Napoleon’s armies were nearing Moscow, and the Russians were mounting one final stand — Marshal Kutuzov’s forces met Napoleon’s Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino and were defeated, though they did manage to slow Napoleon’s advance enough to evacuate Moscow. Napoleon reached a deserted Russian capital, half-burned to the ground, with no suppies to reinforce his desperately cold and hungry force. He had no choice but to start a long retreat back to France. All this took place 28 years before Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was ever born.

On this day day, August 20, Tchaikovsky, already a famous composer, debuted his 1812 Overture at a Moscow concert hall built particularly for the event. The piece commemorated the Russian victory over Napoleon, and particularly the battle of Borodino.

Tchaikovsky incorporated the unofficial Russian national anthem God Save the Tsar! into the piece, playing it twice, at the opening and the closing of the performance, and also used the eventual French national anthem La Marseillaise. But the piece would be best known for use of artillery to punctuate the musical retelling of the war.