The Tower of London

The tower's history dates back to the 11th century, when it was initally designed by a man named Gandulf as a castle for William I. Eventually it became a prison. The last prisoner held in the tower was Nazi leader Rudolph Hess. Hess' story is one of the oddest in modern history. For some reason in 1940 he flew an airplane from German to Scottland, and was then captured. Hess was later transfered to Spandau prison in Germany, where he served a life sentance. The last people to be executed on tower grounds were German spies, during WWI. The last beheading in England occured in 1747 (to put that into persepective, the last beheading in France was in 1977).

Somebody claiming to be "Martin Schmidt" wrote in news:bptqtk$1prac5$[email]:

Actually, Spandau is arguably more famous for its Ballet. :-p

And shouldn't it be "Hess" thanks to the $%!!#$@$ orthography reform of a few years back? I suppose I should be grateful you didn't send your post in Fraktur or S�tterlin....

[email] (Jsonitsac) wrote in news:[email]: (to put that into

I believe that beheading was not in France proper, but in one of its overseas colonies. The death penalty was abolished and the Guillotine decomissioned many years before that.

Somebody claiming to be Ed wrote in news:[email]:

The "d�partements d'outre-mer" are not colonies, but part of France proper. However, I don't know if this arrangement was in force in 1977. These include French Guiana and the Caribbean islands.

French Polynesia is classified as an "overseas territory", while St. Pierre et Miqu�lon (just off the coast of Newfoundland) was a territory before 1976, a d�partement from 1976-1985, and is now a "territorial collectivity". I don't know the exact legal difference between a territorial collectivity and an overseas territory.

That's interesting - French Polynesia has its own currency, though, the Central Pacific Franc.

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 12:25:04 GMT, Gus wrote:

It's also one of the places Bart has traveled to -- can anyone name the episode?

Is it the one where he gets a driver's license when it's vacation time, and he and Martin and Nelson go to the World's Fair? They get stuck there and Bart gets a job as a courrier.

I don't remember all the places he goes to, but it's the only episode that he goes to such exotic places by himself.

Michael

"Michael Black" wrote in message news:bq436i$7g4$[email]...

Speaking of inside jokes. :-)

On 27 Nov 2003 05:48:02 GMT, [email] (Michael Black) wrote:

Yep, "Bart on the Road". He delivers 100 Big Macs to Marlon Brando's island. This is Tetiaroa, in French Polynesia.

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 19:29:32 -0700, Alan Hamilton wrote:

Whoops, sorry. That's *5000* Big Macs.

"Ed" wrote in message ...

I know a little about French history and I can tell you that guillotinings occurred in (mainland) France right up to 1977 (although only 8 executions took place between 1965 and 1977). All were conducted away from the public gaze. By the 1970s a much improved guillotine had been designed but public opinion had grown against the whole idea and capital punishment was abolished in 1981.