Guillotine
On 28 November 1789 the doctor Joseph Guillotin and the surgeon Antoine Louis stood before deputies of the French National Constituent Assembly and presented a model of Louis' invention: a machine for beheading those condemned to death. This contraption, dubbed a 'guillotine', had the advantage of ensuring a quick death, unlike decapitation with an axe or sword, hanging or quartering. Executions by guillotine were public events in France until 29 June 1939 and the last execution by this method took place on 10 September 1977. The death penalty was finally abolished in France on 9 October 1981.
