Happy anniversary, defenestration!

On July 30, nearly six full centuries ago, a crowd of demonstrators converged on the New Town Hall in Prague. They wanted reform in the Catholic Church, and on this occasion in 1419 they were demanding the release of prisoners who supported Jan Hus, whom the Catholics had burned at the stake four years earlier. When the councillors politely but firmly said no, the demonstrators entered the building and politely but firmly threw the councillors out the window. Those who survived the fall were then politely but firmly beaten to death.

New Town Hall, site of the First Defenestration.

The event is the first of the Prague Defenestrations, even though the word defenestration did not appear in language until 1620, two years after the Second Defenestration, when a group of Protestants threw a group of Regents out a window at Prague Castle. According to Merriam-Webster, the word comes from the Latin fenestra, for window. The word also has a metaphorical meeting of a swift dismissal from public office.

Both people-throwing incidents led to wars -- and a dictionary entry.