10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 28 January:
- Born on this date in 1457 was Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty in England. He is responsible for the term "baker's dozen", because he ordered the beheading of bakers who sold underweight loaves of Bread. Bakers would throw in an extra loaf to be on the safe side.
- This date in 814 saw the death of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemange aged 72. At Charlemagne’s death there were eclipses of Sun and Moon, and a seven-day black spot on the sun. His palace at Aix-la-Chapelle trembled, and the basilica in which he was buried was struck by Lightning. Shortly before his death the word princeps (or leader – part of the emperor’s title) faded from an inscription on the basilica.
- In 1999 A flock of Sheep knocked a British farmer’s wife to her death when she rode into their field with a bale of hay on the back of a power bike. They knocked her and the bike over the edge of a 100 foot quarry.
- In 1754 Horace Walpole in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, explaining how he coined the word ‘‘serendipity’’. He said he'd based it on the title of a fairy story, The Three Princes of Serendip, because the princes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".
- An ice storm lasting five days began on this date in 1940. Rain fell and instantly froze. Frozen railway points and icy roads brought transport to a standstill; birds fell out of the sky as their wings froze in mid flight, and wild ponies in Wales were entombed in ice.
- The US space program's worst disaster to that date occurred in 1986. The Space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift-off from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members. The cause was later found to be a failure of a booster rocket O-rings due to cold weather.
- In 1896 Walter Arnold of Kent became the first British motorist to receive a fine for speeding. At that time the speed limit was 2 mph in a built-up area. Arnold was doing 8 mph. Unfortunately for him, he happened to pass the local policeman’s house, and the officer happened to be looking out of the window at the time and had a quick reaction time. He pursued Mr Arnold on a bicycle for five miles, so he could slap a fine on him: the princely sum of one shilling (5p).
- In 1807 London’s Pall Mall became the first street to be illuminated by gaslight.
- In 1841 James Clark Ross discovered the world’s most southerly volcano, Mt Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica.
- Also in 1841, Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh explorer, and journalist was born. He is famous for finding David Livingstone and greeting him with the words, “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”
NEW!!
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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