23 September

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 23 September:

1. Born on this date in 1949 was Bruce Springsteen, American singer/songwriter, nicknamed “The Boss”. His hits include Born to Run, Hungry Heart, Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA, Cover Me, I'm on Fire and Glory Days.
2. Also born on this date, in 1920, was Mickey Rooney, American actor. Working as a performer since he was a small child, he was a superstar by his teens playing Andy Hardy, and had one of the longest careers of any actor.
3. In 2000, Jenny Rider, 41, decided to top herself. She poured petrol over her clothes and set it alight, but having done so, changed her mind. She plunged into a river in New Norfolk, Tasmania, to douse the flames, but knocked herself unconscious on a rock and drowned.
4. In 1848, Chewing gum was first commercially produced in the US by John Curtis in his home. He called it 'State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum'.
5. In 1973, tens of thousands of small toads fell from the sky in a freak storm onto the southern French village of Brignoles.
6. The planet Neptune was discovered by astronomers Johann Gottfried Galle and Louis d'Arrest on this date in 1846.
7. In 1911, Earl Ovington was sworn in as "air mail pilot number one" and delivered the first air mail authorised by the US Post Office. He flew the mail between Long Island and Mineola, New York.
8. In 1955, James Dean introduced himself to Alec Guinness outside a restaurant, and asked him to take a look at his Porsche Spyder. Guinness thought the car appeared "sinister" and told Dean: "If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week." Dean was killed in a crash in that very car on 30 September.
9. In 1996, Ann-Kristin Antman presented a design for an anorak made from Salmon skins soaked in human urine. “The smell disappears when you rinse the skins in water,” she reassured potential buyers.
10. In 1938, a time capsule containing a woman's hat, a man's pipe and 1,100' of microfilm, was buried at World's Fair in New York, to be opened in 6939.

I write Fiction, too.

There is a whole new universe of superheroes to discover in my novels. The Ultraheroes Universe includes at least one alternative dimension, good guys, bad guys, secrets, romance and more.

For more information visit My Books Page

For even more information visit My website