26 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 26 January:

Bessie Coleman

1. Bessie Coleman, the first black pilot, was born on this date in 1892. Denied entry to aviation school in the US, she worked as a manicurist to pay her way to Paris where she earned her pilot’s licence. Returning to the US, she became a stunt pilot and was greatly admired. She died in a plane crash during a practice session in 1926.
2. In 1933 David O. Selznick approved the results of Fred Astaire's screen test, "in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line."
3. In 1969 The Washington Post reported the fall of hundreds of ducks from the sky over St Mary's City, Maryland, USA, all showing multiple rib fractures and severe haemorrhages acquired before they hit the ground.
4. In 1995, two burglars rang the police to complain about a dangerous electric wire fence, which burnt them and prevented them breaking into a house.
5. In 1962 Bishop Burke of the Buffalo, New York Catholic Diocese banned the Twist from any Catholic school, parish or youth event.
6. In 1984, Michael Jackson was filming a commercial for Pepsi-Cola when an accidental flare explosion ignited the hair spray which had just been applied to his hair. The conflagration that followed produced second-degree burns on his head and neck. Brother Tito doused the fire with Coca Cola.
7. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter expressing unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America. He said the Bald eagle was "a bird of bad moral character" who lived "by sharping and robbing"and expressed his own preference: the Turkey.
8. After the opening of John Millington Synge's Playboy of the Western World, in 1907, police were called to Dublin's Abbey Theatre when a riot broke out because the audience took offence at the ‘foul language’. The riots continued for a week, but the show went on, heavily guarded by police.
9. In 1980, Mary Decker became the first woman to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
10. In 1838 Tennessee became the first state to enact a prohibition law. Authorities argued that that alcohol was dangerous to your health – because alcoholic fumes could ignite inside your body and set fire to your liver.

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The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

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