9 February

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 9 February:

Carmen Miranda

1. This date in 1884 saw the birth of Arthur Stace, an alcoholic tramp in Sydney, Australia who became a Christian when he was about 46. Not long after his conversion, Stace heard the evangelist John Ridley preach about a man who was converted in Scotland through seeing the word ‘Eternity’ written on a footpath. Ridley cried, ‘Oh for someone to write "Eternity" on the footpaths of Sydney!’ Arthur rose to the challenge, writing the word on footpaths half a million times over the next 37 years. The origin of the holy graffiti was a mystery for most of that time. Today there is a memorial to Stace at Sydney Square: The word "Eternity" inscribed in metal on the footpath.
2. Born this date in 1909 was Carmen Miranda, real name Maria do Carmo Miranda Da Cunha, a dancer and actress, dubbed the "Brazilian Bombshell." She was known for wearing her five a day as a hat, and for making the samba popular. She was the highest-paid performer of the 40s.
3. In 1956 Marilyn Monroe suffered a wardrobe malfunction when one of the straps holding up her dress snapped, during a publicity appearance in New York promoting her next film The Prince and the Show Girl. It's likely the malfunction wasn't entirely accidental.
4. Another wardrobe malfunction took place on this date in 1909, which wasn't public or intentional. King Edward VII arrived at Rathenau Station, Brandenburg. As soon as the Royal Train pulled in, the band struck up with God Save the King. The king, however, was having problems getting into his uniform, and by the time he finally emerged, they'd played the National Anthem seventeen times.
5. Shrove Tuesday fell on this date in 1445. In Olney, a housewife was busy cooking pancakes when she heard the church bell ringing and realised she was late for the service. She ran out of the house, still holding her frying pan, dashed to church, tossing the pancake as she went. The annual Olney pancake race was born.
6. In 1968, the Rotterdam metro was opened by Princess Beatrix.
7. In 1969, the first commercial flight of a Boeing 747 took off from Paine Field, Seattle.
8. In 1897, Claude Debussy's wife found a love letter to another woman in his pocket. There followed a serious fight, during which Mrs Debussy threatened to shoot herself. It got into the papers and harmed Debussy's career for a while.
9. In 2002, a burglar named Michael LaRock, used the house phone of the property he'd just burgled to call Ticonderoga police in New York state and boast about how they would never catch him. The police tracked the call, and showed up to arrest him while he was still bragging on the phone.
10. In 1989, Polish archaeologists claimed to have unearthed the world’s oldest boomerang, thought to be 23,000 years old.

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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