Massacre of 14 July 1953 in Paris

Place de la Nation is a wide, circular junction in the twelfth arrondissement, marked by the bronze monument representing the Triumph of the Republic at its center. On July fourteenth, nineteen fifty-three, this square became the site of a violent confrontation between French police and Algerian demonstrators. Thousands had gathered for the traditional Bastille Day parade organized by trade unions and the Communist Party, but as the procession reached the square to disperse, police opened fire on a contingent of Algerian independence supporters.