A fortress in Paris, once used as a state prison, which was torn down during the French Revolution.
Bastille
Fact of the Day
According to FIFA, football was played in Han-dynasty China (206 BCE - 220 CE): players kicked a leather ball filled with feathers into a net supported by bamboo rods.
Quote of the Day
"It is better for aged diplomats to be bored than for young men to die.
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~ Warren Robinson Austin, US ambassador to the UN
On This Day
52 BCE The Siege of Alesia formally came to an end when Vercingetorix, leader of the Gaulish forces, surrendered to Julius Caesar.
1283 Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last independent ruler of Wales, was hanged, drawn and quartered on the orders of Edward I.
1691 The Treaty of Limerick was signed, ending the Williamite War in Ireland between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange.
1932 Iraq gained independence from Britain, after 17 years of British rule.
1935 Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) without a formal declaration of war.
1981 The second Irish hunger strike at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland was called off. 10 republican prisoners died in the showdown with Margaret Thatcher.