Napoleon abdicates his throne & is banished to Elba<\/p>\n
On April 11, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, France\u2019s famed military commander and emperor, formally gave up his throne. Under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean, located just off the coast of Tuscany, Italy.<\/p>\n
Born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, Napoleon rose swiftly through the military ranks after training at a military academy. He made his name during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns across Europe in the late 1700s.<\/p>\n
By 1799, he had positioned himself as the head of a military dictatorship, and in 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of France. Through relentless military ambition, he expanded French control so extensively that by 1810, much of Europe was under his command.<\/p>\n
Napoleon rose swiftly through the military ranks after training at a military academy. He made his name during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns across Europe in the late 1700s. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1812, fearing an alliance between Russia and Britain, Napoleon launched an ill-fated invasion of Russia. The campaign ended in disaster, with French forces retreating from Moscow and his empire beginning to collapse as European powers united against him.<\/p>\n
By 1814, facing defeat, Napoleon offered to step down in favour of his son. When the Allies rejected this, he agreed to abdicate and was sent into exile on Elba, where he stayed for less than a year.<\/p>\n
He escaped Elba and returned to France in what became known as the Hundred Days\u2014a brief, dramatic comeback that culminated in his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.<\/p>\n
He abdicated for a second time and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he lived out the rest of his days.<\/p>\n
While often described as power-hungry and deeply insecure, Napoleon also left behind a significant legacy of political and social reform. He helped reshape judicial systems, promoted constitutions, extended voting rights to all men, and played a crucial role in ending feudal practices.<\/p>\n
He was also a strong supporter of education, science, and the arts. One of his most historic contributions was the Napoleonic Code, which preserved key freedoms from the French Revolution, such as religious tolerance, and still forms the backbone of France\u2019s civil law today.<\/p>\n
WikiLeaks\u2019 Julian Assange removed from Ecuadorian embassy<\/p>\n
April 11, 2019, saw the arrest of The WikiLeaks co-founder had been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations and to the United States for leaking classified documents.<\/p>\n For years, Assaneg took refuge in a small office that was converted into a bedroom in Ecuador\u2019s embassy,\u00a0 where he lived with his cat, James.<\/p>\n However, relations between him and Ecuador\u2019s government worsened after President Len\u00edn Moreno took office in 2017. This became evident last year when Assange was given a set of house rules, including paying for internet use, food and laundry, taking better care of his cat and keeping the bathroom clean. That fuelled speculation that Ecuador had finally had enough.<\/p>\n President Moreno said Ecuador\u2019s patience had \u201creached its limit\u201d with Assange\u2019s \u201cdiscourteous and aggressive behaviour\u201d. Accusing him of \u201crepeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols\u201d, he announced the abrupt end of Assange\u2019s diplomatic asylum.<\/p>\n British authorities were invited into the embassy and forcibly removed Assange, who looked visibly aged and frail.<\/p>\n Julian #Assange<\/a> violently removed from Ecuadorian embassy today. Shame on Ecuador, shame on UK, shame on @metpoliceuk<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/kaN3zldZto<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJulian Assange<\/a> in London after Ecuador withdrew the asylum it had granted him for nearly seven years.<\/p>\nWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years before he was removed in 2019. File image\/ AP<\/b><\/p>\n
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