Incumbents

President: Marie François Sadi Carnot
President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Tirard (until 17 March), Charles de Freycinet (starting 17 March)

Events

2 January – Steamship Persia wrecked off Corsica: 130 lives lost.
21 February – First Franco-Dahomean War begins.
1 March – Léon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest Constans as Minister of the Interior.
4 March – Battle of Cotonou, attack on French positions repulsed.
4 October – First Franco-Dahomean War ends in French victory.
9 October – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m (160 ft) at a height of 20 cm (7.9 in), the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Arts and literature

27 July – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh perhaps paints Tree Roots at Auvers-sur-Oise, then apparently shoots himself, dying two days later.
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts is founded. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes is president and co-founder.

Births

January to June

19 January – Élise Rivet, nun and World War II heroine (died 1945)
1 February – Germaine Lubin, soprano (died 1979)
2 February – Jules Gros, Breton linguist (died 1992)
24 March – Robert Schurrer, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1972)
6 April – André-Louis Danjon, astronomer (died 1967)
21 April – Eugène Séguy, entomologist (died 1985)
29 April – Daisy Fellowes, society figure, writer and heiress (died 1962)
29 May – Robert Desoille, psychotherapist (died 1966)
12 June – Théophile Alajouanine, neurologist (died 1980)

July to December

4 July – Jacques Carlu, architect and designer (died 1976)
27 July – Jacques Forestier, rheumatologist (died 1978)
15 August – Jacques Ibert, composer (died 1962)
23 August – Marcelle Lalou, Tibetologist (died 1967)
25 September – Honoré Barthélemy, cyclist (died 1964)
22 November – Charles de Gaulle, general, statesman, President (died 1970)
29 November – Maurice Genevoix, author (died 1980)
2 December – Jean Médecin, lawyer and politician (died 1965)
20 December – Yvonne Arnaud, actress (died 1958 in the United Kingdom)
25 December – André Lesauvage, sailor and Olympic gold medallist (died 1971)

Full date unknown

Henriette Sauret, feminist, author, pacifist, journalist (died 1976)

Deaths

25 January – Jean Gailhac, priest (born 1802)
13 July – Auguste Jean François Grenier, doctor and entomologist (born 1814)
29 July – Vincent van Gogh Dutch painter (born 1853)
18 August – Albert Dubois-Pillet, painter and army officer (born 1846)
19 October – Émile Léonard Mathieu, mathematician (born 1835)
11 November – Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, adventurer (born 1842)
19 December – Eugène Lami, painter and lithographer (born 1800)

References

^ Crouch, Tom D. "Clément Ader". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
^ Gray, Carroll (1998–2003). "Clement Ader 1841–1925". Flying Machines. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
^ Gibbs-Smith, Charles H. (1959). "Hops and Flights: A Roll Call of Early Powered Take-offs". Flight. 75: 468. Retrieved 2011-03-03.

v t e Years in France
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