1900 in France

Events from the year 1900 in France.

Incumbents

• President: Émile Loubet
• President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau

Events

• The first Guide Michelin is published for motorists in France.
• 2 February – First performance of Gustave Charpentier's opera, Louise.
• 31 March – The length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
• 1 April – Every French policeman is assigned to carry a gun.
• 14 April–12 November – Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, is staged in Paris.
• 21 April – Battle of Kousséri: French troops decisively defeat forces of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in Chad (although the commanders on both sides are killed), achieving the objective of linking all French possessions in Western Africa.
• 27 June – Treaty of Paris is signed between the Spanish Empire and the French Empire by which Río Muni is relieved of all conflicting claims.
• 19 July – The first line of the Paris Métro is inaugurated.
• 21 November – Claude Monet's paintings shown at Gallery Durand-Ruel in Paris

Literature

• Colette - Claudine à l'école
• Marcel Proust - Jean Santeuil
• Octave Mirbeau - Le Journal d'une femme de chambre
• Jules Verne
• Seconde Patrie
• Le Testament d'un excentrique

Music

• Gustave Charpentier - Louise
• Claude Debussy - Nocturnes
• Gabriel Fauré - Requiem
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• La Nuit, Op. 114
• La feu celeste
• Erik Satie - Verset laïque et somptueux

Sport

• 14 May–28 October – Olympic Games held in Paris.

Births

January to March

• 3 January – Marcel Gobillot, cyclist and Olympic medallist (died 1981)
• 5 January – Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter (died 1955)
• 6 January – Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, journalist, politician and French Resistance member (died 1969)
• 7 January – Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, lover and later married to Samuel Beckett (died 1989)
• 8 January – François de Menthon, politician and professor of law (died 1984)
• 11 January – Benoît Fauré, cyclist (died 1980)
• 22 January – René Pellos, artist (died 1998)
• 24 January – René Guillot, author (died 1969)
• 4 February – Jacques Prévert, poet and screenwriter (died 1977)
• 11 February – Raymond Cambefort, one of the last three fully verified World War I veterans living in France (died 2008)
• 21 February – Madeleine Renaud, actress (died 1994)
• 6 March – Henri Jeanson, writer and journalist (died 1970)
• 8 March – Pierre David-Weill, investment banker (died 1975)
• 19 March – Frédéric Joliot-Curie, physicist and Nobel laureate (died 1958)

April to June

• 13 April – Pierre Molinier, painter and photographer (died 1976)
• 15 April – Pierre Nord, writer, spy and resistance member (died 1985)
• 20 April – Jacques Adnet, designer, architect and interior designer (died 1984)
• 27 April – Marcel Légaut, philosopher and mathematician (died 1990)
• 28 April
• Maurice Thorez, communist politician (died 1964)
• Jean Vaysse, rugby union player (died 1974)
• 17 May – Achille Souchard, cyclist (died 1976)
• 22 May – Yvonne de Gaulle, married to Charles de Gaulle (died 1979)
• 14 June – Roger Bourdin, baritone (died 1973)
• 22 June – Henriette Alimen, paleontologist and geologist (died 1996)
• 29 June – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer (died 1944)

July to December

• 4 July – Robert Desnos, surrealist poet (died 1945)
• 12 July – Marcel Paul, trade unionist and communist politician (died 1982)
• 17 July – Marcel Dalio, actor (died 1983)
• 19 July – Pierre Coquelin de Lisle, sport shooter and Olympic gold medallist (died 1980)
• 26 July – Jacques Février, pianist (died 1979)
• 11 August – Georges Limbour, writer (died 1970)
• 26 August – Georges Neveux, Ukrainian-born dramatist and poet (died 1982)
• 6 September – Marc Bernard, writer (died 1983).
• 30 September – Pierre Yvert, philatelic editor (died 1964)
• 9 October – Henri Lauvaux, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1970)
• 13 October – Ghislaine Marie Françoise Dommanget, actress and Princess of Monaco (died 1991)
• 21 October – Andrée Boisson, Olympic fencer (died 1973)
• November – Émile Gagnan, engineer and inventor (died 1979)
• 15 December – Hellé Nice, model, dancer and motor racing driver (died 1984)
• 23 December – Marie Bell, actress and stage director (died 1985)

Deaths

• 11 February – Émile Blanchard, zoologist and entomologist (born 1819)
• 19 March – Charles-Louis Hanon, piano pedagogue and composer (born 1819)
• 26 March – Victor Auguste, baron Duperré, colonial administrator (born 1825)
• 5 April – Joseph Louis François Bertrand, mathematician (born 1822)
• 15 April - Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux, writer (born 1868)
• 22 April – Amédée-François Lamy, military officer (born 1858)
• 18 May – Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, philosopher and archaeologist (born 1813)
• 16 June – François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, admiral (born 1818)
• 24 September – Louis Ratisbonne, writer and man of letters (born 1827)
• 13 October – Louis Adolphe Cochery, politician and journalist (born 1819)
• Full date unknown – Jules Adenis, dramatist and opera librettist (born 1823)

See also

• List of French films before 1910

References