FRIDAY has finally come. Enjoy the weekend!

Today is the anniversary of the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. The event was precipitated by the conflict between the Roman Catholic king and emperor and the Protestant nobility and gentry. At a meeting to try to resolve the issue, two of the Catholic regents, Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and Count Vilem Slavata of Chlum, together with their secretary, Philip Fabricius, were thrown out the window of the Bohemian Chancery by Protestants led by Count von Thurn.

they survived the 70-foot (21-metre) fall from the third floor. Catholics maintained the men were saved by angels or by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who caught them; later Protestant pamphleteers asserted that they survived due to falling onto a dung heap, a story unknown to contemporaries and probably coined in response to divine intervention claims. Philip Fabricius was later ennobled by the Emperor and granted the title Baron von Hohenfall (literally ‘Baron of Highfall’).

The event precipitated the 30 Years’ War, one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%.