On December 24, 1800, an attempt was made to assassinate the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. The "infernal machine" was the explosive device used in an attempt to blow up the coach carrying the First Consul as he left the Place du Carrousel at the Tuileries and made his way along rue Saint-Nicaise to the Opera. Miraculously, Bonaparte was unscathed. Investigations initially led the authorities to suspect the Jacobins before they realized that it was a Royalist plot.*
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* This entry doesn't mention the best part! Get this - Napoleon escapes a bomb meant for him, that killed 22 people - and instead of going home and cowering like any normal human being - HE STILL GOES TO THE OPERA. Of course, the Assassins should've known right then he was three peanuts short of a bowl - I mean, this was a man wo had been taught how each day could be your last, how you should live life to the full. And what does he do? Spend four hours listening to some woman in a Viking helmet yelling in a theatre. That must have struck fear into the hearts of his enemies like nothing else.