Assassination of Jean Jaurès

The Cafe du Croissant, at the corner of Rue Montmartre and Rue du Croissant, wears a plaque marking the spot where Jean Jaurès died. On the night of July thirty-first, nineteen fourteen, the socialist leader sat by an open window, his back to the street. A twenty-nine-year-old nationalist named Raoul Villain fired two shots through that glass. Jaurès fell instantly, dying just as France stood on the edge of the First World War. His death silenced the loudest voice calling for peace.