jseal,

It was largely about British oppression of the Irish, the aftermath of the failed Jacobite rebellion.

The perspective of the terrorist/freedom fighter blurs.

Had the American revolution failed or the War of 1812 won by the Brits, the American revolutionaries would have been treated like Fawkes.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Oldfart,

Well, perhaps, but history records that Fawkes converted to Catholicism around the age of 16. He enlisted in the army of Archduke Albert of Austria in the Netherlands and fought with the armies of Catholic Spain against the Protestant United Provinces.
So we have a religious convert who traveled to a foreign country where he learned how to use explosives, and returned to his home country where he joined a plot to blow up a civilian target.

These seem to me to be interesting similarities between this 16th century Catholic and some 21st century Muslims.

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Eudaimonia

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever (requires RealPlayer)

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

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Eudaimonia

jseal,

A freedom fighter has to learn his fighting skills somewhere, lest he become a martyr on the first attempt.

We vilify the human bombs the Islamists are using, but praise the dutch kids who walked into bars filled with Gemans with grenades in their pockets.

How we see things is a function of our culture. There are no absolutes.

Our republic.

Yes, our options in 1999 were ill defined, and it's easier to get rid of the Brit queen later than to change a mode of Government that has become entrenched.


PF, I don't want to know why the Germans had grenades in their pockets.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Oldfart,

In re the musings of a frustrated republican, be careful what you ask for - sometimes you get it.

If, by the Dutch kids, you are referring to the WWII resistance movement, I would suggest that their political motivation can be clearly distinguished from the religious ones displayed by the Gunpowder Plotters and Muslim Jihadists.

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Eudaimonia

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1917 ~ Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky.

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

1989 ~ Protests force the resignation of East Germany’s Communist government.

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Eudaimonia

" I would suggest that their political motivation can be clearly distinguished from the religious ones displayed by the Gunpowder Plotters and Muslim Jihadists."

We need to spend some talk time at PAGAN08.

"Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is one of the most passionate and beautiful pieces of modern music.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Oldfart,

I am certain that any conversations we may have at PAGAN08 will be rewarding.

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Eudaimonia

Indeed.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Seems hard to believe that it's been 18 years since protests forced the resignation of East Germany’s Communist government.

dicksbro,

Yes sir, it is! Amazing times, were they not?

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Eudaimonia

1674 ~ Death of John Milton, English poet.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

1987 ~ An IRA bomb killed 11 people during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

2006 ~ The U.S. Democratic Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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Eudaimonia

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1922 ~ Birthday of Imre Lakatos, Hungarian philosopher.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Tal, World Chess Champion.

1938 ~ Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1995 ~ Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to become the world chess champion.

1998 ~ Capital punishment abolished in the United Kingdom.

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Eudaimonia

1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps.

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. opened to public.

1995 ~ Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and human rights activist.

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Eudaimonia

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne.

1885 ~ Birthday of George Patton, American general.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alger Hiss, Spy.

1918 ~ The end of World War I: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1922 ~ Birthday of Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist.

1938 ~ Death of Mary Mallon, aka "Typhoid Mary", carrier of the typhoid disease.

1965 ~ Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.

1992 ~ The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

2000 ~ A cable car full of skiers and snowboarders, many of them children, caught fire in Austria, killing 155 people.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority.

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Eudaimonia