10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 26 April:
In 1926 Bobby ‘The Canadian Daredevil’ Leach, from Cornwall, who'd been the first man to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, died of gangrene, a result of an incident a year earlier when he'd slipped on a piece of Orange peel.
On this date in 1923, the then Duke of York, future King George VI, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother) got married in Westminster Abbey.
In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form a new country, Tanzania. The word "Tanzania" was formed by using the first syllable of each of the two places.
In 1982, on his way to the Clash's rehearsal studio in West London, lead singer Joe Strummer decided to go AWOL. He boarded a train for the coast and took a ferry to France. His disappearance forced the band to cancel their UK tour and put their US tour in June in jeopardy. He showed up again in London on 18 May claiming exhaustion and doubts about his career were the reason he'd cleared off to Paris without telling anyone.
The first ever cocktail party was held by Evelyn Waugh’s brother, Alex, on this date in 1924. It wasn’t much of a success, however, as only one guest turned up. Undeterred, Alex Waugh threw another one the following year, inviting 30 guests, only this time he told them it was a Tea party. Once people got there and had a few cocktails, they decided it was actually quite a good idea and the cocktail party concept took off from there.
In 1937, German bombers made the first raid on a civilian population during the Spanish Civil War when they attacked Guernica, the spiritual home of the Basques. This atrocity was the inspiration for a famous painting by Picasso.
In 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident happened at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine, releasing 100 times the radioactivity of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. 31 people were killed in the initial meltdown. Radioactive material was detected thousands of miles away, even affecting Welsh Sheep.
In 1998, police in Peru arrested a man at Lima International Airport for trying to smuggle a thousand Butterflies out of the country.
In 1928, Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opened in London.
In 2000, an unusual Job opportunity was advertised in Job Centres in south Wales. Cottle and Austens Circus were looking for a knife thrower's assistant. The job description stated that the successful candidate's duties included standing on a 3ft wide board while 10 sharpened blades were thrown near their head on a daily basis.
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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