In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 14, 1789, revolutionaries created a summer holiday in France when they stormed the Bastille. The fortress was a hated symbol of the monarchy that held political prisoners. Just after dawn, a great crowd gathered outside and was at first repelled by the King's soldiers, but a group managed to sneak over the walls and let down the drawbridge. The French Revolution was officially underway and soon revolutionaries controlled all of Paris, forcing King Louis XVI to accept the constitutional government. A few years after the storming of the Bastille, during the reign of terror, King Louis XVI lost was beheaded.
This Day In History: July 14
