It's Bastille Day, y'all. On July 14, 1789, citizen insurgents in Paris stormed the Bastille Saint-Antoine, a medieval fortress built by King Charles V and used as a prison by later French kings, including Louis XVI. Only a few prisoners were locked up in the Bastille that day. The Marquis de Sade had been transferred to another lock-up just ten days earlier. Nevertheless, the Bastille was to the citoyens of Paris a sinister reminder of their oppression under absolute royal power. 1/2