Template:POTD/2009-07-14
A hand-tinted French etching depicting the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. The fall of the Bastille, along with the earlier Tennis Court Oath, is considered the beginning of the French Revolution, which deposed King Louis XVI and instituted the French First Republic.
According to the caption, the Paris provost Hugues Aubriot, who laid the first stone in 1369, became one of its first prisoners under the pretext of heresy. The caption under the lower image reads, "This is how we punish traitors."Image credit: Unknown