10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 17 February:
- In 1999, a 50 year old Egyptian government worker named Adel Nasim Gerges finally won the promotion he'd been waiting on for eight years. He was so surprised to see his name posted among thousands of others on the noticeboard, however, that he had a heart attack on the spot and died.
- In 1938 at the Dominion Theatre, London, the first public experimental demonstration of a Baird colour television took place. A short programme consisting of fashion plates and a cartoon was transmitted from Crystal Palace onto a 12 ft x 9 ft screen.
- On this date in 1876, the first sardines were canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine at the Wolff and Reesing Cannery.
- In 1963 Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer, was born. Her accomplishments included being the first woman to scale Mount Everest unassisted in 1995, and all the great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. She died in a violent storm while climbing K2.
- In 1924, swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100 yard freestyle in Miami, Florida. His time was just over 52 seconds. Breaking swimming records is not what he is most famous for, however. He would later star in Tarzan movies.
- A Football match was scheduled to take place in Cairo, Egypt, on this date in 1974. The organisers had decided to change the venue to a smaller one so that spectators could watch the match in comfort. However, they forgot to communicate to the ticket sellers that there were less seats and so there were twice as many spectators as seats. 49 people died and 50 were injured in the resulting stampede for places to sit.
- In 1883, Mr A Ashwell of Herne Hill, south London, patented Vacant/Engaged signs for toilet doors.
- Lord Carnarvon and his team opened the inner chamber of the tomb of Tutenkhamen on this date in 1923.
- Some traditions believe that it was on this date, year unspecified, that the Great Flood began, with Noah and the animals escaping in the Ark.
- Hindus believe that on this date in 3102 BC the world entered the Kali Yuga, or Evil Age, the last of four great epochs, which would last 432,000 years. Then, the world would be destroyed and a new cycle would begin.
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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