22 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 22 June:

Harrods

1. In 1950, Charles Sappal of Riverview, Florida, USA, was killed by a Lightning bolt. He'd survived being struck by lightning in the previous year at the same spot, when a bottle was knocked from his hand.
2. In 1964, The Beatles played their first ever show in New Zealand, at Wellington Town Hall. The local Chief Constable refused a police escort for them, leaving just two policemen to control over 5,000 fans.
3. In 2000, after giving himself various new identities during the 90's, The Artist Formally Known As Prince announced that he wanted to be known as Prince again.
4. In 2003, in Aurora, Nebraska, the largest hailstone ever was recovered after a storm. It officially measured 7 inches in diameter with a circumference of 18.75 inches, although a good chunk of it broke off on impact and some of it was lost to melting before it could be measured.
5. In 1996 Harrods put on sale a bottled Beer at £50 per bottle. It had been made from an Ancient Egyptian recipe, from archaeological evidence.
6. The Northern Line was opened on the London Underground on this date in 1907.
7. The Royal Greenwich Observatory established by Charles II on this date in 1675.
8. In 1978, Charon, Pluto's largest satellite, was discovered by James Christy, who first saw it when reviewing photographs of Pluto. Christy proposed the name "Charon" after his wife, Charlene, and the Greek mythological figure who leads the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron.
9. On this date in 1939, the future Queen Elizabeth II first met her future husband, Philip. 
10. In 1535, Queen Anne Boleyn received the head of Bishop Fisher as a gift; the bishop had opposed her marriage to King Henry VIII. (She would have preferred a cut glass decanter, but forgot to make a proper wedding list.)

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21 June

 10 weird and wonderful thing which happened on 21 June:

1. Edward III, King of England, died on this date in 1377 at the age of 64. He'd remained on the throne for 50 years; no English monarch had reigned for as long since Henry III, and none would again until George III. He was succeeded by Richard II.
2. There was a royal birth on this date in 1982: Prince William of Wales, the eldest son of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.
3. In 1997, Sting accidentally left his favourite Guitar on a luggage cart at Frankfurt airport. An airport worker delivered it to him in the nick of time for his concert.
4. Elvis Presley made his last TV appearance on this date in 1977. He died less than two months later.
5. In 1997, Mait Lepik won Estonia’s first Banana eating contest by scoffing 10 bananas in 3 minutes, skins and all.
6. In 2012, a Lucian Freud self portrait painted on an egg shell was sold at auction to a private collector for £27,000.
7. In 2006, Pluto's newly discovered moons were officially christened Nix and Hydra.
8. In 1970, Brazil became the first country to win the Soccer World Cup three times, in Mexico, when they beat Italy 4-1.
9. The foundation stone of Sir Christopher Wren's new St Paul's Cathedral was laid on this date in 1675, replacing the old building which had been destroyed by the Great fire. It was built using bricks from the old, burned down building. The stone which was used as the foundation stone was inscribed with the word “Resurgam” which means, “I shall rise again.”
10. In 2017, more than 50,000 people practised yoga in Lucknow, India, to celebrate International Yoga Day.

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.

Available from Amazon:

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20 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 20 June:

1. On this date in 1837, William IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland died at the age of 71. He joined the Navy at 13 and was a close friend of Nelson, and so was nicknamed the Sailor King. His two older brothers all died without legitimate issue, and he'd inherited the throne at 64. He didn't have any legitimate issue either and so was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria.
2. In 1999, a married man and his secretary were killed by Lightning while making love in a rubber dinghy in the middle of a lake near Osnabruck in Germany. Tomas Gormann, 32, and Maria Tlek, 22, were found by a forestry worker next day. Gormann's wife, Jan, said: "This was God's intervention".
3. In 1756, 145 British men and a woman, the captured defenders of Calcutta, were forced to spend the night in a prison cell, 18 x 14 feet wide with only two small windows. Only 22 men and the woman survived the night. It became known as the Black Hole of Calcutta.
4. In 1960, Nan Winton became the first woman to read the national news on BBC television.
5. In 1815, a giant sea serpent was spotted off Plymouth, Massachusetts, supposedly extending 100 feet above the water with a head which was 6-8 feet long.
6. In 1895, Caroline Baldwin earned a doctorate degree in science from Cornell University, becoming the first woman to be awarded a PhD.
7. In 1972, the Tallahatchie Bridge, made famous in Bobbie Gentry's 1967 hit, Ode To Billie Joe, collapsed.
8. In 1949, ‘Gorgeous Gussie’ Moran, US Tennis player, caused a sensation at Wimbledon by wearing lace-trimmed panties under her skirt.
9. In 1819, the paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrived in Liverpool after a voyage lasting 27 days 11 hours. It was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic – or any ocean for that matter.
10. In 1987, Frank Sinatra lost his voice after singing Singing In The Rain in the rain in Verona, Italy, forcing him to cancel his appearance in Milan.

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.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

19 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 19 June:

1. Born this date in 1556 was James I, King of England and Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, proclaimed king of Scotland in 1567 when his mother was forced to abdicate. On the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, he ascended the English throne as James I.
2. In 1999, an Italian man living in the Netherlands decided to sleep on his roof because it was a warm summer night. However, when he fell asleep, he rolled off and fell to his death.
3. In 2002, Pang Yang, 21, was shot dead by her fiancé Benjamin Kult, 25, when she jumped out of the wardrobe to surprise him. He thought she was a burglar and shot her in the head. The couple, from Nebraska, had announced their engagement two days earlier.
4. In 1816, while staying up all night to tell ghost stories with his wife and Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley suddenly became hysterical and ran shrieking from the room.
5. In 1889, at about 4am, at the psychiatric centre at the Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence, France, Vincent Van Gogh allegedly saw the night sky which inspired the painting, Starry Night.
6. Going to work at the Shanghai stock exchange became much less fun on this date in 1995 when drinking, smoking, gambling, eating, opening canned drinks, sleeping, shouting or “joking around” were all banned in the workplace.
7. 1978 Jim Davis's popular comic strip Garfield first appeared in print on this date in 1978. In Jim's own words, Garfield is "a nap-taking, Coffee-guzzling, Lasagna-loving, Monday-hating, dog-punting, mailman-mauling fat cat." Garfield's main companions are Jon Arbuckle, his nerdy owner, and Odie, a playful but brainless dog.
8. In 2001, in Whalley, Lancashire, Rev Chris Sterry preached a sermon which was 28 hours 45 minutes long. He was aiming for 36 hours, but ran out of things to say.
9. In 2003, the world's tallest Sugar cube tower was built by Mat Hand. He stacked 1,194 sugar cubes on top of each other, creating the tower, measuring 57.2 inches or 145.5 cm.
10. In 1988, Denny Rowe shaved a record 1,994 men in 60 minutes with a safety razor, that's 1.8 seconds per person. He drew blood four times.

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.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

18 June

 10 weird and wonderful things that happened on 18 June:

The Battle of Waterloo

1. This date in 1941 saw the birth of Delia Smith, cook and television presenter, and the UK's best-selling cookery author. She baked the cake seen on the front cover of The Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed.
2. A year later in 1942 Paul McCartney was born. With John Lennon, he formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in rock and roll history. After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his wife Linda, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine. His song Yesterday is listed as the most covered song in history and Wings' single Mull of Kintyre became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK.
3. The Blues Brothers, starring Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, premièred in New York on this date in 1980.
4. In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to orbit Earth aboard the Space Shuttle, Challenger. When she successfully returned to earth, she said, "The thing I'll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I'm sure it was the most fun that I'll ever have in my life."
5. In 1948, Columbia Records unveiled its new 33-RPM long player. The new format could contain 23 minutes of music per side, a vast improvement on the three minutes that could be squeezed onto a 78 RPM disc.
6. The Battle of Waterloo took place on this date in 1815. Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington, who commanded a combined force of Belgian, Dutch, and British troops, and an army led by Marshal Blucher, who commanded a Prussian force. Almost 50,000 men were killed or severely injured. Two years later, on the anniversary of the battle, Waterloo Bridge was opened in London.
7. In 1823, British Infantry wore Trousers for the first time, rather than breeches, stockings or leggings, by order of the Duke of York.
8. In 1621, the Plymouth Bay Colony had its first duel. Edward Leister and Edward Dotey, faced each other with swords on the ‘field of honour’ for reasons unknown. Neither duellist was killed, but they were punished by the colonial court. The sentence was that they be tied together head to foot for 24 hours.
9. In 1997, researchers in Indiana published a paper explaining why sandcastles do not collapse when the sand in them has dried out - “The sandcastle effect”.
10. In 1997 Kumiko Tshuchida, a Japanese tourist, asked a guard at Reading station for directions to Turkey. Rather than put her on a train to Heathrow Airport, the guard misunderstood and directed Kumiko to the train to Torquay.

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.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

17 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 17 June:

1. Mumtaz Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan, Mughal, Emperor of India, died on this date in 1629. On her deathbed, Mumtaz expressed a dying wish for a monument which would express the beauty of their love for each other. Jahan obliged, setting 20,000 workers to build a monument more than 20 storeys high, which was completed 22 years later. The Taj Mahal.
2. In 1952 John Whiteside Parsons, pioneering rocket engineer and devil worshipper, tried to follow one of famous occultist Aleister Crowley’s spells to conjure up a homunculus. He must have used too much rocket fuel as the concoction blew up in his face. On the plus side, for him, at least, he would have got to meet Satan himself rather than just one of his minions.
3. In 1999, Canadian researchers carried out an anatomical examination of Albert Einstein’s brain, and found it was wider than average.
4. The largest ship in the world at the time, the 692-foot The Great Eastern, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic on this date in 1860.
5. In 1961, Russian Ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev defected to the west in Frankfurt.
6. In 1826, Australian land owner Frederick Fisher, was murdered by George Worrell, one of his employees, and his body thrown into a creek in New South Wales. The police arrested Worrell, who insisted Fisher was alive and living elsewhere under an assumed name. Legend has it that a ghost, looking like the murder victim, appeared on the bridge over the creek near where Worrell had dumped the body, and pointed directly at the spot when the police were crossing the bridge. On the eve of his execution, Worrell confessed. The creek has been known ever since as Fisher’s Ghost Creek, and an annual festival called the Fisher’s Ghost Festival is commemorated.
7. In 1823, Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he was to use in making raincoats.
8. In 1885 The French ship Isere arrived in New York carrying 350 pieces of a sculpture by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, ready to be assembled. The Statue of Liberty.
9. In 1996, Hungarian inventor Ferenc Kovacs launched the musical Condom.
10. In 2000, Rajaei Sharma became the youngest person to sit a GCSE at the age of six. The exam was in Information Technology.

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.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

16 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 16 June:

1. In 1998, a man drowned in Fox Lake, Illinois when a gust of wind blew his boat over the stick of dynamite he’d thrown in the water to kill the fish.
2. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh premièred in New York on this date in 1960.
3. On this date in 1904, James Joyce met his future wife, the delightfully named Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid at Finn's Hotel, Dublin, and took her for a walk. Leopold Bloom's fictional odyssey through Dublin in Ulysses was based on their first date. This date is now celebrated in Dublin as Bloomsday.
4. In 1975, Randy Farland found a 14-leaf clover near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.
5. In 2018, a missing Indonesian woman's body was found inside a python, one of only two fully documented cases of a human being eaten by a Snake.
6. In 1794, the first stone was laid of the world’s biggest grain Windmill in Holland. Known as ‘De Walvisch’ (the whale), it is still in existence.
7. In 1958, Yellow no parking lines were introduced to British streets.
8. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space as her spacecraft, Vostok 6, was launched. Tereshkova manually controlled Vostok 6 during the almost 3 day flight. In her first and only space flight, Tereshkova completed 48 Earth orbits.
9. In 1929, Otto E. Funk arrived in San Francisco, becoming the first person to have walked across the US playing a Violin. The 4,165 miles took Otto 183 days.
10. In 1939, there was a rain of tiny Frogs in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

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.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle