French Revolution Timeline

  • May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General

    This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    In the Tennis Court Oath, the National Assembly swore not to stop meeting until France had a constitution.
  • Storming of the Bastille

    During the unrest of 1789, on July 14 a mob approached the Bastille to demand the arms and ammunition stored there, and, when the forces guarding the structure resisted, the attackers captured the prison and released the seven prisoners held there.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    it sets out the “natural and inalienable” rights, which are freedom, ownership, security, resistance to oppression
  • Women's March on Versailles

    The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were nearly rioting over the high price of bread.
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    Execution of King Louis XVI

    In November 1792, a secret cupboard containing proof of Louis' counter-revolutionary beliefs and correspondence with foreign powers was discovered in Tuileries Palace. He was brought to trail for treason and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793.
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    Reign of Terror

    The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.