The Storming of the Bastille Trivia Questions

The event took place on July 14, 1789, and is celebrated as Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorating the start of the French Revolution.

It was carried out by Parisian revolutionaries and commoners, not the royal army. The king actually ordered troops to withdraw after the event.

The crowd stormed the Bastille to seize its large store of gunpowder and arms, which they needed to defend themselves against possible royal troops.

Governor de Launay was captured by the mob, then killed, and his head was paraded on a pike through Paris.

The Bastille held only seven prisoners at the time, and most were common criminals, not political dissidents. It was largely symbolic as a royal fortress.

The king was not executed until January 1793, over three years after the Storming of the Bastille in July 1789. The event preceded the execution.

Robespierre was not present at the storming; he was a lawyer and later a revolutionary leader. The event was a spontaneous uprising of the Parisian crowd.

When the Bastille was stormed, it held just seven inmates: four forgers, two lunatics, and one aristocrat—far fewer than the hundreds rumored.