In his first season in the NHL, Gretzky was awarded the Hart Memorial trophy as league MVP, the first of eight in a row. During the 81-82 season, Gretzky broke a 35-year long record of 50 goals in 50 games. He accomplished 50 goals in only 39 games. Gretzky, as captain of the Edmonton Oilers, would lead them to a Stanley Cup in 1984, and then in ‘85, ‘87, and ‘88.

He would then go on to be traded to the Los Angeles Kings, the St. Louis Blues, and the New York Rangers, before finally retiring as a Ranger. In his final game he scored his last point on an assist to a goal by Brian Leetch, and was named the first, second, and third star of the game. For the regular season, he has a record 2,857 points, an absolutely astonishing feat, with his highest single season point record set at 215. Not only that, Gretzky has more career assists than any other player has in total points. The next closest regular season point holder is Mark Messier with 1,887. He is ranked #5 by ESPN Sportcentury’s list of the top 100 Greatest Athletes of the 20th century.

The lore of the leap year is as common as legends get. Most people believe that there are exactly 365 days in a year but in fact the earth turns at about 365 and a quarter times on its axis and that is what makes up the days in our calendar. So by the time the earth has completed a full year’s orbit around the sun, we are slightly off with our calendar. Which is why we have the need for leap year. A leap year which happens once every 4 years is simply a year in which the month of February has one extra day in it, making that year have a total of 366 days.

Those few folks born on the last day of February of a leap year are typically called leaplings or leapers. Since the real date of their birthday comes but once every 4 years, they tend to celebrate their birth on March 1st, since February 29th comes but once every four years.

In the early days in Ireland, yearning females who where unhappy about having to wait so long for their man to ask for their hand in marriage could propose on the last day of February during the leap year. This is probably we we got the tradition in the U.S. known as Sadie Hawkins day in which a women was given the right to run after unmarried men to propose.

The Greeks have long believed that couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece to this day will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year based on this ancient legend.

Tiger Woods was born Eldrick Tiger Woods on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California.
Tiger Woods is a professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time.

Tiger Woods is currently the highest paid professional athlete, in 2006, having earned an estimated $100 million from winnings and endorsements. It is predicted that Tiger Woods will be the first billionaire athlete and should reach that status by 2010.

Tiger Woods has won 13 professional major golf championships, the second-most of any male player, and 63 PGA Tour events, the fourth-most of all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the Career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on Tour. Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record nine times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has tied Jack Nicklaus’s record of leading the money list in eight different seasons. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year four times, a record he shares with Lance Armstrong.

Tiger Woods, who is multiracial in the truest sense of the word. Tiger Woods is one-quarter Chinese, one quarter Thai, one quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian”, a term he coined made up from the words Causasian, Black, American-Indian and Asian.

Tiger Woods is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in the game of golf. Tiger Woods is said to have doubled attendance at tournaments he plays in and improved TV ratings just as high, and generated interest among a multicultural audience in a game that used to be considered elitist.