Ignoble Oxygen

May 7 - A little more than two centuries ago, the nation of France was locked in the grip of a deadly meteorological phenomenon referred to by scientists and the Weather Channel alike as "The Rain of Terror."

While waiting for the weather to improve, the French amused themselves by decapitating their royals, nobles, clergy, and eventually anyone they damn well pleased.

208 years ago today (May 7, 1794), they beheaded the popular chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier for having identified oxygen.  It was only years later that the French finally realized oxygen was not one of the noble gases, but by then it was too late.

© 2002, The Moron's Almanac™.