On this day in 1787, Edward Gibbon wrote the concluding lines of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The book had been almost 15 years in the making -- 6 volumes, 1.5 million words, 8000 footnotes, 1300 years and 3 continents covered -- and Gibbon took a moment to "commemorate the hour of my final deliverance," which had come just before midnight, in the small summer-house in his garden in Lausanne ... FULL STORY »
