On this date in 1855, Giovanni Pianori submitted to the guillotine for an unsuccessful assassination attempt — pictured above — on the French Emperor Napoleon III.

Himself an Italian nationalist in his youth, Napoleon as prince had gutted his former cause by intervening to crush the revolutionary Roman Republic and restore the exiled pope to power. No small number of fellow-travelers in the patriotic cause thought Napoleon’s betrayal deserved a bullet.

Pianori’s were launched, without effect, on the Champs-Elysees on April 28, 1855, just sixteen days before his execution.

On this day..

• 1731: Two murderers and three crooks at Tyburn
• 1835: Four slaves, for the Malê Rebellion
• Feast Day of St. Victor and St. Corona
• 1873: John Devine, "The Chicken"
• 1895: Areski El Bachir, Algerian rebel
• 1913: Andriza Mircovich, by a shooting-machine
• 1631: Mervyn Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven
• 1917: Emil Rebreanu, Forest of the Hanged inspiration
• 1883: Joe Brady, the first of the Invincibles
• 1985: Mohammed Munir, Indonesian Communist
• 1297: Marion (Murron) Braidfute, bride of The Wallace
• 1941: Maurice Bavaud, who couldn't get a shot off