"Remember, remember the fifth of November..."

In case you needed an excuse to have a couple of cold ones, burn stuff and light fireworks, look no further. November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day.

On November 5, 1605, England held a celebration for the opening of Parliament. Guy Fawkes tried to spark a revolution by blowing up the building – and the royal family along with it – in what is known as the

.

The plot was foiled when one of Fawkes's co-conspirators sent a letter to a friend telling the friend to stay away from Parliament that night. The letter was intercepted and Fawkes was found in the basement of Parliament getting ready to light the fuse on several dozen barrels of gunpowder.

He was tortured for a list of his co-conspirators, and was hanged in January of 1606.

Fawkes was born a Protestant but converted to Catholicism at a time when Catholics were persecuted in England. He hoped to incite the country to revolution in an attempt to gain equal (or better) recognition for Catholics (read more from the BBC).

Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated by burning effigies of Fawkes in a communal bonfire, and by setting off Fireworks. A British ex-pat living in Burnsville, Minn., brought the celebration to the town one year.

Fawkes's Gunpowder Plot received a modern makeover in the film "V for Vendetta." Here is Hugo Weaving as V detailing his reasons from the movie: