10 February

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 10 February:

1. This is a good date for weddings. On this date in 1788 the first weddings in Australia took place. Rev. R Johnson married 14 couples, all convicts, 15 days after the colony was established. In 1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha tied the knot in St James' Palace, London. Unusually for those times, she had proposed to him. Victoria had decided that as queen it was her right to propose. Then, in 1863, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren. PT Barnum staged the wedding of General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren in New York. The best man was 29 inches tall and weighed 24 pounds.
2. In 1887 Nathaniel Carr Goodwin became the first actor to perform in two cities on the same day. After the curtain fell on the 11.30 matinee of Turning Up in Boston, he caught the 1pm train to New York and performed in The Mascot in the Bijou Theatre at 8pm.
3. In 2007, the world's most expensive meal was offered at the Dome Restaurant in Bankok, Thailand. They flew in six of the world's best chefs to cook an 11 course meal, which included Crème brûlée of foie gras with Tonga beans, Imperial Beluga Caviar and Belons Oysters, Tarte Fine with scallops and black Truffle, Lobster Osso Buczco, Sorbet "Dom Pérignon", Veal cheeks with Périgord truffles and Imperial Gingerbread pyramid with Caramel and salted butter Ice cream. Each of the 11 courses was accompanied by its own special Wine. The bill? One million Thai baht which is the equivalent of just under $30,000.00.
4. In 1934, the first sheets of Postage stamps were issued by the US Postal Service in New York. They didn't have perforations or adhesive. The stamps had to be cut out and glued to the envelope.
5. In 1862 Dante Gabriel Rossetti returned from a night on the town with Algernon Charles Swinburne to find that his wife, Elizabeth, had taken a fatal overdose of laudanum.
6. In 1468 BC the battle which inspired the idea of Armageddon took place. Thutmose III set out for Megiddo to do battle with an alliance of over 300 princes. He'd amassed an estimated force of 30,000 men, the largest army ever assembled. His opponents probably had half that number. It was the largest battle that had ever been fought. After seizing power from Hatsheput ten days before, Tuthmoses III assembled his mega-army to put down an alliance of rebels, and made Egypt an empire.
7. Residents of university towns who grumble "bloody students" should think themselves lucky that they weren't living in Oxford on this date in 1354, when "The Great Slaughter" took place. It was a street battle between Oxford University students and townspeople which resulted in several deaths and many injuries.
8. In 1799, a Housewife named Elizabeth Woodcock was finally rescued after spending eight days in a Snow cave created when her Horse threw her and she fell into a snow drift. She was too weak to climb out of the hole, but was conscious and threw a handkerchief out of the hole, which luckily for her was spotted by a passer by. All she had with her to sustain her through her ordeal was some snuff.
9. In 1996, world Chess champion Garry Kasparov faced off against an IBM computer dubbed "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia. He lost.
10. In 2005, the world's largest same first name gathering took place in Creek Park in Dubai, UEA during the Dubai Shopping Festival. 1,500 people called Mohammed attended the party.

A superhero love story:

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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