Obama quotes French Revolutionary at length...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

...even if, as ever, he doesn't get a namecheck: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.speech.sources/
(Hey, I love Tom Paine, and if you're going to count Marat as a 'French' Revolutionary, then Tom Paine, Honourary French Citizen and Deputy to the Convention for Pas-de-Calais (can't help feeling that must have pissed Robespierre off just that little bit more!) deserves the title, too).

21 January 1793 and 1763

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Though it is fast waning, today marks the 216th anniversary of the execution of Louis Capet, ci-devant roi des Français, as well as Augustin Robespierre's 246th birthday.

To commemorate the first event, I've taken the liberty of translating Michel Vovelle's article on the subject written for the bicentennial and originally published in l'Humanité on 21 January 1993. My translation comes from the version of the article republished in the anthology of his essays, Combats pour la Révolution française.

( And now, without further ado... THE DEATH OF THE KING. )

And in honor of Augustin's birthday, a picture of a bust of him by Deseine, the same sculptor who made the bust of Maximilien in my icon:

Joyeux anniversaire, Bonbon !