Place de la Bastille, Paris

When the revolutionaries stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, they found only 7 prisoners inside: 4 forgers, 2 men with mental illness, and a nobleman imprisoned at his own family's request. The real prize was not the prisoners but the 250 barrels of gunpowder stored in the fortress — the crowd had already seized 35,000 rifles from the Invalides but had no ammunition.