Ampère’s father was executed as a victim of French revolution

During the French revolution, Ampère’s father stayed at Lyons expecting to be safer in the city. Nevertheless, after the revolutionaries had taken the city he fell a victim and was executed. This death was a great shock to Ampère.

The three culminating points in Ampère's life

Ampère used to say that "at eighteen years he found three culminating points in his life, his First Communion, the reading of Thomas's "Eulogy of Descartes", and the Taking of the Bastille... The Storming of the Bastille in Paris occurred on 14 July 1789. While the medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille contained only seven prisoners, its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.