September 10, 1977
At Baumetes Prison in Marseille, France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, became the last person executed by guillotine. The guillotine first gained fame during the French Revolution when physician and revolutionary Joseph-Ignace Guillotin won passage of a law requiring all death sentences to be carried out by “means of a machine,” viewed as more humane than other execution techniques, such as hanging or firing squad. Use of the guillotine continued in France in the 19th and 20th centuries. In September 1981, France outlawed capital punishment altogether, thus abandoning the guillotine forever. The last public / outdoor execution in France was in 1939.
September 10, 1996
Sheryl Crow’s second album was banned from Wal-Mart stores because the song she co-wrote with Tad Wadhams, “Love Is A Good Thing” opens with
“Watch out sister, watch out brother,
Watch our children while they kill each other
With a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores….”
