November 28

On the 28th[i] in 1989, in response to the Velvet Revolution (pictured), a non-violent political movement, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia relinquished its monopoly of power in that country. Researchers have thus far been unable to establish a connection between the Velvet Revolution and Slash’s band Velvet Revolver and it appears to be unlikely that the revolution drew its name from the band.

[i] I am adult enough, though just barely so, to recognize that love comes with a price tag attached to it. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sagely observed in Hang Fire: “Marrying money is a full-time job, I don’t need the aggravation I’m a lazy slob.” I wonder however what £40 was worth in 1582 because that is what William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway paid for a marriage license on the 28th in that year.