May 21 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
1871
The Bloody Week begins in Paris
Troops of the French Third Republic pour into Paris to crush the Commune, beginning the semaine sanglante. Barricades rise in the working-class districts; the Tuileries Palace burns. By the 28th, some 10,000 to 15,000 Communards lie dead -- the bloodiest street fighting of the century.