French Revolution

  • 1793 BCE

    Committee of Public Safety

    Committee of Public Safety
    created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793—formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror (1793–94), a stage of the French Revolution.
  • 1791 BCE

    Constitution of 1791

     Constitution of 1791
    French constitution created by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting.
  • Convocation of the Estates General

    Convocation of the Estates General
    The Estates-General (or States-General) of 1789 (French: Les États-Généraux de 1789) was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate).
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Tennis Court Oath
    The swearing of the Tennis Court Oath (in French, Serment du jeu de Paume) is one of the pivotal scenes of the French Revolution. On the morning of June 20th 1789, deputies in the newly formed National Assembly gathered to enter the meeting hall at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs at Versailles, only to find the doors locked and guarded by royal troops.
  • Storming of the Bastille.

    Storming of the Bastille.
    The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

     Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
    The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed by France's National Constituent Assembly in August 1789, is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights.
  • Women's March.

    Women's March.
    On this day in 1789, an angry mob of nearly 7,000 working women – armed with pitchforks, pikes and muskets – marched in the rain from Paris to Versailles in what was to be a pivotal event in the intensifying French Revolution.
  • Champ de Mars Massacre

    Champ de Mars Massacre
    The Champ de Mars massacre unfolded on a military parade ground in Paris in July 1791. In the wake of the king’s failed attempt to flee from the revolution, radicals in the political clubs called for the abolition of the monarchy. Leading this republican spirit was the Society of Cordeliers Club and a radical faction within the Jacobin Club. Both drafted petitions demanding the king’s abdication, the dissolution of the monarchy and the creation of a republican state.
  • King’s Execution

     King’s Execution
    One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris
  • The End of the Reign of Terror.

    The End of the Reign of Terror.
    The Reign of Terror, also known as The Terror (French: la Terreur), was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution