Guillotine Timeline of Events

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Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

Timeline of Events

1792

4.25.1792

Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.

1793

1.21.1793

After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

6.2.1793

Jean-Paul Marat recites the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these people are guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror.

10.16.1793

Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

11.3.1793

French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.

11.12.1793

Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined.

1794

5.8.1794

Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the ''Ferme Générale'', is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.

7.28.1794

Maximilien Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris during the French Revolution.

1977

9.10.1977

Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.