Today in Labor History July 14, 1789: Parisians stormed the Bastille, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a fortress, armory and political prison, and was a symbol of tyranny, feudal authority and the "divine" rights of kings. The Marquis de Sade had been imprisoned there and was transferred out only 10 days before the storming. The French Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the monarchy, replacing it with a bourgeois republic. However, it sparked optimism among working people throughout the world and inspired other revolutions, like the Haitian Revolution, in 1791.
