23 October: Diana Dors

Blonde bombshell actress Diana Dors was born on this date in 1931. 10 things you might not know about her:

1. She was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, and her real name was Diana Mary Fluck. Dors was her grandmother’s maiden name which she adopted when signing her first film contract. Her theory as to why the film company wanted her to change her name was, “I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew…”

2. Her father was a railway clerk named Albert Edward Sidney Fluck. Well, possibly. Her mother Mary was having an affair with the lodger when she found out she was pregnant and never knew for sure who the father was. And Diana was an only child…

3. When she was at school, she dated Desmond Morris, the future zoologist famous for the book The Naked Ape.

4. Another of her boyfriends was Michael Caborn-Waterfield, who is known for opening the first Ann Summers sex shop. He was a bit of a shady character, though, and ended up in prison for a short spell. While he was doing his time, Diana dumped him for her first husband, publicist Dennis Hamilton. Michael didn’t take it well and tried to sabotage the wedding.

5. She was 13 when she entered a pin up contest in Soldier magazine. She lied about her age, telling them she was 17, and came third.

6. Diana became the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce at the age of 20, even though at that point, she couldn’t drive.

7. In 1981 she appeared in the Adam and the Ants music video for Prince Charming, where she played the fairy godmother.

8. She was a recording artist, too. She released a single on HMV records in 1953, a 78rpm record. The tracks were I Feel So Mmmm and A Kiss and a Cuddle (and a Few Kind Words from You). A few years later in 1960 she released an album, Swingin' Dors, on Red Vinyl.

9. Her nicknames included “The Siren of Swindon,” “The Hurricane in Mink," and “England’s Marilyn Monroe."

10. She died at just 52, from ovarian cancer. A few months later, her third husband and widower Alan Lake was so depressed after losing her that he killed himself at the age of 43. Despite many financial problems during her life, Diana is said to have left behind a hidden fortune. She left the key to its location in code in two halves. Her son Mark had one half and Alan Lake had the other. Mark had so much trouble decoding his part that he turned to forensic scientists and cryptologists for help. However, nobody knows what happened to Alan Lake’s set of clues as he’d topped himself, and so the whereabouts of the money remains unknown.

Character birthday

Brain Cell, aka Callum Brent. He is a genetic variant with genius level intelligence and is a whizz with computers. He is a member of the Freedom League. His father is the estranged brother of Judith Brent (Electric Blue). Callum has no idea that he is related to her. He appears in Who’s That Girl?

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.

His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.

A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?

Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?

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22 October: Princeton University

On this date in 1746, Princeton University received its charter. 10 things you might not know about Princeton:

1. When it received its charter, it wasn’t known as Princeton but as The College of New Jersey. The name was changed in 1896.

2. The main campus consists of more than 200 buildings on 600 acres (2.4 km2) in Princeton, New Jersey.

3. Talking of which, the use of the word “campus” to mean the grounds of a university, originated at Princeton.

4. The official motto is Dei Sub Numine Viget (Under God’s Power She Flourishes).

5. However, Princeton explicitly prohibited the admission of women from 1746 until 1969. That said, the first female graduate student was accepted in 1961 as a “special case”. Her name was Sabra Follett Meservey.

6. Nassau Hall is the oldest building on campus. Completed in 1756, it was the first seat of the New Jersey Legislature in 1776. Nearby is a courtyard called Cannon Green which has an actual cannon buried in it. The cannon in question was left behind by British troops as they fled following the Battle of Princeton.

7. The Princeton colours are Orange and Black and hence its mascot is a Tiger.

8. Some of Princeton’s traditions have included climbing to the top of Nassau Hall to steal the bell clapper, which rings to signal the start of classes on the first day of the school year. However, the health and safety people have put an end to that one by removing the clapper permanently. There also used to be a Nude Olympics which went the same way thanks to sexual harassment and safety concerns. One that still exists is a fight between a freshman and a sophomore over a cane. This originated in the 1870s when sophomores used to get envious of all the freshmen turning up with fancy canes and used to steal the canes and hit the freshmen with them. Another is walking through the university’s main gates, the FitzRandolph Gates, at graduation. It’s said that any student who walks through those gates before that will not graduate.

9. Princeton played in the first intercollegiate football game against Rutgers University in 1869.

10. Famous alumni include: U.S. Presidents James Madison and Woodrow Wilson, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, astronaut Pete Conrad (who took a Princeton flag to the moon in 1969), Actors James Stewart, David Duchovny and Brooke Shields; and writers F Scott Fitzgerald and Jodi Picoult.

Character birthday

Forcefield, aka Emily Lambert, a member of Combat Team Beta. Her power is creating a force field. Emily first used her powers as a teenager, to keep her over-protective parents out of her bedroom. They searched the room several times while she was at school, thinking she was hiding some kind of gadget in there.

She became involved with Combat Team Beta when, as part of her job in advertising, she was assigned to the Paradise Hotels account and given the job of coming up with a campaign for the Combat Teams. Realising she could help, she told them about her powers and volunteered to be part of the team.

21 October: 294

Today is the 294^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 294:

1. The Roman numeral for 294 is CCXCIV. In Binary, it’s 100100110.

2. The Legislative Assembly of West Bengal consists of 294 Members.

3. 294 Felicia is a Main belt Asteroid approximately 35 km in diameter, discovered by Auguste Charlois on 15 July 1890 in Nice.

4. West Air Sweden Flight 294 was a cargo flight of a Canadair CRJ200 from Oslo to Tromsø, Norway that crashed on 8 January 2016.

5. The year 294 was a common year starting on Monday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and (Galerius) Maximianus.

6. Interstate 294 (I-294) is a tolled auxiliary Interstate Highway in northeastern Illinois. It runs from South Holland to Northbrook at I-94 and is 53.42 miles long.

7. In London, the 294 bus runs between Havering Park and Wincanton Road.

8. 294 squared is 86436. The square root of 294 is 17.1464281995.

9. 294 cubed is 25412184. The cube root of 294 is 6.6493997613.

10. Angel number 294 means that significant changes that will occur in your life as the result of your positive attitude and actions. You are meant to achieve great things in life and that you should never give up on your dreams.

Character birthday

Psi Star, a member of Combat Team Gamma who can fly and has psionic powers. She was the youngest of a family of twelve children living on the poverty line in rural Oklahoma. When her powers began to manifest in her early teens, the community in which she lived labelled her a witch. After numerous attempts on her life, she was forced to drop out of high school and run away to New York.

In New York, she lived rough for a few weeks before taken under the wing of gangster matriarch Carlotta Vendetta. She lived with them for several months, using her powers to help them. Carlotta wanted Whitney to marry of her sons and produce offspring with psionic powers. When she began a love affair with Jack Pozzi (Leadslinger) a member of a rival family, the Vendettas threw her out. She followed Leadslinger to England but their affair came to an end soon after. By this time, however, she had a place on Combat Team Gamma.

20 October: Bible Week

This week is Bible week, so here are 10 facts about the Good Book:

1. There are 611,000 words in the Bible (in its original languages). The last one is “Amen”.

2. There are 66 books. Although some denominations include extra ones, all of them recognise the core 66. The longest is Jeremiah and the shortest is 3 John, which only takes about a minute to read.

3. The longest word in the Bible is a name: Mahershalalhashbaz, a son of the prophet Isaiah. The name means “plunder speedeth; spoil hasteth.” People have even given this name to their children. The actor Mahershala Ali’s full name is Mahershalalhashbaz Ali Gilmore.

4. About 100 different animals appear in the Bible. Sheep and Goats are the animals most frequently mentioned and others include Lions, Cheetahs and Crocodiles. The domestic Cat, however, doesn’t appear in the Bible at all.

5. While the Holy Trinity is a basic tenet of the Christian faith, the word “trinity” never appears in the Bible, although there are plenty of verses where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are mentioned together.

6. The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblios, meaning “scrolls”.

7. The smallest Bible in the world is an Old Testament nano-printed onto a five-by-five millimetre Aluminium disc. Each letter measures 600 nanometers, so you ‘d need an electron microscope to read it.

8. At the other end of the scale, the largest Bible in the world is the Waynai Bible, kept at the Abilene Christian University in Texas. It’s a King James version, and weighs over 1,000 pounds, is 43.5 inches tall and measures 98 inches wide when fully open. It was created by one Louis Waynai, a self-ordained minister, who spent two years printing the text using his own self-made rubber stamp press.

9. The original books of the Bible were not divided into chapters and verses. These were added in the 1200s to make referencing easier.

10. As well as being the best selling book in the world (an estimated 25 million copies sold each year in the United States alone), it’s also the most frequently shoplifted. Presumably by people who’ve not read it yet and don’t know about the “Thou shalt not steal” bit.

Character birthday

Tristan Johannesjaegervitch, eldest son of Prince Christopher and Jill Warner, second in line to the Galorvian throne.

19 October: 292

Today is the 292^nd day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 292:

1. The A292 is a road in Kent, England, which runs between Ashford and Willesborough.

2. 292 Ludovica is a main belt Asteroid. It was discovered by Johann Palisa in 1890 in Vienna.

3. JetBlue Flight 292 was a scheduled flight from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on September 21, 2005, Captain Scott Burke executed an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after the nose gear jammed in an abnormal position. No one was injured.

4. Excluding those assigned only to private boxholders, there are 292 Australian Postcodes.

5. In London, the 292 bus runs between Wetherby Road and Carlisle Road.

6. 292 is the number of UK Conservative MPs who “voted to allow sewage dumping by water companies in our rivers and coasts for at least 15 more years”.

7. The year 292 was a leap year starting on Friday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Hannibalianus and Asclepiodotus. In this year, the oldest known Mayan stele was erected at Tikal (modern Guatemala).

8. The Roman numeral for 292 is CCXCII.

9. In binary, it’s 100100100.

10. Angel number 292 relates to work and personal development and says the time has come for professional growth.

Character birthday

Lionel Kingston-Parker, younger son of Titus. Lionel was made the heir to the Kingston-Parker fortune over his older brother Jasper (Obsidian). His son, and later he and his wife were killed by Obsidian, leaving his daughter Fiona (Ivory) as the heir to the fortune.

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future. 

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

18 October: International Necktie Day

18 October is International Necktie Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about ties:

1. Ties developed from the silk kerchiefs worn by Croatian mercenaries serving in France during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). France picked up on the idea and Louis XIV began wearing a lace cravat around 1646 when he was seven and set the fashion for French nobility. These early ties were called cravats, which came from the French word for Croatian people.

2. People who collect ties are called grabatologists.

3. Neckties are banned in Iran where the government of the Islamic Republic considers neckties to be "decadent, un-Islamic" and viewed as "symbols of the Cross" and the oppressive West." A three piece suit is fine, just not the tie.

4. The four most popular ways of tying a tie are: the four-in-hand knot (the easiest and most common); the Pratt knot or Shelby knot, the half Windsor and the Windsor. According to mathematicians Thomas Fink and Yong Mao of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, there are 85 different ways to tie a tie in up to nine moves.

5. The biggest and largest manufacturer of ties in the world is in Shengzhou, China.

6. Striped ties are different depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on. British tie stripes run from the top left to the bottom right, while the American ones go from the top right to the bottom left.

7. A tie could save your life: it’s possible to buy a bullet proof tie that will stop a 9mm bullet.

8. A tie could also kill you, if it gets caught in machinery or somebody grabs it. Hence ties are often banned in industrial settings, and police officers and traffic wardens usually wear clip on ties which will just come off if they find themselves in a confrontation. Also, ties don’t get washed as often as other items of clothing so they’re banned in British hospitals since 2007, because they could be harbouring germs.

9. To make a silk tie you need a silk thread that is 245,000 feet long. That’s about 100 Silkworm cocoons.

10. The world’s most expensive tie was made by an Indian designer, Satya Paul, for the Mumbai fashion show in 2004. The cost of the tie was $220,000 and was made of pure silk and 261 Diamonds.

Character birthday

Nightingale, aka Gail Knight, healer with Combat Team Delta. Gail was the only child of a Baptist minister, and led a sheltered life until she left school. A sensitive child, she would rescue injured animals and birds and nurse them back to health. She was very good at this, unbeknown to anyone, thanks to a genetic variant healing power which operates automatically within a few feet radius of her.

When she went to nursing school in London, her mother succumbed to a cancer which had been held in check by Gail's healing power. She had few friends among her classmates. Her mother's death and loneliness made it hard for her to apply herself to study and while she was excellent at the practical side of nursing, failed all the exams.

She took a job as an orderly on a cancer ward. Patients in the ward had a much higher than average recovery rate, thanks to Gail's presence, even though she was doing no nursing.

The high remission rate of this ward became the subject of a study in which the Freedom League's Neutraliser was taking part. She quickly spotted the reason. Now aware of her ability, Gail remained in her job until the hospital closed down.

After this, she joined Combat Team Delta as their healer.

17 October: Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth, US actress, was born on this date in 1918. Here are 10 things you might not know about her:

1. Her real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino. Hayworth was her mother’s maiden name. Volga Hayworth had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies.

2. Her father, Eduardo, was determined that Rita should become a dancer. He made her take dancing lessons from an early age and spend most of her spare time practising. As a child, she wasn’t keen on dancing but was too afraid of her father to say so. Her first film appearance was at the age of eight with her father’s dance troupe in a short black and white film called La Fiesta.

3. When she was 12, her violent and abusive father decided to take her out of school and make her his dance partner. He made her up to look much older, and got around the fact she was too young to be working in the US by taking her Tijuana, Mexico.

4. There’s a legend which says the Margarita cocktail was named after her during the time she was dancing with her father in Mexico using her real name. There’s no proof this is true.

5. She was quite literally a bombshell. Her image and the name “Gilda” (one of her movies) was glued onto the case of an atom bomb dropped on the Bikini Atoll during a test in 1946. According to then-husband Orson Welles, Hayworth was furious about it.

6. She was a cousin by marriage to Ginger Rogers.

7. One of the prisoners in Shawshank Redemption has a poster of her on his cell wall.

8. Her love life was tumultuous. She married five times. At 18 she married Edward C. Judson, a movie promoter twice her age. He helped establish her career but also pocketed most of her earnings. Her second husband was Orson Welles with whom she had a daughter, Rebecca. However, the marriage failed because he’d fallen in love with her film personas rather than the real woman with baggage and scars. Her third husband was Prince Aly Khan, who she met at Cannes Film Festival in 1948. Hayworth left Hollywood and sailed for France, breaking her contract with Columbia. The couple had a daughter, Yasmin, but the marriage was deemed "illicit" by Pope Pius XII as Hayworth was a Catholic. Prince Aly didn’t give up his philandering ways so that marriage ended, too. Both her fourth and fifth husbands, Dick Haymes and James Hill were abusive. Hayworth left Haymes after he slapped her face in public, and actor Charlton Heston wrote that he and his wife had an embarrassing dinner with Hayworth and Hill in which Hayworth was reduced to tears by her husband. Heston and his wife walked out, and he says this is one of his biggest regrets, that he walked away from Hayworth in her hour of need.

9. In the movie Gilda, while filming a fight scene with co-star Glenn Ford, she knocked out two of his teeth.

10. In 1980, Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which contributed to her death in 1987 at age 68.

Character birthdays

Amethyste and Swallow, twin princesses from Classica, Innovia.

Swallow was the eldest and in line for the throne; Amethyste was jealous and schemed to kill her sister. They were both pulled through the wormhole caused by a nuclear test at Bird Island, after their father made them go on a pilgrimage there in an attempt to get them to settle their differences; but ended up in different places and times. Amethyste became the lover of Desi Troyes (Destroyer) and hence one of the arch enemies of the Raiders. Swallow set out to find the rest of her party, but was rescued and taken in by Fixer, and joined Combat Team Gamma.