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Setting the scene
By 1789, France was bankrupt from wars and lavish court spending, with a crushing tax burden falling on the Third Estate (commoners) while clergy and nobility were exempt. A poor harvest in 1788 caused bread prices to double. King Louis XVI called the Estates-General in May 1789 for the first time since 1614 to raise taxes, but the Third Estate, representing 98% of the population, demanded voting by headcount rather than by estate. When locked out of their meeting hall on June 20, they took the Tennis Court Oath to write a constitution.
What happened
On July 11, Louis dismissed his reformist finance minister Necker and concentrated troops around Paris. Fearing a royal coup, Parisians formed a militia and sought weapons. On July 14, 1789, a crowd of 900 stormed the Bastille fortress-prison, a symbol of arbitrary royal power, seeking gunpowder. The governor, Bernard-René de Launay, surrendered after four hours of fighting that killed 98 attackers and one defender. The crowd murdered de Launay and paraded his head on a pike. They freed only seven prisoners—four forgers, two lunatics, and one deviant aristocrat.
Why it still matters
The Bastille's fall forced Louis to recall Necker and accept a constitutional monarchy, but more importantly, it showed popular violence could defeat royal authority. The event became the French Revolution's iconic moment, celebrated annually as Bastille Day, France's national holiday. It triggered the Great Fear in the countryside, leading to the abolition of feudalism on August 4. The storming, though militarily insignificant, proved the revolution had popular muscle and began a decade of radical transformation that would execute the king, spread revolutionary wars, and inspire modern concepts of citizenship and human rights.
Background
July 14 is still commemorated as France's national day.