Gunpowder, also known since the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter) - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer. Because of its burning properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks.

Gunpowder was, according to prevailing academic consensus, discovered in the 9th century in China, attributed to Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China. In the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Arab world, Europe, and India. The consensus is that this was spread from China, through the Middle East, and then into Europe.

Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, producing a supersonic wave. Ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder is thus less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock roughly until the 2nd half of the 19th century, when the first high explosive (nitro-explosives) were discovered. Gunpowder is no longer used in modern explosive military warheads, nor is it used as main explosive in mining operations due to its cost relative to that of newer alternatives like ANFO.

Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born 31 July 1974) is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appeared as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second series.

Fox was born in London, England. She comes from a thespian family — her mother is actress Joanna David (née Joanne Elizabeth Hacking) and her father is actor Edward Fox. Her uncle is James Fox and her cousins Laurence and Lydia also have successful acting careers. She has a brother Freddie and a half sister Lucy. She was educated at the independent Bryanston School and the University of Oxford where she studied English Literature. Her great-great grandfather was Samson Fox, and her grandmother was the actress Hilda Hanbury, sister of Lily Hanbury. Through Hanbury she is related to the 19th Century actress Ellen Terry.

Fox is a patron for environment and human rights charity the Environmental Justice Foundation.

Miranda Leigh Shelton (née Lambert) (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut album Kerosene. This album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced the singles "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four singles were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

After Epic's Nashville division closed, Lambert was transferred to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was released in early 2007. Although the title track failed to make top 40, the next three singles ("Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder & Lead", and "More Like Her") were all Top 20 hits, with "Gunpowder & Lead" becoming her first Top 10 country hit in July 2008. Lambert's third album, Revolution, was released in September 2009. Five singles have been released from the album, including Lambert's two Number One hits "The House That Built Me," which spent four weeks at the top of the chart, and "Heart Like Mine". Lambert has also been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards.

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.