The German forces reached the outskirts of the French capital on 15 September and General Helmuth von Moltke, the commander of the Prussian army, gave the order to begin surrounding the city.
Over 800 resistance fighters died before the Free French 2nd Armoured Division led by Captain Raymond Dronne arrived just before midnight on 24 August. On 25 August the US 4th Infantry Division entered the city.
Approximately 800 people on the king’s side were killed and Paris was put in the hands of the revolutionaries.
The Bastille had long been a symbol of tyranny as a place for the imprisonment of people without trial, but when it was stormed it only contained seven prisoners.
The first Orient Express train, known at the time as Express d’Orient, departed Paris.
The 1896 Summer Olympics laid down many traditions including the first competitive marathon race.
Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor of the French was a lavish affair that referenced various elements of Carolingian tradition, the ancien régime, and the French Revolution.
The Granville–Paris Express train ran across the station platform, crashed through a 60cm wall, and fell 10 metres to the street below after it overran the buffer stop at the Gare Montparnasse terminus.
At the time it was optimistically hoped that the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact would stop any future wars, but the impact of the Great Depression in the 1930s led nations such as Japan and Italy to launch invasions of Manchuria and Abyssinia respectively.
Vincenzo Peruggia served just six months in jail for the robbery, and was hailed by many Italians as a nationalist hero for returning the Mona Lisa to her real home although it was later returned to France.
28th June 2015
11th November 2022
11th November 2022
9th November 2019
