Oh, by the way.
TODAY IN HISTORY. *echo echo echo*

In 1605, a group of Catholic conspirators plotted to blow up Parliament while the king (James I) was opening the session. It would never have worked, for various reasons: mostly because they were stupid and told some Catholic members of Parliament not to go that day, thereby letting the king's intelligence network (set down by Elizabeth I, mad props, yo) know all about them. They were caught and used as a pretext to persecute Catholics all over the kingdom, and as a spur to the King James Bible's translation. Didn't know that, did ya?

Here's some other things I bet you didn't know. There was never any tunnel under the Houses of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was not the leader: a gent named Robert Catesby was. The original plan was to abduct the royal children and put James's daughter Elizabeth on the throne as a Catholic monarch (because it worked so well the last time). The plot was originally scheduled for 1604 but was called on account of plague. The gentleman who is responsible for putting all the pieces together, Robert Cecil, originally served Elizabeth I, as did his father, William Cecil (fascinating pair of gentlemen; look them up sometime).

Also, Fawkes was kind of an idiot and didn't take care of his gunpowder properly, so there wouldn't have been a big bang and dead King anyway, just a kind of "phbbbt" noise. Good thing he never got to ignite it, huh? "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and pbbbt?"