November 5: Remember, Remember the Rockets and Royalty

Light a sparkler and clear some space on the calendar, because November 5 is one of history's great overachievers. This is a day that managed to foil a plot, launch a planet-hopping probe, and birth a few icons along the way. Let's dig in.

Remember, Remember

In 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested during a search of the Palace of Westminster, foiling the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords. Fast-forward a few centuries and the UK, New Zealand, and parts of Canada now celebrate Guy Fawkes Night by setting off fireworks in his honor — which is a wonderfully British way of commemorating a man whose entire plan involved a very large bang that thankfully never went off. Nothing says 'thwarted conspiracy' like gathering the whole town to toast marshmallows.

Speaking of big bangs that actually worked: in 2013, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe. One day we're foiling explosions in a basement, the next we're casually mailing a spacecraft to another planet. Growth.

Birthday Royalty

November 5 has a stacked birthday lineup. Cricket superstar Virat Kohli was born in 1988, which means an entire nation gets to feel feelings about this date. Also arriving in 1992 were NFL showman Odell Beckham Jr. — a man who once made a one-handed catch so absurd physics filed a complaint — and Italian footballer Marco Verratti.

And for the pop crowd: Kevin Jonas (1987), the eldest Jonas Brother, shares this day. Somewhere a middle-schooler from 2008 just gasped. Rounding out the music side is Australian DJ and producer Flume, born 1991, who turned beeps and bloops into festival gold.

History's Underdog Triumphs

This day loves a good against-all-odds story. Way back in 1757, Frederick the Great's Prussian forces defeated the combined French and Habsburg armies at the Battle of Rossbach — the kind of result that gets you a nickname like 'the Great' rather than 'the Pretty Good.' Nearly a century later, in 1854, the allied armies of the UK and France defeated the Russians at Inkerman despite being outnumbered and fighting in heavy fog, essentially winning a battle they could barely see.

And in 1556, forces of the Mughal emperor Akbar triumphed at the Second Battle of Panipat. November 5, it turns out, is where the outnumbered and the ambitious come to make a point.

So go on — light a firework, catch something one-handed, or launch a rocket. The date approves.