Famous Dates in The Republican Calendar and Other Cultural References
See also: Glossary of the French Revolution#Events commonly known by their Revolutionary datesThe "18 Brumaire" or "Brumaire" was the coup d'état of Napoleon Bonaparte on 18 Brumaire An VIII (9 November 1799), which many historians consider as the end of the French Revolution. Karl Marx' 1852 pamphlet The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoléon compares the 1851 coup of Louis Napoléon to his uncle's earlier coup.
Another famous revolutionary date is 9 Thermidor An II (27 July 1794), the date the Convention turned against Robespierre, who, along with others associated with the Mountain, was guillotined the following day. Based on this event, the term "Thermidorian" entered the Marxist vocabulary as referring to revolutionaries who destroy the revolution from the inside and turn against its true aims. For example, Leon Trotsky and his followers used this term about Joseph Stalin.
Émile Zola's novel Germinal takes its name from the calendar.
The seafood dish lobster thermidor was probably named after the 1891 play Thermidor, set during the Revolution.
The French frigates of the Floréal class all bear names of Republican months.
The Convention of 9 Brumaire An III, 30 October 1794, established the École Normale Supérieure. The date appears prominently on the entrance to the school.
The French composer Fromental Halévy was named after the feast day of 'Fromental' in the Revolutionary Calendar, which occurred on his birthday in year VIII (27 May 1799).
Read more about this topic: French Republican Calendar
Famous quotes containing the words famous, dates, republican, calendar and/or cultural:
“Richard Burton is now my epitaph, my cross, my title, my image. I have achieved a kind of diabolical fame. It has nothing to do with my talents as an actor. That counts for little now. I am the diabolically famous Richard Burton.”
—Richard Burton (1925–1984)
“Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature—a type nowhere at present existing.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)
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—Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949)