18 February

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 18 February:

Pluto and satellites

1. 1516 Queen Mary I Queen of England and Ireland, was born in Greenwich Palace on this date in 1516. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and the original Bloody Mary. She had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake, hence her nickname.
2. In 2003, Kieran Duggal, aged 53, from Balham, southwest London, leaned forward to unlock his front door with a key tied round his neck. He slipped and became tangled, accidentally throttling himself.
3. In 1929 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the names of the winners of its first Academy Awards. On this occasion there was no glitzy award ceremony. The list of winners simply appeared on the back page of its Bulletin.
4. In 1930, a cow named Ellie Farm Ollie became the first Cow in the US to fly in a plane (and be milked in flight). Her milk was sealed in paper containers and dropped by parachute over St. Louis, MO.
5. On the same day, also in the US, Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto.
6. The US issued a patent (#D324,117) to Celess Antoine of Forestville, Maryland on this date in 1992, for the Dog Umbrella, a transparent, ventilated body cover which could be attached to a dog's back to keep it dry in the rain.
7. In 1979, Snow fell in the Sahara Desert for the only time in recorded history.
8. In 2014, violinist Vanessa Mae competed for Thailand in the Giant Slalom at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She was only the second ever Thai Winter Olympian. She came last.
9. The sighting of a sea serpent was reported off the coast of Florida by Captain Adams and his crew aboard the Lucy and Nancy, on this date in 1849.
10. The shaman of the Gealeke Xhosa tribe in South Africa, a 14 year old girl called Nongqawuse, claimed she'd had a vision of tribal ancestors looking up at her from the waters of the Gxara River. She interpreted this as the ancestors being angry with the tribe, and to win back their favour, they must slaughter all its livestock on this date in 1857. They believed her and did as they were told, but it didn't seem the ancestors were all that impressed, as the action resulted in the entire tribe starving to death.

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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