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It's July 14, 1789, in France.

A young man rushes through the back streets of Paris.

It's early morning, but it feels as if the city has barely slept.

There's an edge to the summer air, a quiver of anger and violence in the breeze,

so much so that the young man can almost taste it, and it's exhilarating. As he emerges onto a wider avenue, a crowd of protesters surges pass down the street. They're ordinary people just like

him, tradesmen and shopkeepers, cooks and butchers. Some are armed, carrying

swords or clubs, others with muskets. Drummers thump out the beat of a song as the marchers

call on the people of Paris to join them, to rise up, to fight for liberty. Eagerly, the young

man falls in with the marchers and their song. He's joined by throngs of people who pour out of every side street and building.

There is no commander, no explicit orders are given,

but everyone in the crowd knows where they are going.

Ahead of them, looming over the district, is the Bastille.

This medieval prison has stood in Paris for centuries, a symbol of the authority

of the all-powerful French king. But the young man and the other revolutionaries in the crowd

have come to tear that symbol down. To send a message to the king and the rest of the country,

change is coming in France. By the end of the day, the crowd will have broken down the gates of the Bastille,

seized control of the prison, and paraded the decapitated head of its governor through the city.

But the storming of the Bastille will just be the beginning of a far greater revolution.

...