Timeline of the French Revolution

The following is a timeline of the French Revolution.

1788 – The royal treasury is empty; Prelude to the Revolution

Musée Ingres-Bourdelle - Portrait de Louis XVI - Joseph-Siffred Duplessis - Joconde06070000102.jpg, Louis XVI in 1777
File:%C3%89tienne_Charles_de_Lom%C3%A9nie_de_Brienne.PNG, Étienne Charles de Brienne, minister of finance 1787-88
File:Necker,_Jacques_-_Duplessis.jpg, Jacques Necker, minister of finance 1788-90

* June 7: Day of the Tiles in Grenoble, first revolt against the king.
* July 21: Assembly of Vizille, assembly of the Estates-General of Dauphiné.
* August 8: The royal treasury is declared empty, and the Parliament of Paris refuses to reform the tax system or loan the Crown more money. To win their support for fiscal reforms, the Minister of Finance, Brienne, sets May 5, 1789 for a meeting of the Estates General, an assembly of the nobility, clergy and commoners (the Third Estate), which has not met since 1614.
* August 16: The treasury suspends payments on the debts of the government.
* August 25: Brienne resigns as Minister of Finance, and is replaced by the Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who is popular with the Third Estate. French bankers and businessmen, who have always held Necker in high regard, agree to loan the state 75 million, on the condition that the Estates General will have full powers to reform the system.
* December 27: Over the opposition of the nobles, Necker announces that the representation of the Third Estate will be doubled, and that nobles and clergymen will be eligible to sit with the Third Estate.

1789 – The Revolution Begins; the Estates-General and the Constituent Assembly

File:Estatesgeneral.jpg, The King opens the meeting of the Estates-General (May 5, 1789)
File:Troisordres.jpg, Cartoon showing the Third Estate carrying the weight of the clergy and the nobility (1789)
File:Couder - Le Serment du Jeu de Paume, 20 juin 1789.jpg, The Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789), by Couder


January 1789
* January: The Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes a pamphlet, '' What is the Third Estate?'' he writes; "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand to be? Something." The pamphlet is widely distributed.
* January 24: King Louis XVI convokes elections for delegates to the Estates-General
April 1789
* April 27: Riots in Paris by workers of the Réveillon wallpaper factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Twenty-five workers were killed in battles with police.
May 1789
* May 2: Presentation to the King of the Deputies of the Estates-General at Versailles. The clergy and nobles are welcomed with formal ceremonies and processions, the Third Estate is not.
* May 5: Formal opening of the Estates-General at Versailles.
* May 6: The Deputies of the Third Estate refuse to meet separately from the other Estates, occupy the main hall, and invite the clergy and nobility to join them.
* May 11: The nobility refuses to meet together with the Third Estate, but the clergy hesitates, and suspends the verification of its deputies.
* May 20: The clergy renounces its special tax privileges, and accepts the principle of fiscal equality.
* May 22: The nobility renounces its special tax privileges. However, the three estates are unable to agree on a common program.
* May 25: The Third Estate deputies from Paris, delayed by election procedures, arrive in Versailles.

June 1789
* June 3: The scientist Jean Sylvain Bailly is chosen the leader of the Third Estate deputies.
* June 4: Upon the death of seven-year-old Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin of France, the eldest son and heir of Louis XVI, his four-year-old brother, Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy, becomes the new Dauphin.
* June 6: The deputies of the nobility reject a compromise program proposed by finance minister Jacques Necker.
* June 10: At the suggestion of Sieyès, the Third Estate deputies decide to hold their own meeting, and invite the other Estates to join them.
* June 13–14: Nine deputies from the clergy decide to join the meeting of the Third Estate.
* June 17: On the proposal of Sieyès, the deputies of the Third Estate declare themselves the National Assembly. To ensure popular support, they decree that taxes need only be paid while the Assembly is in session.
* June 19: By a vote of 149 to 137, the deputies of the clergy join the assembly of the Third Estate.
* June 20: On the orders of Louis XVI, the meeting hall of the Third Estate is closed and locked. At the suggestion of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the deputies gather instead in the indoor tennis court, where they swear not to separate until they have given France a new Constitution (the Tennis Court Oath).
* June 21: The Royal Council rejects the financial program of Minister Necker.
* June 22: The new National Assembly meets in the church of Saint Louis in Versailles. One hundred fifty deputies from the clergy attend, along with two deputies from the nobility.
* June 23: Louis XVI personally addresses the Estates-General (a ''Séance royale''), where he invalidates the decisions of the National Assembly and instructs the three estates to continue to meet separately. The king departs followed by the Second- and most of the First-Estate deputies, but the Third-Estate deputies remain in the hall. When the king's master of ceremonies reminds them that Louis has invalidated their decrees, the Comte de Mirabeau, Third-Estate deputy from Aix, boldly shouts that "we are assembled here by the will of the people" and that they would "leave only at the point of a bayonet".
* June 25: 48 nobles, headed by Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, join the Assembly.
* June 27: Louis XVI reverses course, instructs the nobility and clergy to meet with the other estates, and recognizes the new Assembly. At the same time, he orders reliable military units, largely composed of Swiss and German mercenaries, to Paris.
* June 30: A crowd invades the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and liberates soldiers who had been imprisoned for attending meetings of political clubs.

July 1789
* July 6: The National Assembly forms a committee of thirty members to write a new Constitution.
* July 8: As tensions mount, the Comte de Mirabeau, Third-Estate deputy from Aix, demands that the Gardes Françaises of the military household of the king of France be moved out of Paris, and that a new civil guard be created within the city.
* July 9: The National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly.

July 14, 1789 – The Siege and Surrender of the Bastille

File:Action entre le régiment Royal-Allemand commandé par le prince le Lambesc et un détachement des Gardes françaises.jpg, German soldiers of the King's guard skirmish with the ''Gardes-Française'' in Paris (July 12, 1789)
File:Prise de la Bastille IMG 2250.jpg, Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)
File:Jacques de Flesselles.jpg, Parade of the heads of the governor of the Bastille and the Provost of Paris merchants (July 14, 1789)

* July 11: Louis XVI abruptly dismisses Necker. Parisians respond by burning the unpopular customs barriers, and invading and looting the monastery of the ''Lazaristes''. Skirmishes between the cavalrymen of the Régiment de Royal-Allemand of the King's Guard and the angry crowd outside the Tuileries Palace. The ''Gardes Françaises'' largely take the side of the crowd.
* July 13: The National Assembly declares itself in permanent session. At the ''Hôtel de Ville'', city leaders begin to form a governing committee and an armed militia.
* July 14: Storming of the Bastille. A large armed crowd besieges the Bastille, which holds only seven prisoners but has a large supply of gunpowder, which the crowd wants. After several hours of resistance, the governor of the fortress de Launay, finally surrenders; as he exits, he is killed by the crowd. The crowd also kills de Flesselles, the provost of the Paris merchants.

* July 15: The astronomer and mathematician Jean Sylvain Bailly is named mayor of Paris, and Lafayette is appointed Commander of the newly formed National Guard.
* July 16: The King reinstates Necker as finance minister and withdraws royal troops from the center of the city. The new elected Paris assembly votes the destruction of the Bastille fortress. Similar committees and local militias are formed in Lyon, Rennes, and in other large French cities.
* July 17: The King visits Paris, where he is welcomed at the ''Hôtel de Ville'' by Bailly and Lafayette, and wears the tricolor cockade. Sensing what is ahead, several prominent members of the nobility, including the Count of Artois, the Prince de Condé, the Duke of Enghien, the Baron de Breteuil, the Duke of Broglie, the Duke of Polignac and his wife become the first of a wave of ''émigrés'' to leave France.
* July 18: Camille Desmoulins begins publication of 'La France libre', demanding a much more radical revolution and calling for a republic arguing that revolutionary violence is justified.
* July 22: An armed mob on the ''Place de Grève'' massacres Berthier de Sauvigny, Intendant of Paris, and his father-in-law, accused of speculating in grain.
* July 21-August 14: the Great Fear: Riots and peasant revolts in Strasbourg (July 21), Le Mans (July 23), Colmar, Alsace, and Hainaut (July 25).
* July 28: Jacques Pierre Brissot begins publication of ''Le Patriote français'', an influential newspaper of the revolutionary movement known as the Girondins.

August 1789
* August 4:
**The King appoints a government of reformist ministers around Necker.
**August Decrees: The Assembly votes to abolish the privileges and feudal rights of the nobility.
* August 7: Publication of "A plot uncovered to lull the people to sleep" by Jean-Paul Marat, denouncing the reforms of August 4 as insufficient and demanding a much more radical revolution. Marat quickly becomes the voice of the most turbulent ''sans-culottes'' faction of the Revolution.
* August 23: The Assembly proclaims freedom of religious opinions.
* August 24: The Assembly proclaims freedom of speech.

August 27, 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

File:Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen_in_1789.jpg, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
File:Rouillard - Camille Desmoulins.jpg, Camille Desmoulins
File:Jean-paul marat 4.jpg, Jean-Paul Marat

* August 27: The Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, drafted largely by Lafayette.
* August 28: The Assembly debates giving the King the power to veto legislation.
* August 30: Camille Desmoulins organizes an uprising at the Palais-Royal to block the proposed veto for the King and to force the King to return to Paris. The uprising fails.
* August 31: The Constitution Committee of the Assembly proposes a two-house parliament and a royal right of veto.
* September 9: The Mayor of Troyes is assassinated by a mob.
* September 11: The National Assembly gives the King the power to temporarily veto laws for two legislative sessions.
* September 15: Desmoulins publishes ''Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens,'' a radical pamphlet justifying political violence and exalting the Parisian mob.
* September 16: First issue of Jean Paul Marat's newspaper, ''L'Ami du peuple'', proposing a radical social and political revolution.
* September 19: Election of a new municipal assembly in Paris, with three hundred members elected by districts.
* October 1: At the ''banquet des Gardes du Corps du Roi'' in Versailles, which Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the Dauphin attended at dessert time, the King's guards put on the white royal ''cocarde''. The false news quickly reaches Paris that the guards had trampled on the tricolor and causes outrage.

October 6, 1789 – Women's March on Versailles

* October 5: Marat's newspaper demands a march on Versailles to protest the insult to the ''cocarde tricolor''. Thousands of women take part in the march, joined in the evening by the Paris national guard led by Lafayette.
* October 6: After an orderly march, a crowd of women invade the Palace. The women demand that the King and his family accompany them back to Paris, and the King agrees. The National Assembly also decides to relocate to Paris.
* October 10: The Assembly names Lafayette commander of the regular army in and around Paris. The Assembly also modifies the royal title from "King of France and Navarre" to "King of the French". Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a doctor, member of the Assembly, proposes a new and more humane form of public execution, which eventually is named after him, the guillotine.
* October 12: Louis XVI secretly writes to king Charles IV of Spain, complaining of mistreatment. The Count of Artois secretly writes to Joseph II of Austria requesting a military intervention in France.
* October 19: The National Assembly holds its first meeting in Paris, in the chapel of the archbishop's residence next to Notre Dame Cathedral.
* October 21: The Assembly declares a state of martial law to prevent future uprisings.
* November 2: The Assembly votes to place property of the Church at the disposition of the Nation.
* November 9: The Assembly moves to the ''Salle du Manège'', the former riding school near the Tuileries Palace.
* November 28: First issue of Desmoulins' weekly ''Histoire des Révolutions de France et de Brabant'', savagely attacking royalists and aristocrats.
* November: the Breton Club is reconstituted in Paris at the Saint-Honore monastery of Doninicans, who were more popularly known as Jacobins, under the name Society of Friends of the Constitution
* December 1: Revolt by the sailors of the French Navy in Toulon, who arrest Admiral d'Albert.
* December 9: The Assembly decides to divide France into departments, in place of the former provinces of France.
* December 19: Introduction of the ''assignat'', a form of currency based not on silver, but on the value of the property of the Church confiscated by the State.
* December 24: The Assembly decrees that Protestants are eligible to hold public office; Jews are still excluded.

1790 – the Rise of the Political Clubs

File:Jean-paul marat 4.jpg, Jean-Paul Marat
File:Gravure Assemblée nationale, époque du 4 février 1790 1 - Archives Nationales - AE-II-3878.jpg, Meeting of the National Assembly (February 4, 1790)
File:Federation.jpg, ''Fête de la Fédération'' (July 14, 1790)

* January 7: Riot in Versailles demanding lower bread prices.
* January 18: Marat publishes a fierce attack on finance minister Necker.
* January 22: Paris municipal police try to arrest Marat for his violent attacks on the government, but he is defended by a crowd of ''sans-culottes'' and escapes to London.
* February 13: The Assembly forbids the taking of religious vows and suppresses the contemplative religious orders.
* February 23: The Assembly requires ''curés'' (parish priests) in churches across France to read aloud the decrees of the Assembly.
* February 28: The Assembly abolishes the requirement that army officers be members of the nobility.
* March 8: The Assembly decides to continue the institution of slavery in French colonies, but permits the establishment of colonial assemblies.
* March 12: The Assembly approves the sale of the property of the church by municipalities
* March 29: Pope Pius VI condemns the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in a secret consistory.
* April 5-June 10: A series of pro-catholic and anti-revolutionary riots in the French provinces; in Vannes (April 5), Nîmes (April 6), Toulouse (April 18), Toulon (May 3), and Avignon (June 10) protesting measures taken against the church.
* April 17: Foundation of the Cordeliers club, which meets in the former convent of that name. It becomes one of most vocal proponents of radical change.
* April 30: Riots in Marseille. Three forts are captured, and the commander of Fort Saint-Jean, the Chevalier de Beausset, is assassinated.
* May 12: Lafayette and Jean Sylvain Bailly institute the Society of 1789.
* May 15: Law passed that allows for the redemption of manorial dues.
* May 18: Marat returns to Paris and resumes publication of ''L'Ami du people''.
* May 22: The Assembly decides that it alone can decide issues of war and peace, but that the war cannot be declared without the proposition and sanction by the King.
* May 30: Lyon celebrates the Revolution with a ''Fête de la Fédération''. Lille holds a similar event on June 6. Strasbourg on June 13, Rouen on June 19.
* June 3: Uprising of biracial residents of the French colony of Martinique.
* June 19: The Assembly abolishes the titles, orders, and other privileges of the hereditary nobility.
* June 26: Avignon, then under the rule of the Pope, asks to be joined to France. The Assembly, wishing to avoid a confrontation with Pope Pius VI, delays a decision.
* June 26: Diplomats of England, Austria, Prussia and the United Provinces meet at Reichenbach to discuss possible military intervention against the French Revolution.
* July 12: The Assembly adopts the final text on the status of the French clergy. Clergymen lose their special status, and are required to take an oath of allegiance to the government.

July 14, 1790 – ''Fête de la Fédération''

* July 14: The ''Fête de la Fédération'' is held on the ''Champ de Mars'' in Paris to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution. The event is attended by the king and queen, the National Assembly, the government, and a huge crowd. Lafayette takes a civic oath vowing to "be ever faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; to support with our utmost power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by the king." This oath is taken by his troops, as well as the king. The ''Fête de la Fédération'' is the last event to unite all the different factions in Paris during the Revolution.
* July 23: The Pope writes a secret letter to Louis XVI, promising to condemn the Assembly's abolition of the special status of the French clergy.
* July 26: Marat publishes a demand for the immediate execution of five to six hundred aristocrats to save the Revolution.
* July 28: The Assembly refuses to allow Austrian troops to cross French territory to suppress an uprising in Belgium, inspired by the French Revolution.
* July 31: The Assembly decides to take legal action against Marat and Camille Desmoulins because of their calls for revolutionary violence.
* August 16: The Assembly establishes positions of justices of the peace around the country to replace the traditional courts held by the local nobles.
* August 16: The Assembly calls for the re-establishment of discipline in the army.
* August 31: Battles in Nancy between rebellious soldiers of the army and the national guard units of the city, who support Lafayette and the Assembly.
* September 4: Necker, the finance minister, is dismissed. The National Assembly takes charge of the public treasury.
* September 16: Mutiny of sailors of the French fleet at Brest.
* October 6: Louis XVI writes his cousin, Charles IV of Spain, to express his hostility to the new status of the French clergy.
* October 12: The Assembly dissolves the local assembly of Saint-Dominque (now Haiti) and again reaffirms the institution of slavery.
* October 21: The Assembly decrees that the tricolor will replace the white flag and fleur-de-lys of the French monarchy as emblem of France.
* November 4: Insurrection in the French colony of Isle de France (now Mauritius).
* November 25: Uprising of black slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti).
* November 27: The Assembly decrees that all members of the clergy must take an oath to the Nation, the Law and the King. A large majority of French clergymen refuse to take the oath.
* December 3: Louis XVI writes to King Frederick William II of Prussia asking for a military intervention by European monarchs to restore his authority.
* December 27: Thirty-nine deputies of the Assembly, who are also clergymen, take an oath of allegiance to the government. However, a majority of clergymen serving in the Assembly refuse to take the oath.

1791 – The unsuccessful flight of the Royal Family from Paris

File:Portrait of Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti - Audouin 1791.jpg, The comte de Mirabeau (1791)
File:Arrest of Louis XVI and his Family, Varennes, 1791.jpg, The King and his family are recognized and arrested at Varennes (June 21, 1791)

* January 1: Mirabeau elected President of the Assembly
* January 3: Priests are ordered to take an oath to the Nation within twenty-four hours. A majority of clerical members of the Assembly refuse to take the oath.
* February 19: ''Mesdames'', the daughters of Louis XV and aunts of Louis XVI, depart France for exile.
* February 24: Constitutional bishops, who have taken an oath to the State, replace the former Church hierarchy.
* February 28: Day of Daggers. Lafayette orders the arrest of 400 armed aristocrats who have gathered at the Tuileries Palace to protect the royal family. They are freed on March 13.
* March 2: Abolition of the traditional trade guilds.
* March 3: The Assembly orders that the silver objects owned by the Church be melted down and sold to fund the government.
* March 10: Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
* March 25: Diplomatic relations broken between France and the Vatican.
* April 2: Death of Mirabeau.
* April 3: The Assembly proposes transforming the new church of Sainte Geneviève, not yet consecrated, into the Panthéon. a mausoleum for illustrious citizens of France. On May 4, the remains of Mirabeau are the first to be placed in the new ''Panthéon''.
* April 13: Encyclical of Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
* April 18: The National Guard, despite orders from Lafayette, blocks the royal family from going to the ''Château de Saint-Cloud'' to celebrate Easter.
* May 16: On a proposal of Robespierre, the Assembly votes to forbid members of the current Assembly to become candidates for the next Assembly.
* May 30: The Assembly orders the transfers of the ashes of Voltaire to the Panthéon.
* June 14: The Chapelier Law is passed by the Assembly, abolishing corporations and forbidding labor unions and strikes.
* June 15: The Assembly forbids priests to wear ecclesiastical robes outside churches.

June 20–21, 1791 – The Royal Family flees Paris

* June 20–21: The Flight to Varennes. In the night of 20–21 June, the King, the Queen and their children slip out of the Tuileries Palace and flee by carriage in the direction of Montmédy.
* June 21–22: The King is recognized at Varennes. The Assembly announces that he was taken against his will, and sends three commissioners to bring him back to Paris.
* June 25: Louis XVI returns to Paris. The Assembly suspends his functions until further notice.
* July 5: Emperor Leopold II issues the Padua Circular calling on the royal houses of Europe to come to the aid of Louis XVI, his brother-in-law.
* July 9: The Assembly decrees that ''émigrés'' must return to France within two months, or forfeit their property.
* July 11: The ashes of Voltaire are transferred to the ''Panthéon''.
* July 15: National Assembly declares the king inviolable, and cannot be put on trial. Louis XVI suspended from his duties until the ratification of a new Constitution.
* July 16: The more moderate members of the Jacobins club break away to form a new club, the Feuillants.
* July 17: A demonstration sponsored by the Jacobins, Cordeliers and their allies carries a petition demanding the removal of the King to the ''Champ de Mars''. The city government raises the red flag, the sign of martial law, and forbids the demonstration. The National Guard fires on the crowd, and some fifty persons are killed.
*July 18: Following the events in the ''Champ de Mars'', the Assembly forbids incitement to riot, urging citizens to disobey the law, and seditious publications, aimed at the Jacobins and Cordeliers. Marat goes into hiding and Danton flees to England.
* August 14: Slave uprising begins in Saint Domingue (Haiti)
* August 27: Declaration of Pillnitz - A proclamation by Frederick William II of Prussia and Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, affirms their wish to "put the King of France in a state to strengthen the bases of monarchic government." This vague statement is taken in France as a direct threat by the other European powers to intervene in the Revolution.
* September 13–14: Louis XVI formally accepts the new Constitution.
* September 27: The Assembly declares that all men living in France, regardless of color, are free, but preserves slavery in French colonies. French Jews are granted citizenship.
* September 29: The Assembly limits membership in the National Guard to citizens who pay a certain level of taxes, thus excluding the working class.
* September 30: Last day of the National Constituent Assembly. Assembly grants amnesty to all those punished for illegal political activity since 1788.
* October 1: First session of the new national Legislative Assembly. Claude Pastoret, a monarchist, is elected President of the assembly.
* October 16: Riots against the revolutionary commune, or city government, in Avignon. After an official of the commune is killed, anti-government prisoners kept in the basements of the Papal Palace are massacred.
* November 9: ''Émigrés'' are again ordered to return to France before January 1, 1792, under penalty of losing their property and a sentence of death. King Louis XVI vetoes the declaration on November 11, but asks his brothers to return to France.
* November 14: Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve is elected mayor of Paris, with 6,728 votes against 3,126 for Lafayette. Out of 80,000 eligible voters, 70,000 abstain.
* November 25: The Legislative Assembly creates a Committee of Surveillance to oversee the government.
* November 29: Priests are again ordered to take an oath to the government, or to be considered suspects.
* December 3: The King writes a secret letter to Frederick William II of Prussia, urging him to intervene militarily in France "to prevent the evil which is happening here before it overtakes the other states of Europe.
* December 3: Louis XVI's brothers, (the counts of Provence and Artois) refuse to return to France, citing "the moral and physical captivity in which the King is being held."
* December 14: Lafayette receives command of one of the three new armies established to defend the French borders, the Army of the Centre, based at Metz. The other two armies are commanded by Rochambeau (Army of the North) and Nicolas Luckner (Army of the Rhine).
* December 28: The Assembly votes to summon a mass army of volunteers to defend the borders of France,

1792 – War and the overthrow of the monarchy

File:Louis le dernier3 crop.jpg, The king is forced to wear a Phrygian cap and drink a toast to the Nation (June 20, 1792)
File:Jacques Bertaux - Prise du palais des Tuileries - 1793.jpg, ''Sans-Culottes'' take possession of the Tuileries Palace and massacre the Swiss Guards (August 10, 1792)
File:Massacres des 2, 3, 4, 5 et 6 septembre 1792.jpg, Massacre of prisoners in Paris prisons (September 2–7, 1792)
File:Valmy Battle painting.jpg, French victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy (September 29, 1792)

* 23 January: The slave uprising in Haiti causes severe shortages of sugar and coffee in Paris. Riots against food shortages; many food shops are looted.January–March: Food riots in Paris
* February 1: French citizens are required to have a passport to travel in the interior of the country.
* February 7: Austria and Prussia sign in Berlin a military convention to invade France and defend the monarchy.
* February 9: The Assembly decrees the confiscation of the property of ''émigrés'', for the benefit of the Nation.
* February 23: Confrontation between the army and crowds in Béthune over the allocation of grain.
* March 7: The Duke of Brunswick is named to command a joint Austrian-Prussian invasion of France.
* April 4: The Assembly granted equal rights to free people of color in Haiti.Ghachem, Malick W. The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
* April 5: The Assembly closes the Sorbonne, a center of conservative theology.
* April 20: The Assembly declares war on the King of Bohemia and Hungary, i.e. to the Holy Roman Empire.
* April 25: La Marseillaise composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, is sung for the first time in Strasbourg.
* April 28: The war begins. The army of Rochambeau invades the Austrian Netherlands.
* April 30: The government issues three hundred million ''assignats'' to finance the war.
* May 5: The Assembly orders the raising of thirty-one new battalions for the army.
* May 6: The Royal-Allemand regiment ( Régiment de Royal-Allemand cavalerie), composed of German mercenaries, deserts the French army and joins the Austrian-Prussian coalition.
* May 12: The Hussar regiments of Saxe and Bercheny desert the French Army and join the coalition.
* May 27: The Assembly orders the deportation of priests who have not signed the oath to the government, known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
* June 8: The Assembly orders the raising of an army of twenty thousand volunteers to be camped outside Paris.
* June 11: Louis XVI vetoes the laws on the deportation of priests and the formation of a new army outside Paris.
* June 20: A secret insurrectionary committee, supported by the Paris Commune and led by the prosecutors Louis Pierre Manuel and Georges Danton, is formed.
* June 20: Demonstrators invade the Tuileries Palace and king Louis XVI condescends to wear a red liberty cap and drink to the health of the Nation.
* June 21: The Assembly bans gatherings of armed citizens within the city limits.
* June 28: Lafayette speaks to the Assembly, denouncing the actions of the Jacobins and other radical groups in the Assembly. His proposal to organize a review of the National guard in Paris is annulled by Pétion, mayor of Paris.
* June 30: Lafayette leaves Paris and returns to his army. He is denounced by Robespierre and his effigy is burned by a mob at the Palais-Royal.
* July 11: As the Austrian army advances slowly toward Paris, the Assembly declares that the Nation is in danger ('' La patrie en danger'').
* July 15: The Assembly votes to send regular army units, whose officers largely support Lafayette, far outside the city.
* July 15: Members of the Cordeliers club, led by Danton, demand the convocation of a Convention to replace the Legislative Assembly.
* July 25: The Assembly authorizes the Paris sections, local assemblies in each neighborhood, many controlled by the Jacobins and Cordeliers, to meet in permanent sessions.
* July 25: Brunswick Manifesto - The Austrian commander warns that should the royal family be harmed, an "exemplary and eternally memorable revenge" will follow.
* July 28: The Brunswick Manifesto is widely circulated in Paris, causing fury against the King.
* July 30: Decree by the Assembly allows working-class citizens (those who pay no taxes) to join the National Guard.
* July 30: Arrival in Paris of volunteer '' fédérés'' from Marseille. They sing the new war hymn, of the Army of the Rhine, which gradually takes their name, La Marseillaise. Fights break out between the new volunteers and soldiers of the National Guard loyal to Lafayette.
* August 3: 47 of the 48 sections of Paris, mostly controlled by the Cordeliers and the Jacobins, send petitions to the Assembly, demanding the removal of the King. They are presented by Pétion, the mayor of Paris.
*August 4: The Paris section Number Eighty proclaims an insurrection on August 10 if the Assembly does not remove the King. At the request of the royal household, the Swiss guards at the Tuileries are reinforced, and joined by many armed nobles.
* August 9: Georges Danton, a deputy city prosecutor, and his Cordeliers allies take over the Paris city government and establish the Revolutionary Paris commune. They take possession of the ''Hôtel de Ville''. They increase the number of Commune deputies to 288. The Assembly recognizes them as the legal government of Paris on August 10.

August 10, 1792 – Storming of the Tuileries; Downfall of the King

* August 10: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. The National Guard of the insurrectional Paris Commune and revolutionary '' fédérés'' from Marseille and Brittany attack the Tuileries Palace. The King and his family take refuge in the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss Guards defending the Palace are massacred. The Legislative Assembly provisionally suspends the authority of the King, and orders the election of a new government, the Convention.
* August 11: The Assembly elects a new Executive Committee to replace the government. Danton is named Minister of Justice. The municipalities are authorized to arrest suspected enemies of the Revolution, and royalist newspapers and publications are banned.
* August 13: Royal family imprisoned in the Temple.
* August 14: Lafayette tries unsuccessfully to persuade his army to march on Paris to rescue the royal family.
* August 17: At the demand of Robespierre and the Commune of Paris, who threatens an armed uprising if the Assembly does not comply, the Assembly votes the creation of a Revolutionary Tribunal, the members of which are selected by the Commune, and the summoning of a National Convention to replace the Assembly.
* August 18: The Assembly abolishes the religious teaching orders and those running hospitals, the last remaining religious orders in France.
* August 19: Lafayette leaves his army and goes into exile. The Coalition army of Austrian and Prussian soldiers, and of French ''émigrés'', led by the Duke of Brunswick crosses the northern and eastern borders into France.
* August 21: First summary judgement by the Revolutionary Tribunal and execution by the guillotine of a royalist, Louis Collenot d'Angremont ( fr).
* August 22: The Paris Commune orders that persons henceforth be addressed as ''Citoyen'' and ''Citoyenne'' ("Citizen") rather than ''Monsieur'' or ''Madame''.
* August 22: Royalist riots in Brittany, Vendée and Dauphiné.
* September 2: Capitulation without a fight of Verdun to Brunswick's troops.

September 2–7, 1792 – Massacres in Paris prisons

* September 2–7: Following the news of surrender of Verdun, the Commune orders massacres of prisoners in Paris prisons. Between 1400 and 2000 prisoners are massacred, the great majority were common criminals, 17 percent were priests, 6 percent Swiss guards, and 5 percent political prisoners.
* September 10: The government requisitions all church objects made of gold or silver.
* September 19: Creation of the Louvre Museum displaying art taken from royal collections.
* September 20: Last session of Assembly votes a new law permitting civil marriage and divorce.

September 20, 1792 – French victory at Valmy; Debut of the Convention

* September 20: The French army under Generals Dumouriez and Kellermann defeat the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy. The Prussians retreat.
* September 20: The newly elected National Convention holds its first session behind closed doors, in the ''Salle du Manège'', the former riding school of the Tuileries Palace, and elects its Bureau. Of the 749 deputies, 113 are Jacobins, who take their seats in the highest benches in the hall, the ''Montagne'' (Mountain), thus their nickname of ''Montagnards'', the "Mountaineers".
* September 22: The Convention proclaims the abolition of royalty and the First French Republic.
* September 29: French troops occupy Nice, then part of Savoy.
* October 3: French troops occupy Basel in Switzerland, then ruled by Archbishop of Basel, and proclaim it an independent Republic.
* October 23: French troops occupy Frankfurt am Main.
* October 27: The French army under Dumouriez invades the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). They occupy Brussels on November 14.
* November 19: The Convention claims the right to intervene in any country "where people desire to recover their freedom".
* November 20: Discovery in the king's apartment in the Tuileries Palace of the '' armoire de fer'', an iron strongbox containing Louis XVI's secret correspondence with Mirabeau and with foreign monarchs.
* November 27: The Convention decrees the attachment of Nice and the Savoy to France.
* November 28: The French army occupies Liège.
* December 3: Robespierre, leader of the Jacobins and First Deputy for Paris in the Convention, demands that the King be put to death.
* December 4: Deputies sent by Brussels assembly to the National Convention express gratitude of the Belgian people and request that France officially recognise the independence of Belgium. The Convention adopts immediately the proposed decree.
* December 6: At the proposal of Jean-Paul Marat, the Convention rules that each deputy must individually and publicly declare his vote on the death penalty for the King.

December 10, 1792-January 21, 1793 – Trial and Execution of Louis XVI

* December 10: Opening of the trial of Louis XVI before the Convention.
* December 11: Louis XVI is brought before the Convention. He appears in person twice, December 11 and 26.
* December 26: Defense of the King presented by his lawyer, Raymond Desèze (Raymond ''comte de Sèze'').
* December 27–28: Motions in the Convention asking that people vote on judgement of the King. The motion is opposed by Robespierre, who declares "Louis must die so that the nation may live." The Convention rejects the motion for French voters to decide the King's fate.
* January 15: The Convention declares Louis XVI guilty of conspiracy against public liberty by a vote of 707 to zero.
* January 17: In a vote lasting twenty-one hours, 361 deputies vote for the death penalty, and 360 against (including 26 for a death penalty followed by a pardon). The Convention rejects a final appeal to the people.
* January 21: Louis XVI is beheaded at 10:22 on ''Place de la Révolution''. The commander of the execution, Antoine Joseph Santerre, orders a drum roll to drown out his final words to the crowd.

File:LouisXVIExecutionBig.jpg, The execution of Louis XVI (January 21, 1793)
File:Tribunal révolutionnaire 04.jpg, The Revolutionary Tribunal at work in 1793

1793 – France at war against Europe; The Jacobins seize power; The Terror begins

* January 21: Louis XVI, at age 38, was beheaded by guillotine on the ''Place de la Révolution''.

* January 24: Breaking of diplomatic relations between England and France.
* February 1: The Convention declares war against England and the Dutch Republic.
* February 14: The Convention annexes the Principality of Monaco.
* February 14: Jean Nicolas Pache is elected the new mayor of Paris.
* March 1: Decree of the Convention annexes Belgium to France.
* March 3: Armed royalist uprising against the Convention begins in Brittany.
* March 7: The Convention declares war against Spain.

Uprising in the Vendée

* March 7: War in the Vendée. Armed uprising against the rule of the Convention, particularly against conscription into the army, begins in the Vendée region of west-central France.
* March 10: Revolutionary Tribunal established in Paris, with Fouquier-Tinville as the public prosecutor.
* March 10: Failed uprising in Paris by the ultra-revolutionary faction known as the ''enragés'', led by the former priest Jacques Roux.
* March 18: The Convention decrees the death penalty for those advocating radical economic programs, a decree aimed at the ''enragés''.
* March 19: The Convention decrees the death penalty for any participant in the uprising in the Vendée.
* March 21: Establishment of Revolutionary Surveillance Committees (''Comités de surveillance révolutionnaire'') in all communes and their sections.
* March 27: General Dumouriez denounces revolutionary anarchy.
* March 30: The Convention orders Dumouriez to return to Paris, and sends four commissaires and Pierre de Ruel, the Minister of War, to arrest him.
* April 1: Dumouriez arrests the commissaires of the Convention and Minister of War and hands them over to the Austrians,
* April 3: Convention declares Dumouriez outside the law.
* April 3: Arrest of Philippe Égalité, a deputy and head of the Orléans branch of the royal family, who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI, his cousin.
* April 4: Dumouriez fails to persuade his army to march on Paris, and goes over to the Austrians on April 5.
* April 5: Jean Paul Marat is elected head of the Jacobin Club.

April 6–May 30, 1793 - Committee on Public Safety takes control of government

* April 6: Committee of Public Safety established by the Convention to oversee the ministries and to be chief executive body of the government. Its first nine members included Bertrand Barère, Pierre Joseph Cambon and Georges Danton.
* April 6: First session of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
* April 12: The Convention votes to arrest Marat for using his newspaper ''L'Ami du peuple'' to incite violence and murder, and demand to suspend the Convention. Marat goes into hiding.
* April 15: The mayor of Paris, Jean Nicolas Pache, demands that the Convention expel 23 deputies belonging to the moderate Girondin faction.
* April 24: Marat is brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and is acquitted of all charges. His release causes riotous celebrations by his supporters.
* May 3: The rebels of the Vendée, led by the aristocrats Charles de Bonchamps and Henri de La Rochejaquelein, capture Bressuire.
* May 4: At the demand of the Paris section of Saint-Antoine, the Convention fixes a maximum price for grain.
* May 24: At the demand of the Girondins, the Convention orders the arrest of the ultra-revolutionary ''enragés'' leaders Jacques René Hébert and Jean Varlet.
* May 25: The Paris Commune demands the release of Hébert and Varlet.
* May 26: At the Jacobin Club, Robespierre and Marat call for an insurrection against the Convention. The Paris Commune begins preparing a seizure of power.
* May 27: Release of Hébert and Varlet.
* May 30: The leaders of Lyon rebel against the Convention, arresting the local ''Montagnard'' and ''enragés'' leaders.

May 31-June 2, 1793 – The Jacobin Coup d'État

* May 31: Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793. An armed crowd of sans-culottes organized by the Commune storms the hall of the Convention and demands that it disband. The deputies resist.
* June 2: The sans-culottes and soldiers of the Paris Commune, led by François Hanriot, occupy the hall of the Convention and force it to vote for the arrest of 29 Girondins deputies, and two ministers, Claviére and Lebrun.
* June 6: Revolts against the Montagnard coup d'état in Marseille, Nîmes, and Toulouse.
* June 7: Bordeaux rejects the new government.
* June 10: Montagnards gain control of the Committee of Public Safety.
* June 10: Despite the Revolution, scientific research continues. Opening of the National Museum of Natural History.
* June 13: Leaders of departments opposing the new government meet in Caen. About sixty departments are in revolt against Montagnard government in Paris.
* June 24: Ratification of new Constitution by the National Convention.
* June 25: Jacques Roux, leader of the ultra-revolutionary ''enragés'', presents his program to the Convention.
* June 26; Robespierre denounces the ''enragés'' before the Convention.
* June 30: Robespierre and Hébert lead a delegation of Jacobins to the Cordeliers Club to demand the exclusion from the club of Roux and the other ultra-revolutionary leaders.
* July 3: The eight-year-old Louis XVII, king of France in the eyes of the royalists, is taken from Marie Antoinette and given to a cobbler named Antoine Simon on orders from the National Convention.
* July 4: Marat violently denounces the ''enragés''.

July 13, 1793 – Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday

* July 13: Charlotte Corday assassinates Jean-Paul Marat in his bath. At her trial, she declares, "I killed one man to save a hundred thousand."
* July 17: Charlotte Corday is tried and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal for murdering Marat. She is guillotined after her trial.
* July 27: Robespierre elected to the Committee of Public Safety.
* July 27: The Convention institutes death penalty for those who hoard scarce goods.
* August 1: The Convention declares a scorched earth policy against all departments rebelling against its authority.
* August 1: The Convention adopts the principles of the metric system.
* August 1: On order by decree of the Convention, a mob profanes the tombs of the Kings of France at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
* August 2: Marie-Antoinette is transferred from the Temple to the Conciergerie.
* August 8: The Convention sends an army led by General Kellermann to lay siege to the rebellious city of Lyon.
* August 22: Robespierre is elected the president of the Convention.
* August 23: '' Levée en masse'' voted by the Convention. All able-bodied non-married men between ages 18 and 25 are required to serve in the army.
* August 25: Soldiers of the Convention capture Marseille.
* August 27: Anti-Convention leaders in Toulon invite the British fleet and army to occupy the city.
* September 4: ''Sans-culottes'' occupy the Convention and demand the arrest of suspected opponents of the Revolution, and the creation of a new revolutionary army of 60,000 men.

September 17, 1793 – The Reign of Terror begins

* September 17: Convention adopts a new Law of Suspects, permitting the arrest and rapid trial of anyone suspected of opposing the Revolution. Start of Reign of Terror.
* September 18: Convention re-establishes revolutionary government in Bordeaux. Opponents are arrested and imprisoned.
* September 21: All women are required to wear a ''cocarde tricolor''.
* September 29: The Convention passes the General Maximum, fixing the prices of many goods and services, as well as maximum salaries.
* October 3: The Convention orders that Marie-Antoinette be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal.
* October 3: Additional moderate deputies are accused and excluded from the Assembly; a total of 136 deputies are excluded.
* October 5: To break with the past and replace traditional religious holidays, the Convention adopts the newly created Republican Calendar: Year I is declared to have begun on September 22, 1792.
* October 9: Lyon is recaptured by the army of the Convention.
* October 10: A decree by the Convention puts the new Constitution on hold. On a proposal from Saint-Just, the Convention declares that "The government of France is revolutionary until the peace."
* October 12: The Convention decrees that the city of Lyon will be destroyed in punishment for its rebellion, and renamed ''Ville-Affranchie''.
* October 12: Marie-Antoinette is summoned before the Revolutionary Tribunal and charged with treason.
* October 16: The Army of the Convention defeats the Austrian Army at the Battle of Wattignies.

October 16, 1793 – The execution of Marie-Antoinette

* October 16: Marie-Antoinette is convicted and guillotined on the ''Place de la Revolution''.
* October 17: The Army of the Convention under Generals Jean-Baptiste Kléber and François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers defeats the Vendéen rebels at Cholet.
* October 20: The Convention orders the repression of the ultra-revolutionary ''enragés''.
* October 28: The Convention forbids religious instruction by clerics.
* October 30: The Revolutionary Tribunal sentences the 21 Girondins deputies to death.
* October 31: The 21 Girondins deputies are guillotined.
* November 3: Olympe de Gouges, champion of rights for women, accused of Girondin sympathies, is guillotined.
* November 7: Philippe Égalité is guillotined.
* November 8: Madame Roland is guillotined in the purge of Girondins. Before her execution, she cries: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!"
* November 9: Former finance minister Brienne is arrested at Sens.
* November 10: The Cathedral of Notre Dame is re-dedicated as a Temple of Reason in to the civic religion of the Cult of Reason.
* November 12: The astronomer and former mayor of Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, is executed on the Champ de Mars for his role in suppressing a demonstration there on July 17, 1791.
* November 17: On Robespierre's orders, supporters of Danton are arrested.
* November 20: Danton returns to Paris, after being absent since October 11. He urges "indulgence" toward opponents and "national reconciliation".
* November 23: The Paris Commune orders the closing of all churches and places of worship in Paris.
* November 25: Convention votes to remove Mirabeau's remains from the Panthéon and replace them with those of Marat.
* December 5: The Cordelier deputy Camille Desmoulins, supporting Danton, publishes an appeal for national reconciliation.
* December 12: Defeat of the rebel Vendéen army at Le Mans.
* December 19: Withdrawal of the British from Toulon, following a successful military operation conceived and led by a young artillery officer, Napoléon Bonaparte.
* December 23: The Army of General François Joseph Westermann destroys the last the Vendéen army at Savenay. Six thousand prisoners are executed.
* December 24: To punish the rebellious city of Toulon, the Convention renames it ''Port-la-Montagne''.

1794 – The fury of the Terror or, the Cult of the Supreme Being, and the Downfall of Robespierre

File:Georges Danton Carnavalet.jpg, Georges Danton
File:Rouillard - Camille Desmoulins.jpg, Camille Desmoulins
File:Robespierre.jpg, Maximilien Robespierre
File:Saint-Just-French anon-MBA Lyon 1955-2-IMG 0450.jpg, Louis de Saint-Just
File:Portrait Lazare Carnot.jpg, Lazare Carnot

* January 8: At the Jacobins, Robespierre denounces Fabre d'Églantine, one of the instigators of the September massacres, father of the Republican calendar, and ally of Danton.
* January 13: Arrest of Fabre d'Églantine for alleged diversion of state funds.
* January 29: Death of Henri de la Rochejaquelein, royalist and military leader of the Vendéens, fighting at Nuaillé.
* February 4: The Convention votes to abolish slavery in French colonies.
* February 5: Robespierre lectures the Convention on the necessity for the Terror: "The foundations of a popular government in a revolution are virtue and terror; terror without virtue is disastrous; and virtue without terror is powerless. The Government of the Revolution is the despotism of liberty over tyranny."
* February 6: Napoleon Bonaparte is promoted to general for his role in driving the British from Toulon.
*February 6: Recall of Jean-Baptiste Carrier from Nantes. As official delegate of the Convention, he was responsible for the drownings at Nantes of as many as ten thousand Vendéen prisoners, in barges deliberately sunk in the Loire River.
* February 10: Jacques Roux commits suicide in prison.
* February 22: In a speech at the Cordeliers Club, Hébert attacks both the factions of Danton and Robespierre.
* March 4: At the Cordeliers Club, Jean-Baptiste Carrier calls for an insurrection against the Convention.
* March 11: The Committees of Public Safety and General Security denounce a planned uprising by the Cordeliers.
* March 13: Saint-Just, President of the Convention, denounces a plot against liberty and the French people. Hébert and many other Cordeliers are arrested.
* March 15: Robespierre tells the Convention that "All the factions must perish from the same blow."
* March 20: Arrest of General Hoche, a member of the Cordeliers. He is freed in August after the fall of Robespierre.
* March 21: Trial of the Hébertists begins. To compromise them, they are tried together with foreign bankers, aristocrats and counter-revolutionaries.
* March 24: Hébert and leaders of the Cordeliers are condemned to death and guillotined.
* March 27: The philosopher and mathematician Condorcet is arrested. He is found dead in his cell two days later.

March 30, 1794 – The arrest and trial of Danton and Desmoulins

* March 30: Danton, Camille Desmoulins and their supporters arrested.
* April 2: Trial of Danton before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He uses the occasion to ridicule and insult his opponents.
* April 4: The Convention decrees that anyone who insults the justice system is excluded from speaking, barring Danton from defending himself.
* April 5: Danton and Desmoulins are convicted and guillotined the same day.
* April 8: Robespierre makes accusations against the Convention delegate Joseph Fouché at a meeting of the Jacobins.
* April 10: The members of the alleged Conspiracy of Luxembourg, a diverse collection of followers of Danton and Hébert and other individuals, are put on trial. Seven are acquitted and nineteen are condemned and executed, including Lucile Desmoulins, the widow of Camille Desmoulins, General Arthur Dillon, who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, Françoise Hébert, the widow of Jacques Hébert, and the defrocked Bishop Gobel.
* April 14: At the request of Robespierre, the Convention orders the transfer of the ashes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the Panthéon.
* April 15: A report to the Convention by Saint-Just calls from greater centralization of the police under the control of the Committee for Public Safety.
* April 19: By the Treaty of the Hague, between Britain and Prussia, Britain agrees to fund an army of 62,000 Prussian soldiers to continue the war against France.
* April 20: In a report to the Convention, the deputy Billaud-Varenne delivers a veiled attack against Robespierre: "All people jealous of their liberty should be on guard even against the virtues of those who occupy eminent positions."
* On 22 April: Malesherbes and the deputés Isaac René Guy le Chapelier and Jacques Guillaume Thouret, four times elected president of the Constituent Assembly, were taken to the scaffold.
* April 23: Robespierre creates a new Bureau of Police attached to the Committee of Public Safety, in opposition to the existing police under the Committee of General Safety.
* May 7: Robespierre asks the Convention to decree "that the French people recognize the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul", and to organize celebrations of the new cult.
* May 8: The chemist Antoine Lavoisier

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