Palais Garnier (Paris)
14th january 1858
As Napoléon III was arriving at the Opéra in his carriage, Italian anarchists employed by Felice Orsini threw bombs into the crowd. The Emperor and his wife escaped by a miracle but eight people were killed and almost five hundred injured in the explosion. The following day, the Emperor made the decision to build a new opera house.
1860
Organisation of an international competition for the building of the new Académie Impériale de Musique et de Danse. 171 architects participated including the thirty-five-year-old and as yet unknown Charles Garnier. His proposed design attempted to remedy what he considered to be the crucial problem for artists of the period: the impossibility of accommodating large audiences. He was proclaimed the winner on May 30th 1861.
The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house-
It was built from 1861 to 1875
for the Paris Opera. It was called the Salle des Capucines, because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier, in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. The theatre is also often referred to as the Opéra Garnier (French 
(help·info)) and historically was known as the Opéra de Paris or simply the Opéra,[7] as it was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened at the Place de la Bastille.[8] The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet.