7 February

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 7 February:

Antarctica

1. Two well known authors had their birthdays on this date. Born in 1812, Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations; and in 1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder, US author, who wrote Little House on the Prairie.
2. On this date in 1971 Women won the right to vote in Switzerland. Yes, that recently.
3. In 1812 Lord Byron made his maiden speech in House of Lords, against the death penalty for rebellious labourers.
4. In 1821 John Davis became the first person known to have set foot on the continent of Antarctica.
5. In 1959 Robert Timm and John Cook set a flight duration record when they landed their Cessna in Las Vegas, Nevada; they'd taken off on 4 December 1958 and had remained airborne for 64 days, 22 hours 19 minutes and 5 seconds. While airborne they managed to cover a distance comparable to flying six times around the Earth. During the trip they were constantly refuelled in flight and swooped down to grab Water and food from a chase car which was following them them. How they managed to go to the toilet was not mentioned by my source.
6. The main group of the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered this day in 1947, in caves on the West side of the Jordan River. They date to about 150 BC–AD 68. More were found on this same day in 1960.
7. In 1845 William Lloyd, drunk in the British Museum, bumped into the 25 BCE ‘‘Portland Vase’’, a cameo-glass masterpiece discovered in 1560, which once belonged to Augustus Caesar, causing it to smash into two hundred pieces. It was suspected he'd done it on purpose.
8. In 1991, the IRA fired three mortar bombs into Ten Downing Street, shattering glass in the room where Prime Minister John Major was meeting with members of his cabinet. No one was hurt, but the door was severely dented.
9. In 1575 at Much Marcle, Herefordshire, at 6pm, Marcle Hill started moving. Over the next three days, 26 acres of hill moved 400 yards, killing cattle and sheep, uprooting trees, destroying roads and a chapel at Little Kinnaston. No explanation has ever been found as to why it happened.
10. In 1989, it rained sardines over the Australian town of Ipswich, 30 miles from the sea. Scientists explained the odd occurrence as a violent storm causing updraughts which sucked the fish from the shallow Brisbane waters into the atmosphere.

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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