Born Dec. 22, 1755, in Orcet; died July 28, 1794, in Paris. A leader of the Great French Revolution.
By profession Couthon was a lawyer. He was a Jacobin. In 1791 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and in 1792 to the National Convention. In 1793, Couthon became a member of the Committee of Public Safety. Along with M. Robespierre and L. A. Saint-Just, he headed the revolutionary government of the Jacobin dictatorship. From August to October 1793, Couthon took part in suppressing a counterrevolutionary uprising in Lyon. After the Thermidorian Reaction he was guillotined.