On This Day: Thursday July 14, 2005 This is the 195th day of the year, with 170 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: Bastille Originally built as a medieval fortress, the Bastille eventually came to be used as a state prison. Political prisoners were often held there, as were citizens detained by the authorities for trial. Some prisoners were held on the direct order of the king, from which there was no appeal. So, its fall in 1789 signaled the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille became a symbol of the end of the ancien régime. July 14, often called la fête nationale in France, became an official holiday in 1880. Holidays France: Bastille Day. Feast day of St Marcellinus or Marchelm, St Camillus de Lellis, St Ulric of Zell, and St Deusdedit of Canterbury. Events 1099 - During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe captured Jerusalem began massacring the city's Muslim and Jewish population. 1789 - The French Revolution began as Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops stormed and dismantled the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. 1798 - Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous, or malicious writing about the United States government. 1867 - Alfred Nobel demonstrated dynamite for the first time at a quarry in England. 1868 - Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, CT, patented the tape measure. 1914 - Robert H. Goddard of Worcester, MA patented liquid rocket fuel. 1933 - Germany outlawed all political parties except the Nazi Party. 2000 - A Florida jury ordered five major tobacco companies to pay smokers a record $145 billion in punitive damages. Births 1834 - James McNeill Whistler, American-born painter, designer. 1858 - Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women's Social and Political Union. 1903 - Irving Stone (Tennenbaum), novelist. 1904 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish author. 1910 - William Hanna, cartoonist with Hanna-Barbera. 1912 - Woody Guthrie, American folk singer and songwriter. 1913 - Gerald R. Ford (Leslie King, Jr.), 38th US President (1974-77). 1917 - Douglas Edwards, TV's 1st evening news anchor. 1918 - Ingmar Bergman, movie director. 1927 - John Chancellor, radio/TV newscaster.