November 5: Guy Fawkes Day

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.

Guy Fawkes (April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York, England; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.

Guy Fawkes was one of the plotters. Fawkes used the pseudonym "John Johnson."

The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. During a search of the House of Lords in the evening on 4 November 1605, Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested. Most of the conspirators fled from London as they learned of the plot's discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Several made a stand against the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House; in the ensuing battle, Catesby was one of those shot and killed. At their trial on 27 January 1606, eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Although weakened by his torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the gruesome latter part of his execution.

In January 1606, during the first sitting of Parliament since the plot, the Observance of 5th November Act 1605 was passed, making services and sermons commemorating the event an annual feature of English life; the act remained in force until 1859. The tradition of marking the day with the ringing of church bells and bonfires started soon after the Plot's discovery, and fireworks were included in some of the earliest celebrations. In Britain, 5 November is variously called Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night, or Guy Fawkes Night.

It remains the custom in Britain, on or around 5 November, to let off fireworks. Traditionally, in the weeks running up to the 5th, children made "guys"—effigies supposedly of Fawkes—usually made from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and fitted with a grotesque mask, to be burnt on 5 November bonfire. These guys were exhibited in the street to collect money for fireworks, although this custom has become less common.

The word guy thus came in the 19th century to mean an oddly dressed person, and hence in the 20th and 21st centuries to mean any male person.

Remember, remember,

The Fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot;

For I see no reason

Why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Nursery rhyme

November 5, 1916, the Everett massacre takes place in Everett, Washington as political differences lead to a shoot-out between the Industrial Workers of the World organizers and local police.

November 5, 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at Midtown Manhattan's New York Marriott East Side, at 525 Lexington Avenue, by by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen who had trained in Pakistan. Nosair was later convicted of the murder in U.S. District Court for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Some researchers, such as Peter Lance, consider Kahane one of the first, if not the first, American victims of the new group Al Qaeda, since his killer is believed to have links to Osama bin Laden's network. The cell that Kahane's assassin belonged to had been training in the New York Metro system since mid-1989.

In August 2010, the Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post claimed that Nosair had two partners and that his original target was Israeli military figure and future Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "He added that on the night he shot Kahane dead, he was accompanied by two co-conspirators to the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan where Kahane was speaking – one of whom was also carrying a gun. The men, Bilal al-Kaisi of Jordan and Mohammed A. Salameh, a Palestinian illegal alien later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, have never been charged for their part in the slaying."


November 5, 2009, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan murders 13 and wounds 32 at Fort Hood, Texas in the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. military installation.

November 5, 2016, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is rushed off stage in Reno, Nevada, during a pseudo-assassination scare.

November 5, 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley kills 26 and injured 20 in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

These violent delights have violent ends.

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Scene 6.

Donald Trump in Reno

No assassination attempt. No gun. Just a sign.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday evening, November 5, 2016, after a disturbance broke out in the crowd. (Reno is Spanish for reindeer, moose. Nevada is the Spanish feminine form of covered in snow.)

This occurred on Guy Fawkes Day, an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

Two Secret Service agents quickly surrounded Trump, then hustled him off stage.

The nature of the disturbance was unclear. But several security officials escorted a man out of the venue soon afterward.

A Homeland Security official confirms the ABC report that no gun was found. The crowd merely panicked as a man tried to raise a sign; someone shouted "gun."

As often happens at appearances of any candidate, the opposing candidate's supporters have signs. In this case, one individual, Austyn Crites, had a "Republicans Against Trump" sign. He attempted to raise it in the air, someone yelled out "gun," and this person was tackled to the ground. Reportedly he was also punched. He credits law enforcement and related personnel for saving his life.

There was no assassination attempt, and, as noted, no gun.

The man was released later.

These violent delights have violent ends.

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Scene 6.

Fort Hood Shootings

Breaking: Alleged Fort Hood lone gunman -- U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- is alive and in custody, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

And so while the news also was that there were two suspects in custody, another still on the run, and another dead, by Thursday evening, the military said "one shooter, still alive" and the earlier report of a dead law enforcement officer is wrong too. It's a female and she is still alive too.


Updated earlier.

Remember, remember the 5th of November: Today is Guy Fawkes Day!

The dead suspect has been identified as a mental health professional, Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan, who had voiced objections to being deployed to the Mideast. It is not known if Hasan was Muslim.

Hasan was born in Virginia and got a bachelor's degree in biochemistry at Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC, in 1997. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in 2001.

He completed a residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed in 2007 and a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry, also at Walter Reed, this year. He also did his internship there.

Ten years after Hasan's graduation, Virginia Tech was the scene of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior English major, killed 32 people and wounded dozens of others in two attacks before killing himself.

Fort Hood, located just 60 miles north from Austin, is the largest U.S. military installation in the world, and has suffered the greatest number of casualities of all American bases in the war on Iraq.

The base is a 340 sq. mile facility located in Killeen, Texas (Bell County) and is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, which was one of the first groups of soldiers deployed to Iraq.

On October 16, 1991, George Hennard murdered 23 people and then died by suicide in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen (known as Luby's Massacre).

Earlier///

Latest figures are that 12 are dead (including one shooter), 31 wounded, one of the dead includes a civil law enforcement officer; one shooter was said to be a "major" with an "Arab-sounding name." Two other suspects are in custody.

Earlier///Earlier///

Breaking news out of Ft. Hood, Texas, is that upwards of 9 soldiers have been killed and about 30 others were injured by one, two, or three uniformed individuals shooting at post personnel.

One uniformed suspect (an "officer") was in custody, another "cornered" suspect may have also been arrested, and rumors of a third shooter are being heard.

Other locations on or near Ft. Hood are also reporting gunfire.

President Obama addressed these events at 5 pm Eastern.

===
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!