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May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General
The Estates-General met on May 5, 1789 at the Menus-Plaisirs building in Versailles, France, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was taken on 20 June 1789 by the members of the French Third Estate in a tennis court on the initiative of Jean Joseph Mounier. Their vow "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is established" -
Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress and political prison known as the Bastille. After four hours of fighting and 94 deaths the insurgents were able to enter the Bastille. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution. -
Women's March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles, also known as the October March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. -
Maximilien Robespierre's execution
Robespierre was a leader of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, and was responsible for the execution of over 17,000 people. His execution and the overthrow of his regime are sometimes called the Thermidorian Reaction. -
Execution of King Louis XVI
Louis XVI, former king of France since the abolition of the monarchy, was publicly executed by beheading by guillotine on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution and the French First Republic at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. -
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. Sep 5, 1793 – July 27, 1794 -
Napoleonic Code is established
The Napoleonic Code was a major revision of French law, and was the first major reorganization of the legal system since the Roman era. It had a significant impact on the civil codes of many European and Latin American countries in the 19th century -
Napoleon Crowns himself emperor
Napoleon's crown was made in the style of Continental European crowns, with eight half-arches, shell cameos, and carved carnelians. It sat atop a golden globe with a cross on top. -
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence.May 2, 1808 – Apr 17, 1814 -
Napoleon and his men march on Russia
In June 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée invaded Russia with nearly 500,000 men, crossing the Niemen River from Poland. The invasion was a disaster for the French, with heavy losses and a failed attempt to capture Moscow -
Napoleon is exiled to Elba
Napoleon spent less than a year on Elba, but his time there is the subject of Mark Braude's book The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape. -
Napoleon dies
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military officer and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815.