5 November 1605 – Guy Fawkes is captured attempting to incinerate Parliament. The joke is that Fawkes is the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions. Fawkes and some others had intentions of assassinating James I in order to restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. They secured a place under the House of Lords and Fawkes was in charge of setting off the massive stockpile of gunpowder the group has amassed. An anonymous letter caused the authorities to search Westminster Palace where Fawkes was discovered.

Upon his capture Fawkes stated his intention was ‘to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains.’ Fawkes was tortured in the Tower of London and eventually gave up the names of his co-conspirators. Fawkes and others were to be executed on 31 January, but Fawkes leaped from the scaffold from where he was to be hanged, and broke his neck.

The failure of the Gunpowder Plot is commemorated each 5 November, and an effigy of Fawkes is traditionally burned on a bonfire with an accompaniment of fireworks.