Some dates are famous for one big moment. November 5 has a whole page full of them, and it starts under the floorboards of Parliament.
The man found under Parliament
On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught beneath Parliament in London, guarding the gunpowder hidden there. The plot he was part of aimed at killing Protestant King James I and the leaders of Parliament. It failed because Fawkes was found before the gunpowder could be lit.
Think about who that king was. This is the King James whose name so many of our families know from the Bible translation. The fight under Parliament that night was part of the long and bitter religious conflict of that age, and November 5 is still remembered in Britain every year because of how close the plot came.
Fawkes and the plot are the hero story of our November 5 comic, but the day kept happening for another 400 years.
A day that kept going
In 1688, William of Orange landed in England, a turning point that reshaped the English monarchy.
In 1775, in the middle of the American Revolution, George Washington ordered his soldiers to stop the practice of burning the pope in effigy. Washington needed the support of Catholic Canadians, and he would not have his army mocking their faith while asking for their help. It is a small order that shows a great deal about the man giving it.
In 1781, John Hanson became president of Congress. The comic is careful to say what that office was: a different office from today's presidency, and a good reminder that the government of the United States took shape in stages.
And in 2018, Voyager 2 crossed into interstellar space, a spacecraft built by human hands leaving the neighborhood of our own sun. From gunpowder under Parliament to a probe among the stars, all on the same calendar day.
Election day, over and over
November 5 also keeps landing on American presidential elections. Our comic carries a strip of them: 1872, Grant. 1912, Wilson. 1940, Roosevelt winning a third term. 1968, Nixon. 1996, Clinton. And 2024, Trump winning a nonconsecutive second term. Six elections on one date makes November 5 an easy day to talk with your kids about how voting days and history days are often the same day.
Born and died on November 5
Born on this day in 1494: Hans Sachs, a shoemaker and poet who supported Luther and the Reformation. Born in 1549: Duplessis-Mornay, a French Reformed writer and Huguenot statesman. And on November 5, 1879, James Clerk Maxwell died, the Christian physicist whose work helped explain electricity and magnetism. A shoemaker poet, a statesman of the Reformation, and one of the great scientists of faith, all tied to one date.
Get the comic
Our illustrated This Day in History comic for November 5 rounds up all of this and more on a single page: 20 dated events, the elections strip, and the birthdays, in a format kids can read in one sitting and talk about for a week.
Get the November 5 comic in our shop for $2.49, or read it in the Comics Club library in the This Day in History group.
Working backward through the month? The November 1 comic is the previous entry in the group.
Which November 5 event surprises your family the most?
I make educational comics for Christian homeschool families, on church history, science, and travel. You can find them, plus free printables, at thewanderingpilgrims.com. The Comics Club ($8/month) gets you the whole comics library.