It's Guy Fawkes Day!

On this day, the UK celebrates the foiling of a plot to kill King James I in 1605 by lighting fireworks and, in a morbid twist, burning an effigy of poor Guy.

It's easy to forget that this celebration has grim roots. Guy Fawkes was part of a Catholic plot to kill a Protestant king and his English lords.

The plot failed, which was particularly unfortunate for Fawkes. He was the one guy in the plot unlucky enough to be discovered late on November 4 with dozens of barrels of gunpowder hidden under where the king would sit the next day. The discovery came after a tip-off to a Catholic politician led to an inspection of the cellars under parliament.

Fawkes was swiftly taken into custody at the Tower of London and interrogated until he eventually gave up his coconspirators.

While we'll never know precisely what happened to Fawkes during that period, it seems pretty likely it was bad. There is speculation that Fawkes was tortured using a rack during his stay in the Tower of London.

For a visual on the effects of torture, look at the document below. You can see Fawkes' signature, before the interrogation (he signs as Guido Fawkes, a name he had taken on later in life):

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