Thomas Percy was a member of the failed Gunpowder Plot. Following King James's accession to the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with the new king, who he supposed had reneged on his promises of toleration for English Catholics. He joined Robert Catesby's conspiracy to kill the King and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder. Percy helped fund the group and secured the leases to properties in London, including the undercroft beneath the House of Lords where the gunpowder was placed. When the plot was exposed on 5 November 1605, Percy fled to the Midlands, catching up with other conspirators travelling to Dunchurch. At the border of Staffordshire, they were besieged by the Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musket ball as Catesby and was buried nearby. His body was later exhumed, and his head exhibited outside Parliament. (This article is part of a featured topic: Gunpowder Plot.).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Gunpowder_Plot

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1943:

World War II: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican City, which maintained neutrality during the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Rome_in_World_War_II#Bombing_of_Vatican_City

1995:

Aline Chrétien thwarted André Dallaire's attempt to assassinate her husband, Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, by locking the bedroom door in 24 Sussex Drive, their official residence in Ottawa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Sussex_Drive

2003:

American serial killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of first-degree murder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway

2013:

The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

could not get elected dogcatcher: (idiomatic, chiefly US, politics, hyperbolic) Said of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/could_not_get_elected_dogcatcher

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I find a rapture linked with each despair, Well worth the price of anguish. I detect More good than evil in humanity. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes, And men grow better as the world grows old.   --Ella Wheeler Wilcox https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ella_Wheeler_Wilcox