10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 16 May:
It was on this date in 1770 that Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, aged 14, and the future King Louis the 16th of France, aged 15, got married.
The first Academy Awards (not the Oscars, since “Oscars” wasn't used to describe the statuettes presented actors and actresses until 1931) were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on this date in 1929. The silent film Wings won "best production" while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. The first awards ceremony attracted an audience of 200 people.
In 1969, a case of mistaken identity meant The Who's Pete Townshend spent an evening in a New York jail after being charged with assault. When a man ran onto the stage, Townshend assumed it was a fan and kicked him off the stage. However, the man was in fact a plain-clothes policeman named Daniel Mulhearn who was there to alert the crowd that a grocery store next to the theatre was on fire. The crowd made the same assumption as Townshend had and only evacuated after he was arrested.
In 2016, Thomas Manning, aged 64, from Halifax, Massachusetts became the first person to have a penis transplant in the United States.
In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. After returning from the summit, she said, "Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower that is the most important. This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others. It rises from your heart."
Another Everest first happened on this date in 1995. Ang Rita, a Sherpa guide, climbed Mount Everest for a record ninth time.
In 1639, the French Cardinal Richelieu invented the table knife by ordering that knives at his table be rounded off at the tip.
In 1934 women players were allowed to wear shorts for the first time at Wimbledon.
In 1996, New Yorker Michael Hebranko, who weighed 71 stone, needed to go to hospital. To get him there it was necessary to dismantle the front of his house and use a forklift truck to transport him.
In 1499, in France, a bull was sentenced to death for “furiously killing” a boy.
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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