Almanac for November 5th

Re: The Unfortunate Incident of November 5, 2024 

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for November 5th: https://ko-fi.com/post/Remember-Remember-the-5th-of-November-F1F615MH2H

Today's Observance: Guy Fawkes Day

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Bummer November 5th

November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up the English Parliament, an act known as the Gunpowder Plot. The plot is foiled, Guy Fawkes is convicted and hanged, and burning an effigy of Fawkes becomes an English tradition.

November 5, 1976: St. John’s College student Thomas Fitzgerald dies from a chest wound he sustains when members of the Pershing Rifles military honors society, intimidating him with a bayonet as part of an initiation ritual, accidentally pierce his chest.

November 5, 1983: Four British and two Norwegian divers are working on the semi-submersible oil drilling rig the Byford Dolphin in the North Sea. The party consisted of four divers and two dive tenders. All four divers were inside a diving chamber, connected by a short passage to a diving bell. The chamber and the diving bell were separated by a clamp, a safety precaution needed for the divers to safely move from one to the other. 

For some reason, one of the dive tenders opens the clamp prematurely, causing an explosive decompression in the chamber. All of the air rushes forcefully out of the chamber at tremendous pressure. The tender who opened the clamp and all four divers are killed instantly. The body of one of the divers is forced through a 24-inch opening. The other dive tender is severely injured, but survives.

November 5, 2021: Ten people die in a crowd crush at musician Travis Scott’s Astroworld event in Houston, Texas. An additional 25 people are hospitalized for injuries.

November 5, 2025: Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney dies of pneumonia. Just kidding! That's not a bummer; he was a horrible human being.