William Joyce was born today in 1916. Better known as Lord Haw Haw because of his plummy upper-class broadcasts from Germany during World War Two, he carried American, Irish and British passports. It was the last one that got him hanged since he could legitimately be accused of treason. Nobody took his broadcasts very seriously, but the hangman got the last laugh.
In other news...
A bunch of good ol' boys formed the Ku Klux Klan today in 1866. Their leader was Nathan Bedford Forrest (named after an English footballs club) one of many ex-Confederate soldiers who couldn't accept they'd lost a war they actually couldn't possibly have won. The Klan went on to have a huge white following in the South preventing blacks from voting, obtaining jobs, education and property rights. Later Klan members extended their targets to Jews and Communists, claiming to represent the land of the free.
