Thomas Percy (c. 1560–1605) was a member of the group of provincial
English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Little
is known of his life before 1596 when a distant relation, Henry Percy,
9th Earl of Northumberland, appointed him constable of Alnwick Castle.
Percy acted as the earl's intermediary in a series of confidential
communications with King James VI of Scotland. After James acceded to
the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with him,
supposing that the new king had reneged on promises of toleration for
English Catholics. He met Robert Catesby in 1603, and the following year
joined his conspiracy to kill James and his ministers by blowing up the
House of Lords with gunpowder. Percy provided the group with funding and
secured the leases to certain properties in London, including the
undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords, into which the gunpowder
was placed. When the plot was exposed on 5 November 1605, Percy fled to
the Midlands. He and Catesby were killed on 8 November, during a siege
of Holbeche House in Staffordshire, by the Sheriff of Worcester and his
men.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Percy_(Gunpowder_Plot)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1138:
Ly Anh Tong was enthroned as emperor of Đại Việt at the
age of two, starting a 37-year reign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ly_Anh_Tong>
1925:
Sidney Reilly, the first "super-spy" of the 20th century and
one of the inspirations for James Bond, was executed by the Soviet
secret police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly>
1967:
A train derailed near Hither Green maintenance depot in London,
killing 49 people and injuring 78 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hither_Green_rail_crash>
1983:
Five workers on the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible oil rig
were killed in an explosive decompression while drilling in the Frigg
gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin>
1995:
André Dallaire was thwarted in his attempt to assassinate
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien when Chrétien's wife locked the
door.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Dallaire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
photobomb:
To unexpectedly appear in a photograph, especially so as to ruin the
picture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/photobomb>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the
improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and
the only real revolutionaries are philosophers and saints.
--Will Durant
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Durant>
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