In 1885, he was living on rue Ordener in Paris, and was secretary for the Revolutionary Socialist Union of the 18th arrondissement.

Vaillant threw the home-made explosive device from the public gallery at about 4pm on 9 December 1893.

There was also much public sympathy for him for the sake of his young daughter, Sidonie, whom Vaillant entrusted to Sébastien Faure.

"[2] Benedict Anderson claimed his execution was "the first instance in French memory of the death penalty being used in a case where no victim had died.

"[3] His bombing and execution in turn inspired the attacks of Émile Henry and Sante Geronimo Caserio (who stabbed to death Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of the French Third Republic)[4] and Bhagat Singh (who threw a low-intensity bomb into the Central Legislative Assembly in British India, and was later hanged).