Happy Bastille Day!

I must shamefully admit that I am far from being a history buff. I wish I had studied more history. If I had, I probably wouldn't have turned to Eric yesterday to ask,

What is Bastille Day about? Is it like the French Independence Day? From the Revolution?

And both of us didn't really know (except Eric sang me the French national anthem--quite gory if I may say so). So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and learned a lot.

For instance:
-The French government has changed like a bunch of times since Bastille day (they originally celebrated a constitutional monarchy, which was only short-lived).
-Some poor governer dude got decapitated and his head was paraded around on a spike to celebrate the successful storming of Bastille
-They only freed 7 prisoners from the Bastille prison
-A year later they held a big party on the Champ Mars, future site of Eiffel Tower--which had been cleaned up by a bunch of volunteers on a day called Wheelbarrow Day (hee!)
-Contrary to popular belief (or... well, my belief), Marie Antoinette did not make her declaration about bread, nor did she get decapitated on Bastille Day.