Just Fantastic.

[bjarvis]

Apparently, my birthday coincides with a number of other celebrity birthdays & events... wonkette provides the following:

• Beelzebub VP Dick Cheney (1941), Phil Collins (1951) born.
  
• First brawl on the House floor, 1798.
  
• Jackhammer patented, 1894.
  
• Mahatma Ghandi murdered, 1948.
  
• "The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss," 1960.
  
• Beatles final live performance broken up by the cops, 1969.
  
• Michael Bolton hits No. 1, 1990.
  
• Oliver Cromwell executed after being dead for two years, 1661.
  
• Adolf Hitler sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, 1933.
  
• 7,000 Jews murdered by Nazis in Letychiv, Ukraine, 1943.
  
• Tet Offensive begins, 1968.
  
• Northern Ireland’s Bloody Sunday: 14 civil rights protesters murdered by British paratroopers, 1972.
  

Comments

posthumous executions

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

Cromwell died in 1658 (and was buried in Westminster Abbey). He was succeeded as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (republic) by his son, Richard (aka "tumbledown dick"). Richard didn't have the skills his dad did, and resigned a few months later.

In 1660, the monarchy was restored. One of the things that Charles II promised before he returned was amnesty to most of the supporters of Cromwell. There were no mass reprisals against the parliamentarians, and the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion was passed by the Restoration parliament. The Act specifically exempted the Regicides, that is, the ones who signed Charles I's death warrant. Those who didn't flee into exile were executed (and were essentially the only blood spilled in the Restoration).

Three of the Regicides, including Oliver, had died in the interim. Their bodies were exhumed and hanged in chains at Tyburn. Oliver's head was later on a public pike outside Westminster Abbey, and only buried much later. Naturally enough, it wasn't put back in the Abbey - Charles II not being too fond of the man who had his dad (Charles I) executed.

Oliver's posthumous execution date (January 30, later to be much more famous as Brian's Birthday) was symbolic and deliberately chosen -- the anniversary of Charles I's beheading.