On this day in 1932, Dutch engineers finished what was then the world's biggest dam (18 miles long) which turned the Zuider Zee into a huge freshwater lake. Don't be too impressed, however. In the good old days one little boy held back the sea with a finger in a hole in the dyke.
Hence the old joke - how many Dutchmen does it take to make the Zuider Zee.
In other news ...
You know how unfair it is when the wrong person gets the credit? Stand up Dr Joseph Ignace Guillotin, usually credited with the invention of the execution machine of the French Revolution. He was born today in 1738 and, as a member of the Revolutionary Estates General, advocated the contraption on humanitarian grounds because of its speed. The device had already been used in Scotland, Germany and Italy. Just think how peculiar it would sound however - 'Louis XVI was perhaps the most famous victim of Mrs McPherson/Frau Scherendorfer/Signorina Frescobaldi.'
Doesn't have the same ring, does it?