November 5 Birthday
November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes was found in a cellar beneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder. The Gunpowder Plot was a plan to blow up Parliament and kill King James I during the state opening. Fawkes was not the leader — Robert Catesby was — but Fawkes was the one caught with the explosives. He was tortured, confessed, and executed. The British have burned his effigy on November 5 ever since. The V for Vendetta mask, which uses Fawkes's face, became a symbol of protest after the graphic novel and film. People born on November 5 fall under the zodiac sign of Scorpio. The birthstone is Topaz and the birth flower is Chrysanthemum. Historical events on November 5 include 1605: Gunpowder Plot — Guy Fawkes caught under Parliament, 1940: FDR elected to unprecedented third term, 2009: Fort Hood shooting. Famous people born on November 5 include Eugene V. Debs (1855), Vivien Leigh (1913), Art Garfunkel (1941).