RONALD HOUSE MEMORY CHALLENGE - SATURDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2007
St. Stephen's Green Centre, Dublin 2
Please come along and support this event. Alternatively, you can:
Make a contribution directly to the charity, by clicking here
Make a contribution by purchasing our book How Best to Learn and Remember for Leaving Certificate.
We will donate €5 to Ronald House for every book sold from this website.
ABOUT RONALD HOUSE
Ronald House provides accomodation for the families of seriously ill children who have been hospitalised in Our Lady’s Hospital for sick children in Crumlin. Located on the grounds of the hospital itself, it can accommodate 16 families in en-suite bedrooms. It also provides 3 kitchens, a dining room, a tv room, a library, a toddlers’ room and full laundry facilities.
For more information about the charity, please visit their website: http://www.rmcc.ie/index.htm
ABOUT THE MEMORY CHALLENGE
The challenge consists of choosing an entry from The Oxford Dictionary of Dates:
- choose any day of the year (from 1 January to 31 December)
- turn to the relevant page of the book
- pick any person or event listed on that page
- challenge Charles to recall the information in the book
For example, here is the entry for 4 January (contained on page 3 of the book):
JANUARY
4 January
Born on this day were: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863), the German philologist who invented the word `umlaut' (but is best known for his Fairy Tales, written with his brother Wilhelm); Louis Braille (1809-52), the Frenchman who invented and gave his name to the universal system of reading and writing for the blind (and was himself blind from the age of 3); and Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-97), the Englishman who invented the shorthand system named after him.
Also born on this day were: Josef Suk (1874-1935), the Czech composer who was the son-in-law of Dvorak; the Welsh painter Augustus John (1878-1961); C(yril) L(ionel) Robert) James (1901-89), the West Indian writer on cricket and racial discrimination; Jane Wyman (1914- ), the American actress who was the first wife of the US president Ronald Reagan; the American Soprano Grace Bumbry (1937- ) and the American boxer Floyd Patterson (1935- ),who was the youngest world heavyweight champion when he won the title in 1956 and the first to regain the title, in 1960.
In 1938 the circus was first televised with Bertram Mills' Circus transmitted live from Olympia. (And since this was also the first time that pictures were shown of the paying public at any event, the customers were informed that they could, if they so desired, be seated out of the cameras' range!) In 1960 the French writer Albert Camus was killed in a car accident; and in 1967 the British racing motorist Donald Campbell was killed attempting to establish a new water-speed record on Coniston Water, in the Lake District.
5 January
Born on this day were: the Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-95); the Austrian-born pianist Alfred Brendel (1931- ), who is an honorary KBE; the Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini (1942- ).
Also born on this day were: King Camp Gillette (1855-1932), the American inventor of the safety razor; Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), the first chancellor of West Germany, in 1949; HRH Jean, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (1921- ).
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Some typical challenges might be:
Q: "Tell me about Josef Suk"
A: "Josef Suk was a Czech composer. He was born on the 4th of January 1874 and died in 1935. He was also the composer Dvorak's son-in-law."
Q: "When was the first televised circus?"
A: "The first circus to be televised was Bertram Mills' Circus which was transmitted live from Olympia on the 4th of January 1938. It was the first time pictures of the paying public were shown on television and customers were informed that they could be seated out of the camera's range if they desired."
