1789
Storming of the Bastille
A Parisian crowd, terrified of royal troops massing at the city gates, marched on the medieval fortress in search of gunpowder and freed its seven prisoners. The garrison's commander was beheaded on the spot. Within years the king himself would follow him to the blade. The fortress was torn down stone by stone; its key was sent to George Washington, who hung it at Mount Vernon.
Washington's Inauguration
On Wall Street's Federal Hall balcony, George Washington - in a brown American-made suit and gripping a Bible - took the oath. 'So help me God,' he reportedly added. The streets below filled with cheering New Yorkers. A republic had a chief executive who could, if he wished, refuse to become a king.
Mutiny on the Bounty
In Pacific waters near Tonga, acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian led part of HMS Bounty's crew in mutiny against Captain William Bligh. Bligh and loyalists were set adrift in an open boat - and sailed 3,600 miles to Timor. The mutineers, fearing the gallows, eventually found Pitcairn Island and vanished. Their descendants still live on Pitcairn today, speaking a creole blend of English and Tahitian.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The National Assembly adopted, in seventeen short articles, the principles of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Inspired by the American example, it went further - proclaiming sovereignty in the nation itself. The old regime had no language to answer it. Jefferson, in Paris, helped Lafayette revise a draft.
Estates-General Opens at Versailles
For the first time in 175 years, France's three estates met - clergy, nobles, and a Third Estate double the size of the other two. Louis XVI wanted money; the delegates wanted reform. Within six weeks they had declared themselves a National Assembly and sworn an oath on a tennis court.
Tennis Court Oath
Locked out of their meeting hall, the Third Estate's delegates gathered in Versailles' indoor tennis court and swore not to separate until France had a constitution. Painted by David, retold in schoolrooms, the oath became the founding image of the Revolution - a self-appointed parliament refusing to go home. Within six weeks the king would capitulate, recognize the National Assembly, and begin his long slide toward the scaffold.
Women's March on Versailles
Parisian market women, angry about bread prices, marched the twelve miles to Versailles in the rain. They brought cannon. Next morning they invaded the palace, killed two guards, and forced the king to return with them to Paris. Louis XVI would never again sleep in Versailles. The royal family arrived in the capital as virtual prisoners, guarded by Lafayette's National Guard and watched by a suspicious city.