Dear Group, This afternoon I was sitting in my favorite chair reading my latest murder mystery when I heard the soft strains of "God Save the Queen" on my classical TV cable channel. When I looked up on the screen I first noticed that the composer was Beethoven himself. The title of the composition was "Variations on God Save the King." Well, that sure got me wondering how old that anthem was in the first place. I certainly hadn't expected that it would date back into the 1700s. When I got back to my computer I did a search on Google and found many references to the history of the tune. See http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page829.asp. Of course there are other websites that give more information than that but I thought you'd be interested. Regarding our own anthem "The Star Spangled Banner," did you realize that it wasn't until 1931 that the American Congress proclaimed it to be our national anthem? vee