Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 November 5

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Robert Catesby (1572?–1605) was the leader of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, commemorated in Great Britain every 5 November as Guy Fawkes Night. His family were prominent recusant Catholics. He took part in the Essex Rebellion of 1601 but was captured and assessed a large fine, after which he sold his estate at Chastleton. The Protestant James I became King of England in 1603; after he exiled priests and reimposed fines on recusants, Catesby planned to kill him by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder as a prelude to a revolt. Early in 1604 Catesby began to recruit English Catholics to his cause, including Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy, and Guy Fawkes. A letter sent anonymously to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, alerted the authorities, and on the eve of the planned explosion, during a search of Parliament, Fawkes was found guarding the barrels of gunpowder, and arrested. Catesby and the remaining plotters made a stand against a 200-strong company of armed men at Holbeche House in Staffordshire, where he was shot and killed. As a warning to others, his body was exhumed and his head exhibited outside Parliament. (Full article...)

Part of the Gunpowder Plot series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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In the news

Ben Zobrist

In baseball, the Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series for the first time since 1908 (MVP Ben Zobrist pictured).
In baseball, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters defeat the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to win the Japan Series.
Yazidi human rights activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar win the Sakharov Prize.
More than 60 people are killed in an attack on a police training centre in Quetta, Pakistan.
At least 70 people are killed and around 600 others injured in a train derailment in Cameroon.

On this day...

November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries (1605)

Byford Dolphin semi-submersible oil rig

1138 – Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as emperor of Đại Việt at the age of two, starting a 37-year reign.
1898 – Filipinos on Negros Island revolted against Spanish rule and established the short-lived Republic of Negros.
1916 – An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, US, between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World resulted in seven deaths.
1983 – Five workers on the Byford Dolphin (pictured) semi-submersible oil rig were killed in an explosive decompression while drilling in the Frigg gas field in the North Sea.
2009 – Major Nidal Malik Hasan of the United States Army went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, the worst shooting ever to take place on an American military base.

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A rescue exercise being undertaken by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Coast Guard. Formed in 1962, the Canadian Coast Guard is a Special Operating Agency within Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Unlike some other coast guard organizations, it does not have naval or law enforcement responsibilities.

Photograph: Antoine Letarte

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