Premier Willem Drees, who had run The Netherlands for six uninterrupted years on a welfare-state platform, trotted off to the Queen to resign after a failed rent-increase bill.

Her Majesty Queen Juliana regretted that she would be unable to attend the gala concert of the visiting Philadelphia Orchestra as planned. Late into the evening, Her Majesty would be compelled to spend her time sorting out that most un-Dutch of royal embarrassments: a Cabinet crisis. “A rather unusual phenomenon…