Delta Lea Goodrem (born 9 November 1984) is a multi-ARIA Award winning Australian singer-songwriter, pianist and Logie Award winning actress. Signed to Sony at the age of 15, Goodrem rose to prominence in 2002, starring in the popular Australian soap Neighbours, and this assisted her in establishing an international music career. In 2005, Goodrem embarked on The Visualise Tour, her debut concert tour of Australia. Goodrem releases her third studio album, Delta, on October 20, 2007.
In 2003, at the age of 18, amidst her blooming career, Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer. She has since made a full recovery and now spends much of her time promoting cancer charities.

Biography
Delta Goodrem was born on 9 November 1984 in Sydney, New South Wales to parents Denis and Lea Goodrem. She has a younger brother named Trent. Goodrem, who showed a strong interest in music and performing from a very young age, attended The Hills Grammar School, though due to its curriculum placing strong emphasis on sport (Goodrem taking part in netball, running and swimming), music was primarily kept separate.

Childhood and discovery
At the age of 15, Goodrem signed a record deal with Sony

Problems playing the files? See media help. 2001–2003: Career launch, Neighbours and Innocent Eyes
After announcing in late December 2003 that she was in remission, Goodrem began work on her second album. In September 2004, she became the face of soft drink giant Pepsi in Australia, appearing on the product, billboards, TV advertisements and performing an exclusive show for competition winners.

Problems playing the files? See media help. 2004–2006: Mistaken Identity, film debut and The Visualise Tour
Goodrem is set to release her third studio album, Delta, in Australia on October 20 2007. Goodrem has described the material as "...a lot lighter", compared to her previous album Mistaken Identity.

2007–present: Delta

Personal life
On 8 July 2003, at the age of 18, Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer which attacks the body's immune system. As a result, she was forced to put all working commitments on hold while undertaking treatment for the disease. In an exclusive interview with the Australian Women's Weekly, Goodrem revealed that her body had been giving warning signs since 2002. Symptoms included a head to toe rash, fatigue, weight loss, night sweats and the appearance of a lump on her neck. Reflecting on that period of her life, Goodrem says,

Relationships
Goodrem regularly visits sick children in hospital and uses her own experience with cancer to help raise awareness for other young people affected by the disease. A percentage of each ticket for The Visualise Tour went towards the "Delta Goodrem Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Trust Fund", established by Goodrem in support of cancer research.

Philanthropy

Main article: Delta Goodrem discography Discography

2003: Innocent Eyes
2004: Mistaken Identity
2007: Delta Albums

Filmography

Main article: List of Delta Goodrem awards and accolades

David Owen Russell (born 20 August 1958 in New York) is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and wrote Three Kings and the existential comedy I ♥ Huckabees. Earlier films include independent films Flirting with Disaster and Spanking the Monkey.
Russell was born in Larchmont, New York to a Jewish father and an Italian Catholic mother. He graduated from Amherst College in 1981, majoring in political science and English.

Controversy

Main article: Three Kings, conflict Three Kings
Not long after this, an altercation occurred at a Hollywood party between Russell and director Christopher Nolan[1] . During preproduction for Russell's film I ♥ Huckabees, Jude Law abandoned his commitment to the project to instead take a role in Nolan's upcoming film The Prestige article by Sharon Waxman in which she describes him calling Tomlin "...the crudest word imaginable, in front of the actors and crew." Additionally Waxman witnessed the following which is corroborated by the leaked videos:
Waxman also comments to the effect that Russell made an effort to destabilize the actors to improve their performances, a task which was not altogether opposed. The set was characterized as emotionally charged, with Russell begging nothing but his dream for the film from the actors, who were sometimes driven to their wits' end after hours of takes. The noted instance circulated on the internet was one such dramatic exchange. Shortly afterwards, Tomlin remarks that she and Russell are "fine", saying:

I ♥ Huckabees

Filmography

The H-Man Cometh (2008) - announced
Soldiers Pay (2004)
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
Three Kings (1999)
Flirting with Disaster (1996)
Spanking the Monkey (1994)
Hairway to the Stars (1990)
Bingo Inferno (1987) Awards and nominations

Is good friends with film directors Alexander Payne and Spike Jonze. Jonze had played the character Conrad Vig in Three Kings.
Played a dinner guest of Susan Orlean in the 2002 Spike Jonze film Adaptation.

For the definition of derailment in psychiatry, see thought disorder.
A derailment is an accident on a railway whereby a train leaves the rails, which can result in damage, injury, and death.
There are several main causes of derailment: broken or misaligned rails, excessive speed, and faults in the train and its wheels. Derailment can also occur as a secondary effect in the aftermath of a collision between two or more trains. Trap points protect main lines from runaway vehicles by deliberately derailing them to bring them to a stop. Flangeless wheels make it easier for a locomotive to negotiate curves, but make them more prone to derailment.

Rerailing
Most railway accidents involve derailment. See list of rail accidents.

November 11, 1833 – Hightstown, New Jersey, United States: Carriages of a Camden & Amboy train derails at 25 miles per hour in the New Jersey meadows between Spotswood and Hightstown when an axle breaks on a car due to an overheated journal. One car overturns, killing two and injuring fifteen. Among the survivors is Cornelius Vanderbilt who will later head the New York Central Railroad. He suffers two cracked ribs and a punctured lung, and spends a month recovering from the injuries. Uninjured in the coach ahead is former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, who continues on to Washington, D.C. the next day.
January 6, 1853 – Andover, Massachusetts, United States: The Boston & Maine noon express, traveling from Boston to Lawrence, Massachusetts, derails at forty miles an hour when an axle breaks at Andover, and the only coach goes down an embankment and breaks in two. Only one is killed, the twelve-year-old son of President-elect Franklin Pierce, but it is initially reported that General Pierce is also a fatality. He was on board but is only badly bruised. The baggage car and the locomotive remain on the track.
April 16, 1853 – Cheat River, West Virginia, United States: Two Baltimore & Ohio passenger cars tumble down a hundred foot ravine above the Cheat River in West Virginia, west of Cumberland, Maryland, after they are derailed by a loose rail. Example accidents

December 12, 1917 – Saint Michel de Maurienne, France: A military train derails at the entrance of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel after running away down a steep gradient; brake power was insufficient for the weight of the train. Around 800 deaths estimated, 540 officially confirmed. The world's worst ever derailment, and worst rail disaster up to the end of the 20th century.
July 2, 1922 – Winslow, Camden County, New Jersey, United States: The Owl, a Reading Railroad train derailment, at Winslow Junction on the West Jersey and Seashore Line tracks near the Winslow Tower, shortly before mid-night, Train 33 derails when the seashore bound locomotive going more than 90 miles per hour sped through an open switch. 4 passengers, the engineer, fireman and conductor were killed.
February 18, 1947 – Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States: The Red Arrow, a Pennsylvania Railroad express passenger train, jumped off the track on the Bennington Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania and tumbled down a large hill. 24 killed, 131 injured.

Background
On the morning of 27 May 1918, the Germans began a bombardment (feuerwalze) of the Allied front lines with over 4,000 artillery pieces. The British suffered heavy losses, due to the fact that Duchene had ordered them to mass together in the front trenches, in defiance of instructions from the French Commander-in-Chief Henri-Philippe Petain. Huddled together, they made easy artillery targets.
The bombardment was followed by a poison gas drop. Once the gas had lifted the main infantry assault by 17 German Sturmtruppen divisions commenced, led by Crown Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Taken completely by surprise and with their defences spread thin, the Allies were unable to stop the attack and the German army advanced through a 40 km gap in the Allied lines. Reaching the Aisne in under six hours, the Germans smashed through eight Allied divisions on a line between Reims and Soissons, pushing the Allies back to the river Vesle and gaining an extra 15 km of territory by nightfall.
Victory seemed near for the Germans, who had captured just over 50,000 Allied soldiers and well over 800 guns by 30 May 1918. But after having advanced within 56 km of Paris on 3 June, the German armies were beset by numerous problems, including supply shortages, fatigue, lack of reserves and many casualties along with counter-attacks by and stiff resistance from newly arrived American divisions, who engaged them in the Battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.
On 6 June 1918, following many successful Allied counter-attacks, the German advance halted on the Marne, much as the "Michael" and "Georgette" offensives had in March and April of that year.'

Aftermath

Chemins des Dames Ridge

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an American e-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet and was one of the iconic stocks of the late 1990s dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, Amazon faced skepticism about its business model, but it made its first annual profit in 2003.
Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995, Amazon.com began as an online bookstore, though it soon diversified its product lines, adding DVDs, music CDs, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and more.
Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, China, and Japan. It ships globally on selected products.

History and business model
The Web sites of Borders (borders.com, borders.co.uk), Waldenbooks (waldenbooks.com), Virgin Megastores (virginmega.com), CDNOW (cdnow.com), and HMV (hmv.com) are powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into one's browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.
Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, the NBA, Sears Canada, Sears UK, Benefit Cosmetics, Bebe Stores, Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare and Bombay Company.
For a number of these companies, specifically the UK ones like Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, Amazon provides the multi-channel solutions not just the web site. That means that it also powers the in store terminals, customer-service applications and phone-sales terminals.
It also powers, although does not host, AOL's Shop@AOL service. It achieves this via Web Services technology.

Merchant partnerships

Locations
The company's global headquarters is located on Seattle, Washington's Beacon Hill. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle.
Headquarters
The company employs software developers in modest- to large-sized centers across the globe. International locations include:

Slough (England)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad (India)
Cape Town (South Africa)
Iaşi (Romania)
Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan) (closed in 2005)
Beijing (China). Software development centers
Fulfillment centers are located in the following cities, often near airports:

• Arizona, USA: Phoenix


• Delaware, USA: New Castle


• Kansas, USA: Coffeyville


• Kentucky, USA: Campbellsville, Hebron (near CVG), and Lexington


• Massachusetts, USA: Springfield (new as of early 2007)


• Nevada, USA: Fernley and Red Rock (near 4SD)


• Washington, USA: Seattle


• Pennsylvania, USA: Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Lewisberry


• Texas, USA: Dallas/Fort Worth


• Ontario, Canada: Mississauga

• Munster, Republic of Ireland: Cork


• Bedfordshire, England, UK: Marston Gate


• Inverclyde, Scotland, UK: Gourock


• Fife, Scotland, UK: Glenrothes


• Swansea, Wales, UK: (Planned)


• Loiret, France: Orléans-Boigny (2000),


• Loiret, France: Orléans-Saran (2007),


• Hesse, Germany: Bad Hersfeld


• Saxony, Germany: Leipzig

• Chiba, Japan


• Guangzhou, China


• Shanghai, China


• Beijing, China

North America:
Arizona, USA: Phoenix
Delaware, USA: New Castle
Kansas, USA: Coffeyville
Kentucky, USA: Campbellsville, Hebron (near CVG), and Lexington
Massachusetts, USA: Springfield (new as of early 2007)
Nevada, USA: Fernley and Red Rock (near 4SD)
Washington, USA: Seattle
Pennsylvania, USA: Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Lewisberry
Texas, USA: Dallas/Fort Worth
Ontario, Canada: Mississauga
Europe:
Munster, Republic of Ireland: Cork
Bedfordshire, England, UK: Marston Gate
Inverclyde, Scotland, UK: Gourock
Fife, Scotland, UK: Glenrothes
Swansea, Wales, UK: (Planned)
Loiret, France: Orléans-Boigny (2000),
Loiret, France: Orléans-Saran (2007),
Hesse, Germany: Bad Hersfeld
Saxony, Germany: Leipzig
Asia:
Chiba, Japan
Guangzhou, China
Shanghai, China
Beijing, China Fulfillment and warehousing
Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries and more.
The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business called zShops in September 1999, and a failed Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November. Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful Amazon Marketplace service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Amazon Marketplace's main rival today is eBay's Half.com service.
On May 16, 2007 Amazon announced it intends to launch its own online music store. Downloads will be sold without copy-protection. The store is to launch "later this year."

Product lines
A popular feature of Amazon is the ability for users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product.
Search Inside the Book is a feature which makes it possible for customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. AStore is a new affiliate product that allows Associates to embedded a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website.

Website

In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon stock. PlanetAll operated a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based data mining startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock. The two deals together were valued at about US$280 million at the time. Most staff of both firms were absorbed by Amazon in early 1999. These employees went on to build community-focused features for the Amazon Web site, including Amazon.com Auctions, Amazon.com Marketplace, Friends & Favorites, and Purchase Circles.
In June 1999, Amazon bought Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately US$645 million.
In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce Web site. It also debuted A9.com, a company focused on researching, and building innovative technology. One of the technologies A9.com was working on was a search engine with a "Search Inside the Book" feature allowing users to search within the text of books as well as searching for text on the Web. Another A9 technology was its "Find It on the Block" feature allowing users to find not just the phone number, address, map, and directions for a business; but to see a picture of it, and all the businesses and shops on that same street.
In March 2005, Amazon acquired BookSurge, a print on demand company and Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.
In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, CA-based distributor of on-demand DVDs.
Amazon spinoffs include search technology company A9.com and shoe and handbag store Endless.com. Acquisitions and spinoffs
In 2002, Amazon became the exclusive retailer for the much-hyped Segway Human Transporter. Bezos was an early supporter of the Segway before its details were made public.
On June 21, 2003, Amazon coordinated what was at the time one of the largest sales and distribution events in e-commerce history with the sale of over 1.3 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, since beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with a sale of over 2 million copies preordered in 2007.
On July 16, 2005, Amazon celebrated its 10th anniversary by telecasting a worldwide live concert hosted by Bill Maher and artists such as Bob Dylan and Norah Jones.

Noteworthy events

Innovations

Main article: Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services

Main article: Amazon S3 Amazon S3

Main article: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Amazon EC2

Main article: Amazon Mechanical Turk Amazon Mechanical Turk
On August 2, 2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers.

Amazon Flexible Payments Service
Amazon announced Amazon Connect in 2005. It enables authors to post remarks that appear at the bottom of the detail pages for each of their books and on the Amazon home page of those who have bought their books.

Amazon Connect
Amazon Shorts is a program launched in 2005. The program offers exclusive short form content including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best selling authors, all available for immediate download at $0.49. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week.

Amazon Shorts
In August 2006, Amazon launched product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products. There are set guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. Discussion boards were later expanded to include deals in the Gold Box

Discussion boards
In February 2005, Amazon launched Amazon Prime in the continental United States.

Amazon Prime
In 2001, Amazon was one of the first online stores to begin accepting donations to the Red Cross on behalf of 9/11 victims. For several days the company dedicated its entire home page for this cause.
In 2004, Amazon launched its Presidential Candidates feature, whereby customers could donate from US$5 to US$200 to the campaigns of U.S. presidential hopefuls, resurrecting the Amazon Honor System for the purpose. The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 as a way for Amazon customers to "tip" their "favorite Web sites and to buy digital content on the Web," Amazon collecting 2.9% of the payment plus a flat fee of 30 cents. It has never been shut down, but had fallen into relative disuse.
At the end of 2004, with the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross using the Honor System, waiving its processing fee. As of January 3, 2005, over 162,000 individuals had donated over US$13.1 million in this way. The same week, Amazon created similar channels for the British, Canadian, French, German, and Japanese Red Cross organizations via its international sites. Over 7,000 Britons donated more than $350,000; 900 Canadians over $56,000; 660 French over $23,000; 2,900 Germans over $145,000; and 1,900 Japanese over $66,000.
Amazon reactivated its Red Cross donation channel when Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August 2005. As of September 8, over 98,000 payments had been made totaling over US$10.7 million.

Donations

Main article: Amapedia Amazon Vine

Controversies
In 1999 the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer.

Trademark infringement
The company has been controversial for its alleged use of patents as a competitive hindrance. The "1-click patent"

Patent use
The company has been sued for alleged patent infringement a number of times, among them:

Pinpoint v. Amazon.com
Charles E. Hill & Associates v. Amazon.com
Soverain Software LLC v. Amazon.com
IBM v. Amazon.com
British Technology Group v. Amazon.com
Cendant Publishing v. Amazon.com Patent infringement
In 2006 Amazon.co.uk severely limited products that it (or its Marketplace sellers) will ship to the Republic of Ireland, though it will still ship to Northern Ireland. Irish shoppers are now limited to books, CDs, and DVDs only. This is due to WEEE regulations, which Ireland has implemented extremely strictly, while the UK has not.
During 2007, Irish orders began to be fulfilled from Ireland, reducing delivery times significantly. This is connected to Amazon ceasing to use Royal Mail as a delivery agent.

Shipping destinations
Amazon.com does not publish its toll-free customer service number (+1-800-201-7575) on its own web site. Customers are instead asked to submit written service requests (which are answered by e-mail) or to use a click-to-call service to be connected by phone to an available service representative.

Customer service
In November 2000, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) began an unsuccessful campaign to organize Amazon.com employees at several of their fulfillment centers. At the same time, the Communications Workers of America undertook a campaign to unionize some 400 customer-service representatives in Seattle. Neither group of employees found the external organizations' attempt signficant; neither union obtained enough interest to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election.

Labor relations
In late June 2007, shortly after the death of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, Amazon displayed a special note on search results pages for the term "WWE": "Tragic news from the WWE. Wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and son have been found dead in their Georgia home, and police are investigating the situation as a possible murder-suicide." The caption was then followed by a photo and a link to purchase the WWE Chris Benoit: Hard Knocks DVD. Amazon.com later removed the offending message after widespread complaints in the professional wrestling community.

Chris Benoit DVD
Amazon carried two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos and was sued by the Human Society on the basis that cockfighting is illegal. (http://www.hsus.org/in_the_courts/docket/amazon.html)

The Humane Society of the United States v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al
The section could be improved by integrating relevant items into the main text and removing inappropriate items.

Some of the words in Amazon.com URLs, usually referring to various components of the company's web site software, are nods to the Amazon River and Brazil:

• obidos (the name of the old page-rendering engine) comes from Óbidos, the meeting place of the Amazon's tributaries;
  várzea is Portuguese (Brazil's main language) for a forest flooded after heavy rains, as parts of the Amazon forest are;
  gp is short for Gurupa (the page-rendering system that had completely replaced Obidos by late 2006), a region in Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon.
  Similarly Brazil- or Amazon-themed names are used for many other Amazon.com software systems less exposed to the end users, e.g.:
  
  
  
  • one of the mass mail sending systems is Correios (after the Brazilian postal service);
    the source code version control system is Brazil;
    a remote procedure call protocol is Iquitos;
    Urubamba is a software system interacting with Google's AdSense.
    A 2004 glitch in Amazon.ca's review system revealed that many well-established authors were anonymously giving themselves glowing reviews, with some revealed to be anonymously giving "rival" authors terrible reviews. The glitch in the system was fixed and those reviews have since been removed or made anonymous.
    An easter egg can be found on Amazon.com's website. An invisible link at the very bottom of the "Directory of All Stores" page leads to a February 2002 tribute to David Risher, "Amazon.com's favorite site surfer". See also
    
    

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the total number of votes cast.
The 1931 general election was held in the middle of the Great Depression, and by 1931 Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government had reached deadlock over a response to the crisis. The Labour Cabinet were not willing to make the cuts that the civil service advised them to make. MacDonald was encouraged to form a National Government to deal with the financial crisis. This government included politicians from all of the main parties. The Conservatives argued that the new government should seek a mandate from the electorate. The decision of MacDonald to form a coalition with the Conservative Party had led Labour to expel him. He was replaced as leader by Arthur Henderson. MacDonald and a small group of supporters then reformed as the National Labour Party. The split in the Labour party persuaded MacDonald that a quick election was necessary. The Liberals opposed the calling of an election. Their leader, David Lloyd George urged his colleagues to withdraw from the National government. However, the majority of Liberals, led by Sir Herbert Samuel decided to remain in the National government. One of the main issues was the Conservatives wish to introduce protectionist trade policies. This not only divided the government from the opposition but also divided the parties in the National government. The Liberal Nationals under Sir John Simon were happy to support the Conservative trade policies. The Liberals led by Samuel and Lloyd George preferred to campaign in defence of free trade.
Due to the previous Labour government's failure to tackle the economic crisis, the Labour vote fell sharply, and the Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, won a huge majority of 324 seats, although the prime minister of the resulting National Government was still Ramsay MacDonald.
The Liberals lacked the funds to contest their usual number of seats, but won almost as many as the Labour Party.

Results

Saturday, November 24, 2007

In Christian hagiography Saint George (ca. 275-281–April 23, 303) was a soldier of the Roman Empire, from the then Greek-speaking Anatolia, now modern day Turkey, who was venerated as a Christian martyr. Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Immortalised in the tale of George and the Dragon, he is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is the patron saint of Aragón, Canada, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Russia, and Palestine, as well as the cities of Beirut, Ljubljana, Freiburg and Moscow, as well as a wide range of professions, organisations and disease sufferers.

Life
A church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine I (reigned 306–337), was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea; the name of the patron was not disclosed, but later he was asserted to have been George. The church was destroyed in 1010 but was later rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George by the Crusaders. In 1191 and during the conflict known as the Third Crusade (1189–1192), the church was again destroyed by the forces of Saladin, Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (reigned 1171–1193). A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing. .
During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine to the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire, though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium and Georgia. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to St Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century the cult of Saint George had reached the Western Roman Empire as well: in 494, George was canonised as a saint by Pope Gelasius I, among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an Acta Sanctorum identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the fifth century. The compiler of this Acta, according to Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. Athanasius".

Veneration as a martyr
A commonly sung troparion in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Hymn of St. George:
"Liberator of captives, and defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, and Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ our God that our souls be saved."

Hymn of Saint George
A critical edition of the Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annoted English translation was published by E.W. Brooks (1863-1955) in 1925. The hagiography was originally written in Greek.

Sources

Main article: Saint George and the Dragon Saint George and the Dragon
St. George is most commonly depicted in early icons, mosaics and frescos wearing armour contemporary with the depiction, executed in gilding and silver colour, intended to identify him as a Roman soldier. After the Fall of Constantinople and the association of St George with the crusades, he is more often portrayed mounted upon a white horse. At the same time St George began to be associated with St. Demetrius, another early soldier saint. When the two saints are portrayed together mounted upon horses, they may be likened to earthly manifestations of the archangels Michael and Gabriel. St George is always depicted in Eastern traditions upon a white horse and St. Demetrius on a red horse St George can also be identified in the act of spearing a dragon, unlike St Demetrius, who is sometimes shown spearing a human figure, understood to represent Maximian.

Iconography
During the early 2nd millennium, George came to be seen as the model of chivalry, and during this time was depicted in works of literature, such as the medieval romances.
Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the Legenda Sanctorum, (Readings of the Saints) also known as Legenda Aurea (the Golden Legend) for its worth among readers. Its 177 chapters (182 in other editions) contain the story of Saint George.

Later depictions and occurrences

Main article: St George's Cross Colours
In 1969, Saint George's feast day was reduced to an optional memorial in the Roman Catholic calendar; the solemnity of his commemoration depends on purely local observance. He is, however, still honoured as a saint of major importance by the Eastern Orthodox Church and in Oriental Orthodoxy.

Patronage and remembrance
Traces of the cult of St George predate the Norman Conquest, in ninth-century liturgy used at Durham Cathedral, in a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon martyrology, and in dedications to Saint George at Fordingham, Dorset, at Thetford, Southwark and Doncaster. He received further impetus when the crusaders returned from the Holy Land in the 12th century. King Edward III of England (reigned 1327 – 1377) was known for promoting the codes of knighthood and in 1348 founded the Order of the Garter. During his reign, George came to be recognised as the patron saint of the English monarchy; prior to this, Saint Edmund had been considered the patron saint of England, although his veneration had waned since the time of the Norman conquest, and his cult was partly eclipsed by that of Edward the Confessor. Edward dedicated the chapel at Windsor Castle to the soldier saint who represented the knightly values of chivalry which he so much admired, and the Garter ceremony takes place there every year. In the 16th Century, William Shakespeare firmly placed St George within the national conscience in his play Henry V in which the English troops are rallied with the cry "God for Harry, England and St George," and Edmund Spenser included St. George (Redcross Knight) as a central figure in his epic poem The Faerie Queen.
On June 2 1893, Pope Leo XIII demoted St George as Patron Saint for the English, relegating him to the secondary rank of 'national protector' and replaced him with St Peter as the Patron Saint of England. The change was solemnly announced by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan in the Brompton Oratory. This papal pronouncement served to exclude the Catholic Church in England from a day which is part of English tradition. In 1963, in the Roman Catholic Church, St George was further demoted to a third class minor saint and removed him from the Universal Calendar, with the proviso that he could be honoured in local calendars. Pope John Paul II, in 2000, restored St George to the Calendar, and he appears in Missals as the English Patron Saint.
With the revival of Scottish and Welsh nationalism, there has been renewed interest within England in St George, whose memory had been in abeyance for many years. This is most evident in the St George's flags which now have replaced Union Flags in stadiums where English sports teams compete. Nevertheless, St George's Day still remains a relatively low-key affair with the City of London not publicly celebrating the patron saint. However, the City of Salisbury does hold an annual St George's Day pageant, the origins of which are believed to go back to the thirteenth century.

England
Saint George is the patron saint of the Palestinian Christians, who lay claim to him as Saint George was from Palestine. In the areas around Bethlehem, where Saint George is said to have lived in his childhood, many Christians and many Muslims as well have a picture of St-George (known as Mar Girgius) in front of their homes, for his protection. In one hotel in Bethlehem, the Saint appears over the elevator, as well as other places throughout the structure.

Palestine
Saint George also is the patron saint of the islands of Malta and Gozo found in the centre of the Mediterranean sea. History tells that in a war between the Maltese and the Mori, Saint George was seen with Saint Paul and Saint Agata, protecting the Maltese. Two parishes are dedicated to Saint George in Malta and Gozo, The Parish of Qormi, Malta and the Parish of Victoria, Gozo.
Many churches in the Maltese Islands, have also altars dedicated to this great saint.

Malta
Saint George is the patron saint of Beirut. Many churches are named in honor of the saint in Lebanon:

The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, Centre Ville, Beirut, Lebanon
The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, Souk El Gharb, Lebanon
The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, Tripoli, Lebanon
The Greek Catholic Church of Saint Georges of Bmakine, Souk El Gharb, Lebanon
The Maronite Catholic Cathedral of Saint George, Centre Ville, Beirut, Lebanon
The Maronite Catholic Cathedral of Saint George, Ehden, Lebanon
Holy Monastery of Saint George, Deir El Harf, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Ain Bourdai, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Baabdat, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Barsaa, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Beit Mery, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Edde, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Faitroun, Keserwan District, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Kfeir, Mount Hermon, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Khonchara, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Nahr Barada, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Qaitouli, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Qlaia, South Lebanon, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Rmaich, South Lebanon, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Sarba, South Lebanon, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Sarine, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Saint Georges of Zouk Mikael, Keserwan District, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
Triple Church of St. George, Tabarja, Lebanon Lebanon
Saint George is a patron saint of Georgia. According to Georgian author Enriko Gabisashvili, Saint George is most venerated in the nation of Georgia. An 18th century Georgian geographer and historian Vakhushti Bagrationi wrote that there are 365 Orthodox churches in Georgia named after Saint George according to the number of days in one year.
An interesting facts are Georgian sources, some of which are testified by Persian ones, that Georgian Army during the battles were led by the knight on the white horse who came down from the heaven. Catholicos Besarion of Georgia also testified this fact.

Bulgaria
On the Iberian peninsula, Saint George also came to be considered as patron to the Crown of Aragon and Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca; (Spanish language: San Jorge, Catalan language: Sant Jordi) and Portugal (Portuguese language: São Jorge). Already connected in accepting George as their patron saint, in 1386 England and Portugal agreed to an Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. Today this treaty between the United Kingdom and Portugal is still in force.
His feast date, April 23, is one of the most important holidays in Catalonia, where it is traditional to give a present to the loved one; red roses for the women and books for the men. It's also the Day of Aragon (Spain). This, together with the anniversary of the deaths, in 1616, of Cervantes and Shakespeare, has led UNESCO to declare April 23 World Book and Copyright Day.

Spain and Portugal
In Mons (Belgium)[2], Saint Georges is honoured each year at the Trinity Sunday. In the heart of the city, a reconstitution (known as the "Combat dit Lumeçon") of the fight between Saint Georges and the dragon is played by 46 actors [3]. According to the tradition, the inhabitants of Mons try to get a piece of the dragon during the fight. This will bring luck for one year to the ones succeeding in this challenge. This event is part of the annual Ducasse and is attended by thousands of people.

Wallonia
In Greece, St. George is the patron saint of the Hellenic Army. His image adorns all regimental battle flags (Colours), and military parades are held in his honour on 23 April every year in most army garrison towns and cities.

Greece
In the religious tradition of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, Ogoun (as this Yoruba divinity is known in the Portuguese language) is often identified with Saint George in many regions of the country, being widely celebrated by both religions' followers.

Brazil
The United States Armor Association ("a non-profit organization with over 6,000 members dedicated to disseminating knowledge of the military art and sciences, with special attention to mobility in ground warfare"

United States
There are numerous churches dedicated to St. George in India (especially in Kerala) practising Oriental Orthodoxy.

India
The Freemasons consider St. George one of their primary patron saints. The United Grand Lodge of England holds its annual festival on a day as near as possible to St. George's Day, and St. George is depicted on the ceiling of the Grand Lodge Temple on Great Queen Street, London. A number of Masonic lodges around the world bear the name of St. George.

Freemasons
St George's Day is also celebrated with parades in those countries of which he is the patron saint. Also, St George is the patron saint of Scouting. On St George's day (or the closest Sunday), Scouts in some countries choose to take part in a parades and some kind of church service in which they renew their Scout Promise.

Scouting
In Italy, Saint George is the patron saint of Reggio Calabria. He is also apparently the patron saint of skin disease sufferers and syphilitic people.[4] In Colombia there is a school called Gimnasio Campestre which honors St. George and where they recite his hymn every Friday.

Other
There is a tradition in the Holy Land of Christians and Muslim going to an Eastern Orthodox shrine for St. George at Beith Jala, Jews also attending the site in the belief that the prophet Elijah was buried there. This is testified to by Elizabeth Finn in 1866, where she wrote, "St. George killed the dragon in this country [Palestine]; and the place is shown close to Beyroot. Many churches and convents are named after him. The church at Lydda is dedicated to St. George: so is a convent near Bethlehem, and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate; and others beside. The Arabs believe that St. George can restore mad people to their senses; and to say a person has been sent to St. George's, is equivalent to saying he has been sent to a madhouse. It is singular that the Moslem Arabs share this veneration for St. George, and send their mad people to be cured by him, as well as the Christians. But they commonly call him El Khudder —The Green—according to their favorite manner of using epithets instead of names. Why he should be called green, however, I cannot tell—unless it is from the colour of his horse. Gray horses are called green in Arabic."
In Malta, St George is the patron saint of the village of Qormi.

Interfaith shrine
The name George comes from Greek Georgios "husbandman, farmer," from geo "earth" + ergon "work".

Notes

Khidr
Georgslied, 9th-century Old High German poem about the life of Saint George
Knights of St. George
Bristol, England, which has a district christened Saint George and also a park bearing that name
St. George's Day

• Diada de Sant Jordi
  Paladin
  Dragon Hill, Uffington
  St George's Church, churches dedicated to St. George
  The Magic Sword, 1961 film loosely based on the legend of St. George and the Dragon
  Patrick Woodroffe, author of several poems about St George collated in a book called Hallelujah Anyway

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