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On 14 July 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille after four hours of fighting that killed 98 attackers and one defender. Inside, they found seven prisoners in a fortress the state had already scheduled for demolition.
On 21 May 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte abandoned the siege of Acre after two months of failed assaults and retreated to Egypt. Three months later he abandoned his army entirely and sailed for France. In any other era, that would have ended his career.
On 16 May 1770, Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste married at Versailles. She was 14, he was 15, and they would fail to consummate the marriage for the next seven years. The consequences were not nothing.
On 7 May 1794, Robespierre introduced a new state religion to replace Christianity. He had 82 days left to live. The Cult of the Supreme Being is one of the stranger episodes in a Revolution that was already stuffed with strange episodes.
On 20 February 1798, French soldiers escorted Pope Pius VI out of Rome. He had ruled as a temporal sovereign — as every pope had for over a thousand years. None would again.
On 4th February 1794, the French National Convention abolished slavery throughout all territories of the First Republic — a revolutionary act that would shape colonial policy for generations.
On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI was executed at the Place de la Révolution. The vote for his death passed by 361 to 319 - a margin of forty-two deputies. What followed made the king look like the easy part.