query that returns nth result

[guic horton]

I'm looking for a way to query for the nth result in a result set according to a certain field, such as a date field. For example
table1
fields:holiday(values: christmas,new years,thanksgiving), start_date(values:2005-12-25,2005-01-01,2005-11-25)

I want a way to select the second start_date.
min and max will easily return the first and last start_date:
SELECT MIN(start_date) FROM table1

but I can't find any easy way to select the nth result. The only way I've thought of involves iterating subqueries that find the minimum from a result set that must be greater than the initial minimum, but that is way too slow if you are looking for the 8th or ninth iteration.