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
1938 - Hervé de Charette (French politician)
1945 - Patrick Modiano (French writer)
1948 - Jean Reno (Morocco-born French actor)
1956 - Réal Cloutier (Canadian ice hockey player)
Deaths
1652 - Charles Amédée de Savoie-Nemours, 6th Duc de Nemours (French soldier)
1683 - Maria Theresa of Spain (queen of Louis XIV of France)
1996 - Claudette Colbert (French-American actress)
Holidays/Celebrations
Vanuatu - Independence Day
Milestones/Events
1608 - At Ticonderoga (today: Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs, setting the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next hundred years
2004 - Belgium: Gas explosion killed 16 people
Errors and Omissions
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