10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 21 April:
- This date in 1816 saw the birth of Charlotte Bronte, novelist, eldest of the Bronte sisters. Her most famous novel is Jane Eyre. On her 31st birthday she wrote: "I shall be thirty-one... My youth is gone like a dream; and very little use have I ever made of it."
- In 1918 Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was shot down by an RAF fighter. The legendary German fighter pilot, known as the ‘Red Baron’ because of his distinctive red plane, died behind British lines in France. He had shot down 80 Allied aircraft in less than two years. He was just 25 years old. The Allied forces later buried the Red Baron with full military honours.
- In 1964, BBC2 was launched, a day late due to a major power failure the previous day. The first programme broadcast was Playschool.
- A few events concerning the British royal family occurred on this date. In 1509, Henry VIII became King of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. In 1689 William III and Mary Stuart were proclaimed king and queen of England; and in 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, who would become Queen Elizabeth II, was born.
- In 1760, the first art exhibition in Britain was held in the Society of Arts Room in the Strand, London. There were 130 exhibits by 69 artists, including Sir Joshua Reynolds. No “servants, foot soldiers, porters, women with children etc” were allowed in, but the artists were nonetheless unhappy about the punters, dubbing them “persons whose educations disqualified them from judging statuary and painting”. Some people got rowdy and broke a window (the Society’s records contain reference to a bill for 67.5p for mending it). This exhibition was free, but the second exhibition had an entry fee to keep such riff raff out.
- In 2012, four new species of freshwater Crab – bright Purple in colour – were found in the Philippines.
- In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the Moon in an electric car. The car is still up there.
- In 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, winning independence for Texas. They had the advantage of surprise, as the 900 Texans caught the 1,200 Mexicans taking a siesta, and Mexican General Santa Anna was somewhat distracted at the time by a young slave called Emily, a beautiful mixed-race albino girl, thought to have been the inspiration for the song The Yellow Rose of Texas. The entire confrontation took 18 minutes.
- In 1998, Ian Tordoff was charged with stealing £9,000 worth of Electricity over 6 years from a Yorkshire Electricity street lamp to power his home and Nursery business. He was rumbled when engineers found a plug underground.
- In 1857 Alexander Douglas patented the bustle, but hey, that's all behind us now.
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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