Terry Wogan still up at 6am

SIR Terry Wogan still wakes up super early, despite hanging up his breakfast show headphones.

Read Full Story

Have Your Shout

Ricardo Fuller arrested

Premier League star Ricardo Fuller has been arrested after a nightclub bust-up.

Read Full Story

Have Your Shout

Driver stopped bus to pray

A MUSLIM bus driver stunned passengers by stopping his vehicle, taking off his shoes and praying in the aisle.

Read Full Story

Have Your Shout

Get posting in the Star Forums!

You can join the debate and post your own views in the lively Daily Star Forums!

ALL FIRED UP

ABOVE: Fireworks night will go off with a bang

5th November 2009

By Steve Hughes

Your Shout ( 0 )

MILLIONS of Brits will wrap up warm to celebrate Bonfire Night either at home or at a public fireworks display. Here are the facts behind one of our best-loved traditional festivals,

BONFIRE Night has been celebrated on November 5 in Britain since a failed attempt by a group of Catholics to blow up the opening of Parliament in London in 1605.

THE most famous plotter was Guy Fawkes. He and 12 others planned to kill King James I and senior protestant politicians.

THE gang successfully hid 36 barrels of gunpowder – more than enough to destroy Parliament – under the building for several months.

FAWKES was uncovered on the morning of November 5 after a letter warning Catholic politicians to avoid the opening of Parliament was leaked.

HE was hanged on January 31, 1606, and it is now traditional to burn an effi gy of him on a bonfire.

FIREWORKS were used in the earliest November 5 celebrations, and these days millions are let off on or around Bonfire Night.

CHILDREN traditionally make their own Guy and beg passers-by for “a penny for the Guy” to make pocket money.

THE traditional rhyme about the festivities runs: “Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason will ever be forgot.”

FOOD eaten on Bonfire Night includes toffee apples, black peas with vinegar and jacket potatoes, which are wrapped in foil and cooked in the fire.

Parkin Cake, made of a mix of oatmeal, ginger, treacle and syrup, is also popular.

THE first fireworks were made in China around 2,000 years ago. The fi rst recorded fireworks in England were for the wedding of King Henry VII in 1486.

THE world’s largest single firework was let off in Japan in 1988. It weighed over half a tonne and the blast was over a kilometre wide.

THROWING a firework in a street or public place in the UK is a criminal offence, with a maximum fine of £5,000.

AROUND 1,000 Brits are injured every year at displays, with most hurt by hand-held sparklers. £5m – and rising.