Timeline France E: 1921-1967
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1921 Jan 5,
Wagner’s "Die Walkyrie" opened in Paris. This was the first German
opera performed in Paris since the beginning of WWI.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1921 Mar 8, French troops occupied
Dusseldorf.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1921 Jul, Juan Miro (1893-1983),
Spanish artist, began working on his painting titled “The Farm.” He
completed it 9 months later. Ernest Hemingway, one of his sparring
partners in Paris, purchased the painting in 1925. In 1987 the
Hemingway family donated the painting to the National Gallery of Art.
(WSJ, 12/13/08, p.W8)
1921 Oct 13, Yves Montand, French
actor and singer (Z, Napoleon, Grand Prix), was born.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1921 Nov 5, Gyorgy Cziffra,
Hungarian-French pianist, was born.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1921 Anatole France (d.1924),
French satiric master, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books
included “Thais” (1890), “Penguin Island” (1908) and “Revolt of the
Angels” (1914).
(WSJ, 2/20/96,
p.A-14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_France)
1921 At the Cairo Conference,
convened by Winston Churchill, Britain and France carved up Arabia and
created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal (Feisal) became
King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish
immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year
after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. In 2004
Christopher Catherwood authored “Churchill’s Folly,” and account of the
founding of Iraq.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(WSJ, 7/22/04,
p.D10)
1921 Winston Churchill, T.E.
Lawrence and archeologist Gertrude Bell promoted "the sherifian
solution," under which the Hashemite family-- Hussein, the sherif of
Mecca, and his sons, would rule over the region under Britain's eye.
(Econ, 7/19/03, p.69)
1921 France, following populations
losses in World War I, created the “carte famille nombreuse,” a
discount card for families with 3 or more children.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.62)
1921 The Colombe d’Or (Golden
Dove) north of Nice began life as a restaurant called "A Robinson"
under Paul and Baptistine Roux. The restaurant changed its name and was
converted to a hotel in 1931 with the sign "lodgings for men, horses,
and painters."
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.T10)
c1921 The unknown soldier of
France was buried beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.B8)
1921-1924 The number of Americans in Paris swelled
from 6,000 to 30,000.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.9)
1922 Jan 22, Jean-Pierre Rampal
(d.5/20/2000), flautist, was born in Marseilles France.
(Internet)
1922 Feb 2, James Joyce's novel
"Ulysses" was published in Paris with 1,000 copies.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.C12)(MC, 2/2/02)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington
Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty
forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. The US,
UK, France, Italy & Japan signed the Washington naval arms
limitation.
(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1922 Feb, Ernest Hemingway met
poet Ezra Pound in a Paris bookstore. Pound was one of the founders of
a school of poetry called Imagism.
(ON, 7/05, p.9)
1922 Jun 3, Alain Resnais, French
film director, was born.
(HN, 6/3/01)
1922 Jul 7, Pierre Cardin, fashion
designer (Unisex), was born in Paris, France.
(AP, 7/7/02)(MC, 7/7/02)
1922 Nov 18, Marcel Proust
(b.1871), French author (Recherche du Temps Perdu), died at 51. His
masterpiece was "Remembrance of Things Past." In 1998 it was turned
into a comic book series. In 1998 Alain de Botton published the
whimsical "How Proust Can Save Your Life." In 1999 Edmund White wrote
the biography "Marcel Proust." The major biography by John Yves Taddie
was scheduled to appear in English in 1999. In 2000 Roger Shattuck
authored "Proust’s Way." William C. Carter authored "Marcel Proust: A
Life."
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SFEC,
9/3/00, BR p.3)(MC, 11/18/01)
1922 Dec 4, Gerard Philipe, actor
(Caligula, Le Diable au Corps), was born in Cannes, France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1922 In Pauillac Baron Philippe de
Rothschild took over the Bordeaux region vineyard that had been
initially purchased by his great-grandfather. He initiated
bottling all production at the chateau and commissioned the architect,
Charles Siclis, to build the famous "Grand Chai," as the centerpiece
building.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1922-1924 Charles de Lasteyrie served as France’s
finance minister.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C4)
1922-1926 The Mosquée de Paris was built in
recognition of the suffering of the North African Muslims during WW I.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C6)
1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference
on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard
line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1923 Jan 11, The French entered
Essen in the Ruhr. They were there to extract Germany's resources as
war payment.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1923 Jan 15, Lithuanians took
Klaipeda back from French control.
(LC, 1998, p.8)(LHC, 1/15/03)
1923 Jan 19, The French announced
the invention of a new gun with a range of 56 miles.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1923 Feb 4, French troops took
Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement
ending World War I.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1923 Mar 22, Marcel Marceau,
French mime, was born. "I do not get my ideas from people on the
street. If you look at faces on the street, what do you see? Nothing.
Just boredom." He devised over 100 pantomimes, including The Creation
of the World.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1923 Mar 31, French soldiers fired
on workers at Krupp factory in Essen; 13 died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1923 Jun 13, The French set a
trade barrier between the occupied Ruhr and the rest of Germany.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1923 Jun 20, France announced it
would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1923 Nov 11, Eternal flame was lit
for the tomb of unknown solder at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1923 Dec 28, Alexandre-Gustave
Eiffel (91), engineer (Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty), died.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1923 Darius Milhaud premiered "La
Creation du Monde" (the Creation of the World) with 19 members of the
Orchestre du Theatre du Champs-Elyssees. Fernand Leger designed the
décor and costumes. The jazz age ballet was created by Milhaud,
Blaise Cendrars and Jean Borlin.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.32)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T8)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.90)
1923 Coco Chanel launched Chanel
No. 5 perfume in Paris.
(WSJ, 10/13/03, p.B1)
1923 Harry MacElhone (d.1958)
bought a bar in Paris at 5 rue Dannou behind the opera and named it
Harry’s New York Bar. It later became a hangout for the "Lost
Generation." His son, Andrew, (1923-1996) took over 1958. Andrew’s son
Duncan (d.1998 at 44) took over in 1989. Cocktails such as the French
75 (named after a WW I artillery piece), the Bloody Mary and the Side
Car were invented there.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A22)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)
1923 Andre Malreaux (d.1976),
while doing archeological research in Cambodia, was arrested for
dislodging 7 heads from a temple with a handsaw, a chisel and crowbar.
(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1923 Francois Flameng (b.1856),
French painter, died. He painted imagined scenes from the domestic life
of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(MT, Fall/03, p.13)
1923 Tamara Geva (d.1991), Russian
ballet dancer, married George Balanchine, ballet choreographer. The
couple traveled to East Prussia in 1924 with the Soviet State Dancers
and then defected to Paris where they joined Sergei Diaghilev and the
Ballet Russes.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A23)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1924 Jan 25, The 1st Winter
Olympic games opened in Chamonix, France.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A19)(MC, 1/25/02)
1924 Feb 4, The 1st Winter Olympic
games closed at Chamonix, France.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1924 Mar 1, Emile Fradin (d.2010
at 103), French peasant, discovered an underground chamber containing
ancient artifacts that were later dated anywhere from 300 BC to the
15th century. The field, called Duranthon, was later renamed the Champ
des Morts (field of the Dead).
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.89)
1924 May 4, At the Olympics in
Paris the French rugby team beat the Rumanians 61-3.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)
1924 May 18, At the Olympics in
Paris the American rugby team beat the French 17-3. Only France,
Rumania and America fielded rugby teams. Rugby was dismissed from the
Olympics after rival fans rioted following the American upset victory.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A6)(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)
1924 May 29, Pierre-Paul Cambon
French diplomat (Madrid/London), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1924 May, Gertrude Ederle won a
gold medal the summer Olympics in Paris as a member of the US 400-meter
relay team.
(ON, 2/10, p.4)
1924 Aug 14, Georges Pretre,
conductor (NY Met), was born in Waziers, France.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1924 Sep 13, Maurice Jarre,
composer (Dr. Zhivago-Acad Award 1966), was born in Lyons, France.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1924 Oct 12, Anatole France,
French satiric master (Penguin Island, Revolt of the Angels, Thais),
died at 80. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1924 Nov 4, Gabriel Faure
(b.1845), French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher, died in
Paris. He was the foremost French composer of his generation. His
musical style influenced many 20th century composers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9)
1924 Roland Petit, French premier
choreographer, was born.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C4)
1924 French Count Etienne de
Beaumont commissioned the ballet “Mercure” from painter Picasso,
composer Eric Satie and choreographer Leonide Massine.
(Econ, 11/17/07,
p.99)(www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/satiecubism.html)
1924 In France the Ile St.-Louis
made an unsuccessful attempt to secede from Paris and France and issued
its own passports.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T8)
1924 E.M. Antoniadi of France
described planet-wide dust storms on Mars.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1925 Jan 10, France-Saarland
formed.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1925 Mar 26, Pierre Boulez,
composer, conductor (Visage Nuptial), was born in Montbrison, France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1925 Apr, In Paris Hippolyte Jamet
opened his hotel Le Bristol, named after the 4th Earl of Bristol in
tribute to the Englishman’s taste for comfort.
(WSJ, 9/27/08,
p.A20)(www.hotel-bristol.com/20050614/US_10_faubourg.swf)
1925 Jun 16, France accepted a
German proposal for a security pact.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1925 Jun 22, France and Spain
agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in Morocco.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1925 Dec 3, Jean-Luc Goddard,
French film director, was born. In 2004 Colin MacCabe authored the
biography "Goddard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy."
(HN, 12/3/98)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.M1)
1925 Pierre Bonnard painted "After
the Meal."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.9)
1925 Yves Tanguy, surrealist
painter, painted "Le Testament de Jacques Prevert," on the bedroom door
of his roommate, the poet Prevert.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1925 The art-deco style was
formally introduced by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann at the Paris Design
Exposition. The expo was called Exposition Internationale des Arts
Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes and introduced the profession of
interior decorators. Le Corbusier designed the Pavilion de L’Esprit
Nouveau.
(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.B18)(SFC, 4/18/98, p.C3)(WSJ,
7/24/01, p.A16)
1925 Marcel Mauss, French
anthropologist, published “Essai sur le Don” (The Gift), which argued
that in small-scale societies gifts are “total social facts.”
(NH, 11/1/04, p.28)
1925 The Michelin Guide introduced
its star system for hotels and restaurants.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1925-1939 Joseph Roth, a German Jew, was assigned to
Paris by a Frankfurt newspaper. After one year the job was given to a
Nationalist. He stayed in Paris and wrote for emigre publications and
railed against Germany and racism in his essays and novels. In 2004 his
selected essays appeared in English as "Report From a Parisian
Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939."
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M4)
1926 Feb 11, Paul Bocuse, French
chef (Legion of Honor), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1926 May 3, Napoleon V Bonaparte
(63), French pretender to the throne, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1926 May 19, French air force
bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign
in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under
the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against
them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of
Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French
bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1926 Jun 26, A memorial to the
first U.S. troops in France was unveiled at St. Nazaire.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1926 Aug 10, Marie-Claire Alain,
French organist, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar] Monet
(b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny, where he’d
painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original proponents of
Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted fervently until
his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up observing nature on the
Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying under Charles Gleyre,
Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Alfred Sisley. They broke with their teacher and his conventions of
painting that included, among other traditions, the painting of outdoor
landscapes in a studio. Although he began to experiment with "series"
in the late 1870s, his trademark method only appeared in earnest in the
1890s. This involved a series of paintings of the same subject under
different lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to
Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned the
style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06,
p.E2)
1926 Matisse painted "Odalisque."
He produced more than 50 harem nudes between 1919 and 1929, a period
where he spent winters by the seaside in Nice. (WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A21)
1926 Gertrude Stein wrote her
libretto for "Four Saints in Three Acts" while in Paris. It was put to
music by Virgil Thompson in 1927. The world premier was in 1934.
(SFC, 9/23/00, p.B1)
1927 Feb 21, Hubert de Givenchy,
fashion designer, was born in Beauvais, France.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1927 May 8, French pilots Charles
Nungesser and Francois Coli took off from Paris in their airplane named
L’Oiseau Blanc (the White Bird), in an attempt to cross the Atlantic.
Pilots and plane vanished during the flight.
(ON, 2/08, p.2)
1926 May 19, French air force
bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign
in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under
the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against
them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of
Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French
bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1927 May 21, Charles Lindbergh
(Lucky Lindy) landed in Le Bourget Field in Paris after a 33.5-hour
nonstop, first solo flight from Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long
Island. In 1953 Lindbergh authored his memoir “The Spirit of St. Louis.”
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 10/20/99,
p.C10)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 May 26, Jacques Bergerac,
actor (Gigi, Les Girls, Thunder in Sun), was born in France.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1927 Sep 14, Isadora Duncan (born
in San Francisco in 1878), modern dance pioneer, died in Nice, France,
when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car. A 1968
film with Vanessa Redgrave portrayed her life.
(AP, 9/14/97)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)(SFC, 9/13/02,
p.E2)
1927 Yves Tanguy, surrealist
painter, had his 1st solo exhibit in Paris.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1927 Julien Benda (1867-1956),
French writer, authored “La Trahison des Clercs,” (Treason of the
Clerks). The title of the English translation was The Betrayal of the
Intellectuals. The book described the politicization of Western
intellectuals, above all their willingness to abandon the disinterested
search for truth.
(WSJ, 6/10/08,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Benda)
1927 The La Samaritaine department
store in Paris was constructed. It replaced an earlier building built
in 1905.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.)
1927 French law set the boundaries
of the country’s Champagne region.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.B1)
1927 Eugene Atget (b.1857), French
photographer, died.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.B3)
1927 Prince John Kropotkin, son of
Russian Prince Alexei Kropotkin, was beaten to death on a Paris street.
Soviet agents were suspected.
(SFC, 7/5/04, p.B4)
1927-1934 The Chicago Tribune published an edition in
Paris. In 1987 Waverley Root authored “The Paris Edition.”
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.W8)
1928 Jan 23, Jeanne Moreau,
actress (Going Places, Jules & Jim), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1928 Jan 26, Roger Vadim, director
(And God Created Women, Barbarella), was born in France.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1928 Feb 7, The United States
signed an arbitration treaty with France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1928 Apr 18, Jean-Francois
Pailliard, conductor, was born in Vitry-le-Francois, France.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1928 Jun 20, Jean-Marie Le-Pen,
leader of the National Front party in France, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1928 Aug 13, Fernand de La
Tombelle (b.1854), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1928 Aug 27, The Kellogg-Briand
Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful
settlement of disputes.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1928 Oct 9, Marcel Pagnol's
"Topaz," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1928 Oct 23, Francois V.
Alphonse Aulard (b.1849), French historian, died.
(www.fact-index.com/f/fr/francois_victor_alphonse_aulard.html)
1928 Nov 22, "Bolero" by Maurice
Ravel made its debut in Paris.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1928 "The expression "false
friends" (for similar words in two languages that have different
meanings) originally comes from the French "faux amis", a term used for
the first time in 1928 by Koessler and Derocquigny in their book "Les
faux amis ou les trahisons du vocabulaire anglais" (Vuibert)..."
(http://www.santesson.com/engfalsk.htm)
1929 Feb 1, Weightlifter, Charles
Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he
lifted 402-1/2 pounds.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1929 Feb 23, Regine Crespin,
operatic soprano, was born in Marseilles, France.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1929 Mar 9, Marcel Pagnol's
"Marius," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77),
Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1929 Nov 24, Georges Clemenceau
(b.1841), French journalist and premier (1917-20), died. He is noted
for the quote: “La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier
à des militaires.” (War is too serious a matter to entrust
to military men).
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Clemenceau)
1929 Dec 18, Helene Delangle
(1900-1984), French racing pioneer, became the fastest woman driver in
the world, averaging 120.5 mph at Montlhery, France. In 2004 Miranda
Seymour authored “The Bugatti Queen: In search of a Motor-Racing
Legend.”
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.81)
1929 Picasso painted "Large Nude
in a Red Armchair.”
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)
1929 Jean Cocteau wrote his novel
"Les Enfants Terribles" while in a sanatorium trying to shake his opium
habit. He narrated the 1950 film version. In 1997 it was made into an
opera by Philip Glass.
(WSJ, 11/26/96, p.A16)(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1929 The 1st int'l. festival of
dance was held in Paris. Lucia Joyce (22), daughter of James Joyce,
qualified as one of the 6 finalists. Her beau was Samuel Beckett. Lucia
(d.1982) spent her last 30 years in a mental hospital in England. In
2003 Carol Loeb Shloss authored "Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake."
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M3)
1929 The French government of Leon
Blum nationalized the defense industry, railways and the Bank of France
in the wake of the stock market crash.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)
1930 Mar 5, Lorin Maazel,
conductor (NBC Symphony Orch 1941), was born in Neuilly, France.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1930 Apr 30, The Soviet Union
proposed military alliance with France and Great Britain.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1930 Jun 24, Claude Chabrol,
French film director (The Cousins, Madame Bovary), was born.
(HN, 6/24/01)
1930 Jun 30, France pulled its
troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1930 Sep 2, The first non-stop
airplane flight from Europe to the US was completed as Captain
Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley
Stream, New York, aboard a Breguet biplane. The plane was known as "The
Question Mark" because it bore a large question mark, instead of a
name, on each side..
(AP, 9/2/08)
1930 Oct 1, Philippe Noiret, actor
(Soleil, Les Milles, Il Postino), was born in Lille, France.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1930 Picasso painted "Seated
Bather," a picture of his wife seated on the beach like a kind of sea
monster.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)
1930 Jean Cocteau made his 1st
film: The Blood of a Poet."
(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1930 The French publication
L’Abomination Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1930s In 2000 William Wiser
authored "The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s."
(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.19)
1931 Mar 27, Charlie Chaplin
received France's distinguished Legion of Honor.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1931 Dec 2,
Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent D'indy (80), French count and composer,
died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1931 Pierre Bonnard painted his
Self-Portrait, "The Boxer" and "Still Life in front of a Window."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1931 Picasso (1881-1973)
transformed the features of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter into a
series of monumental plaster heads, later cast in bronze), which
simultaneously evoke male and female genitalia. He also painted "Woman
with Yellow Hair" this year.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)
1931 Jean de Brunhoff (d.1937),
French painter, published “Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant” (The
Story of Babar, the Little elephant). He illustrated the Babar stories
which were invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.W12)
1931 The French publication Le
Cancer Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1932 Feb 6, Francois Truffaut,
French film director, was born. His work included "The 400 Blows" and
"Shoot the Piano Player."
(HN, 2/6/01)
1932 Feb 19, Jean-Pierre Ponnele,
opera director (Carmina Burana), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1932 Mar 7, Aristide Briand
(b.1862), 11-time premier of France (Nobel 1926), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Briand)
1932 Mar 12, Ivar Kreuger
(b.1880), the so-called "Swedish Match King," committed suicide in
Paris, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be
worthless. The “Kreuger crash’ shook Wall Street and led to a 1933
Securities Act, which strengthened disclosure requirements for all
companies selling stock. In 1961 Robert Shaplen authored “Kreuger,
Genius and Swindler.”
(AP, 3/12/99)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.115)
1932 Aug 18, Auguste Piccard and
Max Cosijns reached 16,201m in a balloon.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1932 Sep 13, Paul Gorguloff, the
murderer of French Pres. Doumer, was beheaded.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1932 Oct 29, The French liner
Normandie was launched.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1932 Oct 30, Louis Malle, director
(Atlantic City, Black Moon, Viva Maria), was born in France.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1932 Nov 28, France & USSR
signed not-attack treaty.
(DT internet 11/28/97)
1932 Nov 29, Jacques Chirac was
born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1932 Picasso painted "The Mirror."
In 1989 it sold for $26.4 mil. and in 1995 for $20 mil. He also painted
"Bather With a Beach Ball" now at New York’s MOMA. His work "The Dream"
sold for $48.4 mil in 1997.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ,
11/25/97, p.A20)
1932 In France the Basler
Handelbank affair broke out. The president and vice-president of the
commercial bank in Basle were arrested in Paris by the French police.
In their trunks, the investigators found the list of 2,000 French
clients who had confidentially deposited their holdings in Switzerland.
They represented all of French high society: a few senators, a former
minister, bishops, generals and manufacturers.
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.62)(http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/banking/secrecy/handelsbank.html)
1932 Paul Ricard (1909-1997) mixed
liquorice, aniseed and star aniseed to make the aperitif that he called
Ricard pastis. His brand became a market leader and he became one of
the country’s richest and most influential men. The Ricard firm later
became Pernod Ricard.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)(Econ, 4/5/08, p.68)
1932 In Mali French colonial
authorities planned a 2.47 million acre irrigation project to grow
cotton and rice and to develop hydropower in the Mali desert. By 1982
only 6% of the region was developed. The World Bank took over in 1985
with some success in farming rice.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
1933 Feb 26, Sir James Goldsmith
(d.7/18/97), later financier and corporate raider (Referendum Party),
was born in Paris to a Catholic French mother and a German Jewish
father who later moved to Britain and served as a Conservative member
of parliament.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.B6)(SC, 2/26/02)
1933 Feb 27, Jean Genet's
"Intermezzo," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1933 Jun 19, France granted Leon
Trotsky political asylum.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1933 Dec 24, A Paris express train
derailed and killed 160. Some 300 were injured.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1933 Dec, In France the financial
scandal known as the Stavisky Affair triggered right-wing agitation
that caused a major crisis for the government. In December 1933 the
bonds issued by the credit organization of financier Alexandre Stavisky
were found to be worthless and in January 1934 Stavisky was found dead.
Although ruled a suicide, the French right wing claimed Stavisky had
been killed to cover up the involvement of government officials in the
scandal. [see Feb 6, 1934]
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1933 Stephane Grappelli, jazz
violinist, and Django Reinhardt, Gypsy guitarist, began playing with
bassist Louis Vola at the Hotel Claridges in Paris and went on to form
formed the Hot Club Quintet.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)
1933 Rene Lacoste (b.1905), French
tennis player, founded the Lacoste apparel company. He applied a
crocodile insignia to polo shirts after his nickname, “Le Crocodile.”
His son Bernard Lacoste (1931-2006) succeeded as president in 1963.
(SFC, 3/23/06, p.B7)
1933 Eugene Marioton (b.1854/57),
French sculptor, died. Some sources date his death to 1925. Some 400
bronzes are attributed to him, including one titled “Diogenes” (c.1885).
(SFC, 10/29/08,
p.G2)(http://bullrichgaonawernicke.com/R64/pag64-escultura.htm)
1934 Feb 6, Anti-republican and
Fascist forces seized upon the Stavisky scandal and instigated
anti-government demonstrations, culminating in the February 6, 1934
riot in front of the Chamber of Deputies in which 15 were killed.
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1934 Jul 4, "Madame" Marie
Curie-Sklodovska, Polish-born French chemist and Nobel Prize winner,
died in Paris of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In
1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography." In 2004 Barbara
Goldsmith authored “Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie.”
(ON, 3/00,
p.2)(http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=madameCurie)(SSFC, 12/5/04,
p.E2)
1934 Sep 28, Brigitte Bardot,
French film actress, sex kitten (And God Created Women), was born in
Paris.
(HN, 9/28/00)(MC, 9/28/01)
1934 Oct 9, In Marseilles, a
Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary
assassinated King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister
Louis Barthou. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest
of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations brought the
threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation was
prevented by the League of Nations. 2 newsreel cameramen captured the
assassination on film
(HN, 10/9/98)(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A8)
1934 Oct 23, Jean Piccard and
Jeanette Ridlen attained a record balloon height of 17,341m.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1934 The film "Affaires Publique"
was the first directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1934 Henri Pigozzi founded Simca
(Societe Industrielle de Mecanique et Carrosserie Automobile), at
Nanterre, France. Translated it means an industrial company that makes
car mechanics and bodywork.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1934 Marie Curie, Nobel Prize
winner, died of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In
1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography."
(ON, 3/00, p.2)
1934 French Equatorial Africa was
transformed into a unified territory of France, but in 1946 it was
re-divided into four separate overseas territories.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and
Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1935 Mar 29, French liner
Normandie began its maiden voyage.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1935 Jun 3, The French liner
Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after
crossing the Atlantic in just four days, 11 hours and 42 minutes.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1935 Jul 12, Alfred Dreyfus,
French officer of Jewish background, died in Paris. His trial and
conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense
political dramas in modern French and European history. It is still
known today as the Dreyfus Affair.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1935 Jul 25, Laurent Terzieff,
actor (Pharaoh-Moses the Law Giver), was born in Paris, France.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1935 Nov 3, Left-wing groups in
France formed the Socialist and Republican Union.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1935 Nov 8, Alain Delon, French
actor (Honor Among Thieves, Return of Zorro), was born.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1935 Jacques Pepin was born in
Bourg-en-Bresse to the proprietors of the restaurant called Le Pelican.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1935 Piet Mondrian made his
abstract "Composition No. 3. White-Yellow." It was first painted in
Paris and then repainted in New York City in 1942.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A17)
1935 France passed a set of laws
known as Appellation d’Origine Controlee (controlled place of origin).
The AOC laws were meant to protect growers and properly identify a
wine’s origin. They were not intended as an indicator of quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1935 Paul Signac (b.1863), French
neo-impressionist pointillist painter, died. His work included
"Portrait of Felix Feneon, Opus 217" (1890-1891).
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A24)
1936 Feb 12, In France more than
4.5 million workers came out on strike; 1 million took to the streets,
shutting the country down.
(www.greenleft.org.au/node/33582)
1936 Feb 13, Leon Blum, shortly
before becoming Prime Minister, was dragged from a car and almost
beaten to death by the Camelots du Roi, a group of anti-Semites and
royalists. The right-wing Action Française league was dissolved
by the government following this incident, not long before the
elections that brought Blum to power.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Mar 25, Britain, the U.S. and
France signed a naval accord in London.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1936 May 3, The Popular Front in
France achieved a majority of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies,
which led to the formation of the first Popular Front ministry under
Leon Blum.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1936 Jun 4, Leon Blum became the
first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Sep 25-1936 Oct 13, The
Tripartite Agreement between the US, the UK, and France established
that the subscribing nations agree to buy and sell gold freely with
each other in exchange for their own currency.
(www.reserveasset.gold.org/monetary_history/key_documents/after/)
1936 Aug 2, French aviator Louis
Bleriot (b.1872) died. He made the first crossing of the English
Channel from Calais to the grounds of Dover Castle in 1909.
(ON, 6/07, p.9)
1936 Nov 5, French writer Andre
Gide criticized the Soviet regime.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1936 The first comprehensive
catalogue of Cezanne’s work was published in Paris by Italian scholar
Lionello Venturi.
(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)
1936 France underwent a round of
nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in
1945-46 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1936 French PM Leon Blum
(1872-1950) introduced the 2-week paid holiday for all French workers.
In the early 1980s this was extended to 5 weeks.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.59)
1936-1937 Leon Blum, a socialist intellectual, was
the head of the Popular Front government. The 1999 book "Burden of
Responsibility" by Tony Judt included an analysis of Blum.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles Paul
Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1937 Sep 2, Pierre de Coubertin
(b.1863), French Baron and the major force behind the revival of the
modern Olympics, died.
(ON, 8/07,
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin)
1937 Dec 28, Composer Maurice
Ravel (62) died in Paris.
(AP, 12/28/97)(MC, 12/28/01)
1937 Henri Matisse created his
painting “L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue.” In 2007 it was auctioned by
Christie’s in NYC for a record $33.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1937 George Bernanos, French
writer, authored “The Diary of a Country Priest.”
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.P8)
1937 Bronislava Nijinska created
her legendary "Chopin Concerto Ballet" for the Paris Int’l. Expo.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.E5)
1937 The French film "Yoshiwara"
was set in Japan and directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1937 The Eiffel Tower was
embroidered with 10,000 meters of pink, blue and green neon to
celebrate an int’l. exposition.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1937 French schools were
instructed to exclude religious symbols.
(WPR, 3/04, p.9)
1937 Jean de Brunhoff (37), French
painter, died of tuberculosis. He illustrated the Babar stories
invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)
1938 Feb 27, Britain and France
recognized the Franco government in Spain.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1938 Jul 4, France-Turkish
friendship treaty.
(Maggio, 98)
1938 July 6, Delegates from
thirty-two countries met for 9 days at the French resort of Evian to
discuss the problem of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austrian. The
German government was able to state with great pleasure how
"astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their
treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to
them when "the opportunity offer[ed]." The French foreign ministry, the
Quai d’Orsay, sabotaged the Evian conference on European refugees, the
only diplomatic effort to alleviate the fate of “stateless” German and
Austrian Jews.
(http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/evian/evian.html)(WSJ,
11/15/06, p.D14)
1938 Sep 29, British, French,
German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed
at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of
Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the
Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to
Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville
Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and
without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy
Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event
of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM
Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford
Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a detailed
political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe, culminating
in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for
Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the
Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises.”
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC,
6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP,
9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1938 Dec 6, France and Germany
signed a treaty of friendship.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1938 Dec 17, Italy declared the
1935 pact with France invalid, because ratification's had not been
exchanged. France denied the argument.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1938 Dec 28, France ordered the
doubling of forces in Somaliland; two warships were sent.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1938 Man Ray created an imaginary
portrait of the Marquis de Sade.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.3)
1938 Julien Gracq (1910-2007),
French writer, published "Au chateau d'Argol" (The Castle of Argol). It
was favorably reviewed by the Surrealist leader Andre Breton, who
became a friend and a strong influence.
(AP, 12/23/07)
1938 Marcel Carne (1906-1990),
French film director, shot his first masterpiece, "Hotel du Nord." His
style became known as "poetic realism."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1938 Georges Melies, pioneering
filmmaker, died at age 77. His work included some 498 movies of which
only about 50 survive. In 1975 Paul Hammond authored "Marvelous Melies."
(ON, 1/00, p.9)
1939 Jan 21, Picasso painted two
pictures, both titled "Reclining Woman with Book." In one Marie-Theresa
Walter is pictured in a smooth S-curve, in the other Dora Maar (born as
Theodora Markovitch d.1997 at 89) is broken into jagged forms. Maar was
a painter and photographer and struggled to develop her own ambitions,
but failed and spent much of her life as a recluse.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A24)
1939 Jan 27, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt approved the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1939 Feb 6, Spanish government
fled to France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1939 Feb 10, Japanese occupied the
island of Hainan in French Indochina.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France
agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French
islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1939 May 20, Regular
trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the
Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for
Marseilles, France.
(AP, 5/20/97)(MC, 5/20/02)
1939 May 27, Joseph Roth,
Austrian-born Jewish writer, died in Paris. His books included
“Radetzkymarsch” (The Radetzky March) (1932), a novel of the Habsburg
empire from 1859-1916 and “The Auto-da-Fe of the Mind.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jroth.htm)
1939 Jun 17, Eugene Weldman became
the last person guillotined in France.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1939 Jul 21, Ambroise Vollard
(b.1866), French art patron, author and publisher, died in a car crash.
He wrote biographies on Cézanne, Degas, and Renoir. Many of his
works, including pantings by Derain, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso and
Matisse, ended up in the hands of Erich Slomovic, a young Croatian Jew
who had come to Paris in the mid-1930s and befriended the aging dealer.
Slomovic was killed by the nazis in 1942. The art remained locked up in
a Paris bank vault until it was found in 1979. In 2010 it was put up
for auction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambroise_Vollard)(SFC,
6/12/10, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2dbmtbc)
1939 Aug 25, Britain and France
signed a treaty with Poland promising military assistance should the
Germans invade.
(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1939 Sep 3, Britain and France
declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
After Germany ignored Great Britain's ultimatum to stop the invasion of
Poland, Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking the beginning of
World War II in Europe. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by
Australia, NZ, South Africa & Canada.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1939 Sep 7, In response to the
German invasion of Poland a week earlier, France invaded its neighbor
Germany. In Operation Saar, French forces marched into the Cadenbronn
and Wendt Forest near Saarrucken. The French met little or no
opposition as they drove five miles into Germany. The sluggish advance
was hindered by low troop morale and lack of support. The Soviet
Union’s invasion of Poland from the east on September 17 prompted the
French withdrawal to the Maginot Line in anticipation of a German
counterattack. The only French offensive of WWII lasted 14 days.
(HNQ, 7/9/99)
1939 Sep 30, The French Army was
called back into France from it's invasion of Germany. The attack, code
named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.
(HN, 9/30/99)
1939 Pierre Bonnard painted "The
Garden."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1939 Nathalie Sarraute published
her book of 24 sketches called "Tropisms."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1939 The French film "Rules of the
Game" was directed by Jean Renoir. It was later considered the greatest
movie ever made.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.D4)
1939 Heinrich Hoffman (b.1875),
Paris glass artist, died.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.G4)
1939-1945 Of the 330,000 Jews in France at the start
of the war, about 76,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps and
only 2,500 survived.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A8)
1940 Mar 25, The U.S. agreed to
give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1940 Apr 15, French and British
troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1940 May 12, The Nazi blitz
conquest of France began with the crossing at the Meuse River.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1940 May 14, German breakthrough
at Sedan, France.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 15, German armor division
moved into Northern France.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1940 May 17, Germany occupied
Brussels, Belgium, and began the invasion of France. [see May 12]
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1940 May 21, British tank forces
attacked General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing
his blitzkrieg of France.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1940 May 22, Premier Winston
Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1940 May 24, German tanks reached
Atrecht, France.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1940 May 25, German troops
conquered Boulogne.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1940 May 26, Operation Dynamo was
launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers
from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France. The new British
Spitfire fighters helped provide air cover. The operation continued to
June 4.
(ON, 3/07, p.2)(AP, 5/26/97)
1940 May 29, Germans captured
Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1940 May 26, The evacuation of
Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, during World War II began.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1940 May 31, General Bernard
Montgomery left Dunkirk.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1940 May 31, Winston Churchill
flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1940 Jun 3, Last British and
French troops left Dunkirk.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1940 Jun 3, The German Luftwaffe
hit Paris with 1,100 bombs.
(HN, 6/3/98)
1940 Jun 4, The Allied military
evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1940 Jun 4, German forces entered
Paris.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1940 Jun 5, The Battle of France
began during World War II. Germany attacked French forces along the
Somme line.
(HN, 6/5/99)(AP, 6/5/07)
1940 Jun 10, Italy declared war on
France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1940 Jun 13, Paris was evacuated
before the German advance on the city.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1940 Jun 15, The French fortress
of Verdun was captured by Germans.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1940 Jun 16, French Chief of
State, Henri Petain, asked for an armistice with Germany. [see Jun 17]
(HN, 6/16/98)
1940 Jun 17, France asked Germany
for terms of surrender in World War II. Marshal Henri Petain replaced
Paul Reynaud, who chose to resign over surrender, as prime minister and
announced his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis. In 2000
Ernest R. May authored "Strange Victory," an account of the French
defeat.
(AP, 6/17/97)(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)(MC, 6/17/02)
1940 Jun 17, Gen. Charles de
Gaulle flew to London.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Jun 18, Charles de Gaulle,
future president of France, broadcast to his nation from London, urging
it to rally to him and fight Hitler's invading army.
(AP, 6/18/99)
1940 Jun 19, German 7th Armor
division under gen-maj Rommel occupied Cherbourg.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1940 Jun 22, During World War II,
Adolf Hitler gained a stunning victory as France was forced to sign an
armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris. France and
Germany signed an armistice at Compiegne, on terms dictated by the
Nazis. Alsace again became part of Germany.
(AP, 6/22/97)(HN, 6/22/98)(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1940 Jun 24, France signed an
armistice with Italy after the axis country attacked a portion of
southern France during Germany's blitzkrieg.
(AP, 6/24/97)(HN, 6/24/99)
1940 Jun 25, Adolf Hitler viewed
the Eiffel tower and tomb of Napoleon in Paris.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1940 Jun, The Germans began to
loot the artwork of Paris and more than 70,000 residences were
plundered. A lot of artwork was sold to the Emil Buhrle Foundation in
Switzerland, the largest buyer of confiscated French art. The story is
told by Hector Feliciano in his 1997 book: "The Lost Museum." The best
book on the fate of European art in WW II was reported to be "The Rape
of Europa" by Lynn Nicholas.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.7)
1940 Jul 3, British Royal Navy
sank a French fleet in North Africa, ten days after France had signed
an armistice with Nazi Germany.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 5, During World War II,
Britain and Marshal Henri Petain's Vichy government in France broke
diplomatic relations.
(AP, 7/5/97)(HN, 7/5/98)
1940 Aug 2, Clermont-Ferrand
sentenced Gen. Charles de Gaulle to death. [see Aug 4]
(MC, 8/2/02)
1940 Aug 4, The Paris Soir
reported that Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been condemned to death in
absentia for treason by a Vichy military court.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized
the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug, Jacques Robert (d.1998
at 83) joined the French Resistance. He set up the Resistance group
named Phratrie in 1942. In 1943 he was arrested in Nice, but escaped to
London. He parachuted back to France to lead guerrilla operations in
1944 during the Normandy invasion.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)
1940 Sep 3, In France more than
700,000 books were seized from bookshops and destroyed. The "Otto
lists," or liste Otto, were comprised of books banned by the German
occupying authorities in Vichy France. By September, 1940, 1,060 titles
were on the list. The list aimed to ban anti-German, antifascist,
pro-Marxists books, works by Jewish authors and British and American
books.
(HNQ, 8/16/98)
1940 Sep 12, The Lascaux Caves in
France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, were discovered in the
Dordogne region. 4 teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux
France discover 17,000-year-old drawings now known as Lascaux Cave
Paintings. The paintings consisting mostly of animal representations
(horses), are among the finest examples of art from the Paleolithic
period.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T4)(HN, 9/12/00)(MC, 9/12/01)
1940 Autumn, Maurice Schumann
(d.1998 at 86), "the voice of France," began wartime broadcasting "The
French Speak to the French" from London as the official spokesman for
Gen’l. de Gaulle.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A24)
1940 Oct 3, In France the Vichy
government passed a law that placed great restrictions on French Jews.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/3/01)
1940 Oct 24, Hitler met Marshal
Petain.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1940 The French film "From
Mayerling to Serajevo" starred John Cabot Lodge as Archduke Ferdinand
and Edwige Feuillere as Czech Countess Sophie Chotek. It was directed
by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1940 In France Aristides de Sousa
Mendes (1885-1954), a Portuguese diplomat posted in Bordeaux, issued
30,000 visas to Jews and 20,000 to other refugees against the
instructions of his government. Dictator Antonio Salazar responded by
removing him from the diplomatic corps, denying him a pension and
blacking out his actions from official state records.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)(SFC,
2/19/09, p.B5)
1940 Vichy authorities appointed
Prof. Bernard Fay (1893-1978) as head of France’s Bibliotheque
Nationale. In 1941 Fay was responsible for the imprisonment of some
6,000 Freemasons and for more than 500 of them being sent to their
deaths during the German occupation. In 1946 Fay was tried and
convicted for collaboration and sentenced to life in prison. In 1951
Gertrude Stein helped to finance his escape from a prison hospital. He
fled to Switzerland and lived there until he was granted pardon
in 1958.
(WSJ, 9/25/07,
p.D6)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/fay_b/fay_b.html)
1940 Francois Lehideux (d.1998 at
95), the minister of industrial production, agreed that Renault would
furnish parts to the German army, repair tanks and provide technical
assistance in the war effort. He was arrested and jailed after
liberation, but was freed in 1946. He went on to head Ford of France
until 1953.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1940 Following the fall of France
Claude Peri commandeered the merchant ship Le Rhin and placed it at the
disposal of British naval intelligence. Peri got his mistress,
Madeleine Bayard, the job of cipher officer on the ship. It was renamed
the HMS Fidelity and got torpedoed in 1942. In 2005 Edward Marriot
authored “Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of Love War and Espionage.”
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.69)
1940-1941 In France the Emergency Rescue Committee,
led by New York writer Varian Fry, saved some 2,000 cultural elite. The
group operated out of the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille. In 2006 Rosemary
Sullivan authored “Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in
Marseille.
(SSFC, 12/3/06, p.M3)
1940-1944 Germany occupied France. In 1998 Ian Ousby
published "Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944." In 2009
Frederic Spotts authored “The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and
Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation.” In 2009 Charles glass
authored “American in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation
1940-1944.”
(SFEC, 8/16/98, Par p.8)(WSJ, 1/3/09, p.W6)(Econ,
5/2/09, p.84)
1941 Jan 28, French General
Charles DeGaulle's Free French forces sacked south Libya oasis.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1941 Feb 6, Maximilien Luce
(b.1858), French anarchist and Neo-Impressionist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Luce)
1941 Feb 26, Vichy-France made
religious education in school mandatory.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Mar 10, Vichy France
threatened to use its navy if Britain would not allow food to reach
France.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews
access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 3, Andre Michelin (88),
French tire manufacturer, died. In 2004 Herbert Lottman authored "The
Michelin Men: Driving an Empire," the story of Andre and Edouard
Michelin.
(MC, 4/3/02)(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1941 Apr 12, Vichy-France's head
of government Admiral Dalan consulted with Hitler.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1941 Apr 12, Alain Le Ray
(1910-2006), a leader in the French Resistance, become the first to
escape from the infamous Colditz prison in Germany. Le Ray had been
captured in June 1940. The Nazis had touted the jail as escape proof,
and his exploits were recounted in the 1976 book "Premiere a Colditz"
("First in Colditz").
(AP,
6/8/07)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/cold_01.html)
1941 Apr 14, The 1st massive
German raid in Paris rounded up 3,600 Jews. [see May 14]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1941 Apr 19, Michel Roux, chef de
cuisine, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1941 May 3, Pierre Seel (17) was
arrested in Alsace-Lorraine by the German Gestapo and tortured for 10
days for his homosexuality. In 1994 he authored the memoir “I, Pierre
Seel, Deported Homosexual.”
(SFC, 12/2/05, p.B5)
1941 May 14, French Admiral
Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, broadcast
to the citizens that only within the confines of the Third Reich can
France thrive.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian
Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 Jul 14, Vichy French Foreign
Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, allowing them to join the
Free French Foreign Legion.
(HN, 7/14/99)
1941 Jul 21, France accepted
Japan's demand for military control of Indochina.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1941 Jul, Artist Marc Chagall and
his wife Bella Rosenfeld departed France for America. On the same day
that he left Vichy police deported some 1,200 other Jewish refugees to
forced labor in north Africa.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.102)
1941 Aug 12, French Marshal Henri
Philippe Petain announced full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the
11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 29, Henri Louis
(40), French officer, resistance fighter, was executed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1941 Sep, Jean "Max" Moulin was
smuggled to London to meet Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French
Resistance, and the other exiled French leaders. In January 1942 the
SOE parachuted him back into France, to set up an organized Resistance
movement.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1941 Oct 2, 6 Paris synagogues
were bombed by Gestapo. [see Oct 3]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1941 Oct 3, Nazi's blew up 6
synagogues in Paris. [see Oct 2]
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 22, Guy Moquet (17) was
executed by a German firing squad, one of dozens of communists
condemned by an official in France's collaborationist Vichy regime in
reprisal for the murder of a German officer.
(AP,
10/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_M%C3%B4quet)
1941 Nov 26, Free French General
Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. Shortly
after taking up this post, Catroux recognized the independence of Syria
and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria-Lebanon_campaign)
1941 Dec 12, German occupying army
searched house to house in Paris looking for Jews.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1941 Dec 25, Free French occupied
the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was
posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of
Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers
to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1942 Feb 9, The former French
cruise ship Normandie, launched in 1935, burned in New York Harbor
during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. It was once
regarded as most elegant ocean liner ever built. In 1947 it was cut up
for scrap. In 2007 John Maxtone-Graham authored “Normandie.”
(AP, 2/10/97)(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W13)
1942 Feb 27, British Commandos
raided a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast. The
warrior spies of the Abwehr, Germany's intelligence agency, were the
Brandenburg commandos.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1942 Feb 27, The 1st transport of
French Jews left to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1942 Mar 3, The RAF raided the
industrial suburbs of Paris.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1942 Mar 11, 1st deportation train
left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1942 Mar 27-28, Allies raided the
Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1942 Mar 28, During World War II,
British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St.
Nazaire. British Bomber Command launched an attack on the German city
of Lubeck.
(AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)
1942 Apr 20, Pierre Laval, the
premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, established a policy of
"true reconciliation with Germany."
(HN, 4/20/99)
1942 Jun 8, In Paris on the first
day Helene Berr was forced to wear the yellow star to distinguish Jews:
"My God, I didn't know this would be so hard. I was very brave all day.
I held my head high and looked people so straight in the eyes they
turned away. But it's hard ... This morning, I went out with Mother.
Two kids in the street pointed at us saying 'Hey? You see? Jewish.'"
(AP, 1/9/08)
1942 Jun 18, Eric Nessler of
France stayed aloft in a glider for 38h 21m.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1942 Jul 16, The first large-scale
roundups of Jews began under protests by only a half-dozen Catholic
church leaders. French police arrested 8,000 Jews over 2 days in Paris
in the Velodrome d’Hiver round-up.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A22)(MC, 7/16/02)(Econ, 7/24/04,
p.49)
1942 Jul, Maurice Papon
(1910-2007), French civil servant, in his first report to German
occupiers, noted that he had “dejudaised” 204 businesses, while 493
others were “in the process of dejudaisation.”
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed
with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 11, During World War II,
Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared that "the hour
of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."
(AP, 8/11/99)
1942 Aug 17, U.S. Eighth Air Force
bombers attacked Rouen, France.
(AP, 8/17/02)
1942 Aug 19, About 5,000 Canadian
and 2,000 British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the
Germans at Dieppe, France. Over 3,600 men perished in this
battle. The information gathered from this landing was considered
valuable for planning the successful Allied landings in Northern
Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, France. Brit. Col. Pat Porteous
(d.2000) received a Victoria Cross for his valor in the attack which
was aimed at gaining experience for the later D-Day invasion.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/98)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A22)(MC,
8/19/02)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were
rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug, Irene Nemirovsky (39),
French-Jewish author, died at Auschwitz. She had recently authored
"Suite Francaise" while waiting in rural France for what she knew was
her imminent arrest and deportation. It is a powerful account of the
effect on ordinary people of the military collapse of June 1940, the
panicked flight from Paris and the arrival of the German army. It was
finally published in France in 2004 and Nemirovsky was awarded a top
French literary award. In 2006 Jonathan Weiss authored “Irene
Nemirovsky: Her Life and Works.”
(AFP, 11/8/04)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.M1)(SSFC, 5/16/10,
p.F5)
1942 Sep 5, British & US
bombed Le Havre & Bremen.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1942 Sep 20, In France a shipment
of 1,000 French and foreign Jews, including 163 children, was arranged
by Vichy administrator Michel Junot. They were sent to Drancy, north of
Paris, and then to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A14)
1942 Sep 21, Nazis executed 116
hostages in Paris.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1942 Nov 5, Nazis raided on Greek
Jews in Paris.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1942 Nov 8, Vichy-France dropped
diplomatic relations with US.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1942 Nov 9, Transport #44 departed
with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1942 Nov 10, Admiral Jean Darlan
ordered French forces in North Africa to cease resistance to the
Anglo-American forces. Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, leader of the
armed forces of Vichy France, was assassinated in Algiers in 1942.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1942 Nov 11, 745 French Jews were
deported to Auschwitz.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1942 Nov 11, French warrant
officer Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) escaped from German captivity, made
his way to Senegal, in what was then French West Africa, and was
commissioned into Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces.
(AP, 6/18/10)
1942 Nov 11, Germany completed its
occupation of France.
(AP, 11/11/04)
1942 Nov 27, During World War II,
the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep
them out of the hands of the Nazis.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1942 Dec 18, Hitler met with
Mussolini and Pierre Laval.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1942 Dec 24, Jean LXF Darlan,
French admiral and leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was
murdered by Gaullists in Algiers.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1942 Henri Matisse created his
painting “Danseuse dans le fauteuil.” It sold for $22 million at a
Sotheby’s auction in 2007.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1942 Jean Anouilh wrote his play
"Antigone." It was staged in Paris in 1944 during the German occupation.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.C6)(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1942 Albert Camus (1913-1960),
Algeria-born French writer, authored "The Stranger" and "The Myth of
Sisyphus." He established himself as a spokesman for a philosophy of
the absurd along with Jean-Paul Sartre.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.P14)
1942 Marcel Carne (1906-1990),
French film director, made "Night Visitors" (Les Visiteurs du Soir).
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1942 The French police rounded up
some 13,000 Jews in Paris including some 4,000 children. In 2010 the
film “La Rafle” portrayed these events through the eyes of Jo Weisman
(11), who later escaped from an internment camp near Orleans.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.60)
1942 In France the Nazis banned
English language films. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was the last
English-language film shown.
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)
1942-1944 Maurice Papon served as the Vichy police
supervisor in Bordeaux [the deputy prefect in Gironde]. He was later
charged with the arrest and deportation of 1,690 French Jews. Under the
Vichy regime some 75,000 (76,000) were deported to Nazi death camps.
Rene Bousquet was the national Vichy police chief.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A1)(SFC,
4/3/98, p.B2)
1943 Jan 8, The British handed
Madagascar over to the Free French.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1943 Jan 13, General Leclerc's
Free French forces merged with the British under Montgomery in Libya.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1943 Jan 14, Roosevelt, Churchill,
and DeGaulle met at Casablanca to discuss the direction of the war.
(AP, 1/14/98)(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation
authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in
France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Apr 23, Herve Villechaize,
actor, (Fantasy Island), was born in France.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1943 May 27, French resistance
members under Jean Moulin met secretly in Paris.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1943 Jun 5, German occupiers
arrested Louvain University's chancellor.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1943 Jun 21, Jean "Max" Moulin,
French resistance fighter, was betrayed by fellow Frenchmen and
captured in a massive anti-resistance dragnet.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b.
Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1943 Aug 9, Chaim Soutine
(b.1893), Jewish expressionist painter, died in Paris of a perforated
ulcer.
(WSJ, 5/14/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine)
1943 Aug 25, Lt. Andre Devigny
(d.1999 at 82) escaped from a German prison in Lyon. He was sentenced
to be executed on Aug 28 for assassinating the head of the Fascist
Italian secret police. He was captured the next day and escaped again
by diving into the Rhone River. In 1957 Robert Bresson made the film "A
Man Escaped" based on his story.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E2)
1943 Aug 26, The United States
recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1943 Aug 30, Jean Claude Killy,
France, skier (Olympic-3 golds-1968), was born.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1943 Sep 6, The "Black Ghost," a
B-17 bomber, was shot down over occupied France. Its crew survived 13
missions, but anti-aircraft flak and the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt and
Focke-Wulf fighters claimed the airplane. All 10 crew members survived
the war.
(AP, 8/13/05)
1943 Sep, Pearl Cornioley
(1916-2008), a British agent, parachuted into France as a secret agent
to help arm and organize the Resistance. In 1995 she wrote an
autobiography and in 2006 Royal Air Force officers presented her with
her parachute wings in a ceremony at her Paris retirement home.
(AP, 3/8/08)
1943 Oct 19, Camille Claudel
(b.1864), assistant, model and mistress to sculptor Auguste Rodin, died
in France.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Camille_Claudel)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.75)
1943 Oct 22, Catherine Deneuve,
[Dorleac], actress (Repulsion, Hunger), was born in Paris.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1943 Oct 24, Anti-Nazi Clandestine
Radio Soldatsender, Calais, began transmitting.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1943 "The Little Prince" by
Antoine de St. Exupery (d.1944) was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1943 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his
best play "The Flies." It was based on an ancient myth.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1943 Working with a script by Jean
Cocteau, Jean Delannoy (1908-2008) revisited the Tristan and Isolde
legend in "L'Eternel Retour" (Eternal Return).
(AP, 6/19/08)
1943 Sabina Zlatin (1907-1996)
opened a home in Izieu to help Jewish children threatened by Nazi
capture. She managed to smuggle about a 100 children to freedom before
being ruthlessly shutdown. [see 4/6/44.]
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)
1943 Germaine Tillion (1907-2008)
was sent to the Nazi camp for women and children in Ravensbruck,
Germany, for her work with France's underground Resistance network.
Later she was the recipient of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor,
one of France's highest distinctions.
(Reuters, 4/20/08)
1943 Jacques Cousteau and Emile
Gagnan used a modified gas feeder valve as an oxygen regulator for the
"aqua lung."
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1944 Feb 4, Jean Anouilh's
"Antigone," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1944 Mar 27, One-thousand Jews
left Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1944 Mar, In the Alps town of
Voiron 17 Jewish children were seized, sent to Drancy and then to
Auschwitz.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)
1944 Apr 4, De Gaulle formed a new
regime in exile with communists.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1944 Apr 5, 140 Lancasters bombed
airplane manufacturer in Toulouse.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1944 Apr 6,
German trucks rolled up to the safehouse of Sabina Zlatin in Izieu-Ain,
France, and 44 children and 7 teachers including Mr. Zlatin were
arrested. The raid was ordered by Klaus Barbie, head of the German
police in Lyons.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)(MC, 4/6/02)
1944 Apr 13, Transport No. 71
departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1944 Apr 30, The 8th and 9th US
Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly sorties
into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the Allied
Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)
1944 May, In Paris the play "No
Exit" by Jean-Paul Sartre was first produced. It depicts the dawning
realization by 3 people that they are in hell and are each other’s
punishment.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1944 Jun 6, On D-Day Brig. General
Norman "Dutch" Cota was the first American General to step foot on
Omaha Beach. Cota, assistant commander of the 29th Infantry Division,
heroically spurred his men to cross the beach under withering German
fire. He went on to lead his infantrymen across France to the Siegfried
Line and in the battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
(HNQ, 4/15/99)
1944 Jun 6, Cherokee tribal
members communicated via radios in their native language on the
Normandy beaches. Some 6,603 Americans were killed along the coast of
France during the D-day invasion. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died
during the invasion. "D-Day" by Stephen Ambrose was published in 1994.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A6)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A22)(SFC,
5/30/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A1)
1944 Jun 6, Danny Brotheridge,
British lieutenant, became the 1st to die during D-Day. Over the next
10 weeks of fighting 300,000 men, women and children died in Normandy.
In 2009 Antony Beevor authored “D-Day: The Battle for Normandy.”
(SSFC, 6/6/04, D7)(http://tinyurl.com/lvhqs7)(Econ,
5/30/09, p.84)
1944 Jun 6, The code name for the
beach used by the Canadians for the D-day invasion of Normandy was Juno.
(HNQ, 8/13/98)
1944 Jun 6, By the end of D-Day
156,000 Allied soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches with
losses of 2,500 men. By the end of the day, the Allies had established
a tenuous beachhead that would lead to an offensive that pinned Adolf
Hitler's Third Reich between two pincers--the Western Allies and the
already advancing Soviets--accelerating the end of World War II. A
million Allied troops, under the overall command of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, moved onto five Normandy beachheads in three weeks.
Operations “Neptune” and “Overlord” put forces on the beaches and
supplies aimed at the liberation of Europe and the conquest of Germany.
Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied American, British, and
Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. In addition, US and
British airborne forces landed behind the German lines and US Army
Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe de Hoc. More than 6,000 trucks of
the Red Ball Express kept gasoline and other vital supplies rolling in
as American troops and tanks pushed the Germans back toward their
homeland.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)(HN, 6/6/98)(HNPD, 6/6/99)(ON,
2/08, p.12)
1944 Jun 8, The 1st SS-Panzer
Korps counter attack was at Normandy.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1944 Jun 10, The U.S. VII and V
corps, advancing from Normandy’s Utah and Omaha beaches, respectively,
linked-up and began moving inland.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1944 Jun 10, German troops of the
armored SS Division "Das Reich", as they headed toward Normandy to
combat D-Day invasion forces, slaughtered 642 men, women and children
in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France. In 1983 a court in East
Berlin convicted Heinz Barth (1921-2007), a former SS officer, and
sentenced him to life in prison. In addition to involvement in the
massacre, East German judges also found that Barth volunteered to
participate in an execution of 92 Czech civilians in 1942. In 1997 his
sentence was commuted to probation.
(AP, 8/14/07)
1944 Jun 17, French troops landed
on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1944 Jun 18, The U.S. First Army
broker through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cut off
the German held port of Cherbourg.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1944 Jun 22, US Pilot William
Kalan and his 9-man crew bailed out of their B-24 Liberator during a
mission over Nazi-occupied France. Kalan avoided capture and went on to
work with the French underground to harass German troops. In 2009 Kalan
(91) was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his covert service.
(SFC, 12/30/09, p.C3)
1944 Jun 25, British assault at
Caen, Normandy.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1944 Jun 27, During World War II,
American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg
from the Germans.
(AP, 6/27/97)(HN, 6/27/98)
1944 Jul 3, The U.S. First Army
opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of
Normandy, France.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1944 Jul 7, Bomber Command dropped
2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 12, US government
recognized the authority of General De Gaulle.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1944 Jul 17, Field Marshall Erwin
Rommel was wounded when an Allied fighter strafes his staff car in
France.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1944 Jul 18, U.S. troops capture
Saint-Lo, France, ending the battle of the hedgerows.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1944 Jul 20, A heavy storm
hampered a British offensive at Caen.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 25, Allied forces begin
the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1944 Jul 30, US 30th division
reached the suburbs of St. Lo, Normandy.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1944 Jul 31, A large number of
children were deported to Auschwitz from France by Alois Brunner,
deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1944 Jul 31, Antoine de
Saint-Exupery (44), author of "The Little Prince," died in a plane
crash during reconnaissance off Marseilles. In 1949 Nelly de Vogue, his
longtime mistress, authored the 1st Exupery biography. In 2001 a memoir
by his widow, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery (d.1979) titled "The Tale of
the Rose: The Passion That Inspired the Little Prince," was published.
Saint-Exupery's plane was found in 2004.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A15)(SSFC,
8/5/01, DB p.63)(SFC, 4/8/04, p.A2)
1944 Jul, In the wake of fighting
at Vercors, 300 Nazi troops moved into the Catholic village of
Prelenfrey and demanded the names of Jews hiding in the area. The
soldiers at gunpoint interrogated 32 local men, but no information was
revealed.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T8)
1944 Aug 2, The US 383rd Squadron
assigned to Honnington, England, executed an air raid on a German
ammunition train at Remy, France. Lt. Houston Lee Braley Jr. was killed
in his downed P-51.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A1,18)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched
a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1944 Aug 15, American, British and
French forces landed on the southern coast of France, between Toulon
and Cannes, in Operation Dragoon.
(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/98)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was
freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 17, The mayor of Paris,
Pierre Charles Tattinger, met with the German commander Dietrich von
Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1944 Aug 19, In an effort to
prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGaulle began attacking
German forces all around the city.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1944 Aug 19, US 90th and Polish
1st Division occupied Chambois, Normandy.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Aug 20, Gen. de Gaulle
returned to France.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, United States and
British forces closed the pincers on the German 7th Army in the
Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 21-1947 Jun 3, Albert
Camus edited the clandestine newspaper Combat. In 2006 his WW II
pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as ”Camus at
Combat.”
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)
1944 Aug 22, Hitler ordered Paris
to be destroyed.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 22, In Bordeaux, France,
Heinz Stahlschmidt (d.2010 at 92), a junior officer in the German navy,
defied his superiors plans to blow up Bordeaux's port by blowing up a
munitions depot, rendering some 4,000 fuses useless and saving the
port. Heinz Stahlschmidt became a French citizen in 1947 under the name
of Henri Salmide and a Knight of the French Legion d’Honneur in
September 2000.
(http://tinyurl.com/yesjr4g)(AP, 2/26/10)
1944 Aug 22, Last transport of
French Jews departed to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 23, German SS engineers
began placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Adolf
Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but
Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Allied troops
captured Marseilles, France.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, General George
Leclerc's troops advanced towards Paris.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 24, Allied forces
captured Bordeaux.
(www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm)
1944 Aug 25, Paris, occupied since
June 1940, was liberated from German occupation by Free French Forces
under General Jacques LeClerc and his 2nd Tank division. Although
ordered by Adolf Hitler to leave Paris a smoldering ruin, Paris'
military governor Major General Dietrich von Cholitz lied to his
superiors and left the city's landmarks intact. Retreating German
troops massacred 124 of Maille's 500 residents then razed the town,
possibly in retaliation for Resistance action in the region.
(AP, 8/25/97)(HNPD, 8/25/98)(HN, 8/25/98)(AP,
7/16/08)
1944 Aug 25, US 12th Army
Corp. reached Troyes.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1944 Aug 25, In France 11 US
planes were shot down when a squadron was overwhelmed in a dogfight
with 80 German fighters. 5 pilots survived and eluded capture. 2 pilots
were captured. The remains of 3 missing were later recovered. In 2008
the remains of Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Ray Packard were identified and
returned home.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.B8)
1944 Aug 26, US 12th Army Corps
crossed the river Seine East of Paris.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1944 Aug 28, German forces in
Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrendered to the Allies.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1944 Aug 29, 15,000 American
troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital
continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1944 Aug 31, The French
provisional government moved from Algiers to Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1944 Sep 1, In Meximeux, France,
Lt. Col. Michael Davison (1917-2006) led a 2-day defense against an
attack by retreating German forces. In 1974 Meximeux named its town
square “Place de General Davison.”
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.B4)
1944 Sep 3, The U.S. Seventh Army
captured Lyons, France. French troops liberate Lyon.
(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1944 Sep 5, Germany launched its
first V-2 missile at Paris, France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1944 Sep 21, U.S. troops of the
7th Army, invading Southern France, crossed the Meuse River.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1944 Sep 22, The
Allies reoccupied Boulogne.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1944 Sep 27, Aristide Maillol,
French sculptor and graphic artist, died in car crash at 82.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1944 Sep 30, Calais was reoccupied
by Allies.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1944 Oct 5, Joseph B "Aristide"
Maillol, French sculptor and graphic artist, died.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1944 Oct 19, The US Army 442nd
Regiment, composed of Japanese-Americans, fought their way into
Bruyeres, France. It included the 100th Battalion of Japanese-Americans
from Hawaii.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.E5)
1944 Oct 25, In eastern France
near Bruyeres Sgt. Clyde Lee Choate (d.2001 at 81) destroyed a German
Mark IV tank with 2 bazooka shots while under heavy fire. Choate was
later awarded the Medal of Honor and served in the Illinois Legislature
(1947-1967). Choate gave credit for the medal to his 601st Tank
Destroyer Battalion.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A21)
1944 Nov 1, Gen. Patton greeted
the 761st Tank Battalion, an all black unit, near Nancy, France. They
had no day off until linking Russian allies on May 5, 1945.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.B4)
1944 Nov, The allies attacked Fort
Jeanne d’Arc at Metz, France. Robert E. Gajdusek was wounded and
captured and later wrote his memoir in 1998: "Resurrection, A War
Journey."
(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.7)
1944 Dec 19, The French newspaper
Le Monde began publishing. Charles de Gaulle called for the launch of
Le Monde to replace Le Temps, which had become tainted by collaboration
with German invaders.
(Econ, 6/12/10,
p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde)
1944 Robert Bresson’s film "Les
Dames du Bois" de Boulogne featured Maria Casares (1922-1996).
1944-1946 Gen’l. de Gaulle took over leadership of
the government after leading the French Resistance. He quit after 2
years for having too little power.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1944-1956 The French intellectuals of this period
were later discussed in the 1992 book "Past Perfect" by Tony Judt.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to
the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 8, US Tech. Sgt. Russell
Dunham (1920-2009) assaulted 3 German machine gun placements, killed 9
German soldiers and took 2 as prisoners near Kaysersberg, France. His
bravery earned him the US Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 4/10/09, p.B5)
1945 Jan 31, Private Eddie
Slovik (25) became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be
executed for desertion, as he was shot by an American firing squad near
the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France.
(AP, 1/31/04)
1945 Feb 5, American and French
troops destroyed German forces in the Colmar Pocket in France.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1945 Feb 6, The French government
executed Robert Brasillach, writer and Nazi propagandist. He had been
arrested in January, was tried for treason and convicted. In 2000 Alice
Kaplan authored "The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert
Brasillach."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Brasillach)
1945 Feb 7, US 76th and 5th
Infantry divisions began crossing Sauer.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1945 Mar, Marcel Carne
(1906-1990), French film director, premiered "The Children of Paradise"
(Les Enfants du Paradis). The 3 1/2 hr. film starred Jean-Louis
Barrault and Arletty and centered on the life of 19th century mime
Jean-Baptiste Debureau. The epic film classic was a singular evocation
of show biz in the time of Balzac. Maria Casares (1922-1996) achieved
stardom for her 1943 role in "Les Enfants du Paradis."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)(WSJ, 10/20/95, p. A-12)(SFC,
11/25/96, p.B2)
1945 Apr 26, Marshal Henri
Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War
II, was arrested. In 2001 Adam Nossiter authored "The Algeria Hotel:
France, Memory and the Second World War." The Algeria Hotel had been
headquarters for the Vichy government’s anti-Jewish agency. Nossiter
included accounts of the hangings at Tulle and the massacre of 642
people in Oradour. In 204 Robert O. Paxton authored “Vichy France: Old
Guard and New Order.”
(AP, 4/26/98)(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)(Econ, 3/13/04,
p.85)
1945 Apr 30, US troops attacked at
the Elbe.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 May 7, Germany signed an
unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to
take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World
War II. After five years, World War II in Europe ended when Colonel
General Alfred Jodl, the last chief of staff of the German Army, signed
the unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's
headquarters at Rheims, France.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(HNPD, 5/8/99)
1945 May 8, Germany surrendered
and Victory in Europe was achieved by the allies. Marshal Wilhelm
Keitel surrenders to Marshal Zhukov. The day is commemorated as V-E
Day. President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II
had ended in Europe. In 2004 Max Hastings authored “Armageddon,” an
account of the last days of WW II.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/8/97)(WSJ, 11/16/04,
p.D10)
1945 May 8, Algerian demonstrators
in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag, banned by the French
occupiers. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on
the French, killing about two dozen of them. This led to an uprising in
which Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France
put the number at about 15,000 to 20,000. No one is quite sure.
(AP, 5/9/05)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England
& France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1945 Jul 20, Paul Valery (b.1871),
French poet (Le cimetiere Marin, Mon Faust), died at age 73. He was
buried in his home town of Sete.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1945 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri
Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, went
on trial, charged with treason. He was condemned to death, but his
sentence was commuted; Petain died in prison on this date in 1951.
(AP, 7/23/08)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval, premier
of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in
Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed
him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1945 Aug 22, Conflict in Vietnam
began when a group of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina,
in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/22/00)
1945 Oct 15, The former Vichy
French Premier Pierre Laval was executed by a firing squad for his
wartime collaboration with the Germans.
(AP, 10/15/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1945 Oct 21, Women in France were
allowed to vote for the first time.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1945 Nov 13, Charles de Gaulle was
elected president of France.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1945 Dec 13, France and Britain
agreed to quit Syria and Lebanon.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1945 Dec 19, Jean Giraudoux' "La
Folle de Chaillot," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1945 Pierre Bonnard painted his
"Large Landscape, South of France (Le Cannet)."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
c1945 The US Army published "112
Gripes about the French," as a prejudice-busting primer for American
troops occupying France following WWII. It was re-published in 2003.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A2)
1945 The magazine Point de Vue was
founded as a general-interest publication. By the 1960s its coverage
was directed to royalty.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)
1945 France set up the Ecole
Nationale d’Administration, a post-graduate civil service college, to
turn out a meritocratic elite equipped to run an administered economy
battered by war.
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1945 Rene Jules Lalique, French
jewelry designer, died.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A26)
1945-1946 Picasso painted his purposely unfinished
"Charnel House."
(SFC, 10/10/98,
p.E8)(www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso45.html)
1945-1946 France underwent another round of
nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in
1936 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1946 Jan 20, France's Charles
DeGaulle handed in his resignation.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1946 Mar 6, France recognized
Vietnam statehood within the Indo-Chinese federation.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1946 Apr 12, Syria gained
independence from France.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1946 Apr 17, The last French
troops left Syria.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1946 May 11, The first packages
from the relief agency CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to
Europe) arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot
(b.1897), a French doctor, was executed for offering Jews an escape to
Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies, many by
incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his home, but he
was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980 Thomas Maeder
authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot.”
(WSJ, 6/9/07,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)
1946 Jun 25, Ho Chi Minh traveled
to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1948 Jun 26, The Berlin Airlift
began in earnest as the United States, Britain and France started
ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin, after the
Soviet Union cut off land and water routes. The Soviets had been
harassing the French, British and American authorities in Berlin for
weeks, trying to force them from the city. Finally, when all surface
routes to the city were blockaded, it became clear that an airlift
through the Allied sectors was the only way to re-supply the 2 million
West Berliners. In spite of the enormous human and financial cost,
“Operation Vittles” supplied food, fuel and hope to beleaguered
citizens until the Soviet barricades were finally lifted on May 12,
1949. In 2010 Richard Reeves authored “Daring Young Men: The Heroism
and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift, June 1948-May 1949.”
(AP, 6/26/98)(HN,
6/26/99)(http://tinyurl.com/gqhi)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.63)
1946 Jul 5, The bikini bathing
suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut
during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Model Micheline
Bernardini wore the skimpy two-piece outfit. Its name correlated with
the July 1 American atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll. Réard wanted
his design to have a similar explosive affect. According to New York
Times columnist William Safire, the swimsuit caused more debate,
concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D17)(TMC, 1994, p.1946)(AP,
7/5/97)(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R14)(HNQ, 4/6/02)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein (72),
US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France. Her work
included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room Floor" and “The
Biography of Alice B. Toklas” (1933). She once said of Oakland, Ca.:
"There is no there there." Painter Francis Rose carved the headstone on
her grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. A biography of Stein by Linda
Wagner-Martin was published in 1996 titled "Favored Strangers." In 2007
Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(SFC,
6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1946 Sep 20, The first Cannes Film
Festival was held.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1946 Sep, Britain, France and the
United States set up the Tripartite Gold Commission to oversee the
return of some $4 billion in gold plundered by the Nazis from European
treasuries. The commission closed in 1998.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1946 Oct 23, A Vatican document
advised French church authorities on how to handle information requests
from Jewish officials, asking them not to put anything in writing:
“Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions
that cannot ensure their Christian education.” The document surfaced in
2004.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A12)
1946 Nov 15, The 17th Paris Air
Show opened at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first
show of this kind since 1938.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire in
Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Dec 15, Vietnam leader Ho Chi
Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace
talks.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1946 Dec 19, War broke out in
Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks
against the French.
(AP, 12/19/06)
1946 Dec 20, Viet Minh and French
forces fought fiercely in the Annamite section of Hanoi.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1946 Dec 24, The 4th French
republic was established.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1946 Dec 28, The French declared
martial law in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1946 Pablo Picasso began designing
pottery in Vallauris, France. The area had been a pottery center since
Roman times.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.G4)
1946 The French film "Beauty and
the Beast" with Jean Marais (d.1998 at 84) was directed by Jean Cocteau
(d.1963).
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)
1946 The Jean Delannoy film "La
Symphonie Pastorale," adapted from a Gide novel, won Cannes' top prize.
The film told the story of a blind orphan who falls in love with a
married pastor.
(AP, 6/19/08)
1946 The Lido nightclub opened on
the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(SFC, 11/22/02, p.D9)
1946 France allowed Haj Amin
al-Husseini, the former mufti of Jerusalem, to escape to Egypt. He had
resided in Nazi Germany and hidden in Paris to avoid answering for
various war crimes.
(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1946 The French retook Hoa Binh in
Vietnam with a drop by airborne forces. They had abandoned it in
October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial
Route 4.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1946 Dahomey (later Benin) became
an Overseas Territory of France.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
1946 France granted Malians French
citizenship and limited self-rule.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1947 Jan 9, French General
Leclerc broke off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1947 Jan 19, The French opened a
drive on Hue, Indochina.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1947 Feb 28, Britain and France
signed a 50-year pact to curb Germany.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1947 Mar 4, France and Britain
signed an alliance treaty.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1947 Mar 5, Communist leader
Maurice Thorez declared support for the French sovereignty over
Vietnam.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1947 Apr 16, The French ship
Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew
up, devastating Texas City, Texas. It was America's worst harbor
explosion. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The
final death toll was 576, and more than 3,000 Texas City residents were
left homeless. Property damage ran into the millions.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-4)(AP, 4/16/97)(HNPD, 4/17/00)
1947 Oct 7, French troops in
Indochina launched Operation Lea, to capture Viet Minh positions near
the Chinese border.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1947 Nov 26, France expelled 19
Soviet citizens, charging intervention in internal affairs.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1947 Nov 28, Jacques-Philippe
Leclerc (44), WW II hero (liberator of Paris), died.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1947 Raymond Queneau (d.1976),
Parisian surrealist, published "Exercises in Style."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1947 The French film "Jour de
Fete" by Jacques Tati was shot on experimental color stock.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.41)
1947 The film "Song of
Scheherazade" starred Jean-Pierre Aumont
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1947 Charles de Gaulle’s party
"Rally for the French People" was founded.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1947 Pierre Bonnard (b.1867),
French painter, died. In a 1935 notebook he wrote: "Draw your pleasure,
paint your pleasure, express your pleasure strongly."
(WUD, 1994 p.169)(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1948 Mar 4, Antonin Artaud (51),
French poet, actor (Napoleon), died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great Britain
and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1948 July 12, The Marshall Plan
Conference convened in Paris. It was attended by 16 European nations
and established the Committee for European Economic Cooperation.
(HNQ, 9/28/99)
1948 Dec 15, The French brought
the first nuclear reactor into service.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1948 Dec 27, Gerard Depardieu,
actor (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Danton, Green Card), was born in
France.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1948 Nathalie Sarraute published
her first novel, "Portrait of a Man Unknown."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1948 Julia Child enrolled in the
Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1948 Maurice Papon was the top
French official in Corsica and authorized American planes loaded with
weapons bound for Israel to land on the island.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A10)
1948 Longchamp, a French
leather-goods company, began operations.
(Econ, 2/10/07, SR p.12)
1948 The cave at Lascaux was
opened to the public.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1949 Apr 19, Paloma Picasso,
[Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1949 May 6, P.M.B. Maurice
Maeterlinck (b.1862), Belgian philosopher, playwright (Grand Fairie)
and essayist, died in Nice, France. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize in
Literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.861)(MC, 5/6/02)
1949 Dec 10, 150,000 French troops
massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1949 Dec 30, France transferred
sovereignty to Vietnam (Indo-China).
(EWH, 1968, p.1171)
1949 Anatole Dauman (d.1998 at 73)
of Poland founded Argos Films.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1949 French priest Abbe Pierre
(1912-2007) started taking in homeless at a house in Neuilly-Plaisance,
a suburb of Paris. His project came to be called Emmaus and by 2006
grew include 350 communities in 40 countries, including 110 in France.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)
1949 France banned children’s
books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a “favorable
light,” on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.81)
1949 The Statute of Council of
Europe was established in Strasbourg, France, to promote democracy and
human rights in Europe. The organization numbered 45 nations in 2004
but had little real power.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A14)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.50)
1950 Jan 1, Ho Chi Minh began an
offensive against French troops in Indo China.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1950 Jan 29, The French National
Assembly approved legislation granting autonomy to Bao Dai's State of
Vietnam.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html)
1950 Jan 31, Paris protested the
Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1950 Feb 28, The French Assembly
in Paris decided to limit the sale of Coca-Cola.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1950 Jun 3, French expedition
reached the top of Himalayan peak of Annapurna in Nepal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna)
1950 Sep 9, There were massive
arrests of communists in France.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1950 Nov 4, The European
Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome. 5 protocols were added
later. Alleged violations were handled by the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg, France.
(www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)
1950 Dec 17, French named Marshal
de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1950 Dec 31, Charles Koechlin
(b.1867), French composer, teacher and writer on music, died in France.
He visited the USA four times to lecture and teach in 1918-19, 1928,
1929 and 1937. On the second and third visits he taught at the
University of California, Berkeley.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin)
1950 The French film "Diary of a
Country Priest" was directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1950 The French film "Les Enfants
Terribles" was narrated by Jean Cocteau and based on his 1929 novel.
(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1950 Gilbert Trigano (d.2000 at
80) and Gerard Blitz, a Belgium water polo champion, founded the 1st
Club Med on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A21)
1950 French foreign minister
Robert Schuman proposed the pooling of French and German coal and steel
production. This became the embryo of the future European Union.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.27)
1950 A French law forbidding
pretenders to the throne was rescinded. Royalists wanted to see Henri,
count of Paris, crowned as King Henry VI of France.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.C5)(SFC, 7/15/03, p.A19)
1950s Reporter Stanley Karnow
published his book "Paris in the Fifties" in 1997.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.E5)
c1950s In France Guy Debord and
the Situationists staged disruptive events and practiced
"detournement," or cut-up art.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.E1)
1951 Jan 16, French forces
repulsed a Viet Minh offensive near Hanoi.
(http://experts.about.com/e/f/fi/First_Indochina_War.htm)
1951 Feb 19, Andre Paul-Guillaume
Gide (b.1869), French novelist and critic, died. Andre Gide’s novels
included "The Immoralist," "Straight Is the Gate," "Lafcadio's
Adventures," "Corydon," "The Counterfeiters" and his explicit memoir
"If It Die…" (1926). In 1999 Alan Sheridan published the biography
"André Gide: A Life in the Present." Gide won the Nobel Prize in
1947. "There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of
them." "Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find
it." "The color of truth is gray."
(AP, 10/31/97)(AP, 3/24/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1
p.8)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 6/13/99, BR p.4)(MC, 11/22/01)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre
demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 23, Wages in France
increased 11%.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1951 Jun 9, After several
unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam’s General
Giap ordered Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
(HN 6/9/98)
1951 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri
Petain (b.1856), who had headed the Vichy government during World War
Two, was shot by firing squad. In 2005 Charles Williams authored
“Petain.”
(AP, 7/23/00)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.84)
1951 Sep 11, Florence Chadwick
(1918-1995), American endurance swimmer, swam English Channel from
England to France in 16 hours & 22 minutes [see Aug 6, 1926]. This
made her the first woman to swim the English Channel in both
directions, and set a record for the England-France journey. All told,
she swam the English Channel four times and the Catalina Channel three
times.
(www.answers.com/topic/florence-chadwick)
1951 Sep 26, Prof. Youngblood
demonstrated an artificial heart in Paris.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1951 Nov 1, The Algerian National
Liberation Front began guerrilla warfare against the French.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1951 Nov 14, French paratroopers
captured Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1951 Albert Camus (1913-1960),
Algeria-born French novelist, wrote "The Rebel." The book asserted a
revolt against absurd nonsense and against commitments indifferent to
the suffering that revolutionary steamrollers caused.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1951 The film "Journal d'un Cure
de Campagne" (Diary of a Country Priest) was directed by Robert
Bresson. It was based on a 1937 book by Georges Bernanos.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1951 Jean Monnet, French civil
servant, and Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, helped found the
European Union with agreements between 6 countries on the pooling of
coal and steel resources.
(Econ, 9/25/04, Survey p.3)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in
Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh
division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1952 Jan 7, French forces in
Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh
forces away from the town of Ba Vi.
(HN, 1/7/00)
1952 Jan 12, The Viet Minh cut the
supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Bihn, Vietnam.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1952 Feb 19, There was a French
offensive at Hanoi.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1952 Feb 22, French forces
evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1952 Feb 24, The French evacuated
Hoa Binh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1952 Feb 25, French colonial
forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1952 Mar 25, The U.S., Britain,
and France rejected the Soviet proposal for an armed, reunified,
neutral Germany.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1952 Aug 14, Alfred Sauvy
(1898-1990), a French economist, first used the term “Third World,” in
an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur. He used it
to describe the importance of underdeveloped countries. He was
paraphrasing a remark by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the
Estates General in 1789, who said the third estate is everything, has
nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 1/30/10,
p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sauvy)(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1952 Oct 29, French forces
launched Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lorraine)
1952 Dec 8, French troops shot on
demonstrators at Casablanca, Morocco, and 50 people were killed.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1952 Roger Frison-Roche (d.1999 at
93), mountaineer, explorer and writer, published his novel "The Big
Crevice" and "The Lost Trail of the Sahara," which was later translated
into English by Paul Bowles.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C5)
1952 Francois Mauriac (b.1885),
novelist, won the Nobel Prize in literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.886)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1952 The film "Le Plaisir" was
directed by Max Ophuls and was based on 3 stories by Guy de Maupassant.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1952 French Dr. Alain Bombard
(1924-2005) crossed the Atlantic in 65 days in a dinghy to prove that
shipwrecked sailors could survive off the sea's bounty.
(AP, 7/20/05)
1953 Feb 9, The French destroyed
six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1953 Feb 25, General de Gaulle
condemned the European Defense Community.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1953 Mar 23, Raoul Dufy, French
fauve painter, died.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(MC, 3/23/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered
increased aid in Vietnam to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Apr 2, Jean Epstein (56),
French director (Vive la Vie), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1953 Apr 28, French troops
evacuated northern Laos.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1953 May 16, Django Reinhardt
(b.1910), Gypsy jazz guitarist, died in France. In 2004 Michael Dregni
authored “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt)(WSJ,
10/23/98, p.W12)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French
went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1953 Aug 22, France closed the
penal colony on Devil's Island.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1953 Sep 30, Auguste and Jacques
Piccard dove with their bathosphere to a record 3150 m.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1953 Oct 22, Laos gained full
independence from France. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/22/01)
1953 Oct 23, France granted
sovereignty to Laos. [see Oct 22]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1953 Nov 30, French parachutists
under Col. De Castries attacked Dien Bien Phu. The French expeditionary
force was under the direction of Gen. Henri Navarre. In 2004 martin
windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat
in Vietnam.”
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1953 Simone de Bouvier (Beauvoir)
published a British edition of "America Day by Day," a journal of her
travels in America from 1947. Her trip also began a relationship with
Nelson Algren. In 1999 the book "A Transatlantic Love Affair" Letters
to Nelson Algren" was published.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.4)
1953 Alain Robbe-Grillet authored
"Les Gommes" (The Erasers), a novel about a detective investigating an
apparent murder who ends up killing the victim. It was seen in France
as the debut of the "new novel."
(AP, 2/18/08)
1953 Nathalie Sarraute published
her 2nd novel, "Martereau."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1953 Thomas Guinzburg, Donald
Hall, Harold Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton founded the
Paris Review. William Styron (1925-2006) helped establish the Paris
Review.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A2)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.95)
1953 The film "Mister Ripois"
starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Rene Clement.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1953 France established the
National Secular Action Committee (CNAL) to support public education.
(WPR, 3/04, p.7)
1954 Feb 1, Abbe Pierre
(1912-2007) told French listeners on Radio Luxembourg that a woman had
frozen to death on the boulevard Sebastopol, clutching an eviction
notice issued the day before. His appeal sparked an enormous response.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)y
1954 Mar 13, Viet Minh General
Giap opened an assault on French forces at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. In
2010 Ted Morgan (aka Sanche Armand Gabriel de Gramont) authored “Valley
of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the
Vietnam War.”
(HN, 3/14/98)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)(Econ, 2/20/10,
p.80)
1954 Apr 21, USAF flew a French
battalion to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain and
France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 May 7, The Battle of Dien
Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents
overrunning French forces and the US began to get involved. French Gen.
Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) and some 12,000 defenders were captured.
Vietnamese insurgents expelled the French but the country was divided
into a communist north and a pro-US south. In the 8 years of the French
Indochina War some 52,000 French soldiers were killed. Vietnam was soon
partitioned between a regime in Hanoi led by Ho Chi Minh and an
anti-communist regime in Saigon under Ngo Dinh Diem. Howard Simpson
later wrote: "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot." In 2004
Martin Windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French
Defeat in Vietnam.”
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC,
2/22/96, p.B3)(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)(Econ, 11/27/04,
p.86)(AP, 6/18/10)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier Joseph
Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris
according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1954 Jun 18, Pierre Mendes-France
(1907-1982) became Premier of France. His political signature was a
glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that
French people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too
early an age. When Mendes-France would appear in public, there
invariably was a glass of milk on the lectern, which he made a point of
sipping some time during the presentation
(http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/2007/06/this-day-june-18-in-jewish-history.html)
1954 Jun 28, French troops began
to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin Province.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1954 Jul 20, An armistice for
Indo-China was signed and Vietnam separated into North & South.
[see Jul 21]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1954 Jul 21, France surrendered
North Vietnam to the Communists at Geneva. The French signed an
armistice, the Geneva Accords, with the Viet Minh that ended the war
but divided Vietnam into two countries. This led to almost a million
anti-Communists in the north to flee to the south.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1954 Jul 23, The Indochina
settlement was approved by France's National Assembly.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1954 Aug 3, Sidonie Gabrielle
Colette (b.1873), French actress, librettist, novelist (Claudine) and
critic, died. Her novels included "Le Ble en herbe" (The Ripening Seed)
and "Julie de Carneilhan (1941). In 1999 Judith Thurman authored
"Secrets of the Flesh," a biography of Colette.
(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A24)(SC, 8/3/02)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under
the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to
stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).
The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty.
SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1954 Oct 22, West Germany joined
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country had no standing
army. [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A8)
1954 Oct 23, In Paris, an
agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and
permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western
European Union. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1954 Oct
31, The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) against the French began.
Algerian Muslims of the Front de Libération National (FLN),
began open warfare against French rule in Algeria. [see Nov 1]
(DoW, 1999, p.10)
1954 Nov 1, The western African
nation of Algeria began its rebellion against French rule. [see Oct 31]
(AP, 11/1/97)
1954 Nov 3, Henri E.B. Matisse
(b.1869), French painter and sculptor (Dance II), died. In 1998 Hilary
Spurling published "The Unknown Matisse," a work that covered the years
1869-1908. A end volume was planned. In 1999 John Russell published
"Matisse: Father and Son" and John O'Brian published "Ruthless
Hedonism: The American Reception of Matisse." In 2005 Hilary Spurling
authored “Matisse the Master: A Life of Henry Matisse, Volume Two.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A20)(SFEC,
8/8/99, BR p.6)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.79)
1954 Nov 24, France sent 20,000
soldiers to Algeria.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1954 The French National Assembly
rejected the European Defense Community.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.53)
1954 A French military court
sentenced Alois Brunner to death in absentia for war crimes. He had
sent 23,000 French Jews to death camps. Brunner fled from Germany to
Syria.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1954 Jacques Courtin (1921-2007)
opened his first beauty salon, the Institut Clarins, on Paris’ Rue
Tronchet. His beauty lines were among the first to tap into natural
ingredients. Clarins went public in 1984.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A6)
1954 Marc Gregoire, a French
engineer, bonded aluminum with polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) and
created the 1st nonstick pan.
(AARP, 5-6/04)
1954-1962 During the Algerian war of independence
French generals approved torture and the disappearance of the 3,000
suspected guerrillas. In 1977 Alistair Horne of Britain authored "A
Savage War of Peace." In 2000 former Gen. Paul Aussaresse testified on
French military behavior and the approval of Gen. Jacques Massu. In
2001 a mass grave of 290 people was found at the site of the former
headquarters of the French army. In 2001 former Gen. Aussaresses
authored "Special Services: Algeria: 1955-1957." In 2002 Aussaresses
was convicted of "trying to justify war" and was fined $6,500.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B9)(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A12)(SFC,
5/11/01, p.D4)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu (73),
Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 Jun 11, In Le Mans,
France, a Mercedes-Benz racer crashed killing its driver and some 81
spectators. Pierre Levegh’s car hit the bank by the grandstand and
immediately exploded. Parts of the wreckage were blown into the
enclosure, killing scores of mostly-French spectators. Levegh was
speeding down the straightaway in front of the pits when he clipped an
Austin-Healey driven by British driver Lance Macklin.
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)(http://tinyurl.com/69g9e)
1955 Jun 27, Isabelle Adjani,
actress (Story of Adele H, Driver, Ishtar), was born in Paris.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1955 Nov 5, Maurice Utrillo (71),
French painter (Cathedral St-Denis), died.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1955 Claude Levi-Strauss, French
anthropologist, authored “Tristes Tropiques,” a memoir of his travels
to Brazil in search of Amazon tribes untouched by civilization.
(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W10)
1955 Alain Robbe-Grillet authored
won France's Critics Prize with "Le Voyeur" (The Voyeur), about the
world seen through the eyes of a sadistic killer.
(AP, 2/18/08)
1955 Jean-Pierre Melville directed
his classic noir thriller "Bob le Flambeur."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1955 The French noir film "Rififi"
starred Marie Sabouret and Jean Servais. It was directed by Jules
Dassin.
(SFEC, 11/5/00, DB p.58)
1955 France enacted a law
permitting law-enforcement chiefs known as “prefects” to place
communities under curfew “wherever necessary.”
(WSJ, 11/8/05, p.A1)
1955 Fernand Leger (b.1881),
French painter, died.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1955 Adrien Marquet, Vichy’s 1st
Interior Minister, died.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)
1956 Feb 18, Gustave Charpentier
(95), French opera composer (Louise), died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the
Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol
on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(SC, 3/2/02)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos
landed in Algeria.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Apr 11, French government
sent 200,000 reservists to Algeria.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops
left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1956 May 10, French government
sent 50,000 reservists to Algeria. [see Apr 11]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted
independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the
leadership of Habib Bourguiba. He launched a campaign advocating birth
control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to
2.08.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC,
4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)
1956 May 27, The French staged a
raid in Algiers.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1956 Jun 22, The battle for
Algiers began as three buildings in Casbah were blown up. France under
PM Guy Mollet resolved to put down the Arab uprising and put 400,000
soldiers in Algiers.
(HN, 6/22/98)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Jul 5, France raised the
tobacco tax 20% to support war in Algeria.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1956 Jul 20, France recognized
Tunisia's independence. [see Mar 20]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1956 Jul 29, Jacques Cousteau's
Calypso anchored in at a record 7,500 m under water.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1956 Aug 29, French government
sent troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1956 Sep 26, Lucien Febvre, French
historian (Un Destin, Martin Luther), died at 78.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1956 Sep 30, In Algiers a blast at
the Milk Bar cafe together with another device set off nearby, killed
three people and wounded 60, including children. Several people lost
limbs sliced off by flying glass. Zohra Drif (20) set one device as a
reprisal for a big French bombing that killed dozens in the Casbah
weeks earlier. Captured soon afterwards, she was sentenced to death and
spent five years in French prisons.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation
presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details
were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade
Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and
occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Oct 14, British and French
officials met as Israel was about to attack Egypt. Anthony Nutting
(d.1999 at 79), a deputy foreign secretary, learned that Prime Minister
Anthony Eden had agreed with the French that once fighting began, they
would send in paratroopers under the guise to separate the fighting
factions, but would actually support Israel, seize the canal and
undermine Nasser. Nutting resigned when British planes took to the air
Oct 31.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A25)(AP, 2/26/99)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a
Moroccan plane and arrested Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Oct 27, A Franco-German
agreement was signed to transfer the Saar Basin to West Germany.
France, Germany and Luxembourg agreed to canalize the Moselle River,
connecting the steel industry with the Ruhr Valley. The Saar Treaty
established that Saarland should be allowed to rejoin Germany. This
took place on Jan 1, 1957.
(EWH, 1968,
p.1182)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an
American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in
Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an
emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. These became the first “blue
hat” UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France
started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and
Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two
days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony
Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in
Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Dec 3, England & France
pulled troops out of Egypt.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1956 Dec 22, The evacuation of the
Suez Canal was completed by Britain and France.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(MC, 12/22/01)
1956 Alain Bosquet (d.1998 at 78)
edited the first complete French anthology of American poets.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1956 Nathalie Sarraute published
her novel, "The Age of Suspicion." It was a collection of essays about
her approach to literature, "the first manifestation of the Nouveau
Roman School."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1956 The film "A Man Escaped" was
directed by Robert Bresson. It won the 1957 best director award at
Cannes.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1956 Roger Vadim directed "And God
Created Woman" (Et… Dieu Crea la Femme) with Brigitte Bardot.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)
1956 The French film "The Red
Balloon" was produced. It won an Academy Award.
(WSJ, 11/1/02, p.A1)
1956 French PM Guy Mollet
discussed the possibility of a union with Britain’s PM Sir Anthony
Eden. Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable toward a
French proposal to join the Commonwealth.
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.A2)
1956 The Paris Club of 19
industrialized countries began work to alleviate the financial
obligations of over-indebted countries.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A18)
1956 Gen. Jacques Massu (d.2002 at
94) took command of the French 10th Parachute Division, the elite force
tasked with maintaining order in Algeria.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)
1956 French engineer Marc Gregoire
devised a way to coat aluminum with teflon.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1956-1959 France laid minefields on the Challe and
Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders of Algeria. In 2007
France gave Algeria maps of these minefields. Some 11 million mines
were laid along the borders to prevent infiltration into Algeria from
Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army
(ALN). From 1962-2009 over 8 million Algeria destroyed over 8 million
of the mines.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
1957 Jan, France began sending
troops to Algeria to crush the rebel movement in what came to be called
"The Battle for Algiers."
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
1957 Mar 16, Constantin Brancusi
(b.1876), Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and
work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00,
p.A28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C5%9Fi)
1957 Apr 4, Heitor Villa-Lobos'
10th Symphony, premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1957 May 12, Erich von Stroheim
(b.1885), Austrian-US actor and director, died in Paris. His films
included "Grand Illusion," "The Merry Widow," and "Greed." In 2000
Arthur Lennig published the biography "Stroheim."
(WSJ, 2/23/00, p.A20)(MC, 5/12/02)
1957 Jun 16, There was a French
offensive in Algeria.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1957 Oct 24, Christian Dior (52),
French fashion magnate and inventor of the postwar "New Look," died in
Italy. He was succeeded by his favorite assistant, Yves Saint Laurent.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E7)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.D3)(MC, 10/24/01)
1957 "The Bald Singer" began
running at the La Huchette theater in Paris. It was still being
performed in 1996.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T9)
1957 The Clemenceau, a French
aircraft carrier, first set sail. It was taken out of service in 1997.
In 2006 dismantling efforts faced problems. French officials said there
are 45 tons of asbestos on the ship, but environmentalists put that
number at up to 1,000 tons.
(AP, 2/15/06)
1957 Constantin Brancusi,
Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and work to
France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00, p.A28)
1957 Max Ophuls (b.1902), German
born film director, died in France. He made films in Germany, France,
Netherlands and the US.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1957-1963 Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and
Gregory Corso lived in Paris. In 2000 Barry Miles authored "The Beat
Hotel," an account of their years at the 9 Rue Git-leCoert managed by
Madame Rachou.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, BR p.5)
1958 Feb 13, Georges Rouault (86),
French painter (Christ aux outrages), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1958 May 13, French troops took
control of Algiers as French settlers rioted against the French army.
(HN, 5/13/98)(MC, 5/13/02)
1958 Jun 1, Charles de Gaulle
became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the
Fourth Republic. France, on the verge of civil war over Algeria, called
De Gaulle out of retirement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)(AP, 6/1/08)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De
Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1958 Jun 6, Premier Charles de
Gaulle said Algeria will always be French.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1958 Aug 14, Frederic
Joliot-Curie, French nuclear physicist (Nobel 1936), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Oct 23, De Gaulle offered
Algerian defiance "peace of the brave."
(MC, 10/23/01)
1958 Oct 26, Pan American Airways
flew its first Boeing 707 passenger service jetliner from New York’s
Idlewild Airport (later JFK) to Paris; the trip took eight hours and 41
minutes. 111 passengers flew aboard the Clipper America and a ticket
cost $489.60. The plane was christened a week earlier by Mamie
Eisenhower. The first New York - London transatlantic jet passenger
service was inaugurated by BOAC. [see Oct 4]
(AP, 10/26/97)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W6)(HN, 10/26/98)
1958 Nov 28, The African nation of
Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1958 Dec 21, Charles de Gaulle
(1890-1970), having come out of retirement, was elected to a seven-year
term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. De Gaulle
selected Maurice Couve de Murville (d.1999 at 92) as his foreign
minister.
(AP, 12/21/98)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.56)
1958 The French film "Le Beau
Serge" starred Gerard Blain (d.2000) and was directed by Claude Chabrol.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1958 Marcel Carne (1906-1990),
French film director, made "The Cheaters" (Les Tricheurs) with
Jean-Paul Belmondo.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1958 France exited from Morocco.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)
1958 Maurice Papon was named the
police chief of Paris.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1958 Jean Dausset (1916-2009),
French immunologist, discovered the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)
tissue system allowed doctors to verify compatibility between donor and
receiver for an organ transplant.
(AP, 6/24/09)
1958 One in 5 French workers was
engaged in farming. By 2004 this shrunk to just over 3%.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.51)
1959 Jan 8, Charles de Gaulle was
inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1959 Apr 12, France Observator
reported torture practice by French army in Algeria.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1959 Apr 28, Charles de Gaulle
resigned as president of France.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1959 May 29, Charles de Gaulle
formed a French Government.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1959 Raymond Queneau (d.1976),
Parisian surrealist, published "Zazie dans le Metro." It was made into
a film by Louis Malle.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1959 Nathalie Sarraute published
her novel, "The Planetarium."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1959 Albert Uderzo and René
Goscinny introduced their comic characters Asterix and Obelix in the
magazine Pilote. A book followed in 1961. Comic books in France are
known as bandes dessinees (BD).
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.72)
1959 The film "Cousins" starred
Gerard Blain and was directed by Claude Chabrol. The music was by Paul
Misraki.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C2)(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1959 The French film "The 400
Blows" with Jean-Pierre Leaud was the first feature film by Francois
Truffaut.
(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W4)
1959 The film "Pickpocket" was
directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1959 The French film “The Sign of
Leo” was directed by Eric Rohmer (1920-2010). This was Rohmer’s first
feature film.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
1959 French railroad officials
introduced the Eurailpass. It allowed North American tourists in Europe
to travel through 13 countries on one pass.
(SFC, 8/11/05, p.B7)
1959 With French support the
French Sudan and Senegal formed the Federation of Mali.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus
(1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46.
He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the
play “Caligula” and a collection of journalistic pieces for the
clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the
biography “Albert Camus.” In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a
biography: “Albert Camus.” In 2006 Camus’ WW II pieces, edited by
Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as ”Camus at Combat.” In 2010
Virgil Tanase authored “Albert Camus.”
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP,
1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1960 Feb 13, Gerboise Bleue ("blue
jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an
atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert,
during the Algerian War (1954-62).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)(AP,
2/13/08)
1960
Apr 1, France exploded a 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert.
Gerboise Blanche (“white gerboa”) was a surface shot fired in a seven
meter deep pit, which accounted for the strange, Christmas tree-like
shape of the fireball. General Ailleret once again personally initiated
the firing of the device.
(www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=112)
1960 Apr 27, France’s Gen. Charles
de Gaulle flew into San Francisco and was welcomed by a 21-gun salute
and some 250,000 people along his downtown motorcade.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, DB p.54)
1960 Apr 27, Togo, a UN Trust
territory under French administration, gained independence. Sylvanus
Olympio became the 1st chief of state.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 May 18, Jean Genet’s "Le
Balcon" premiered in Paris France.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1960 Jun 26, The Malagasy Republic
(Madagascar) gained independence from France.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A10)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Jul 1, French and Italian
Somaliland gained independence and united with the Somali Republic.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.44)
1960 Jul, French Gen. Raoul Salan
led a failed army revolt in Algeria and then fled abroad, continuing to
direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on
the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of
Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla
insurrection in France.
(http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/foxtrot/france1960.htm)
1960 Aug 1, Dahomey, just west of
Nigeria, became independent from France. It was renamed Benin with the
capital at Porto Novo.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained
independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed.,
p.1170)
1960 Aug 5, Upper Volta, formerly
part of French West Africa, became independent under Maurice Yameogo.
In 1984 it was renamed Burkina Faso.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 4th ed.,
p.1233)
1960 Aug 7, Ivory Coast became
independent from France.
(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Aug 11, Chad became
independent from France, but remained within the French community.
Francois Tombalbaye became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Aug 15, Congo (formerly
Congo/Brazzaville) declared Independence from France.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1960 Aug 17, Gabon became
independence from France. Leon M'Ba, head of the Gabon Democratic
Block, became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)(EWH, 1st ed.,
p.1173)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained
independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed.,
p.1170)
1960 Sep 5, Senegal became
independent from France. Leopold Sedar Senghor (d.2001 at 95), poet and
politician, was elected president of Senegal, Africa.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(HN, 9/5/98)(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A34)
1960 Sep 22, Mali became an
independent republic. Pres. Modibo Keita was elected the first
president and introduced a one-party dictatorship.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Nov 28, Richard N. Wright
(52), US author (Native son), died in Paris France.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1960 Dec 27, France exploded a 3rd
atom bomb in the Sahara Desert, code-named Gerboise Rouge (“red
gerboa”).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1960 French critic Pierre Restany
and artists including Raymond Hains (1926-2005), Yves Klein, Jean
Tinguely, Villegle and others, founded the Nouveau Realistes. Their
emergence came to be seen as the beginning of French Pop Art.
(SFC, 11/15/05, p.B5)
1960 Alexis Saint-Leger
(1887-1975), Guadeloupe-born French poet and diplomat, won the Nobel
Prize for literature. He wrote under the pseudonym Saint John Perse.
(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Leger,+Alexis+Saint-Leger)
1960 The magazine Hara-Kiri was
founded as a monthly French version of Mad.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.76)
1960 Raymond Queneau, French
author, inspired the formation of Oulipo: the Ouvroir de Litterature
Potentiale (the workshop for potential or hypothetical literature). In
1999 the "Oulipo Compendium," edited by Harry Matthews and Alastair
Brotchie, was published.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, BR p.8)
1960 Pres. de Gaulle granted
independence to all its colonies in Africa.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1961 Mar 7, Max Hymans (60), WW II
resistance fighter, head of Air France, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1961 Apr 21, The French army
revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of French
parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed
soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green
gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a
classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to study
how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In total,
France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and
underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French paratroopers'
revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Jun 17, Soviet ballet star
Rudolf Nureyev (d.1993) defected from the Soviet Union at the Paris Le
Bourget airport while traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet. In
1998 Diane Solway covered this event in her biography: "Nureyev."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A17)(AP,
6/17/08)
1961 Jul 1, Louis-Ferdinand Celine
(b.1894), French physician, author, anti-Semite, died. His books
included “Journey to the End of Night” (1932).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lfceline.htm)(WSJ, 9/23/06,
p.P8)
1961 Jul, A French law guaranteed
populations in France's overseas territories free exercise of their
religion and respect for their beliefs and customs as long as they are
not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat and
killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies into the
Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon said some 30
bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they had been killed
in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist groups. In 1999 France
agreed to open its archives on the issue. Police killed 210 Algerians
who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed
against their community in Paris.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ,
2/24/07, p.99)
1961 Jacques Foccart was named
secretary-general for African affairs. He held the office until 1974.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1961 Andre Malreaux, minister of
cultural affairs under Pres. de Gaulle, initiated the clean-up of Paris.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)
1962 Feb 5, French President
Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1962 Feb 5, Jacques Ibert (71),
French composer (Escales), died.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1962 Mar 18, France and Algerian
rebels agreed to a truce, which took effect the next day.
(HN, 3/18/98)(AP, 3/18/08)
1962 Mar 19, Relative calm
returned to Algeria after cease-fire, ending 7 years of warfare between
French and Algerian Nationalists.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1962 May 23, OAS leader general
Raoul Salan was sentenced to life in prison. French general Raoul Salan
led a failed army revolt in Algeria (July, 1960) and then fled abroad,
continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization
(OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the
Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a
right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://tinyurl.com/d8qm2)
1962 Mar 25, French OAS-leader
ex-general Jouhaud was arrested.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1962 Apr, Jean-Claude Forest
(d.1998) created the 41st century Barbarella sci-fi comic character for
V Magazine. It was censored in France and barred from advertising or
sale to minors until the early 1970s.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
1962 Jun 6, Yves Klein (b.1928),
French artist, died of a heart attack.
(Econ, 5/29/10,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein)
1962 Jul 1, Some 6 million of a
total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots in the
referendum on independence. The vote was nearly unanimous. De Gaulle
pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3. The Provisional
Executive, however, proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the
French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 14, Borehole for Mont
Blanc-tunnel, between France and Italy, was finished. [see Aug 14]
(MC, 7/14/02)
1962 Aug 14, French and Italian
workers broke through at the Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel. [see Jul 14]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1962 Aug 22, There was a failed
assassination on president De Gaulle.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1962 Nov 29, Great Britain and
France agreed on a joint venture to build the super sonic Concorde jet.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A26)(MC, 11/29/01)
1962 Eugen Ionesco, French
absurdist playwright, wrote his play “Exit the King.”
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.86)
1962 The film "The Iron Mask"
starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Decoin.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1962 The film "The Seven Deadly
Sins" (Les Sept Peches Capitaux) starred Jean-Pierre Aumont. It was
directed by Roger Vadim.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1962 The film "Un Singe en Hiver"
(A Monkey in Winter) starred Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. It was
directed by Henri Verneuil (d.2002).
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A19)
1962 Algeria achieved
Independence from France. De Gaulle evacuated Algeria and a million
settlers flooded into France.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(SFEC, 6/15/97, Z1 p.3)
1962 A museum was added to the
Chateau Mouton Rothschild. It housed a priceless collection of artwork
related to wine.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1962 In France Paul Louis Halley
(1934-2003) opened his first supermarket under the Promodes name.
Following major acquisitions in 1988, 1996 and 1997 Promodes merged
with rival Carrefour (1999) and took its name.
{France, Retail}
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.B2)
1963 Jan 14, President of France
Charles de Gaulle announced the French veto on Britain's application to
join the European Common Market, the forerunner of the European Union.
De Gaulle said the British government lacked 'commitment' to European
integration.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml)
1963 Jan 22, Gen. Charles de
Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German
"reconciliation treaty."
(SFC, 12/25/99,
p.B4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine
workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the
death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that
France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Jun 21, France announced it
would withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1963 Jul 12, Charles de Gaulle
pronounced that "Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last
while they last."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque
(81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1963 Oct 11, Jean Cocteau, French
author (La Voie Humaine), surrealist poet, artist and film director,
died at 73. His lover Lean Marais later published a biography of
Cocteau called "L’Inconcevable Jean Cocteau." In 2003 Claude Arnaud
authored the biography "Jean Cocteau."
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1963 Oct 11, Edith Piaf (b.1915),
French singer (No, I don't regret anything), died of cancer. In 2007
the biopic film “La Vie en Rose,” with Marion Cotillard as Piaf, was
produced.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf)
1963 The Singing Nun made a hit
with "Dominique." The song praised the 13th century crusade against the
Cathars.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1963 The film "Songs in the
Basement" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Verneuil.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1963 France erected giant concrete
buildings to house a growing working class and North African
immigrants. These included the “Cite des 4,000” in the Paris suburb of
La Courneuve.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.A1)
1963 French residents of Monaco
became liable for French taxes.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)
1963 French retailer Carrefour SA
invented hypermarkets, huge emporiums that combined the wares of
supermarkets and department stores.
(WSJ, 11/30/06, p.A1)
1963 A glorified food blender was
a product of the French restaurant supply giant Robot-Coupe. In 1973
Carl Sontheimer (d.1998 at 83) introduced his redesigned Cuisinart at a
show in Chicago.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1963 Chrysler became the majority
holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 The paleolithic site of
Lascaux, by the village of Montignac, France, was closed to the public
by Andre Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, due to environmental
damage caused by large numbers of tourists.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.489)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1964 Feb 6, Paris and London
agreed to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1964 Jun 15, The last French
troops left Algeria.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1964 Jul 1, Pierre Monteux (89),
French-US conductor (Concert Bldg Orch), died.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1964 Sep 16-1964 Oct 20, French
Pres. Charles de Gaulle visited South America with stops in Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay
and Brasil. He was the 1st head of state from outside Latin America to
visit Paraguay.
(http://gaullisme.free.fr/GEChronologie.htm)(Econ,
10/1/05, p.36)
1964 Eleanor Clark authored “The
Oysters of Locmariaquer,” a history of French oysters and oystermen.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.W4)
1964 Jean Fautrier (b.1898),
French modernist, died. He was considered a precursor to the American
Abstract Expressionists.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.D8)
1965 Jul 16, Mount Blanc Road
tunnel between France & Italy opened.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1965 Aug 27, Le Corbusier
(b.1887), Swiss-French architect and writer, died. He was born as
Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. His
book included books include “Vers une architecture” (Towards a New
Architecture) (1923), “The City of Tomorrow” (1925), and “When the
Cathedrals Were White” (1937).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lecorbu.htm)
1965 Sep 9, Francois Mitterrand
was nominated for French presidency.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Sep 9, French President
Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in protest of U.S. domination in
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Oct 29, Mehdi Ben Barka
(b.1920), a leading opposition figure to Morocco’s King Hassan II
(d.1999), disappeared in front of the famous Left Bank Lipp Cafe. His
body has never been found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ben_Barka)(AP,
10/11/09)
1965 Nov 26, France launched its
first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1965 Dec 19, French president De
Gaulle was re-elected. Mitterrand got 45% of the vote.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1965 The French film "Repulsion"
with Catherine Deneuve was directed by Roman Polanski. It was a tale of
female madness and paranoia.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C3)
1965 IBM established a large
manufacturing plant in Montpellier.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R23)
1965-1998 Mary Blume served in Paris as a writer for
the Int'l. Harold Tribune and in 1999 authored "A French Affair: The
Paris Beat 1965-1998."
(SFEC, 12/5/99, BR p.1)
1966 Jan 11, Albert Giacometti
(64), Swiss-French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle said
he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command. French
military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1966 May 27, 6 French fighters
crashed above Spain.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1966 May, The US launched 2
sorties of U-2 spy planes off the USS Ranger to monitor the French
nuclear test site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. These were the
only aircraft-carrier-based launches of the U-2 spy planes. The
information was made public in 2006.
(AP, 3/21/06)
1966 Nov 18, Jean Peugeot, French
auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1967 Feb 7, Henry Morgenthau (74),
US minister of Finance, died.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1967 Feb 15, France launched its
Diademe-D satellite into Earth orbit. This followed the launch of
Diademe-C on Feb 8. These satellites were magnetically stabilized which
limited their trackability in the southern hemisphere.
(http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/di1c_general.html)
1967 Mar 7, Alice B. Toklas
(b.1877), the life partner of writer Gertrude Stein, died In Paris,
France. Her work included “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook” (1954). In
2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B._Toklas)(WSJ,
9/25/07, p.D6)
1967 Mar 29, France launched the
Redoubtable, its first nuclear submarine. It did not enter operational
service until 1972, when it began its first patrol on 28 January.
(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/France/FranceOrigin.html)
1967 Apr, French author Regis
Debray (b.1940) was imprisoned in Bolivia shortly before the capture of
Che Guevara [see Nov 17].
(www.tamilnation.org/ideology/debray.htm)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom
re-applied to join the European Community. It is followed by Ireland
and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle is still
reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1967/index_en.htm)
1967 May 11, French President
Charles de Gaulle for a second time said he will veto Britain's
application to join the Common Market.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_4187000/4187714.stm)
1967 May 11, David Galula
(b.1919), Tunisia-born French military officer and scholar, died in
France. He was influential in developing theories of counterinsurgency.
He wrote his experiences in two books, later published by the RAND
Corporation: “Pacification in Algeria” (1963), and “Counterinsurgency
Warfare: Theory and Practice” (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula)(WSJ,
3/14/09, p.W9)
1967 Jul 13, Tommy Simpson,
British cyclist, died as he competed in the Tour de France. Traces of
amphetamine and cognac were found in his blood.
(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.B1)
1967 Jul 24, French President
Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal,
Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free
Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1967 Sep, The British, French and
German governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to start
development of the 300 seat Airbus A300 in order to compete with
American companies. Airbus Industrie was formally set up in 1970.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/airbus)
1967 Nov 17, French author Regis
Debray (b.1940) was sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia. Debray (b.1940)
was jailed in Bolivia shortly before Che Guevara was captured and was
convicted of having been part of Guevara's guerrilla group. He was
released in 1970 after an international campaign for his release which
included Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, General De Gaulle and
Pope Paul VI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Debray)
1967 Nov 27, Charles DeGaulle
vetoed Britain’s entry into the Common Market again.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1967 Dec 11, The Concorde, a joint
British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, was
unveiled in Toulouse, France.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1967 The French film noir "Le
Samourai" with Alain Delan was directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. He had
just recently completed 2 other gangster films: "Le Doulos" and "Le
Deuxieme Souffle."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1967 The French film "Young Girls
of Rochefort" was directed by Jacques Demy.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.D4)
1967 Charles Munch, conductor,
formed the Orchestre de Paris.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A17)
Go to
1968