Learn about important dates in French and francophone history: famous birthdays, holidays and celebrations, and other milestones. If the above does not match today's date or you wish to choose a specific date, please click here

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Birthdays

1188 - Blanche de Castille (wife of Louis VIII of France)

1822 - Jules Antoine Lissajous (French mathematician)

1856 - Toru Dutt (English and French poet and author)

1876 - Léon-Paul Fargue (French poet)

1886 - Paul Bazelaire (French cellist)

1898 - Georges Dumézil (French philologist)

1901 - Jean Joseph Rabearivelo (Malagasy-French poet)

1906 - Georges Ronsse (Belgian national cyclo-cross and world champion road bicycle racer)

1913 - Taos Amrouche (Algerian writer and singer)

1920 - Jean Lecanuet (French politician)

1925 - Paul Mauriat (French musician)

1937 - Barney Wilen (French jazz saxophonist)

1955 - Dominique Pinon (French actor)

1962 - Lolo Ferrari (French actress)

1976 - Thierry Renaer (Belgian field hockey player)

1992 - Jazmin Grace Rotolo (daughter of Albert II, Prince of Monaco)

1998 - Prince Paul Louis of Nassau (son of Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg)

Deaths

1710 - Louis III, Prince of Condé

1733 - Claude de Forbin (French naval commander)

1793 - Louis de Bourbon (French admiral)

1805 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French painter)

1832 - Jean-François Champollion (French scholar)

1948 - Antonin Artaud (French actor and director)

1967 - Michel Plancherel (Swiss mathematician)

2003 - Sébastien Japrisot (French author, screenwriter, and film director)

2004 - Claude Nougaro (French singer)

Milestones/Events

1492 - King James IV of Scotland allied with France against England

1778 - US-French Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance ratified by the Continental Congress, making them the first treaties entered into by the United States government

1790 - France divided into 83 départements

1791 - Constitutional Act introduced by the British House of Commons seeking to separate Canada into Lower Canada (Québec) and Upper Canada (Ontario)

1793 - French troops conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands

1813 - Russian troops fighting Napoleon's army reached Berlin and the French garrison evacuated the city without a fight

1930 - France: Terrible floods ransacked Languedoc and the surrounding area; twelve departments were flooded and more than 700 people died

1933 - Canada: Bertha Wilson became the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court

1946 - France, the US, and the UK launched a call with the Spaniards in favor of the inversion of the pro-Franco mode

1960 - Havana, Cuba: French freighter La Coubre exploded, killing 100 people

1963 - Paris: Six people were sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle

1966 - Canadian Pacific airliner exploded on landing in Tokyo, killing 64 people

1970 - French submarine Eurydice exploded

1971 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau married Margaret Sinclair, becoming the first Canadian Prime Minister to marry while in office

1988 - Paris: Building of the Louvre Pyramid began

2001 - Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for membership talks with the European Union

2006 - Tahiti: Papeete power station damaged by a fire, resulting in limited power for some areas

Errors and Omissions

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