Julius Caesar addresses an assembly of leaders of the Gauls in Lucotecia, asking for their support.[3]
52 BCE
The Parisii are defeated by the Roman general Titus Labienus at the Battle of Lutetia. A Gallo-Roman garrison town, called Lutetia, is founded on the left bank of the Seine.[4][5]
Between 14 and 37 CE
The sailors of Lutetia erect the Pillar of the Boatmen in honor of the Roman god Jupiter.
Between 40 and 11 CE
Construction of the Forum of Lutetia
Between 100 and 200 CE
Construction of the baths, the amphitheater and the theater of Lutetia
3rd century CE
Lutetia gradually becomes known as Civitas Parisiorum, the "City of the Parisii", then simply "Paris".[4]
c. 250 CE
Arrival of Christianity in Paris; execution by Romans of Bishop Saint Denis on Montmartre, the "Mountain of Martyrs".[5]
275-276
The settlement on the left bank is ravaged by Germanic tribes.
About 300 CE
A rampart is built around the Île de la Cité.
358 CE
The Roman commander Julian the Apostate resides in Paris during the winter, when not fighting the Germanic tribes.
360 CE
Julian is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his soldiers.
Saint Martin of Tours visits Paris, and according to tradition heals a leper at the north gate of the town.[6]
451
Paris is threatened by the Huns. Saint Genevieve persuades the Parisians not to abandon the city, and the Huns attack Tours instead.
464
The city is blockaded by Chilperic I, King of the Franks.
The Middle Ages
Frankish Paris
Tomb of Sainte Geneviève in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, near the PanthéonA 13th century statue of Childebert I, founder of the future Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Louvre)The coronation of Hugh Capet, the Count of Paris, as King of the Franks in 987. He died in Paris in 996 and was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis.(Illustration from the 14th century, in the National Library of France)
Burial of Saint Genevieve atop the hill on the left bank which now bears her name. A basilica, the Basilique des Saints Apôtres, is built on the site and consecrated on 24 December 520. It later becomes the site of the Basilica of Saint-Genevieve, which after the French Revolution becomes the Panthéon.
511
Clovis I, the king of the Franks, makes Paris his capital.[7][5] (Some sources give the date 508[6])
About 540-550
Construction of the Saint-Étienne cathedral, predecessor to Notre-Dame de Paris, begins.[6]
543
Founding of the Basilica of Saint-Vincent, by Childebert I, the King of Paris. The Basilica becomes the burial place for the first French kings, beginning with Childebert.[8]
Council of Meaux–Paris — The church council opened at Meaux because of the siege but ended in Paris in February 846.
856
28 December – The Vikings return and burn the city again.
857
Vikings led by Björn Ironside almost destroy Paris, and burn all its churches, except those that pay a ransom: Saint-Étienne (now Notre-Dame cathedral), Saint-Denis and Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
861
The Vikings burn Paris and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Abbey is pillaged again in 869.
870
King Charles the Bald orders the construction of two bridges, the Grand Pont and the Petit Pont, ostensibly to block the passage of the Vikings up the Seine.
6 February – The Petit pont washes away, allowing the Vikings to lay siege to the city and pillage the surrounding region.
September – The Carolingian Emperor Charles the Fat pays the Vikings 700 pounds of silver to depart.
887-889
The Vikings attack Paris again in May 887 and June–July 888, but thanks to strengthened defenses the city is not captured.
978
October – Siege of Paris by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. The Parisians block the supplies of the invaders from going up the Seine. An army led by Hugh Capet arrives and the siege is finally lifted on 30 December.
988
Hugh Capet, elected King of the Franks in 987, resides in Paris for a time, and returns again in 989, 992 and 994–995.[10][5]
The celebrated scholar Abélard begins teaching at the school of Notre-Dame.
1112
King Louis VI gives special privileges to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, raising the status of Paris over Orléans as the capital of the Capetian Kings.[11]
1113
Construction begins of a new Grand Pont, later called the pont au Change, completed in 1116. The Petit Pont is also rebuilt.
1116
The scholar Abélard begins what becomes a legendary romance with the nun Héloïse in about 1116. In 1117 is punished for his relationship by castration. He retires to the monastery of Saint-Denis and then to Saint-Ayoul, but later returns to Paris and to Héloïse.
c. 1120
Teachers and students begin taking up residence on the left bank, around the montagne Sainte-Geneviève, since the cloister of Notre-Dame is not large enough to house them all. This is the beginning of the Latin Quarter and the future University of Paris.[11]
1131
13 October – Death of Philippe, the eldest son of king Louis VI, who died the day after being thrown from his horse, which panicked when he encountered a pig. As a result, it is forbidden to let pigs go freely on the city streets.[11]
1132
The Bishop of Paris punishes the teachers and students on the montagne Sainte-Geneviève for the growing number of conflicts between the students and the townspeople.
Abbot Suger begins the reconstruction of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in the new Gothic style. The new Basilica is consecrated on 11 June 1144, and becomes a model for cathedrals and churches across Europe.
1134
King Louis VI grants to the merchants of Paris the right to seize the property of their debtors and to form associations, the first steps toward a municipality.[12]
1137
A new market is installed at Champeaux, which gradually replaces the market on the place de Grève and becomes the central market of Les Halles.
First mention in documents of the corporation of butchers in the city.
1147
The Templars occupy their new building in Paris, in the presence of king Louis VII and of the Pope. When he departs for the Crusades, the king leaves the royal treasury in the care of the Templars, and the regency with Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis.
21 April – Pope Eugene III consecrates the new church of Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre.
King Louis VII confirms the privileges of the corporation of water merchants, whose water-bearers carry water from the Seine to residences.
1176
First mention in documents of the Fair of Saint-Germain. Half of the profits were reserved for King Louis VII.
1180
Founding of the collège des Dix-Huit by Messire Josse de Londres, an Englishman. This was the first college in Paris, established for eighteen poor clerical students in a room within the Hôtel-Dieu.[14][15]
5 February – King Philip Augustus (Philippe Auguste) arrests the leaders of the Jewish community, and requires them to pay 15,000 silver marcs.
1182
Philip Augustus expels the Jews from the Île de la Cité, and their synagogue is turned into a church. They are allowed to return in 1198, in return for paying heavy taxes.[16]
19 May – Consecration of the altar of the cathedral of Notre Dame.[17]
1183
Two market buildings are constructed at the small hamlet Les Champeaux meaning ("little fields"), the beginning of Les Halles.
1186
Philip Augustus orders the paving of the major streets of the city with cobblestones (pavés).
1190
Philip Augustus departs for the Third Crusade. Six Paris merchants are assigned to act as a council of the regency in his absence, each with a key to the treasury. Before departing, he orders the construction of the first wall around the entire city. The wall on the right bank is finished in 1208, and on the left bank between 1209 and 1213. He also begins construction of the fortress of the Louvre on the right bank.[18]
1197
March – A flood destroys all the bridges over the Seine; the King is forced to abandon his palace on the Île de la Citè and move to the hill of Sainte-Geneviève.
Battles between the sergeants of the Provost of Paris and students, which cause the death of five students. When the Paris students threaten to leave the city, Philip Augustus grants the students the right to be judged exclusively by the tribunal of the Bishop of Paris. This marks the beginning of the legal status of the University of Paris.
The Abbot of Saint-Geneviève purchases the clos Garlande on the Left Bank and builds houses in the neighborhood for students.
1207
Pope Innocent III limits the number of chairs of theology at the University to eight, to maintain control over the University.
1209
The second college of the University is founded; the Collège des pauvres écoliers de Saint-Honoré, for thirteen students without funds.
1210
Pope Innocent III permits the teachers of the University to form a corporation, and in 1212 gives them a degree of independence from the authority of the Bishop of Paris.[19]
Ten Amauriciens, students of the scholar Amaury de Chartres, are condemned for heresy and burned at the stake outside of Paris, beyond the rampart gate porte des Champeaux, for making too much of the works of Aristotle.[19]
16 November – Pope Innocent III prohibits the teaching of Roman, or civil law, at the University; only canon law can be taught.
December – Conflicts between the Bishop of Paris and the University, which is supported by the new Pope, Honorius III.
1229
26 February – More street battles between students and the sergeants of the Provost of Paris. On 15 April the University temporarily leaves the city in protest, and some of the teachers depart for Oxford and Cambridge.
1230
Paris scriptoria producing illuminated manuscripts flourish. The style of the Paris school is copied throughout France.
For the first time, the ringing of the bells of the churches of Paris is regulated by clocks, so that all sound at about the same time. The time of day becomes an important feature in regulating the work and life of the city.[22]
1246
The University of Paris is granted financial and judicial autonomy, and its own seal.
Founding of the College and Priory of Saint-Bernard, to house the Cistercian monks who have come to Paris to study theology.
26 April – Consecration of Sainte-Chapelle, built to house sacred relics from the Holy Land purchased by Louis IX (Saint Louis).
c. 1250
Founding of the Parlement of Paris (Curia Regis), to advise the King on legal matters and later to make judicial decisions.
1252
Saint Thomas Aquinas begins to teach at the University of Paris, and remains until 1259. He returns between 1269 and 1272.[22]
1254
June – Alphonse de Poitiers, brother of Louis IX, moves into his recently built townhouse (hôtel d'Hosteriche) near the Louvre. Following his example, other princes of the blood and members of the high aristocracy built princely residences in the same neighborhood.[22]
1256
10 June – First stone laid for the Abbaye royale de Longchamp, the royal convent of Longchamp, by Isabelle, Louis IX's sister.
Money-changers establish themselves on the Grand Pont, which becomes known as the Pont-au-Change.
1306
21 July – Expulsion of the Jews from Paris, and confiscation of their property. They are allowed to return in July 1315, but recover only a third of their property.[25]
30 December – Riots following an increase in rents. King Philip IV is besieged in the tower of the temple. Twenty-one rioters are later hanged.
1307
13 October – Philip IV orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, and the seizure of their property.
1310
Construction begins of a clock tower in the Palace on the Île de la Cité, finished in 1314.
1314
The leaders of the Knights Templar, including Jacques de Molay, are burned at the stake on the Île aux Juifs, also called Île des Templiers, an island west of the Île de la Cité.
1321
14 September – Organization of the first recorded company of musicians, the Confrérie de Saint-Julien-des-Ménétriers.
1326
The breakup of ice on the Seine destroys all the wooden bridges. The Île de la Cité is supplied with food by boat for a period of five weeks.
Founding of the first two recorded theater companies in Paris; the Confrérie de la Passion, which originally performed religious dramas, and the Gallants sans souci, which performed farces.[26]
1348–1349
The Black death, or bubonic plague, ravages Paris. In May 1349, it becomes so severe that the Royal Council flees the city.
1348
Building of the first open sewer in Paris. It begins at place Baudoyer, runs east along rue Saint-Antoine, and empties into the moat of the Bastille.
1354
Étienne Marcel is chosen as the Provost of the merchants of Paris.
1356
Decision to build a new wall around the city, called the wall of Charles V, finished in 1383.
7 July – Étienne Marcel buys a house on the place de Grève to serve as the first city hall.
1358
22 February; Armed supporters of Étienne Marcel invade the Palace. In the presence of the Dauphin, Charles, the heir to the throne, future Charles V, they kill the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy, and take the Dauphin under their protection. On 24 February, four Paris merchants, including Étienne Marcel, become members of the new royal council.
4 May – King Charles II of Navarre, accompanied by an army of English mercenaries, enters Paris. Étienne Marcel takes his side, and the Dauphin flees the city.
22 July – Battles within and around Paris between supporters of the Dauphin and of Charles of Navarre. Charles of Navarre flees the city.
31 July – Étienne Marcel attempts to open the gates of the city to the mercenaries of Charles of Navarre, and is killed at the bastion of Saint-Antoine by supporters of the Dauphin.
2 August – The Dauphin returns to Paris. The leading supporters of Étienne Marcel and Charles of Navarre are executed, but others are given a general amnesty. The Dauphin buys the Hôtel Saint-Pol in the Saint-Paul quarter, and lives there until his death.
1368
The course of the Bièvre River at the moat of Saint-Bernard is diverted to empty into the Seine at La Tournelle. The portion within the city is covered and used as a sewer.
1370
A royal decree orders that all churches ring their bells at the hour and quarter-hour, as determined by the clock installed in the square courtyard of the Palais de la Cité.
22 April – Placement of the first stone of the Bastille.
1378
Construction of the first Pont Saint-Michel, known then as the Pont-neuf; finished in 1387.
1390
29 October – First trial for sorcery, Jeanne de Brigue is convicted by the Parlement of Paris and burned at the stake on 19 August 1391.
1391
August – Founding of the first corporation of artists, the Confrérie des peintres and tailleurs d'images.[27]
17 September – A Royal edict expels Jews from France. The Jewish community loses its legal identity for the next four centuries.[27]
1398
First measures to relax church control over the university. Students and professors of the school of medicine are permitted to marry.
15th century – the Burgundians and English in Paris
The Palais de la Cité as it appeared between 1412 and 1416, as illustrated in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (June).The Tour Jean-sans-Peur, last vestige of the Burgundian occupation (15th century), at 20 rue Étienne Marcel in 2nd arrondissement.
July–August – After a series of riots and disturbances, the Armagnacs gain control of Paris from the Burgundians; Jean Sans Peur flees the city.[5]
1418
29 May – The Armagnacs have become increasingly unpopular in Paris. During the night of May 29, the merchants of Paris open the porte Saint-Germain-des Prés to the Burgundian soldiers. Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, and the other leaders of the Armagnacs are arrested in their beds and massacred on 12 June.
14 July – Jean Sans Peur and Queen Isabeau enter Paris by the Porte Saint-Antoine. The fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France, escapes the city.[30]
1419
10 September – Jean Sans Peur goes to meet the Dauphin at the bridge of Montereau, and is killed by the Dauphin's supporters (the Armagnacs).
1420
30 May – Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon), the new Duke of Burgundy and ruler of Paris, forms an alliance with the English and persuades King Charles the Mad (Charles le Fol) and leaders of university and the merchants of Paris take an oath to accept Henry V of England as the heir to the French throne.
1 December – King Henry V of England arrives in Paris and takes residence at the Louvre, while King Charles VI the Mad is moved to the hôtel Saint-Pol.[30]
1422
31 August – Death of Henry V of England, followed on 21 October by the death of Charles VI of France. Thereafter the kings of France spend very little time in Paris, until 1528, when François I returns there with the court.[31]
1423
February – The leaders of Paris take an oath of allegiance to the Duke of Bedford, representing Henry VI of England, who is in England and just one year old. Joan of Arc unsuccessfully lays siege to Paris, held by the Burgundians, and is wounded – Illustration from the Vigile du roi Charles VII (1429)
1427
First record of the arrival of the Romani people, or gypsies, in Paris.
1429
8 September – Joan of Arc, fighting for King Charles VII (Charles le Victorieux), tries and fails to retake Paris. She is wounded outside the Porte Saint-Honoré.
1430
May – Joan of Arc, captured by the Burgundians in 1429, is handed over to the English in Rouen and brought to trial for heresy. The case against her is prepared by the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. At Cauchon's request, the faculty of the University of Paris endorses the charge of heresy against her. She is convicted and burned at the stake.
1431
16 December. Henry VI of England, nine years old, comes to Paris for a month and is crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame by his uncle, the Cardinal of Winchester.
1432
March to 8 April – Floods submerge Le Marais from the porte Saint-Antoine to the porte Saint-Martin.[31]
1436
28 February – After a series of victories, the army of Charles VII surrounds Paris. Charles VII promises amnesty to the Parisians who supported the Burgundians and English.
13 April – Uprising within the city against the English and Burgundians; the soldiers of Charles VII enter the city through the porte Saint-Jacques.
15 April – The English soldiers are allowed to depart by boat on the Seine for Rouen.
1437
12 November – Charles VII returns to Paris, but remains only three weeks. He moves his residence and the court to the Châteaux of the Loire Valley.[32]
Louis XI takes sanctuary in Paris and asks the support of the merchants, university and clergy, whose franchises he abolished in 1461. The siege of Paris by the league continues until 29 October, when a treaty is signed with Louis XI.
1467
The neighborhood militias are abolished, and replaced by sixty-one detachments of professional soldiers, reviewed by Louis XI on 14 September. Page of the first book to be printed in Paris, Letters by Gasparin de Bergame.
1469
The first French printing-press was set up in the Sorbonne.[5]
Establishment of royal postal service with couriers on horseback.
1485
Construction begins of the Hôtel de Cluny for the Abbots of the Cluny Monastery, finished in 1510. It is now the museum of the Middle Ages.
1494
The municipality of Paris refuses to loan King Charles VIII (Charles l'Affable) 100,000 écus for a military expedition to Italy, which it considers useless.
First recorded case of syphilis in Paris, brought from Italy by soldiers of Charles VIII. Foreigners in the city with the disease are expelled from the city on 6 March 1497.
1497
A flood of the Seine reaches the place de Grève, place Maubert and the rue Saint-André-des-Arts.
1499
October 25 – A flood of the Seine causes the collapse of the wooden pont Notre-Dame.
6 July – Reconstruction begins of the Pont Notre-Dame in stone, replacing the wooden bridge which collapsed on 25 October 1499. The new bridge is finished in 1514.[24][34]
1504
July – Ordinance of the Parlement de Paris for the lighting of Paris streets; at nine in the evening Parisians are required to put a candle in a lantern in their window. The ordinance is not widely obeyed, and is repeated in 1524, 1526, 1551, and later.[35]
1505
Publication of the first printed Book of Hours in Roman letters. The use of Gothic script gradually disappears.
5 April – The direction of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital is transferred from the chanoines of Notre-Dame cathedral to eight laymen governors selected among the business leaders of Paris by the City Assembly,
First French translation of the New Testament of the Bible published. In 1525, alarmed by this unauthorized text, the theology faculty of the University of Paris forbids further translations of the Bible.
March – The city police force of 120 archers and sixty arbaletriers is reinforced with one hundred arquebusiers,
8 August – The Augustine monk Jean Vallière is burned at the stake for proclaiming that Jesus Christ was born like other humans.
1527
15 March – Letters of patent issued to construct the quai du Louvre.
28 February – In order to turn the Louvre into a palatial residence, demolition of its great central tower begins.
15 March – François I formally announces that he plans to make Paris his principal residence.
1529
19 August – Miles Regnault, secretary of the Bishop of Paris, who had converted to Lutheranism, is condemned and burned at the stake on the Place de Grève.
1530
March – François I founds the Collège des lecteurs royaux, or Collège de France, to offer lectures in subjects not taught at the College of Sorbonne, including Hebrew, Ancient Greek, and mathematics.
1531
December – New outbreak of bubonic plague. The Holy Innocents' Cemetery is completely filled, so a new cemetery for plague victims is created on the plain of Grenelle, facing the hill of Chaillot.
1532
19 August – First stone placed for the new Saint-Eustache church, not finished until 1637.
April – The Ordinance of Fontainebleau orders the demolition of the gates on the right bank of the wall built by Philippe-Auguste.
1 November – At the opening of the academic year, the rector of the university, Nicolas Cop, causes a scandal by giving a lecture inspired by Jean Calvin.
1534
15 August – Ignace de Loyola and his followers take an oath at the base of Montmartre to defend the Church and Pope. This is the founding of the Jesuit order.[37]
17–18 October – Calvinists put up anti catholic posters in the streets of Paris and several towns in France, including on the door of king François Ier's bedroom in Amboise. The Parliament of Paris orders the arrest of two hundred suspected Calvinists, six of whom are burned on the night of 18 October, and many others before the end of the year.[37]
17 November – The printer Antoine Augerau becomes the first printer to be burned at the stake, at Place Maubert, for publishing a book criticizing the sister of the King, Marguerite de Navarre, for her alleged sins.
1535
23 January – First woman heretic, Marie la Catelle, a schoolteacher, burned at the stake for reading the New Testament in French to her pupils.
15 February – The printer Etienne de La Forge is burned at the stake for printing copies of the New Testament and distributing them to the poor. The Lescot wing in the Cour Carrée, the oldest existing façade of the Louvre Palace is begun in 1546
19 August – The Sorbonne publishes the first Index, or list of forbidden books.
7 November – François I creates the Grand Bureau des Pauvres, responsible for assisting the indigent, beggars and vagabonds, under the authority of the Bureau de la Ville, or city administration.[38]
2 August – Letters of patent from François I approve the reconstruction of the west wing of the Louvre, to be done by the architect Pierre Lescot with decoration by sculptor Jean Goujon.
3 August – The printer Étienne Dolet is burned at the stake on Place Maubert. Two other printers are burned that summer, Michel Vincent (19 August) and Pierre Gresteau (13 September).
1547
31 March – Death of King François I, who is succeeded by his son, Henry II.
22 April – For the first time, a large shipment of firewood is made by floating the logs down the river in a raft from the Nivernais region to Paris.
8 October – The Parlement de Paris creates a commission, called the Chambre ardente, to prosecute Protestants.
30 August – Inauguration of a new theater next to the Hôtel de Bourgogne used to present religious dramas and comedies by a troupe called Les Confrères de la Passion. This was the first theatre in the city.[38]The Fontaine des Innocents (1549), the oldest existing fountain in Paris
7 February – The Parliament of Paris forbids secret schools which provide religious instruction.
12 July – First stone placed for a new city gate, called the Porte Neuve and then the Porte de la Conférence, at the western edge of the Jardin des Tuileries.
1557
11 August – Many Parisians flee the city after a Spanish army advancing from Flanders defeats the French at Saint-Quentin. Queen Catherine de' Medici remains in the city and helps re-establish confidence.
1558
13 May – Gathering of thousands of Protestants at the Pré-aux-Clercs for an open-air service, despite threats from the city authorities.
Burning at the stake, after hanging, of Anne du Bourg, member of the Paris Parliament, for heresy (23 December 1559)
1559
25 May – First synod of Calvinists on rue des Marais (now rue Visconti) formally establishes the Reformed Church of France on 29 May.
10 June – The Parliament of Paris debates new royal edicts prohibiting the Protestant church. Henry II personally attends the session, and the members calling for tolerance are arrested.[42]
30 June – During the celebrations of the marriages of the sister and daughter of King Henry II on rue Saint-Antoine, Henry II is mortally wounded in the eye by a lance carried by the commander of his Scottish guard, Gabriel de Montgomery. He dies on 10 July and his young and sickly son François II succeeds him.
23 December – Anne du Bourg, a member of the Parliament of Paris and Catholic defender of tolerance for Protestants, is first hung and then burned at the stake for opposing the King's views.
1560
5 December – On the death of François II, his ten-year-old brother Charles IX succeeds him.
1561
29 December – the "Tumulte" of Saint-Médard. Catholics attack Protestants conducting a service at the maison du Patriarche, near the church of Saint-Médard. The building where the service was held is burned the next day.
1562
4 April – The connétable de Montmorency orders the burning of the chairs and pews of the Protestant temples of Popincourt and Jerusalem.
1563
2 July – Opening by the Jesuits of the Collége de Clermont, today Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
November – A royal edict creates the tribunal des juges consuls, ancestor of the modern Tribunal de Commerce. It meets in the Abbaye de Saint-Magloire on rue Saint-Denis (at the site of today's number 82).
14 July – A royal ordinance modifies how municipal elections are conducted; under the new rules, the cities present the King with two lists of candidates, and the King decides.
1565
9 March – New regulations for the façades of houses: wooden decoration must be replaced by cut stone or plaster.
1 August – Decision taken to build a quay along the river at what is now Chaillot.
1566
Creation of the Marché Neuf, or new market, at the west end of the Petit-Pont and beginning of the construction of the Quai de Gloriette.
12 July – construction begins of a new city wall on the west, which includes the Tuileries Palace and the gardens of the Tuileries.
1568
City militia reorganized into neighborhood companies commanded by captains; the companies of each quarter of the city are formed into columns commanded by colonels.
1569
30 June – Several members of a wealthy Protestant family, the Gastines, are sentenced to death, and their house demolished and replaced by a cross to expiate their "sins".
1571
6 March – The first troupe of Italian actors, called I Gelosi, arrives in Paris. After a few performances, they are banned by the Parliament of Paris.[43]
22 August – Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny, a prominent Protestant leader, is attacked and wounded on rue des Poulies, not far from the Louvre.
24 August – At four o'clock in the morning, the bells of the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois give the signal to begin the massacre of Protestants, known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The killing continues until August 30, and takes the lives of about two thousand Protestants in the city.[43]
1573
The architect Jean Bullant begins construction of a new residence for Catherine de' Medici, the future Hôtel de Soissons, finished in 1584.
Founding by Nicolas Houel of the first school of pharmacy in France.
19 June – First performance of the Italian theater troupe I Gelosi in the hall of the Petit-Bourbon, with great success.[45]
1577
A commission is named to study projects for a new bridge over the Seine. On 15 February 1578, Henry III chooses the project for a bridge across the western end of the Île-de-la-Cité, the future Pont Neuf.
24 September – First performance of a ballet at the French court: Circé by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux, performed at the Louvre.
1582
The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Paris, with the elimination of ten days; 9 December is followed by 20 December.
1587
The teaching of Arabic is introduced at the Collège de France.
1588
9 May – Henry I, Duke of Guise, leader of the ultra-Catholic faction, makes a triumphal entry into Paris, cheered by the Parisians.
12 May – Day of the Barricades. The Duke of Guise leads an insurrection against Henry III. The King flees Paris for the Loire Valley on 13 May.
18–20 May – the Holy League, the Catholic party, takes charge of the administration of Paris. The Duke of Guise is named lieutenant-general of the armies.
25 December – After the murder of the Duke of Guise and Louis II, Cardinal de Guise at the Château de Blois, the Sorbonne declares that the French owe no more allegiance to King Henry III. A new city council of forty members, dominated by supporters of the Holy League, is chosen.
1589
13 March – The league proclaims the cardinal de Bourbon is the new king, under the name Charles X.
2 August – Henry III of Navarre becomes Henry IV, king of France,
1 November Henry IV tries to capture Paris by a surprise attack on the walls around the left bank, but fails.
1590
7 May – Henry IV attacks the city again, this time at the faubourgs Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin, but the attack fails.
14 May – The Catholic League holds a large procession in the city to keep up the morale of the catholic Parisians.
8 August – Popular revolt within Paris against the Catholic League, demanding either bread or peace. The rebellion is harshly suppressed.
10–11 September – Night attack on the city by Henry IV between the gates of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marcel. The attack is unsuccessful. Henry IV lifts the siege when he learns that a Spanish army is approaching to aid the Catholic League.
1591
2 September – The ruling council of the Catholic League, called the Seize ("Sixteen"), offers the crown of France to Philip II of Spain.
15 November – Growing tensions between the Seize and the Parliament of Paris. Three leaders of Parliament are arrested, tried and hanged.
4 December – The Seize are arrested by Charles de Mayenne, military commander of the Catholic League, and four members are hung at the Louvre. Growing discontent in Paris against the league.
16 May – Henry IV announces that he will give up the Protestant faith.
25 July – Henry IV formally converts to Catholicism in the Basilica of St Denis.
1595
9 January – Surveying begins for a new (southern) wing of Louvre, on the side of the Seine river, the galerie du bord-de-l'eau, to connect the Louvre with the Tuileries Palace.
14 March – The Catholic League's governor of Paris, the comte de Brissac, agrees to surrender the city to Henry IV in exchange for money and the promise of the title of maréchal.[48]
22 March – The gates of Paris are opened to the army of Henry IV.
24 March – Henry IV enters the city, and is welcomed by a cheering crowd.
12 May – Expulsion of the Jesuits from the city, declared "enemies of the State," by the Parliament of Paris and the rector of the university.
1596
23 December – The pont aux Meuniers collapses. It is replaced in 1609 by the pont Marchand.
1598
13 April – The Edict of Nantes brings an end to the wars of religion. Protestant temples are banned inside Paris and within five leagues of the city. The first Protestant temples open at Grigny, then at Ablon.[48]
King Henry IV crosses the Pont Neuf to inaugurate the bridge, (20 June 1603).
1600
28 September – New statutes of the University of Paris published which increase royal authority and reduce power of students.
1602
Tapestry weavers from Brussels introduce Flemish techniques at what later became the Gobelins Manufactory.[48]
2 January – Construction begins La Samaritaine, a giant pump, located at the Pont Neuf, to raise drinking water from the Seine and to irrigate the Tuileries gardens. It began working 3 October 1608. A department store of the same name is built next to the site of the pump in the 19th century.
20 June – King Henry IV crosses the Pont Neuf to inaugurate the bridge, though work is not finished until July 1606. It is the first Paris bridge with sidewalks and without buildings[48]
1604
29 June – Convent of the Capucines founded on rue Saint-Honoré.
July – Henry IV signs letters patent ordering construction of Place Royale (now Place des Vosges), the first residential square in Paris, on the site of the former park of the royal Hôtel des Tournelles. It is completed in 1612.
1606
1 August – Royal authorization given to build a Protestant church at Charenton.
Workshop created within the Louvre to make tapestries of silk, "in the Persian and Turkish fashion".[49]
1607
6 February – Opening of rue Dauphine, followed shortly by rue Christine and rue d'Anjou Dauphine (now Rue de Nesle), in honor of Henry IV's third son, Gaston de France, the Dauphin, bearing the title of duc d'Anjou.
28 May – Approval given for creation of Place Dauphine, on the site of the old royal gardens on Île de la Cité.
18 August – First stone placed of the Collège Royal, later the Collège de France.
1611
18 September – Placing of the first stone for the Church of the Minimes on the Place Royale (later Place des Vosges). The famous Carrousel Le roman des chevaliers de la gloire, a major celebration at the inauguration of the Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, (1612). (Oil on wood, Polish school, 17th century, Carnavalet museum, Paris.)
1612
5–7 April – Celebration of the wedding contract between Louis XIII and Anne of Austria and inauguration of the Place Royale, with the famous Ballet équestre du Carrousel taking place within the Place Royale.[50]
1614
19 April – Contract signed to create the Île Saint-Louis by combining two small islands, the Île aux Vaches and Île Notre-Dame, and building a new bridge, the Pont Marie, to the Right Bank. The work was finished in 1635.
24 July – King Louis XIII places the first stone of the façade of the church of Saint-Gervais. Work of the architect Salomon de Brosse, the façade was finished in 1621.
24 April – Concini, Minister of King Louis XIII and favorite the Queen Mother, Marie de' Medici, is murdered on the entry bridge of the Louvre, probably on Louis XIII's orders; Marie de' Medici is exiled to Blois.
1617
22 October – Letters of patent given for three companies of chair bearers, the first organized public transport within the city.[51]
1618
June – Authority over printers, bookbinders and book stores is transferred from the Church to secular authorities.
1619
27 July – first stone placed for the convent of the Trinity of the order of the reformed Petits Augustins, on the site of the modern École des beaux-arts. view of Paris in 1620, by Matthäus Merian
1620
Opening of the first Pont de la Tournelle, made of wood. The bridge was destroyed by blocks of ice floating on the river in 1637 and 1651 and rebuilt in stone in 1654.
1621
26 September – The Protestant temple at Charenton is burned by a Catholic mob, after the news of the death of Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne fighting the Protestants in the unsuccessful Siege of Montauban.
23 October – Both the Pont Marchand and the Pont au Change are burned; the Protestants are blamed. View of the Louvre Palace in 1622, reconstruction by Hoffbauer.
1622
A windmill, called the moulin du palais, is built atop Montmartre. In the 19th century, it is renamed the Moulin de la galette (it became a famous landmark in the 19th century).
22 October – For centuries, the bishop of Paris was under the authority of the archbishop of Sens. On this date Paris was given its own archbishop, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris established.[13]
1623
19 May – First water arrives from Arcueil, in a new channel following the route of the ancient Roman aqueduct, at the new reservoir on rue d'Enfer, near the present Observatory.
29 December – The theater troupe known as the Comédiens du Roi is given permission to perform plays at the hôtel de Bourgogne[52]
1630 The Medici Fountain completed in the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace (about 1630)
Construction of the pont Saint-Landry between the Île-de-la-Cité and the recently created Île-Saint-Louis.
1631
30 May – First issue of La Gazette de France, the first weekly magazine in France, published by Théophraste Renaudot. Published every Friday, its last issue was on 30 September 1915.[53]
9 October – Contract to build a new wall around the city, reinforced with bastions. Work continued until 1647.
1632
Construction of the pont Rouge (also known as the pont Barbier) to replace the old bac (ferry). In 1689, the bridge was rebuilt of stone, and named the Pont Royal.[52]
1633
21 March – The state buys land in the faubourg Saint-Victor to create the future Jardin des plantes.
23 November – the State Council approves the construction of new defenses to protect the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Montmartre and Villeneuve. They were completed in 1636.
1634
13 March – First meeting of the Académie française. The academy was formally established by letters of patent on 27 January 1635.[54]
13 October – A corporation of the distillers and vendors of eau de vie is formed, breaking away from the corporation of vinegar-makers, due to the growing popularity of the beverage.[54]
1634
Théâtre du Marais, also known as the Troupe de Montdory or the Troupe du Roi au Marais, founded in an unused tennis court on the Vieille Rue du Temple opposite the church of the Capuchins.
6 June – Cardinal Richelieu bequeathes his new residence to King Louis XIII; it becomes the Palais-Royal at his death in 1642.
August – Panic and flight of many from Paris caused by the invasion of the Spanish army into Picardy.
1637
January – Great success of Corneille's play Le Cid, given by the Troupe du Roi au Marais
26 April – Consecration of the church of Saint-Eustache.
1638
15 January – The Royal Council orders the placing of thirty-one stones to mark the edges of the city; building beyond the stones without royal approval is forbidden. The stones are in place by 4 August.[54]
1640
Founding of the Imprimerie royale, or royal printing house, within the Louvre.
Reconstruction of the Hôtel de Villeroy, by Nicolas V de Villeroy, later tutor of Louis XIV.
1641
16 January – First permanent theater in Paris opens within the Palais-Royal.[7]
The Paris of Louis XIV
Theater production at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1643
7 October – The young king and his court move from the Louvre to the Palais-Royal.
First coffee house or café opens in Paris, but is not profitable and closes. The first successful café does not arrive until 1672.[54]
11 October – Cardinal Mazarin moves into the Hôtel Tubeuf on rue des Petits-Champs, next to the Palais-Royal, and opens his personal library to scholars. In 1682, he donated his library to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, where it remains today as the Bibliothèque Mazarine ("Mazarine Library").[56]
1644
1 January – The theater company of Molière and Madeleine Béjart begins performing in the tennis court of Mestayers (jeu de paume des Mestayers). Molière goes deeply into debt to support the company, and is imprisoned in August 1645 in the Grand Châtelet.[57]
1645
28 February – First performance of an opera in Paris, La Finita Panza by Marco Marazzoli, in the hall of the Palais-Royal.
1646
20 February – Construction begins of the church of Saint-Sulpice, not completed until 1788.
1647
Pont au Change rebuilt by architect Androuet du Cerceau.[40]Battle of Paris between the soldiers of king Louis XIV and the men of the Fronde, (2 July 1652). Anonymous, (Château de Versailles)
26 August – Cardinal Mazarin has the leaders of the Parlement, or law courts, of Paris arrested, because they have refused to enforce his edicts on fiscal policy and taxes. This begins the insurrection of Paris against the royal government known as the Fronde parlementaire (1648–1649).
27 August – The Day of the Barricades. More than twelve hundred barricades erected in Paris against the royal authorities, and prisoners seized by Mazarin are liberated on the 29th.
13 September – King Louis XIV, the Regent Queen Mother and Mazarin leave Paris for Rueil, then Saint-Germain-en-Laye. After negotiations with the Parlement, they accept the Parlement's propositions and return to Paris on 30 October.
1649
5–6 January – The King and Queen Mother flee Paris again to Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
11 January – The leaders of the Fronde take an oath to end the rule of Cardinal Mazarin. The royal army led by Condé, blockades Paris.
11 March – Under the Paix de Rueil, the King and court are allowed to return to Paris, in exchange for amnesty for the Frondeurs.
19 September – City hall runs out of funds. City workers go unpaid, and riots break out sporadically through the end of year.
27 August – The Day of the Barricades. More than twelve hundred barricades erected in Paris streets against the royal authorities, and prisoners seized by Mazarin are liberated on the 29th.
13 September – The King, Queen Mother and Mazarin leave Paris for Rueil, then Saint-Germain-en-Laye. After negotiations with the Parlement, they accept its propositions and return to Paris on 30 October. The tower of the Grand Châtelet in 1650
1650
Mineral springs discovered at Passy, at the present-day rue des Eaux. The mineral baths there remain fashionable until the end of the 19th century.
18 January – Mazarin orders the arrest of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, le Grand Condé, who has turned against the government, and of the Fronde of the Parlement.
30 January – The Fronde of the princes (Fronde des Princes, 1650–1653), led by Condé, and Fronde of the Paris Parlement join together against Mazarin.
6–7 January – Cardinal Mazarin flees from Paris.
1652
11 April – Condé, leader of the Fronde of princes, enters Paris, pursued by the royal army.
2 July – The Battle of Paris. The royal army, led by Turenne, defeats the army of Condé outside the city; Condé and his men take refuge inside the city walls.
4 July – Soldiers of Condé lay siege to the Hôtel de Ville to force the Parlement to join the Fronde of the princes.
13 October – The Parlement sends a delegation to Mazarin and the King at Saint-Germain-en Laye, asking for peace.
14 October – The Fronde collapses, and Condé flees the city.
21 October – Louis XIV and his court return in triumph to Paris, and take up residence in the Louvre.
22 October – An amnesty is proclaimed for the Fronde participants, except for its leaders.
1653
3 February – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris. On 4 July, the leaders of Paris honor him with a banquet at the Hôtel de Ville and a fireworks show.[59]
1 March – A historic flood of the Seine washes away the Pont Marie, even though it was built of stone. The water reaches an historic high of 8.81 meters, higher than the 8.50 meters during the 1910 floods.
24 June – The theater troupe of Molière is given the privilege to perform before the King, a privilege earlier given to the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Comédiens italiens.
1659
10 May – Molière and his troupe perform L'Étourdi at the Louvre. On 21 October, they perform Les Précieuses ridicules.
28 November – Privilege of making and selling hot chocolate granted to David Chaillou, first valet de chambre of the Count of Soissons. This begins the fashion of drinking chocolate in Paris.[59]The Louvre and the quay of the Seine in the 1660s
1660
Introduction of coffee in Paris. It had previously been served in Marseille in 1626, but did not become popular until 1669, during the visit to Paris of the first ambassador from the Turkish sultan.[59]
26 August – A new square, place du Trône (now Place de la Nation) is created on the east side of Paris for a ceremony to welcome Louis XIV and his new bride, Maria Theresa of Spain.
1661
20 January – Theater company of Molière takes up residence at the Palais-Royal
3–7 March – The will of Cardinal Mazarin endows the founding of the Collège des Quatre-Nations, to grant free education for sixty young nobles from the recently annexed provinces of Alsace, Pignerol, Artois and Roussillon. The architect Le Vau is selected to design the building.
1662
14 February – Installation of the salle des machines, a hall for theater performances and spectacles, in the Tuileries.
March – Royal letters of patent give to Laudati de Caraffa the privilege of establishing stations of torch-bearers and lantern-bearers to escort people through the dark streets at night.
18 March – First public transport line established of coaches running regularly between porte Saint-Antoine and Luxembourg. The service continues until 1677.
11 December – A decree re-organizes the policing of Paris, and quadruples the number of city watchmen.
22 December – Establishment of the Académie royale des sciences. Colbert presents the members of the Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV (1667)
1667
17 February – The number of authorized printing houses in Paris is reduced to thirty-six to facilitate censorship.
March – The founding of the Paris Observatory, which is finished in 1672. It is located in the avenue de l'Observatoire. The Paris meridian becomes the meridian on all French maps: it runs through the center of the salle méridienne (also known as salle de Cassini) of the observatory.[24]
15 March – A royal edict creates the position of Lieutenant-General of Police. The first to hold the office is Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, named on 29 March.
18 August – First regulations governing the height of buildings in Paris and the faubourgs.
2 September – First royal ordinance for street lighting. 2,736 lanterns with candles are installed on 912 streets.
15 September – The butte des Moulins, between, rue des Petits-Champs and rue Saint-Roch, is divided into lots, and twelve new streets created.
10 February – Louis XIV moves the royal court to Versailles.
30 November – First stone placed for the Hôtel des Invalides, a home for wounded soldiers. It was inaugurated in October 1674.
1672
February – First successful Parisian café opens at the foire Saint-Germain, a fair held in the vicinity of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey.
April 1672 – First issue of Mercure galant, later Mercure de France, published. In 1678 it published the first reviews of high fashion.[63][66]
26 August – A new city regulation fixes the new limits of the city and tries again to limit any construction beyond them. Thirty-five new boundary stones are placed around the city in April 1674. The Porte Saint-Denis, built by Louis XIV on the site of the old city wall, which he declared were no longer needed (1675).
1673
Two large pumps built on the pont Notre-Dame to lift drinking water from the Seine. They continued working until 1858.
17 March – Decree of the council to build the quai Neuf, which becomes the quai Le Pelletier.
The drinking of coffee with milk comes into fashion, described by Madame de Sévigné in a letter of 17 December 1688.
4 July – The state buys the hôtel de Vendôme and the convent of the Capucines in order to build the future place Louis-le-Grand, the modern Place Vendôme.
22 October – The Paris Parlement registers the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, revoking the toleration of the Protestant Church. The same day begins the demolition of the Protestant temple at Charenton.
25 October – First stone placed for the pont Royal to replace the old pont Rouge. It was completed in June 1689.
1686
Café Procope, opens and remains the oldest Paris café in operation.[63]
28 March – Inauguration of Place des Victoires, with an equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the center. Since the houses around it have not yet been built, they are represented by painted backdrops.[68]
1687
Ordinance permitting the Vilain family to open public baths along the river between the Cours-la-Reine and the Pont Marie.
1692
February – Creation of the position of the Lieutenant-General of the King for the government of Paris. The first to hold the title is Jean-Baptiste Le Ragois de Bretonvilliers de Saint-Dié.
1693
20 October – During a bread shortage, the city authorities distribute bread to the poor. The effort ends in a riot, with many killed.
1697
June – The Comédie Italienne theater troupe is banned after they perform La Fausse prude at the Hôtel de Bourgogne; the play has an unflattering character clearly representing Madame de Maintenon, the morganatic wife of Louis XIV. The actors are compelled to leave the city.
1698
18 September – A mysterious prisoner wearing a black velvet mask is incarcerated in the Bastille. Voltaire romanticizes this story into that of a prisoner with an iron mask, who later becomes the subject of the novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas.[69]
Louis XIV visits the unfinished Les Invalides in 1706
1701
December – A royal edict divides the city into twenty police districts, added to the sixteen quarters created by the Hôtel de Ville.[69]
1706
28 August – Consecration of the church of Les Invalides, in the presence of the King.[69]
1709
6 January – Extreme cold hits Paris, that will last until the end of March. Temperature drops to -40 Celsius, (estimated as the thermometer was invented that year.)the Seine freezes, causing shipments of food by boat to be stopped. The cold wave paralyzes all of France, making it also impossible to bring supplies to Paris by road. In that period, twenty four to thirty thousand persons die from hunger and cold in Paris alone; near one million in all of France.[69]
15 March – Seine begins to thaw, causing flood.
5 April – First food shipment reaching Paris by road.
20 August – Food riot quelled by the army, leaving two dead.
1714
7 August – Royal Council prohibits building on the boulevards from the Porte Saint-Honoré to Porte Saint-Antoine without authorization of the Bureau de la Ville.[70]
31 December – An ordinance authorizes the first public ball in Paris, the masked ball at the Paris Opera.[71]
1716
2 May – The founding of the Banque générale, the first private bank in Paris, by the Scotsman John Law.[71]
18 May – The Comédie Italienne theater troupe, banned by Louis XIV in 1697 to perform in Paris, is allowed to return and performs at the Palais Royal.[71]
1718
4 December – The Banque générale becomes the Banque royale and effectively the central bank of France. Two-thirds of its assets are government bills and notes.
Completion of Place Louis-le-Grand, now Place Vendôme.
24 March – Bank of John Law closes, unable to pay its subscribers. Financial panic follows, and the Paris stock market is closed until 1724.
10 July – Rioters storm the Banque royale, demanding to exchange their banknotes for silver. Banker John Law flees to Brussels, then Venice.[72]
1721
28 November – Public execution of the bandit Louis-Dominique Cartouche, famed for robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Thanks to a play about him the same year by the Comédie Italienne, he became a Parisian folk hero.[72]
1722
Construction begins of the Palais-Bourbon, finished in 1728. After the Revolution of 1789, it became the seat of the National Assembly.
The Hôtel de Ville in 1740
1723
23 February – A royal regulation forbids printing houses and publishing outside of the Latin quarter on the Left Bank. The law is intended to make censorship more effective.[72]
1728
16 January – First street signs, made of iron painted white with black letters, put in place. They were easy to steal, and in 1729 were replaced by carved stone plaques.[73]
1738 – The founding of the royal porcelain manufactory in Vincennes; it was transferred in 1757 to Sèvres.[75]
1745
26 March – Permission given by the royal censors for the publication of the first Encyclopédie. It was published between 1751 and 1772.[77]
1749
March – The exhibition at the Saint-Germain fair of the first rhinoceros ever to be seen in Paris.[77]The Encyclopédie, published in Paris by Diderot and D'Alembert between 1751 and 1772
The establishment of Boulanger offers Parisians a choice of "restaurants", namely soups, meat and egg dishes, in competition with existing taverns and cabarets. This was a predecessor of the modern restaurant.[80]
1767
September – Benjamin Franklin comes to Paris to discuss his experiments with electricity with French scientists
1767–1783 – The grain market (Halle aux Blés) constructed. In 1885 the building became the Paris Chamber of Commerce.[81]
30 May – Tragic fireworks display, Place Louis XV, during festivities given in celebration of the marriage of the Dauphin and Dauphine (the future king Louis XVI and queen Marie-Antoinette); 132 persons died.[82]
August – The foundung of a corporation of merchants of fashion, also including feather dealers and florists, separate from the corporation of small shopkeepers.[84]
Construction begins of the Hôtel de Salm, finished in 1784. After the Revolution of 1789, it became the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur.
1783
Royal decrees requiring a relation between the height of buildings and the width of the street, and declaring that new streets must be at least thirty feet (about ten meters) wide.[88]
3 September – Treaty of Paris signed at 56 rue Jacob by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Adams and Henry Laurens for the United States and David Hartley for Britain, ending the American Revolution. Depiction of the Montgolfier brothers' first balloon ascension, a captive ascension with two men aboard, on 19 October 1783, in the gardens of the royal wallpaper manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, in Paris. Picture was published in Journal officiel n° 299, dated 26 October 1783.
8 June – A decree of the Prévôt de Paris authorized caterers and chefs to establish restaurants and to serve clients until eleven in the evening in winter and midnight in summer.[92]
The first restaurant in the modern sense, the Taverne anglaise, is opened by Antoine Beauvilliers in the arcade of the Palais-Royal.[89]
Construction begins of a large steam-powered pump at Gros-Caillou, on the Quai d'Orsay, to provide drinking water from the Seine for the population of the left bank.[89]
September – A royal edict orders the demolition of houses built on the Paris bridges and on some of the quays. The edict was carried out in 1788.
1787
The duc d'Orléans sells spaces in the arcades of the Palais-Royal which are occupied by cafés, restaurants and shops.
13 July – Devastating hail storms accompanied by strong winds of a force rarely seen, following a path from the southwest of France to the north, destroyed crops, orchards, killed farm animals, tore roofs and toppled steeples. In Paris, the faubourg Saint-Antoine was hardest hit.[93] It caused a major increase in bread prices, and the migration of thousands of peasants into Paris.[94]
16 August – The French state becomes bankrupt, and begins issuing paper money to pay for pensions, rents and the salaries of soldiers. Large-scale demonstrations and civil disorders begin. The storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789). Anonymous.
12–19 May – Paris elects deputies to the Estates-General, a legislative assembly summoned by Louis XVI to raise funds.
12 July – Parisians respond to the dismissal of the King's reformist minister, Necker, with civil disturbances. Confrontations between Royal-Allemand Dragoon Regiment and a crowd of protestors on Place Louis XV, and Sunday strollers in the Tuileries gardens. Mobs storm the city armories and take weapons. In the evening, the new customs barriers around the city are burned.[94]
14 July – Storming of the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority, releasing seven prisoners. The governor of the Bastille surrenders and is lynched by the crowd.[95]
15 July – The astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly is chosen Mayor of Paris at the Hôtel de Ville.
17 July – King Louis XVI comes to the Hôtel de Ville and accepts a tricolor cocarde.
5–6 October – The royal family is forced to move from Versailles to Paris.[95]
19 October – The deputies of the National Assembly move from Versailles to Paris, first to the residence of the Archbishop, then, on 9 November, to the Manège of the Tuileries Palace.
3 April – The church of Sainte-Geneviève is transformed into the Panthéon. Mirabeau is the first famous Frenchman to have his tomb placed there on 4 April, followed by Voltaire on 11 July.[90]
20–21 June – The King and his family flee Paris, but are captured at Varennes and brought back on 25 June.
17 July – A large demonstration on the Champ de Mars demands the immediate proclamation of a republic. The National Assembly orders Mayor Bailly to disperse the crowd. Soldiers fire on the crowd, killing many.[96]
19 September – Mayor Bailly resigns.
1792
25 April – First execution using the guillotine of the bandit Nicolas Pelletier on the Place de Grève.
20 November – Discovery of the Armoire de fer, an iron box containing documents incriminating Louis XVI, in his apartment at the Tuileries.
10 to 26 December – King Louis XVI's trial. The execution of King Louis XVI on the Place de la Révolution, 21 January 1793. Bibliothèque nationale de France
1793
21 January – Execution of Louis XVI on the Place de la Révolution (former Place Louis XV, now Place de la Concorde).[95]
10 March – Creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal to judge enemies of the Revolution.
16 October – Execution of queen Marie Antoinette on the Place de la Révolution.[95]
30 March – Arrest of Georges Danton, chief opponent of Robespierre. He is guillotined 5 April. The Festival of the Supreme Being, by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, 8 June 1794.
8 June – Celebration of the Cult of the Supreme Being held on Champ de Mars, presided over by Robespierre.
11 June – Beginning of the climax of Reign of Terror, period known as the Grande Terreur. Between June 11 and 27 July, 1,366 persons are condemned to death.[98]
27 July – 9th Thermidor, the convention accuses Robespierre of crimes. He is arrested together with several of his acolytes, among which Saint-Just.
28 July – Robespierre and those arrested with him are guillotined, this signaling the end of the Reign of Terror.[95]
24 August – The revolutionary committees of the twelve Paris sections are abolished, and replaced by new arrondissement committees.
31 August – The municipal government of Paris is abolished, and the city put directly under the national government.[89]
22 October – The École centrale des travaux publics, predecessor of the École Polytechnique (school) established.
1795
20 May – Rioting sans-culottes invade the convention meeting hall, demanding "bread and the 1793 Constitution". Army troops loyal to the government occupy the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and disarm demonstrators. First use of a frameless parachute from a Montgolfier balloon over Paris by André Garnerin in 1797
5 October – An uprising by royalists in the center of the city is suppressed with artillery fire by General Napoleon Bonaparte.
11 October – Paris is once again organized into twelve municipalities, within the new department of the Seine.
2 November – The Directory government is established.
22 October – First parachute jump with a frameless parachute made by André Garnerin from a Montgolfier balloon at an altitude of 700 meters over the Plaine de Monceau.[99]
17 February – Napoleon reorganizes city into twelve arrondissements, each with a mayor with little power, under two Prefects, one for the police and one for administration of the city, both appointed by him.[98]
19 February – Napoleon makes the Tuileries Palace his residence.
12 March – Napoleon orders the creation of three new cemeteries outside the city; Montmartre to the north; Père-Lachaise to the east, and Montparnasse to the south.[101]
4 February – Napoleon decrees a new system of house numbers, beginning at the Seine, with even numbers on the right side of street and odd numbers on the left.
1806
2 May – Decree ordering the building of fourteen new fountains, including the Fontaine du Palmier on the Place du Châtelet, to provide drinking water.
7 July – First stone laid for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, on Place du Carrousel, between the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre.
8 August – First stone laid for the Arc de Triomphe at Étoile. Inaugurated on 29 July 1836, during the reign of Louis Philippe.
2 December – Decree ordering the creation a "Temple of Glory" dedicated to the soldiers of Napoleon's armies on the site of the unfinished church of the Madeleine.
13 June – Decree to build rue Soufflot on the left bank, on the axis of the Panthéon.
29 July – Decree reducing the number of theaters in Paris to eight; the Opéra, Opéra-Comique, Théâtre-Français, Théâtre de l'Impératrice (Odéon); Vaudeville, Variétés, Ambigu, Gaîté. The Opéra Italien, Cirque Olympique and Théâtre de Porte-Saint-Martin were added later.[104]
1808
2 December – Completion of the Ourcq Canal, bringing fresh drinking water 107 kilometers to Paris.[102]
2 December – First stone placed of the elephant fountain on Place de la Bastille. Only a wood and plaster full-size version was completed.
1809
16 August – Opening of the flower market on quai Desaix (now quai de Corse).
A military review at the Carrousel facing the Tuileries Palace (1810).
1810
5 February – For censorship purpose, number of printing houses in Paris limited to fifty.
2 April – Religious ceremony of the marriage of Napoléon to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, in the Salon carré of the Louvre.
4 April – first stone laid for the Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the quai d'Orsay. It was completed in 1838.
15 August – Completion of the Place Vendôme column, made of 1200 captured Russian and Austrian cannons[102]
29 April – During review of the Paris National Guard by King Charles X, the soldiers greet him with anti-government slogans. The King dissolves the National Guard.[108]
30 June – A giraffe, a gift of the Pasha of Egypt to Charles X, and the first-ever seen in Paris, is put on display in the Jardin des Plantes.
19–20 November – political demonstrations around the legislative elections; street barricades go up in the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin neighborhoods.
February – Concert Society of the Paris Conservatory founded. The first concert took place on 9 March.
11 April – Introduction of service by the omnibus, carrying 18 to 25 passengers. Fare was 25 centimes.[109]
1829
1 January – The rue de la Paix becomes the first street in Paris lit by gaslight.
12 March – Creation of the sergents de ville, the first uniformed Paris police force. Originally one hundred in number, they were mostly former army sergeants. They carried a cane during the day, and a sword at night.[110]
25 February – Pandemonium in the audience at the Théâtre Français, between the supporters of the classical style and those of the new romantic style, during the first performance of Victor Hugo's romantic drama Hernani.
16 March – Two hundred twenty deputies send a message to king Charles X criticizing his governance.
July – First vespasiennes, or public urinals, also serving as advertising kiosks, appear on Paris boulevards.
25 July – Charles X issues ordinances dissolving the national assembly, changing the election law and suppressing press freedom.
27–29 July – The Trois Glorieuses, three days of street battles between the army and opponents of the government. The insurgents install a provisional government in the Hôtel de Ville. Charles X leaves Saint-Cloud, his summer residence.
9 August – the Duke of Orléans, Louis-Philippe, is sworn King of the French.
28 November – Assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi, using an "infernal machine" of twenty gun barrels firing at once, as the king is riding on the Boulevard du Temple. The king is unharmed, but eighteen people are killed.
1836
Founding of two popular inexpensive newspapers, La Presse and Le Siècle.
7 January – Louis Daguerre presents his pioneer work on photography at the French Academy of Sciences. The academy gives him a pension, and publishes the technology for free use by anyone in the world.
12–13 May – Followers of Louis Blanqui begin armed uprising in attempt to overthrow government, but are quickly arrested by the army and national guard.[114]
2 August – Opening of railway line along the Seine between Paris and Versailles.
28 June – City government decrees installation of new street numbers, in white numbers on enameled blue porcelain plaques. These numbers remain until 1939.
9 July – Opponents of the government hold the first of a series of large banquets, the Campagne des banquets, to defy the law forbidding political demonstrations.[116]
1848–1869 – The Second Republic and the Second Empire
22 February – Government bans banquets of the political opposition.
23 February – Crowds demonstrate against Louis-Philippe's Prime Minister, Guizot. That evening soldiers fire on a crowd outside Guizot's residence, boulevard des Capucines, killing 52.[118]
24 February – Barricades appear in many neighborhoods. The government resigns, Louis-Philippe and his family flee into exile in England, and the Second Republic is proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville.
22–26 June – Armed uprising by the more radical republicans in the working-class neighborhoods of eastern Paris, suppressed by the army under General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac. The city remains under martial law until 19 October.
2 August – The first tourist excursion train to the beach at Dieppe leaves Paris. This begins the tradition of leaving Paris for summer holidays in August.[119]
3 March – new cholera epidemic begins in the overcrowded center of the city. Between March and September, sixteen thousand deaths.
8 May – First stone placed for first public housing for workers in Paris, the cité ouvrière on rue de Rochechouart.
13 June – Armed uprising by radical republicans in the Saint-Martin district against the government of the Second Republic, led by Ledru-Rollin. It was suppressed by the army, causing eight deaths.
3 July – Inauguration of the train line, operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Strasbourg, opens between Paris and Strasbourg in eastern France.
12 August – Inauguration of the train line between Paris and Lyon.
19 May – opening of Mazas prison. Building the stone banks of the Seine, begun in 1840, underway in 1851
1851
5 June – Louis-Napoleon lays first stone for the new central market of Les Halles.
2 December – Louis-Napoleon, not allowed by the Constitution to run for re-election, seizes power through a coup d'état and moves his residence to the Tuileries Palace. There is sporadic opposition in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and neighborhood of the temple, quickly subdued by the army.
10 December – Decree of Louis-Napoleon to begin building the ceinture railroad line around the city, 38 kilometers long. The line was finished in 1870.
1852
26 March – A decree allows the government to more easily expropriate old buildings and the adjacent land in order to build new boulevards through the center of Paris.
Aristide Boucicaut and the Videau brothers open Le Bon Marché, the first modern Paris department store. The store has twelve employees in 1852, and 1,788 in 1877.[121]
1853
29 June – Napoleon III installs a huge map of Paris in his office at the Tuileries Palace and he and his new prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, begin planning the reconstruction of central Paris.
21 November – A demonstration of the first tram line between the modern avenue de New York and the Cours-la-Reine. A line is later opened connecting Place de la Concorde with the pont de Sèvres.
1854 A Paris omnibus in the early 1850s
Louis Vuitton opens a luggage shop on Rue Neuve des Capucines, and in 1858 introduces a line of flat-bottomed canvas trunks, convenient for stacking.
19 July – The Compagnie parisienne d'éclairage is formed, with a monopoly for providing gas distribution. The company installs thousands of new gaslights along the city streets.[123]
11 August – Napoleon III decrees the construction of boulevard Saint-Michel and boulevard Saint-Germain on the left bank.
29 August – Napoleon III decrees the building of Avenue des Amandiers (now Avenue de la République) and Boulevard Prince-Eugène (now Boulevard Voltaire). The new Boulevard de Sébastopol, opened by Napoleon III in 1858.
1858
14 January – Bomb attack on Emperor Napoleon III by Orsini, an Italian nationalist, outside the Paris Opera. The Emperor is unharmed, but 156 persons are killed or injured.
17 February – Napoleon III decrees the annexation of the faubourgs, which were small communes lying between the Mur des Fermiers généraux and the Thiers wall, effective January 1, 1860.
16 June – decree creating twenty arrondissements for the future enlarged city.
22 June – Decree by Haussmann that, along boulevards and streets at least twenty meters wide, buildings can be as high as twenty meters, but must not have more than five floors. This, along with standards for uniform façade design, material and color, gives the distinct Haussmann look to Paris boulevards.[127]
28 July – Napoleon III departs Paris to take command of the French army at Metz.
4 September – News reaches Paris that Napoleon III has been captured by the Prussians at Battle of Sedan. The government falls and the Third Republic proclaimed at Hôtel de Ville.
17 September – The Prussian army surrounds the city, and siege of Paris begins.[137]
23 September – first balloon departs the besieged city. By January 28, sixty-six balloons depart with a hundred passengers.[138]
14 November – Message service by carrier pigeons established between Paris and the outside world. The Paris population suffers from cold, hunger and disease.
1871
January – Prussians bombard Paris with heavy siege guns for twenty-three nights.
28 January – Armistice and capitulation of Paris. Prussians remain in their positions outside the city.
1 March – Prussians hold a brief victory parade on the Champs-Élysées, then withdraw to their positions.[139]
18 March – French army tries to remove 271 cannon from the heights of Montmartre, but is blocked by members of the Paris National Guard. The Guard captures and executes two French generals. The most radical members of the Guard seize the Hôtel de Ville and other strategic points in the city. The army and government withdraw from Paris to Versailles.[140]The burning of the Tuileries Palace by the Paris Commune (24 May 1871)
26 March – Elections for the new Paris Commune, or city council, with low voting in affluent west Paris but high turnout in the working-class neighborhoods. The new council is dominated by anarchists, radical socialists and revolutionary candidates.
27 March – The new Commune officially takes power. It replaces the French tricolor with the red flag and proposes a revolutionary program.
16 May – At the suggestion of Gustave Courbet, the column in the Place Vendôme is pulled down in a civic ceremony.
21–28 May – The Paris Commune is suppressed by the French Army during "The Bloody Week" (La Semaine sanglante) with seven to ten thousand Communards killed in the fighting or executed afterwards and buried in mass graves in the city's cemeteries, and forty three thousand Parisians taken prisoners.[140] The Tuileries Palace, Hôtel de Ville and other government buildings are burned down by the Communards; and the Paris city archives [fr] are destroyed. Afterwards, Paris is placed under martial law.[141]
September – Installation of the first Wallace fountain, to encourage Parisians to drink water instead of wine or liquor.
30 May – The first test of electric lighting on the avenue de l'Opéra and the Place de l'Etoile.[143]
1879
July – Installation of first telephone system in Paris.
1880–1889
1880
3 January – The ice on the Seine thaws suddenly, and the river rises more than two meters in three hours, sweeping away the pont des Invalides, under reconstruction.[143]
10 July – Amnesty for those imprisoned or exiled after the Paris Commune.
14 July – Bastille Day is celebrated officially for the first time since 1802
15 August (through 15 November) – The Exposition internationale d'électricité is held, highlighted by the illumination of the Grands Boulevards with electric lights.
18 August – Opening of the Chat Noir, the first modern cabaret in Montmartre.[144]
12 April – opening of the Olympia music hall on boulevard des Capucines.
3 July – Disturbances in the Latin Quarter between students and supporters of Senator René Bérenger over supposedly indecent costumes worn at the Bal des Quatre z'arts. One person is killed.[146]
December – Opening of the Vélodrome d'hiver cycling stadium on the rue Suffren, in the former Galerie des Machines from the 1889 Exposition.
9 December – the anarchist Auguste Vaillant explodes a bomb in the National Assembly, injuring forty-six persons. Poster for the first public screening of a motion picture at the Grand Café, Paris (1895)
1894
10 to 30 January – The Photo-Club de Paris, founded in 1888 by Constant Puyo, Robert Demachy and Maurice Boucquet, holds the first International Exposition of Photography at the Galeries Georges Petit,[148]8 rue de Sèze (8th arrondissement), devoted to photography as an art rather than a science. The exhibit launches the movement called Pictorialism.
First championship of France football tournament between six Parisian teams.
12 February – The anarchist Émile Henry explodes a bomb in the café of the Gare Saint-Lazare, killing one person and wounding twenty-three.
15 March – The anarchist Amédée Pauwels explodes a bomb in the church of La Madeleine. One person, the bomber, is killed.
22 July – The first automobile race, organized by Le Petit Journal, from Paris to Rouen.
22 March – first projected showing of a motion picture by Louis Lumière at a conference on the future industry of cinematography at 44 rue de Rennes.[151]
10 August – The founding of the Gaumont Film Company, the first major French film studio.
28 December – First public projection of a motion picture by the Lumière Brothers in the basement of the Grand Café, on the corner of Rue Scribe and boulevard des Capucines.[90] Thirty-eight persons attend, including future director Georges Méliès.
3 September – opening of the first movie theater, in the theatre Robert-Houdon on boulevard des Italiens. The theater is rented for three months by Georges Méliès to show films.
4 December – The first Paris automobile show held as part of the Salon du Cycle at the Palais des Sports on rue de Berri.
22 March – First England-France Rugby match played at Parc des Princes.
11 June – first motorized bus line begins service between Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Horse-drawn omnibuses continued to run until January 1913.
23 October – First airplane flight in Paris by Santos Dumont, flying sixty meters at an altitude of three meters at the Parc de Bagatelle.
1907
22 February – First woman receives a license to drive a taxi in Paris.
25 March – first traffic roundabout created in Paris at Place de l'Étoile.
January 21–28 – Great flood of Paris. The Seine rises 8.5 meters, the highest level since 1658, and overflows its banks. The flood affects one sixth of the buildings in Paris.[158]
13 February – Opening of the Vélodrome d'hiver cycling stadium on rue de Grenelle.
3 December – First use of neon lights on the Grand Palais. The first neon advertising sign appears on Boulevard Montmartre in 1912.
Coco Chanel Opens her first boutique, called Chanel Modes, at 21 rue Cambon.[159]
At the Salon d'automne of 1910, held from 1 October to 8 November, Jean Metzinger introduced an extreme form of what would soon be labeled Cubism.[161]
1911
24 January – Departure of the first Paris-Monte Carlo automobile race.
22 August – The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre. It was recovered in Florence in December, 1913.[162]
The Cubist contribution to the 1912 Salon d'automne created a controversy in the Municipal Council of Paris, leading to a debate in the Chambre des Députés about the use of public funds to provide the venue for such art. The Cubists were defended by the Socialist deputy, Marcel Sembat.[164][165]
Crowd of reservists being mobilized at the Gare de l'Est (2 August 1914)
1914
31 July – Jean Jaurès, leader of the French socialists, assassinated by mentally disturbed man in the Café du Croissant on rue du Croissant in Montmartre.
1 August – Mobilization of army reservists.
3 August – France declares war on Germany. The beginning of the First World War. Paris taxis carried 6000 soldiers to the front lines during the First Battle of the Marne (8 September 1914).
29 August – As German army approaches, French government and National Assembly depart Paris for Bordeaux.[166]
September 6–9 – Army requisitions 600–1000 Paris taxis to transport six thousand soldiers fifty kilometers to the front lines in the First Battle of the Marne.[167]
December 9 – Government and National Assembly return to Paris. During the First World War, Montparnasse became the new gathering place for Paris artists and writers. Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and André Salmon in front of the café Le Dôme, photographed by Jean Cocteau (1916).
El Ajedrecista automaton introduced at University of Paris.
1915
10 September – the Satirical magazine Canard enchaîné begins publication.
30 October – official prices of food are posted on doorways of public schools, to deter speculation.
1916
20 January – Frozen meat goes on sale in two Paris butcher shops.
29 January – First bombing of Paris by a German Zeppelin. Twenty-six persons are killed and thirty two wounded at Belleville.
27 August – 1,700 Chinese workers arrive at the Gare de Lyon to work in Paris armaments factories, replacing men mobilized into the army. One of the Chinese workers was Zhou Enlai, future Communist leader in China, who worked in the Renault factory at Boulogne-sur-Seine, town renamed Boulogne-Billancourt in 1924.[168]
15 December – The first woman conductor is hired for the Paris tramways.
9 February – Shortage of coal and grain. Bakers are permitted to sell only one kind of bread, sold the day after it is baked.
15 May – Wave of strikes in Paris workshops and factories, demanding a five-day week and an extra franc a day to compensate for higher prices. Most demands are granted.[169]
1 September – Rationing of coal begins.
25 November – Seats are reserved on Paris public transportation for the blind and those wounded in the war.
15 October – Execution by firing squad of the DutchMata Hari, a spy for the Germans, in the moat of the Château de Vincennes. Victory parade on Place de la Concorde, (11 November 1918)
1918
29 January – Rationing of bread is imposed; a card allows three hundred grams per day per person.
30 January – Night bombing raid by twenty-eight German aircraft kills sixty-five persons and injures two hundred. Further raids took place on 8 and 11 March.
11 March – German bombing raid causes a panic in the Bolivar metro station, killing seventy one persons.
21 March – German long-range artillery fires eighteen shells into Paris, killing fifteen and wounding sixty-nine. The shelling continued until 16 September.
29 March – a German shell hits the Saint-Gervais church during mass, killing eighty-two persons and injuring sixty-nine.
October – Epidemic of Spanish influenza, which began at the start of the year, kills 1,778 persons in one week.
11 November – Signing of armistice ends the war. Victory celebrations on the Champs-Élysées.
The first Shakespeare and Company, owned by Sylvia Beach, an American expatriate, opened at 8 rue Dupuytren. It moved to a larger location at 12 rue de l'Odéon in the 6th arrondissement in 1922 but closed in 1940 and never re-opened.
1920
19 August – National Assembly votes a credit of 500,000 francs to build a mosque near the Jardin des Plantes.
The Paris edition of the American fashion magazine Vogue begins publication.
28 January – Remains of an unknown French soldier killed in the war placed in a tomb beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
26 November – first concert broadcast by radio from the transmitter on the Eiffel Tower.
November – Ernest Hemingway arrives in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star with his wife Hadley and settles at 74 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine on the Left Bank. He remains in Paris at different addresses and with a different wife until 1928.
22 January – A bronze star is placed on the parvis of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Henceforth, distances on French highways are measured from this point.
23 April – Street battles between the Communists and a nationalist group, the Jeunesses Patriotes, on rue Damrémont. Four persons are killed, forty injured.[175]
20 June – Fifteen-hundred seat Théâtre Pigalle opens, designed to be the most modern theater in the world. It presented plays staged by Sacha Guitry, Max Reinhardt and other leading directors, before closing in 1948 and being replaced by a parking garage in 1958.
5 October – Communists attack a rally of young socialists at the Gymnase Japy; more than two hundred persons injured.[180]
14 April – First broadcast of a television signal by René Barthélemy at the École Supérieure d'électricité (Supélec) de Malakoff.
6 May – Paris Colonial Exposition, celebrating the products and cultures of France's overseas colonies, opens in the Bois de Vincennes. Before it closes on 15 November, it attracts thirty-three million visitors.[180]
6 May – Assassination of Paul Doumer, President of the French Republic, on rue Berryer, by a white Russian émigré, Paul Gorguloff. President Doumer died the following day, on 7 May.
7 November – First drawing of the National Lottery.
1934
3 January – First metro line to the suburbs, to Pont de Sèvres, opens.
12 January – National Assembly debates the Stavisky Affair, a case of high-level political corruption. Violent anti-government street demonstrations break out.
6 February – Riots outside the National Assembly protesting corruption of parliament members. Eleven persons are killed and more than three hundred injured.[181] (See also 6 February 1934 riots)
1935 Popular Front banners for the 1936 elections. The lowest sign says: "Make the rich pay."
26 April – First official television broadcast from the Ministry of the post, telegraph and telephone (PTT) on rue de Grenelle.
5 July – First stone placed for the Musée national d'art moderne (Museum of Modern Art), in the western wing of the Palais de Tokyo, on the avenue de Tokio (renamed avenue de New York in 1945). (The Musée national d'art moderne is now in the Centre Georges Pompidou.)
14 July – The Communists and socialists hold a joint demonstration on Bastille Day, the first demonstration of the new Front populaire, or Popular Front of the left.
1936 – Population: 2,829,753[173]The pavilions of Soviet Russia (right) and Nazi Germany (left) faced each other at the 1937 Paris Exposition.
3 May – The Front populaire wins the parliamentary elections.
26 May – Strikes in many Paris industries and businesses settled by a salary agreement made with the new government on 7 June.
1937
1 May – May Day is celebrated as an official holiday for the first time.
10 March – First gas masks distributed to Paris population.
19 March – Bomb shelters designated throughout Paris.
25 August – The Communist newspaper L'Humanité is closed by the French government for praising the Hitler-Stalin pact as a "new and appreciable contribution to peace, constantly threatened by the warmongering fascists."[182]
31 August – Children are evacuated from Paris.
September 1 – Government orders mobilization and a state of siege.
2 September – Declaration of war on Germany.
1939–1945 – The Second World War
German soldiers change guard on rue de Rivoli (October, 1940)
23 June – Hitler comes to Paris for one day. He makes a brief visit to the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot to see the Eiffel Tower.
18 October – German occupation authorities announced that Jews will have a special status.
11 November – First anti-occupation demonstration by students at the Arc de Triomphe.[182]
26 December – Germans suspend the powers of the Municipal Council.
1941
14 May – Five thousand non-French Jews, mostly refugees, arrested.
22 June – Germany invades the Soviet Union. The French Communist Party actively joins the Resistance.
1 July – Rationing of textiles begins.
20 July – Opening of the transit Drancy internment camp to hold Jews before deportation.
21 August – A German officer is killed at the Barbès-Rochechouart metro station by a member of the Communist Party, Pierre Georges, later known as Colonel Fabien. The Germans respond by taking civilian hostages and threatening to execute them if more assassinations take place.
3 September – First Allied bombing of factories and railroad yards in Paris; four hundred five persons killed. General de Gaulle celebrates the liberation of Paris (26 August 1944).28th Infantry Division marches down the Champs Élysées, 29 Aug 1944.
1944
20–21 April – Allied bombing of gare de la Chapelle-Saint-Denis in 18th arrondissement kills 650 persons. Marshal Pétain attends the funeral on 23 April, his first visit to Paris since 1940.
6 June – Allied forces land at Normandy. French Resistance groups in Paris, largely led by the Communist Party, begin organizing an uprising.
19 August – As Allied forces approach Paris, the French resistance seizes the telephone exchange, ministries and public buildings, including the Prefecture of Police, which is defended against the Germans by two thousand policemen. About 1,500 resistance fighters are killed in the uprising, including about six hundred civilians.[185]
25 August – The German commander, General Choltitz, refuses to carry out Hitler's order to destroy the city's monuments. At four in the afternoon, at gare Montparnasse, he surrenders the city to General Leclerc.
25 August – General Charles de Gaulle arrives at gare Montparnasse, and is shown Choltitz' surrender. In the evening, he gives a speech to the crowd from the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville.
26 August – General de Gaulle arrives at three in the afternoon at the Arc de Triomphe and walks down the Champs-Élysées to the Place de la Concorde, acclaimed by a huge and delirious crowd.
29 August – Parade of the US 28th Infantry Division down the Champs Élysées to Place de la Concorde.
1 September – Provisional French government led by de Gaulle established in Paris.
18 December – Le Monde newspaper begins publication.[186]
Épuration, or purge, of Parisians who collaborated with the Germans. 9,969 persons were arrested, of whom 211 were executed, and 1616 acquitted. The others received prison sentences. Many suspected collaborators left Paris and went abroad.[187]
1945
29 April – First municipal elections after the war, and the first French elections in which women could vote. Six parties take part: the Communists take thirty percent of the vote and 27 council seats out of ninety, making them the largest group in the council.
21 October – Communists and socialists win majority of seats in the first parliamentary elections after the war.
1946–1967
Recovering from the war. Paris automobile show in 1946.High fashion became a major French export after the war. A gown by Christian Dior worn by Eva Peron (1950)
1 January – Rationing of bread re-established, and continues until 1 February 1949.
3 February – First issue of the sports newspaper L'Équipe published.
5 April – Socialist government nationalizes the private gas and electricity companies.
23 April – Houses of prostitution ordered closed.
1947
12 February – First major fashion show after the war organized by Christian Dior at 30 Avenue Montaigne. High fashion became an important French export industry and foreign – currency earner.
25 April – Communist trade union begins strike at Renault factory.
5 May – Split between communists and socialists. New socialist Prime Minister Paul Ramadier dismisses communist ministers from French government.
June – Communist unions organize strikes and work stoppages of railroad and bank employees.[185]
The Bread ration reduced to 200 grams per person, less than during the German Occupation.
20 October – The Rassemblement du peuple français, a new center-right party led by Charles de Gaulle, wins Paris municipal elections, with 52 seats on the council out of ninety. The Communists win twenty-five seats, the socialists win five.[185]
November – Communist trade unions organize strikes of metal workers, public employees, teachers, and railroad workers in an effort to bring down the government, and call a general strike for December 1. Railroad lines are sabotaged. The navy, army and firemen are called in to keep electricity networks and the metro running.[185]
9 – The Communists call off the general strike.
1948
21 March – The Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP) organized, a single authority to manage Paris public transport.
26 June – Inauguration of Paris-Orly airport, at the time the largest airport in Europe.
Founding of the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales [fr].[188]
1951
1 May – First demonstrations in Paris of Algerians demanding independence from France.
1952
18 May – Large demonstration on the Champs-Élysées of Algerians supporting independence for Algeria.
28 May – Violent confrontations between Communist demonstrators and police over visit of U.S. General Matthew Ridgway. Several hundred persons injured.
1953
26 April to May 3 – The Paris municipal elections won by center right – coalition formed with left republicans (RGR), Gaullists (RPF) and independents.[185]
14 July – Violent confrontations between Communists and Algerian independence supporters and the police. Seven persons are killed, and one hundred twenty-six injured.
1 February – Abbé Pierre issues an appeal for the city to aid the homeless.
1 August – Ordnance forbids Parisians to honk their car horns "except in case of danger."
1 November – War of independence begins in Algeria, with serious repercussions in Paris. Numerous killings in Paris of members of two rival Algerian factions, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), or National Liberation Front, and the Mouvement national algérien (MNA), and large demonstrations are organized by the Communists and Algerian nationalists.[189]
1955
15 September – Renault workers win three weeks of paid vacation.
1956
Short film – The Red Balloon released, set in Paris. It won the Academy Award in 1956 for best original screenplay.
7 November – Following the suppression of the Hungarian uprising by Soviet troops, large demonstrations take place outside Communist Party headquarters in Paris. When the name of the place outside their building is changed to the name of Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian anti-Russian patriot, the Communists move to a new location on place du Colonel-Fabien.[190]
8 November – New metro cars running on rubber wheels instead of steel wheels begin service between Châtelet and Mairie des Lilas.
1958
19 May – Following a revolt by the French military in Algiers on 13 May, Charles de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Palais d'Orsay offering to form a new government, "If the people wish."
1 June – De Gaulle is invested as head of government by the National Assembly.
28 September – Proposed Constitution of the Fifth French Republic approved by the National Assembly.
1959
27 April – Demolition begins of the Vélodrome d'Hiver.
30 December – Rock singer Johnny Hallyday performs on radio program Paris-Cocktail and becomes an instant star.
1960
20 March – Paris police creates an auxiliary force of Muslim policemen to combat increasing terrorist attacks coming from the Algerian War.
12 April – Inauguration of the autoroute du Sud a highway from Paris to the south of France via Lyon.
1961
6 January – First bomb attacks in Paris by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), an armed terrorist group fighting to keep Algeria as part of France.
24 April – Opening of expanded Paris-Orly airport.
29 August – The Paris wing of the FLN, the major underground group fighting for Algerian independence, begins a campaign of killing French policemen, particularly Muslim auxiliaries. Thirteen policemen are killed between 29 August and 3 October.[191]
5 October – Paris municipality imposes a curfew on Algerians (French Muslim of Algeria), advising them to be off the streets between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.
17 October – Between thirty and forty thousand Algerians stage an illegal but peaceful march against the curfew, marching in four columns to the center of the city. The police violently breaks up the demonstration, arresting six to seven thousand persons. Trapped by the police, some demonstrators jump or are thrown off the pont Saint-Michel. The number of persons killed has never been reliably established; estimates vary widely from thirty to fifty dead[191] to over two hundred.[192] (See Paris massacre of 1961 for one point of view of the events).
17 January – Seventeen bombs explode planted by the OAS, demanding continued French rule over Algeria.
8 February – Illegal anti-OAS demonstration by FLN and Communists is suppressed by the police. Eight persons are killed, most of them crushed by the crowd trying to take sanctuary in the Charonne metro station. (For one point of view of the event, see The Charonne Metro Station Massacre.)
4 August – Malraux Law, named for French Culture Minister André Malraux, requires that façades of Paris buildings be cleaned of decades of soot and dirt. Cleaning begins.
1963
Landmarks such as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Paris change in color from dark grey to white after cleaning.[193]
21 April – The last duel is fought in the Bois de Boulogne between two members of the French National Assembly, Gaston Defferre and René Ribière (who lost the duel).[194]
29 November – Autoroute opens from Paris to Lille.
22 March – Coalition of Trotskyists, Maoists and anarchists organizes anti-government demonstrations at University of Nanterre.[196]
3 May – Student demonstrations spread to the Sorbonne campus, and police are called in.
6 May – The violent confrontations between demonstrators and police in the Latin Quarter leave eight hundred persons injured.
10 May – Barricades go up on rue Gay-Lussac, and a night of rioting.
13 May – The CFDT trade union and other unions support the students, and join in a large joint demonstration.
20 May – A general strike paralyzes the city. The Communists denounce Daniel Cohn-Bendit and other student leaders, because many have a Maoist ideology.[196][197]
25 May – Prime Minister Georges Pompidou negotiates a labor agreement with the CGT and other unions, concluded on May 27.
27 May – Large meeting of students, socialist party and CFDT at the Charléty stadium calls for bringing down the government of President Charles de Gaulle. Socialist leader François Mitterrand is proposed as a candidate for president, with Pierre Mendès France as prime minister.[196]
30 May – President de Gaulle launches a counter-offensive; he dissolves the National Assembly and calls for new elections 23 June and June 30. A demonstration on the Champs-Élysées.of an estimated one million persons supports de Gaulle.
June – The student leaders deny the authority of the President and call for more demonstrations. The Communist-backed unions of the CGT announce that they have no objections to new elections. The government raises the minimum wage by 35 percent, and most union members gradually go back to work. The last barricades are removed 20 June. The official statistics for the May events show 1,910 policemen injured, and 1,459 demonstrators injured. Damage to the streets (the removal of cobblestones to make barricades) is calculated at 2.5 million francs.[196]
June – Gaullist candidates win an absolute majority in the National Assembly. In Paris, the vote for the Communist candidates falls to eighteen percent from thirty percent in the previous elections.[196]
1969
28 February – The central market at Les Halles is moved outside the city to Rungis.
In the Paris municipal council elections Gaullist and center-right candidates win forty-six out of ninety seats; the Communists win twenty seats and the socialists seven.
The demolition begins of the historic pavilions of Les Halles, the central wholesale food market, whose function had been moved to the suburb of Rungis in 1969.
13 September – Opening of Tour Maine-Montparnasse, the first (and last) skyscraper in central Paris—said to have the most beautiful view of the city because it's the one place from which one cannot see the Tour Montparnasse.[198]
27 May – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is elected President of the French Republic. He abruptly cancels several of the major Paris projects begun by President Georges Pompidou, including the highway along the left bank of the Seine, a skyscraper at Place d'Italie, and an international commerce center at Les Halles.[199]
25 March Jacques Chirac becomes the first elected mayor of Paris since 1793. He centralizes municipal power in the mayor's office, creating the positions of twenty-five deputy mayors and restricting the meetings of the municipal council to one meeting a month, no longer than one day long.[200]
7 March – Radical leftist group called "Les autonomies" pillages twenty-four shops on rue La Fayette.
1 May – "Les autonomes" attack eighty-three Paris stores after the traditional May Day demonstration.
1979
13 January – Stores around the Gare Saint-Lazare are vandalized by "Les autonomes".
23 March – Following a peaceful demonstration by communist mine workers, "Les autonomes" vandalize 121 stores and shops in Paris. More than two hundred persons are injured.
1 May – The "Nuit bleu" (Blue night). A dozen bombs are set off by Corsican nationalists, who set off more bombs on 2 May and 31 May.
4 September – Inauguration of the Forum des Halles, on the site of the former central market.
1980
28 January – First anisettes, automated individual pay toilets for Paris streets, authorized.
12 June – First terrorist attack at Paris-Orly airport by the anarchist-communist revolutionary organization Action directe. Seven people wounded.
3 October – Terrorist attack on the synagogue on rue Copernic. Four persons are killed and twenty injured.
1981–1999 – Mitterrand era
1981
10 May – François Mitterrand elected President of the French Republic. He is the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic and the first leftist president in 23 years.
22 May – First Salon du Livre book fair opens at the Grand Palais.
2 September – The inauguration of the TGV high-speed train line between Paris and Lyon.
7 February – Corsican terrorist group FLNC sets off seventeen bombs in the Paris region.
22 February – Car bomb on rue Marbeuf kills one and injures sixty-three. The Syrian secret services are suspected of organizing the attack.[201]
21 June – First Fête de la Musique festival in the Paris streets and parks.
30 June – New socialist majority in the National Assembly tries to make the office of Paris mayor ceremonial, and hand over real power to the mayors of the twenty arrondissements. Their effort, opposed by Mayor Jacques Chirac, fails.[201]
9 August – A Palestinian terrorist group places a bomb at the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on rue des Rosiers in Le Marais, killing six persons and wounding twenty-two.
17 September – A bomb placed in the car of an Israeli diplomat in front of the Lycée Carnot injures forty-seven persons.
1983
13 March – In the Paris municipal elections, Jacques Chirac and center-right candidates win 68 percent of the vote and eighteen out of twenty arrondissements. Only the 13th and 20th arrondissements give a majority to the left.
15 July – The Armenian militant group ASALA explodes a bomb at the check-in counter of Turkish Airlines at Paris-Orly airport. Eight persons, including a child, are killed, and fifty-four injured.[201]
20 March – Bomb explodes in the Galerie Point-Show on the Champs-Élysées. Two persons are killed.
4 May – First Paris Marathon takes place, with eleven thousand participants.
9 July – Action-Directe terrorist group explodes a bomb at the headquarters of the police brigade charged with fighting terrorism. One person is killed and twenty-two injured.
17 September – Bomb attack on Tati store on rue de Rennes kills seven and injures fifty-six. Between September 4 and September 17, attacks by radical Islamic groups kill eleven persons and injure city-six.
1 December – Opening of the Musée d'Orsay, featuring 19th century French art.
4–5 December – Students demonstrate against the Devaquet project for university reform. The Minister resigns and the reform plan is withdrawn.
1987
29 June – Police lay siege to the Iranian Embassy in France, until an Iranian diplomat implicated in the bombings of 1986 appears before a judge and then is expelled from France back to Iran.
4 March – President Mitterrand inaugurates the Louvre Pyramid, part of the Grand Louvre, the first of his grand projects for Paris.
14 July – President Mitterrand announces project to construct a new national library.
Mayor Jacques Chirac defeats President Mitterrand in Paris in the first round of the Presidential elections, but in the second round Mitterrand wins Paris by 58 to 42 percent. Mitterrand receives an absolute majority in nine Paris arrondissements.[202]
19 March – Paris municipal elections won by center-right Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP) parties. Of the 163 municipal council seats, 140 are won by the center-right, 18 by the socialists; three communists are elected, and one ecologist.[202]
1 August – First class cars on the metro are taken out of service.
7 November – Prime Minister Édith Cresson decrees that about twenty government institutions, including the École Nationale d'Administration, (ENA) will be moved outside of Paris. ENA goes to Strasbourg. The move is highly unpopular with government officials.
28 March – Center-right parties dominate legislative elections in Paris. Socialists win only one out of twenty-one seats.
18 May – Opening of the TGV train line between Paris and Lille.
8 July – The floating swimming pool Deligny, first placed in the Seine in 1796, sinks.
20 November – Inauguration of the Richelieu wing of the Louvre, the second phase of the Grand Louvre project.
26 December – City of Paris begins a medical doctor service called SAMU (Service d'aide médicale d'urgence) providing emergency medical treatment at home.
1994
31 March – Violent demonstrations over changes in French labor laws; cars burned and stores pillaged.
14 July – First Bastille Day parade on Champs-Élysées with participation of 200 German soldiers of the Eurocorps.
November – Eurostar railway service between Paris and London begins.
7 May – Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac wins the second round of the French presidential elections over Lionel Jospin. He wins 60 percent of the vote in Paris.
22 May – Deputy Mayor Jean Tiberi replaces Chirac as the new mayor of Paris. He is formally elected by the municipal council on 25 June.
14 June – First scandals emerge about Paris city government, involving attribution of city-owned luxury apartments at low rents to government officials.
25 July – Bomb explodes on an RER train at the Saint-Michel station. Seven are killed, eighty-four injured. The attack is blamed on Algerian Islamists.
17 August – A bomb explodes in a garbage can on avenue de Friedland at corner with Place Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, injuring seventeen people.
17 October – Bomb explodes on RER train between Musée-d'Orsay and Saint-Michel stations; twenty-nine persons are injured. The attacks are blamed on the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.[203]
Paris hosts the finals of the 1998 World Cup, won by France.
21st century
2000
1 January – Eiffel Tower lit with sparkling lights for first time, to mark the new century.
2001
18 March – Election of Bertrand Delanoë, the first socialist and first openly gay mayor of Paris. The socialists and greens take 49.63 percent of the vote, compared with 50.37 percent for the center-right candidates, but the left wins a majority of the seats in the municipal council, which selects the mayor.
2002
5 October – First Nuit Blanche festival, with museums and cultural institutions remaining open all night long.
5 October – Mayor Delanoë is stabbed but not seriously injured by a deranged unemployed man, outside the Hôtel de Ville.
27 October to 14 November – Riots of young residents of the low-income housing projects of the Paris suburbs and then across France, burning schools, day-care centers and other government buildings and almost nine thousand cars. The riots caused an estimated 200 million euros in property damage, and led to almost three thousand arrests.[204] On 14 November 2005, as the riots ended. President Jacques Chirac blamed the rioters for a lack of respect for the law and for French values, but also condemned inequalities in French society and "the poison of racism."[205]
12 February – Seven activists from the radical feminist group Femen bare their breasts inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to demonstrate against the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
19 June – Inauguration of the Promenade des Berges de la Seine, a city park located on 2.3 kilometers of the former highway along the left bank of the Seine.
Paris Musées, a non-profit organization created in 1985 to manage the fourteen city-owned museums, is turned into public institution overseen by the city government.
2014
17 March – One-day limited traffic ban in effect due to a peak in air pollution.[208]
30 March – Election of Anne Hidalgo, the first woman mayor of Paris.
17 June – Mayor Hidalgo announces that the city budget deficit will increase to 400 million Euros in 2014, due to a reduction in support from the national government and a growth of spending on social services.[209]
19 September – City officials announce plan to gradually remove more than seven hundred thousand locks attached by tourists to the Pont des Arts as symbols of love. Officials said the weight of the locks damaged the bridge and altered its historic appearance.[210]
11 January – An estimated 1.3 million persons demonstrate in Paris against terrorism and for freedom of speech following the terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo.
14 January 2015 – President Hollande inaugurates the city's new symphony hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, at Parc de la Villette. The opening concert is dedicated to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting.[212]
25 June – Three thousand Paris taxicab drivers go on strike, blocking roads to the airports and train stations, burning two cars, and damaging seventy others. Seven policemen were injured. Taxi drivers were protesting against competition from other vehicle for hire companies such as Uber.[213]
13 November – Simultaneous terrorist attacks took place in Paris, carried out by three coordinated teams of terrorists. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attacks. The gunmen opened fire at several sidewalk cafes, exploded two bombs near the Stade de France stadium, where a match between Germany and France was taking place, and killed more than eighty persons at the Bataclan theater, where a concert was about to take place. In all, the attackers killed 130 persons and injured 368, of whom 42 were still in a critical state on 16 November.[214] Seven terrorists took part, and killed themselves by setting off explosive vests.[215] French president François Hollande declared that France was in a nationwide state of emergency, reestablished controls at the French border, and brought fifteen hundred soldiers into Paris. Schools and universities and other public institutions in Paris were ordered closed. It was the most deadly recorded terrorist attack to take place in France.[216]
^Paris et ses fontaines, de la Renaissance à nos jours, texts assembled by Dominique Massounie, Pauline-Prevost-Marchilhacy and Daniel Rabreau, Délégation à l'action artistique de la Ville de Paris
^Fierro, Alfred, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, p. 571
^ abFierro, Alfred, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, p. 573.
^ abcdJoan DeJean. The Essence of Style: How The French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, New York: Free Press, 2005, ISBN978-0-7432-6413-6
^Fierro, Alfred, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, p. 624.
^Dominique Jarrassé, Grammaire des jardins parisiens, p. 75
^Dominique Jarrassé, Grammaire des jardins parisiens, p. 110
^ abcdMichael Barker (1998). "Brasseries, Restaurants and Cafés in Paris, and a Gazetteer of Establishments of Decorative Interest". Journal of the Decorative Arts Society (22): 82–89. JSTOR41809275.
^ abcFierro, Alfred, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, p. 625
^Alfred Hermann Fried (1911). "Ein Verzeichnis der internationalen Regierungskonferenzen von 1815-1910 (List of intergovernmental conferences)". Handbuch der Friedensbewegung [Handbook of the Peace Movement] (in German) (2nd ed.). Berlin: Verlag der Friedens-Warte. hdl:2027/mdp.39015008574801 – via HathiTrust.
^Dominique Jarrassé, Grammaire des jardins parisiens, p. 122
^Dominique Jarrassé, Grammaire des jardins parisiens, p. 129
^Chilver, Ian (Ed.). "Fauvism"Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved from enotes.com, 26 December 2007.
^MAM, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris 1937, L'Art Indépendant, ex. cat. ISBN2-85346-044-4, Paris-Musées, 1987, p. 188
^Christopher Green, Cubism and its Enemies, Modern Movements and Reaction in French Art, 1916-28, Yale University Press, New Have and London, 1987 p. 314, note 51
^"Le Jazz-Hot: The Roaring Twenties", in William Alfred Shack, Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars, University of California Press, 2001, p. 35.
^Direction de l'information et de la communication. "Histoire et Patrimonie" (in French). Mairie de Paris. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2014. Comité d'histoire de la Ville de Paris
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