October 21, 2017: "Gunpowder" Premieres

Left to right: Kit Harington as Catesby,

Tom Cullum as Fawkes, Peter Mullan as Garnett

October 21, 2017: The miniseries Gunpowder premieres on BBC One, telling of the Gunpowder Plot that was foiled on November 5, 1605.

On that date, Guy Fawkes, a 35-year-old Catholic fanatic from York, England, is arrested beneath the House of Lords at Britain's Parliament, for plotting to blow it up, taking with it the Protestant King James I, his wife Queen Anne, and their sons Prince Henry and Prince Charles. The idea was to place James' daughter, Princess Elizabeth, on the throne. She was just 9 years old, and would, under their order, be raised as, and be married to, a Catholic.

Westminster, in a 1647 drawing.

It would have appeared much the same in 1605.

In hindsight, the plot was doomed to failure. The gunpowder was too damp: Lighting it would have had little effect, and aside from whoever lit it, nobody would have died.

And if it had worked? Instead of the people of England rising up in celebration, the reaction would have been like America's after Pearl Harbor and 9/11, or Britain's after the Brighton bombing of 1984 failed to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: A moment of fear, followed by righteous rage. The conspirators would not have lived to see Christmas, no matter what they did.

Although all the conspirators were caught and hanged, Fawkes is generally the only one remembered. Today, Britain chooses to "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot," and it's known as Guy Fawkes Night, commemorated with fireworks and bonfires -- leading to its other name, Bonfire Night.

There are those, of course, who commemorate the plot, rather than its failure, but these are less Fawkes' fellow Catholic fanatics, and more people who don't like the government, whoever currently holds it: Fawkes is often called "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions."

Guy Fawkes

The 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta features an antihero wearing a mask designed to look like Fawkes, and his attempt to take down a tyrannical government in a dystopian future: 1997 in the book, 2038 in the film -- meaning that Norsefire took over in 2018.

The film based on it (with some considerable differences) was supposed to be released on November 5, 2005, the 400th Anniversary, but after the London bombings of July 7 of that year, it was considered to be too soon, and it was pushed back to March 17, 2006 -- St. Patrick's Day.

Except, in both book and film, "V" got one big thing very wrong: The government Fawkes was trying to bring down was actually more tolerant toward his faith than the one that came before (under Queen Elizabeth I), while the one he wanted to impose would have been a faith-based dictatorship that would have brooked no dissent -- much like the one "V" was trying to bring down. Not the only inconsistency in the character.

The 2017 series Gunpowder was developed by Ronan Bennett, Daniel West, and Kit Harington. Harington, better known in America as John Snow on the TV series Game of Thrones, stars as the actual leader of the plot, Robert Catesby, of whom he is a direct descendant.

Peter Mullan played Henry Garnet, a Jesuit priest who was executed for high treason, for having had advance knowledge of the Plot, and refusing to violate the Seal of the Confessional by notifying the authorities.

Mark Gatiss played Robert Cecil, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, spymaster for King James, discoverer of the Plot, and ancestor of Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of Britain in 1885 and 1886, again from 1886 to 1892, and again from 1895 to 1902.

Liv Tyler played Anne Vaux, daughter of Baron Vaux, who hosted some of the plotters' meetings, making her, effectively, the Mary Surratt of England. Fawkes was played by Tom Cullen. And King James was played by Derek Riddell.

In a 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Fawkes, while Robert Rico played another legendary failed revolutionary, Che Guevara.

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October 21, 2017 was a Saturday. Game 7 of the American League Championship Series was played at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. The Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees, 4-0, to win their 2nd Pennant, their 1st since moving to the AL.Evan Gattis and Jose Altuve hit home runs, while the Yankees couldn't touch Astro pitchers Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers Jr., who only allowed 3 hits. The Astros went on to win the World Series for the 1st time, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series, 2 days earlier.

Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Alabama beat Tennessee, 45-7 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 'Bama went on to lose only 1 game, but it was to arch-rival Auburn, so they only got a share of the Southeastern Conference West Division title, and did not play in the SEC Championship Game. But they finished 4th in the national rankings, and got into the National Championship Playoff.

* Number 2 Penn State beat Number 19 Michigan, 42-13 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Penn State lost their next 2 games, blowing the Big 10 Conference title. But they still got back up to Number 9, and faced then-Number 11 University of Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, which Penn State won.

* Number 3 Georgia were idle. They went on to lose to Auburn, but bounced back to win the SEC East Division, and beat Auburn in the SEC Championship Game, putting them in the National Championship Playoff.

While Alabama and Georgia have played many games against each other, some of them with both of them ranked, they had not played each other in the regular season, but they ended up facing each other in the National Championship Game, at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. If the quasi-home field advantage helped Georgia, it wasn't enough, as Alabama won, 26-23 in overtime.

* Number 4 Texas Christian University beat Kansas, 43-0 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Number 5 Wisconsin beat Maryland, 38-13 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Number 6 Ohio State were idle. Despite an early loss to Oklahoma and a later loss to Iowa, they won the Big 10 Conference title.

* Number 7 Clemson were idle. They went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title, but lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, which served as a National Semifinal.

* Number 8 Miami beat Syracuse, 27-19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Miami lost the ACC Championship Game to Clemson, still got to play in the Orange Bowl on their home field, and lost it to Wisconsin.

* Number 9 Oklahoma beat Kansas State, 42-35 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. Oklahoma went on to win the Big 12 Conference title. However, they lost to Georgia in the Rose Bowl, which served as a National Semifinal.

* Number 10 Oklahoma State beat Texas, 13-10 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* In a major rivalry game, Number 11 University of Southern California got clobbered by Number 13 Notre Dame, 49-14 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame got up to Number 3 before losing to Miami and Stanford.

USC bounced back, and beat Stanford in the Pac-12 Conference title game. But they lost the Cotton Bowl to Ohio State. That wasn't right: Not because USC lost to Ohio State, but because they were playing each other in the Cotton Bowl instead of the Rose Bowl.

* Number 21 Auburn beat Arkansas, 52-20 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. A loss to Louisiana State the week before hurt Auburn, but they went on to upset Georgia and arch-rival Alabama, each of them ranked Number 1 at the time, to win the SEC West Division title. But Georgia avenged their defeat in the SEC Championship Game.

* Among the service academies, Army beat Temple, 31-28 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy lost to Central Florida, 31-21 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and the night before, Air Force beat the University of Nevada, 45-42 at Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada.

* And New Jersey's team, Rutgers, beat Purdue, 14-12 at High Point Solutions Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

There were 11 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 111-107 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers, 112-108 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors, 111-101 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 128-94 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 114-93 at the Rocket Mortgage Field House (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Chicago Bulls, 87-77 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 113-110 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 44 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Mavericks, 107-91 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Sacramento Kings, 96-79 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena)in Denver.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 96-87 at the Vivint Smart Home Arena (as the Delta Center was then known) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns, 130-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 12 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Nashville Predators, 4-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the San Jose Sharks, 5-3 at the Barclays Center.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins, 5-4 at the TD Garden in Boston. Ryan O'Reilly scored the winning goal with 2:01 left in overtime.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals, 4-1 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-1 at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Ottawa Senators beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-4 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Arizona Coyotes, 4-2 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames, 4-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Vegas Golden Knights beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the T-Mobile Arena outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. It was only the 7th regular-season game in VGK history, and the 5th home game. William Karlsson scored the winning goal with 24 seconds left in overtime.

March 17, 2006: “V for Vendetta” Debuts In Film

March 17, 2006: V for Vendetta premieres, one of several movies featuring Hugo Weaving with his face obscured. It was supposed to be released on November 5, 2005, the 400th Anniversary of the failed Gunpowder Plot that the film's plot cites, but the London bombings the previous July 7 made the producers decide it was too soon.

It is rather different from the Alan Moore graphic novel which inspired it -- enough that Moore, as he usually does, disavowed the film version of his work, so that only one "co-writer" was listed in the credits. For one thing, the Chancellor, the deeply religious but weak Adam Susan, was one of the less important villains in the novel. In the film, he becomes the truly ruthless demagogue Adam Sutler, the name a portmanteau of "Susan" and "Hitler." It was weird to see John Hurt go from playing Winston Smith in the best-known film version of George Orwell’s 1984 to playing, essentially, Big Brother.

Another difference is that Evey Hammond started the graphic novel as 16 years old, desperate but still relatively innocent. When the film starts, she's 25, has a job, and lives decently (though oppressed) on her own, and already pretty jaded. As Evey, Natalie Portman was not ripped for her fake British accent as much as Anne Hathaway was for hers in One Day.

We never see V's face, even though he takes his mask off once, and we never learn his true identity. Given the time-frame -- the St. Mary's virus occurs in 2018, 13 years in the future when it was filmed -- I thought, perhaps, "V" meant that King William V had been deposed, imprisoned, and experimented upon. (Prince William was 23 and Duke of Cambridge during filming, and would have been 56 at the time of the film's November 5, 2038 climax.) 

There's a lot of things in this film which make no sense – mainly that a totalitarian government capable of subduing a nation of 65 million people (Britain) probably wouldn’t have become so incompetent in just 20 years.

Then again, the same thing happened in Star Wars, which, like V for Vendetta, remains one of my top 5 favorite films of all time. Like Star Wars, V for Vendetta is a film for anyone who has ever wanted to see a bully get what's coming to him -- whether an individual (Grand Moff Tarkin, Chancellor Sutler, Lewis Prothero as played by Roger Allam, Peter Creedy as played by Tim Pigott-Smith) or an entire government (the Galactic Empire, Sutler's Norsefire).

What's more, we now know that 100,000 people dying from a virus in 2018 wouldn’t scare America – because over 10 times that many died from one in 2020-21, and instead of scaring Americans into rejecting an incumbent government, the incumbent government lied and called it a hoax, and millions were stupid enough to believe that, and voted to re-elect that government – which was already Fascist. Fortunately, enough people voted against that government for other reasons. Unfortunately, four years later, enough people stayed home to allow that government back in.

By the way, the movie isn't really about V, or even Evey. It's about Inspector Eric Finch (Stephen Rea): The good guy who realizes he's been fighting for the bad guys, and, Spoiler Alert, in the end does the right thing. Which is nothing.

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March 17, 2006 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 11 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-103 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 92-89 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Washington Wizards, 104-94 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Atlanta Hawks, 111-101 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics, 84-77 at the TD Waterhouse Center (formerly the Orlando Arena).

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Denver Nuggets, 116-102 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Mike Miller didn't start for the Grizzlies, but scored 41 points off the bench. Carmelo Anthony scored 33 in defeat for the Nuggets.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 97-96 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 99-84 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-93 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, 108-102 at the SBC Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio Center.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-89 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Florida Panthers, 4-2 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 at the United Center in Chicago.