The storming of the Bastille is considered a starting point of the French Revolution, as the fortress-prison had long been representative of the power held by the monarchy and nobility over the people to arbitrarily silence and suppress them.
Fears that conservatives at court would use force to suppress the newly formed National Assembly prompted a mob to attempt to seize the Bastille and use the stores of arms and gunpowder there. This successful act of armed violence, backed by elements of the military, empowered the National Assembly to make demands on the King and signaled the beginning of the end of the Ancien Regime. It is still celebrated in France today as Bastille Day.
