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
1698 - Ange-Jacques Gabriel (French architect)
1766 - Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy (French marshal)
1771 - Jean-Andoche Junot (French general)
1817 - Pierre Athanase Larousse (French lexicographer)
1844 - Sarah Bernhardt (French actress)
1896 - André Lévêque (French engineer)
Deaths
1688 - Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (French philologist)
1764 - Emmanuel-Auguste de Cahideuc, Comte Dubois de la Motte (French naval officer)
1774 - Michel Benoist (French Jesuit missionary and scientist)
1872 - Théophile Gautier (French writer)
1990 - Louis Althusser (French philosopher)
Milestones/Events
1812 - Claude François de Malet, a French general, began a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte
1906 - Paris: Alberto Santos-Dumont flew the 14-bis in the first public and officially-recognized heavier-than-air flight
1941 - World War II: Georgy Zhukov assumed command of Red Army efforts to stop the German advance into Russia
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein
1944 - World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf
Errors and Omissions
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