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November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, Saddam Hussein sentenced to death
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Maine Fast Fact: Maine raises 90% of North America’s low-bush blueberries with 60,000 acres in production and producing about 74.5 million pounds a year.
Births:
- 1911: Roy Rogers, American actor and singer
- 1913: Vivien Leigh, English actress, known for her film roles as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1931: Ike Turner, American musician, bandleader, record producer and talent scout
- 1941: Art Garfunkel, American musician, part of the group Simon and Garfunkel
- 1959: Bryan Adams, Canadian musician
- 1961: David Bryson, American musician, guitarist and vocalist for the band the Counting Crows
- 1963: Tatum O’Neal, American actress, youngest actor to win a competitive Academy Award when she won for Best Supporting Actress in 1974 for the movie Paper Moon
- 1973: Johnny Damon, American baseball player
- 1974: Ryan Adams, American musician
- 1987: Paul Kevin Jonas II, American musician, guitarist in the group the Jonas Brothers
Deaths:
- 1956: Art Tatum, American musician, jazz pianist, virtuoso and was nearly blind
- 2003: Bobby Hatfield, American singer, part of the duo The Righteous Brothers
History:
- 1605: A conspiracy known as the Gunpowder Plot is prevented when Guy Fawkes is seized before he can blow up the English Houses of Parliament.
- 1831: American slave leader Nat Turner is tried, convicted and sentenced to dead in Virginia for leading the bloodiest slave uprising.
- 1872: Suffragist Susan B. Anthony defies the law and votes for the first time and is later fined $100.
- 1895: George B. Seldon is granted the first U.S. patent for the automobile.
- 1912: Woodrow Wilson is elected president when he defeats incumbent William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt.
- 1937: Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and shares his plans to get more “living space” for the German people.
- 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to his third term as U.S. President, beating Republican Wendell L. Willkie.
- 1956: Britain and France land troops in Egypt around the Suez Canal during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces.
- 1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace and is elected president.
- 1994: Former President Ronald Reagan announces he has Alzheimer’s disease; George Foreman becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 when he knocks out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of the fight.
- 1995: An attempt is made by Andre Dallaire to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada but is prevented when the Prime Minister’s wife locks the door.
- 1996: President Bill Clinton wins a second term as President when he defeats former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
- 2006: Former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.
- 2007: Chang’e 1, China’s first lunar satellite, goes into orbit around the Moon.
November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night in the United Kingdom and former British colonies including New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa and parts of the Caribbean. It is a commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when a group of Roman Catholics planned to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the English Houses of Parliament when King James I and other Protestant aristocracy were inside. The plan was ruined when Parliament received an anonymous warning letter, searched the cellars underneath a few hours before and Guy Fawkes was arrested. The plot was led by Robert Catesby but Fawkes was put in charge of carrying it out. The word “guy” meaning “man” or “person” is actually derived from Guy Fawkes. The night is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks.
