The Sedan, France reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Sedan, France

This article is about the city in France. For other uses of Sedan, see Sedan

Sedan is a city in France, a sous-préfecture of the Ardennes département. It has about 25,000 inhabitants.

History

During the Franco-Prussian War, on September 2, 1870 the French emperor Napoleon III was taken prisoner with 100,000 of his soldiers at the Battle of Sedan.

Due to this major win in battle, which also made the "Second Reich" of Germany possible, September 2 was declared "Sedan's Day" and a national holiday in 1871. It remained a holiday until 1914.

During World War II the German troops first invaded neutral Belgium and crossed the Meuse River in Sedan. This way they could get behind the french fortification system, the Maginot line.

External Links

• [1] Official Site (in french)
• [1] the German breakthrough in 1940

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