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Today (November 5)

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November 5

Conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November, as the prelude to a revolt in the Midlands during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state. Catesby may have embarked on the scheme after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under King James had faded, leaving many English Catholics disappointed. His fellow plotters (pictured) were John and Christopher Wright, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, John Grant, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham. Fawkes was given charge of the explosives. (This article is part of a featured topic: Gunpowder Plot.)

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On this day

November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries; Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2025)

Meir Kahane

1556 – At the Second Battle of Panipat, forces of the Mughal emperor Akbar captured Hemu, the Hindu emperor of north India.
1854 – Crimean War: Despite being severely outnumbered, and fighting in heavy foggy conditions, the allied armies of the United Kingdom and France defeated the Russians in present-day Inkerman, Ukraine.
1916 – An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World resulted in seven deaths.
1944 – World War II: Allied forces began a military campaign on Japanese-occupied Singapore.
1990 – Ultra-Zionist rabbi Meir Kahane (pictured) was assassinated in a New York City hotel by an Arab gunman.

James Clerk Maxwell (d. 1879)
Vivien Leigh (b. 1913)
Edward Tatum (d. 1975)
Eliud Kipchoge (b. 1984)

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Picture of the day

November 5

The eastern amberwing (Perithemis tenera) is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is very small, reaching a total length of no more than 25 millimetres (0.98 in). Males have orange or amber wings, and both sexes have a red pterostigma. The species is found in eastern North America, from northern Mexico northwards to south-eastern Canada. The eastern amberwing is one of the only types of dragonfly that actively mimics a wasp; the yellow and brown stripes on its abdomen encourage predators to stay away. This male eastern amberwing was photographed in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York City.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

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