Tuesday, 3 May 2022

4 May

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 4 May:

  1. This date in 1929 saw the birth of one Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten, who is better known as Audrey Hepburn, iconic actress whose films include Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady. She was also Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

  2. In 1990, Jesse Tafero was executed in Florida by means of the electric chair. However, the machine, dubbed "Old Sparky", malfunctioned, causing six-inch flames to shoot out of Tafero's head. Three jolts of electricity were required to kill him, a process that took 6.5 minutes. This was thought to be because they were using the wrong type of sponge in the headpiece. The Jesse Tafero case became the cause célèbre among death penalty opponents, who cited the brutal circumstances of his execution as reasons it should be abolished.

  3. In 1994, Health freak Franz Heinan choked to death on vitamin pills in Brussels after lecturing friends on their eating habits.

  4. On a popular date for elections, in 1979 Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party won the British general election, making her the first woman prime minister of a major European nation, and in 2000, Londoners elected Ken Livingstone as their first elected mayor.

  5. In 1968, the first McDonalds Big Mac Hamburger was sold.

  6. Staying with hamburgers, in 1973, the world record for hamburger eating was set by Rhode Island student Bob Matern, who ate 83 of them in 2½ hours.

  7. The first Derby horse race was run at Epsom on this date in 1780. The race covered a distance of one and a half miles and was won by Diomed. It was followed by a cock fight.

  8. In 1996, British Airways stewardess Joanne Savage looked out of the window of a jumbo jet 34,000ft above the Atlantic and spotted a boat on fire. She was able to raise the alarm and three fishermen were consequently rescued.

  9. In 1995, Japanese Psychologists announced that they had trained Pigeons to distinguish between works by Picasso and Monet. However, the pigeons had a long way to go before they could be considered art experts, since they couldn't tell a Cezanne from a Renoir.

  10. It wouldn't be out of place in a Dan Brown novel: in 1998 iVatican City, the commander of the Swiss Guard, Alois Estermann and his wife were found shot dead in their flat; a Vatican inquiry concluded that a corporal, Cedric Tornay, had shot the couple and then turned the gun on himself. 


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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