Star Wars, microcomputer and guillotine

[buritobr]

It is hard to believe that the first Star Wars (Episode IV) was released before the last execution by guillotine in France. Both events took place in 1977, but the Star Wars release took place few months before.
The first microcomputer was sold in the same year.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

And some parts of Germany continued to manually behead prisoners (with an axe) until 1938.

Now, that's really hard to believe.

And French tabloids really liked to mock their neighbours' conservatism when it came to decapitating people (cover illustration from the early 20th Century):