Hungarian Conservative

Pete Gogolak, a Hungarian immigrant, changed the way placekickers take field goal attempts in the NFL—his ‘soccer-style’ method is still used in the league today. He is celebrating his 82nd birthday today.

Although the legendary Hungarian footballer was born on 1 April 1927, he always celebrated his birthday on 2 April, as he did not like the fact that it happened to fall on April Fools’ Day. He captained the legendary Mighty Magyar side of the 1950s, leading them to an Olympic gold and a World Cup final. He won the European Cup with Real Madrid three times, scoring four goals in the 1960 final—a record unbroken since.

As every year, the Cake of Hungary is selected ahead of August 20, with those attending the holiday events being the first to taste the creations of Hungary’s best pastry chefs. The competition this year was won by the torte named Tipsy Fig Respectus of the Levendula és Kert (Lavender and Garden) cake shop from Szigetszentmiklós, located on Csepel Island. Essential ingredients of the cake include Aszú wine, figs and honey.

The Hungarian currency, the forint celebrates its 77th birthday on 1 August. But in reality, the forint’s history can be traced back to as long ago as the 1320s.

Rubik’s creativity may have stemmed from the fact that he was a typically solitary child who, as he says, was never bored because he loved games. The more challenging the puzzles, the more they occupied his imagination.

Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl completed his magnum opus, the Liberty Statue of Budapest in 1947, in just two years. It was originally a monument dedicated to the ‘liberating’ Soviet forces at the end of World War II. However, elements of the composition alluding to its original purpose were removed, and it still stands tall on top of Gellért Hill as a beacon of Hungarian freedom today.

On 18 June 1868, 155 years ago today, Hungarian admiral Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was born in Kenderes, Austria-Hungary. One of the greatest Hungarian statesmen of the 20th century served as the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1 March 1920 and 16 October 1944.