Today in History, July 14th
On July 14, 1789, a Paris crowd stormed the Bastille, launching the French Revolution. Plus Billy the Kid's death and Jane Goodall's arrival at Gombe.
Published · Last updated
July 14 is best known for 1789, when a Paris crowd stormed the Bastille, the royal fortress-prison whose fall launched the French Revolution. The date also saw Pat Garrett kill Billy the Kid in 1881 and Jane Goodall arrive in what became Gombe Stream National Park in 1960.
The big story: Paris storms the Bastille (1789)
The Bastille had become shorthand for the power of France’s Bourbon kings. It was a royal fortress and a prison, and it held something the angry people of Paris badly wanted. Two days earlier, royal authorities had moved 250 barrels of gunpowder inside. Its military governor, Bernard-René Jordan de Launay, saw trouble coming. He asked for reinforcements, pulled his men inside the walls and raised the two drawbridges. At dawn on July 14, a crowd carrying muskets, swords and improvised weapons gathered outside. When the defenders resisted, the attackers took the fortress anyway. Launay raised a white flag and surrendered, and the seven prisoners inside were set free. Launay himself never reached his trial; a mob killed him on the way. The fall of the Bastille signaled the collapse of the old regime. Within a few years France had abolished its monarchy, and Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette had gone to the guillotine.
More events on July 14
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1798 | The Sedition Act became federal law in the United States. |
| 1865 | Edward Whymper became the first person to climb the Matterhorn. |
| 1881 | Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy the Kid at the Maxwell Ranch. |
| 1918 | Quentin Roosevelt, a son of Theodore Roosevelt, was shot down and killed over France in World War I. |
| 1921 | Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of murder in Massachusetts, a verdict that is still debated. |
| 1946 | Dr. Benjamin Spock published his famous guide to baby and child care. |
| 1953 | The George Washington Carver National Monument was dedicated in Missouri, the first such site honoring a Black American. |
| 1960 | Jane Goodall arrived at what became Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania and began her chimpanzee research. |
| 1968 | Hank Aaron hit his 500th career home run. |
| 2013 | India’s state-run telecom company shut down its telegraph service, sending the world’s last telegram. |
| 2016 | A man drove a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France, killing more than 80 people. |
Born on July 14
- 1862: Gustav Klimt, painter and founder of the Vienna Secession, born in Vienna.
- 1913: Gerald R. Ford, 38th U.S. president, born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska.
- 1918: Ingmar Bergman, Swedish filmmaker behind The Seventh Seal, born in Uppsala.
Sources
- French revolutionaries storm Bastille, History.com
- This Day in History: July 14, History.com
- On This Day: July 14, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Gustav Klimt, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Future president Gerald R. Ford is born, History.com
- Ingmar Bergman, Encyclopaedia Britannica
