November 18, 1307
According to Swiss legend, William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head. Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt (overlord) of Altdorf, raised a pole under the village lindentree, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, and in an act of nonviolent resistance, publicly refused to bow to it and was arrested. Gessler devised a cruel punishment. Tell and his son were to be executed. However, he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off of his son Robert’s head in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow. Gessler then noticed that Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver. Before releasing him, he asked why and Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have killed Gessler with the second bolt. Gessler ordered that Tell be imprisoned for the remainder of his life.
