The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a failed assassination attempt against
King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial
English Catholics led by Sir Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up
the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on
5 November, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during
which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be
installed as the Catholic head of state. Catesby may have embarked on
the scheme after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under
King James had faded, leaving many English Catholics disappointed. His
fellow plotters were John Wright, Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy
Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Wintour, Christopher Wright,
John Grant, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis
Tresham. Fawkes, who had 10 years of military experience fighting in
the Spanish Netherlands in suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given
charge of the explosives.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1338:
Ly Anh Tong was enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two,
starting a 37-year reign.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ly_Anh_Tong>
1838:
The collapse of the Federal Republic of Central America began with
Nicaragua seceding from the union.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America>
1854:
Crimean War: Despite being severely outnumbered, and fighting in heavy
foggy conditions, the allied armies of the United Kingdom and France
defeated the Russians at present-day Inkerman, Ukraine.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Inkerman>
2007:
Chang'e 1 , the first unmanned spacecraft of the China National Space
Administration's Lunar Exploration Program, entered into lunar orbit.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_1>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
isthmus (n):
A narrow strip of land, bordered on two sides by water, and connecting
two larger landmasses
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isthmus>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up
my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I
said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in
it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there
is a soul in prison, I am not free.
--Eugene V. Debs
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs>
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