Remember, remember…

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

On this day in 1605 MPs and Peers of the Realm had gathered in the House of Lords to hear the Speech from the Throne by King James I. Unbeknownst to them Catholic terrorist Guido Fawkes was in the cellars, beneath the Houses of Parliament, with barrels of gunpowder ready to blow up the building and all those within it. Fortunately he was caught just in time. If he had succeeded it would have been Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity, centuries before Lockerbie, 9/11 or 7/7.

Guido Fawkes was tortured for the names of his co-conspirators, tried and executed for high treason. Interestingly, upon the discovery of the plot their leader Robert Catesby hid in his house at Uxbridge before fleeing to the Midlands.