1605 In the early morning, King James I of England learned that a plot to explode the Parliament building had been uncovered, hours before he was scheduled to sit with the rest of the British government in a general parliamentary session. At about midnight the night before, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar of the Parliament building, and ordered the premises searched. Nearly two tons of gunpowder were found hidden within the cellar. The authorities determined that the suspect was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy, largely organised by Robert Catesby, to annihilate England's entire Protestant government. During the next few months, English authorities killed or captured all of the conspirators, and put the survivors on trial. Guy Fawkes himself was sentenced, along with other chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. However, moments before the start of his gruesome and bloody execution, Fawkes jumped from a ladder while climbing to the hanging platform, breaking his neck and dying instantly. In remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes Day has been celebrated across Great Britain on the fifth of November since 1607. As dusk falls in the evening, villagers and city dwellers across Britain celebrate Fawkes’ failure to blow Parliament and James I to kingdom come. The setting off of fireworks and lighting of bonfires are preceded by children asking for “a penny for the Guy”, a grotesque effigy of Guy Fawkes which is burnt on a bonfire

The Brits can sometimes be gruesome.