In 1981 John Hinckley shoots President Ronald Regan in a failed assassination attempt. Hinckley became obsessed with the young Actor, Jodie Foster, when he saw her in the film ‘Taxi Driver’. In the film the character of Travis Bickle begins feeling contempt for the inhumanity he sees around him as a taxi driver. He attempts to save an under-aged prostitute (Played by Jodie Foster) from her life by taking the law into his own hands. He also stalks and attempts to assassinate a US senator. Hinckley’s obsession grew and be started stalking her Foster, leaving poems and visiting her university dorm. He believed killing Regan would show Foster how much she meant to him and he wrote a note to this affect before he left for the Washington Hilton to kill Regan. Luckily his aim was terrible but a stray bullet did bounce of Regan’s car and hit him in the chest. Regan survived and Hinckley was tried for Murder. He was deemed not guilty by reasons of insanity.
In 1814 the allied forces against Napoleon Bonaparte marched into Paris. After the ‘Seven Years War’ and aiding America in their War of Independence, France was ruined financially. Their King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette continued to live a life of luxury as the poor starved and a revolution began that would affect the entire continent of Europe. When The King and his wife were captured by revolutionaries, Marie Antoinette’s brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, and the King of Prussia, Frederick William II issued the ‘Declaration of Pilintz’ which decreed that if King Louis and his wife were harmed than the monarchies of Europe would inflict severe reprisals on the revolutionaries. After growing disputes between France and the Monarchs of Europe, on the 20th of April 1792 France declared war on Austria and within a few weeks Prussia had allied with Austria. The French army marched on the Austrian Netherlands but without sufficient organisation they ran at the first signs of battle. But France had great victories in Italy and Austria. When they executed Louis XVI on the 21st of January 1793 many of the European powers united against the French republic and on the 1st of February France declared War on Britain and the Netherlands as well as Spain soon after. France fought with vigour and great and formidable military leader emerged in Napoleon Bonaparte who quickly rose to power. On the 9th of November 1799 a coup made Napoleon the leader of France and on the 24th of December a new constitution was signed giving Bonaparte the powers of a Dictator. The French revolution was over and on the 18th of May 1804 France had swapped a king for an emperor. Bonaparte had made many advances in Europe including taking Spain and placing his brother on the throne but the French empire also suffered many losses (mainly at the hands of the British Navy and troops). Britain strengthened its seafront defences with a over a hundred towers and many forts covering the south coast but its greatest defence was the Royal Navy. Lord Horatio Nelson had already defeated Bonaparte’s naval fleet more than a decade before but on the 21st of October 1805 he would lead Britain’s Navy to victory over the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, paying with his life he saved Britain. In 1808 Sir Arthur Wesley, The duke of Wellington, took control of the British, Portuguese and Spanish forces in the ‘Peninsular War’ and by 1814 he had defeated Napoleon and his forces on land, and returned Spain to the Spanish. Napoleon abdicated as emperor and fled. On this day in 1814 the allied forces marched into Paris in celebration. Napoleon would once again amass an army only to be defeated once more by Wellington at the ‘Battle of Waterloo’ on the 18th of June 1815. Napoleon was exiled and died six years later.
