25) Who is Charlotte Corday and what does she do?

Charlotte Corday, born Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont on July 27, 1768, was a figure of the French Revolution. She is best known for assassinating Jean-Paul Marat, a radical journalist and politician, on July 13, 1793.<br /><br />Corday came from a minor aristocratic family in Normandy and was initially sympathetic to the revolutionary cause. However, she became increasingly disillusioned with the extreme violence and the Reign of Terror led by figures like Marat. Believing that Marat's death would save France from further bloodshed, she traveled to Paris and gained access to him by pretending to have information about counter-revolutionary activities.<br /><br />Once inside Marat's home, she stabbed him to death while he was in his bath. Corday was arrested immediately after the assassination, tried, and executed by guillotine on July 17, 1793. Her actions and subsequent execution made her a controversial figure, seen by some as a heroine who acted out of a sense of justice and by others as a murderer who disrupted the revolutionary process.