Every now and then, a terrorist gets remembered in history. Nowadays, only Islamic extremists are recognized carriers-out of destruction. But in 1604, a bunch of British Catholics decided to blow their homeland into political chaos. Included in the group was Guy Fawkes, a former soldier who supposedly knew a great deal about explosives.

Early on the morning of November 5 the next year, some policemen on their coffee break found Guy hanging out in a cellar of the Palace of Westminister, the meetingplace of Parliament. Also with him were thirty-six barrels containing 2,500 kilograms of gunpowder, a watch, slow matches, and touchpaper (whatever that is). Sort of suspicious.


I think the hat Fawkes wore was reason enough to arrest him.

So they put two and one together and got three, then arrested Fawkes. By the way, Fawkes had this whole time been operating under guise as "Mr. John Johnson." Probably the most boring pseudonym ever invented. King James I first interrogated Guy. Guy said he wanted to kill the king and Parliament for various reasons, one being the fact that Jimmy was a Scotsman. After some grueling torture in the Tower of London, Fawkes got all the other guys in trouble. They all got hanged, drawn and quartered simultaneously, a punishment that the British called the "Triple Whammy."

Later, the gunpowder was discovered to have already spoiled, so the whole explosion idea wouldn't have worked anyhow. I guess Fawkes knew less about explosives than he thought. Nowadays, people in Britain burn effigies of Fawkes, whose first name was really Guido, every Fifth of November. Some legacy. Fawkes ranked No. 30 in the BBC's 2002 list of "100 Great Britons." Pretty good for someone who wanted to cause anarchy.

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