Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration of the Gunpowder Plot, which failed on November 5, 1605. In the UK, the night is marked by fireworks and other activities. Here's one of the rhymes about Guy Fawkes Night:

"Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot."

T. S. Eliot references Guy Fawkes Night in The Hollow Night; Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native starts and ends on Guy Fawkes Night; and other writers have referenced the events of the Gunpowder Plot as well. In V for Vendetta, you may remember these lines: "I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world." How very memorable has Guy Fawkes become?