Timeline France 1968-1999
Return to home
1968 Jan 8, The
documentary series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” first aired
on US network TV.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0845400/)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.97)
1968 Feb 10, Peggy Fleming of the
United States won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the
Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.
(AP, 2/10/97)
1968 May 3-1958 May 17, Student
riots and strikes hit France. 10 million workers went on strike.
Workers struck the Renault factory on Seguin Island for 33 days until
the government recognized their union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)(WSJ,
3/31/99, p.B14)
1968 May 6, In Paris violent
fighting took place in the morning and then from 2 p.m. in the
afternoon to 1 a.m. the next morning on the Boulevard Saint-Michel and
Saint-Germain. Close to 600 students and police were wounded. Student
strikes spread to the provinces.
(http://marxists.anu.edu.au/history/etol/writers/frank/1968/may1968/chronology.htm)
1968 May 10, Preliminary Vietnam
peace talks began in Paris.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1968 May 11, In France PM Georges
Pompidou made a speech conceding to the demand to reopen the
universities and implied the government would release arrested
students. The night of May 10-11 became known as the ``Night of the
Barricades.’ These events galvanized public support for the students.
(http://links.org.au/node/491)
1968 May 13, Peace talks between
the US and North Vietnam began in Paris.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 5/13/98)
1968 May 13, In France a general
strike and monster demonstration took place in Paris. Some 1,000,000
French demonstrated in support of student protesters.
(http://marxists.anu.edu.au/history/etol/writers/frank/1968/may1968/chronology.htm)
1968 May 24, France’s Pres.
Charles de Gaulle issued an ultimatum to striking students and workers
who have brought the country to a standstill during 3 weeks of violent
demonstrations.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/24/newsid_2988000/2988263.stm)
1968 May 30, French Pres. Charles
de Gaulle delivered a forceful televised address in order to regain
control of public opinion, thrown into confusion by the political
events resulting from a student protest.
(www.ena.lu/address_given_charles_gaulle_events_1968_paris_1968-022600052.html)
1968 cMay, Foreign minister
Maurice Couve de Murville took charge as prime minister following the
May riots.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)
1968 Aug 24, France became the
world's fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the
South Pacific.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1968 Oct 2, Marcel Duchamp
(b.1887), French painter, died. He was known best for his 1915 "Nude
Descending a Staircase."
(V.D.-H.K.p.361)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp)
1968 Nov 1, Lyndon B. Johnson
called a halt to bombing in Vietnam, hoping that this would lead to
progress at the Paris peace talks. [see Oct 31]
(HN, 11/1/98)
1968 Dec 8, South Vietnam’s vice
president Nguyen Cao Ky arrived in Paris for peace talks.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1968 Kourou, French Guiana,
launched its 1st commercial satellite. A space center opened there in
1970.
(AP, 8/27/02)
1969 Jan 1, President Nixon
nominated Henry Cabot Lodge as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Jan 5, Henry Cabot Lodge
replaced Harriman as chief US negotiator at Paris.
(www.bartleby.com/67/4271.html)
1969 Jan 25, US-North Vietnamese
peace talks began in Paris.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Apr 9, The 1st flight of
Concorde 002 was from Filton to Bristol.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1969 Apr 28, French President
Charles de Gaulle resigned his office. Alain Pohrer (1909-1996), as
president of the Senate, then served as interim president for 7 weeks.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)(AP, 4/28/97)
1969 Oct 1, The prototype Concorde
001, designed by the British and French, broke the sound barrier during
a test flight. Commercial service began in 1976.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.B1)(MC, 10/1/01)
1969 Dec 1, On the initiative of
the French President, Georges Pompidou, the Heads of State or
Government of 6 European countries met in The Hague in order to define
the methods of reviving the European integration process. The Hague
Summit was held to establish the goal of European monetary union.
(WSJ, 3/25/98,
p.A22)(www.ena.lu/hague_summit_december_1969-022500027.html)
1969 The film "La Femme Douce" was
directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1969 The film "The Wild Child" was
directed by Francois Truffaut. He also acted in the film.
(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)
1969-1972 Jacques Chaban-Delmas (d.2000 at 85) served
as the prime minister. He was a hero of the French Resistance and
served as the mayor of Bordeaux for 48 years.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.D4)
1969-1973 In France Maurice Schumann (1911-1998 at
86) served as foreign minister under Pres. Georges Pompidou. He was
also a novelist and writer on religion and other topics.
(SFC, 2/11/98,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Schumann)
1970 Mar 4, The French submarine
Eurydice exploded and sank in the Mediterranean off Cape Camarat
killing all 57 of its crew.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurydice_(S644))
1970 Mar 5, A nuclear
non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
France and China only signed on in 1992.
(AP, 3/5/98)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.21)
1970 Mar 25, The Concorde, an
Anglo-French airplane, made its first supersonic flight.
(HN, 3/24/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde)
1970 Apr 20, Paul Celan (49),
Romania born poet, drowned himself in the Seine. English translations
of his poems were published in 2001.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, BR p.5)
1970 Jul 15, Frederik Lugt
(b.1884), Dutch founder of the Fondation Custodia (1947), died in
Paris. The foundation, which he founded with his wife, kept intact his
collection of Old Master drawings at the Institut Neederlandais, the
Dutch cultural center in Paris.
(Econ, 2/13/10,
p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frits_Lugt)
1970 Sep 13, The supersonic
airliner Concorde landed for the 1st time at Heathrow airport.
(www.aviation-news.co.uk/concordeChronology.html)
1970 Oct 10, Edouard Daladier
(b.1884), 3 time premier of France (1933, 1934, 1938-40), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Daladier)
1970 Oct, The Nobel Prize for
Physics was won by Louis Neel (d.2000 at 95) of France for discoveries
about magnetic fields and Hanes Alfven of Sweden for work on
interactions between plasmas and magnetic fields.
(SFC, 11/25/00, p.A23)
1970 Nov 1, A discotheque near
Grenoble, France, burned. All exits were padlocked and 142 people died.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2537000/2537937.stm)
1970 Nov 9, Charles De Gaulle
(b.1890), former French president (1959-1969), died. In 1996 Daniel
Mahoney published "De Gaulle: Statesmanship, Grandeur, and Modern
Democracy." Michel Droit (d.2000 at 77) authored the 5-volume
“Man of Destiny” (1972), widely regarded as the most thorough
examination of de Gaulle’s life and work.
(AP, 11/9/97)(WSJ, 1/19/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle)(SFC, 6/23/00,
p.D5)
1970 Dec 23, French journalist
Regis Debray was freed in Bolivia.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1970 Airbus Industrie was formally
set up following an agreement between Aerospatiale (France) and
Deutsche Aerospace (Germany). In 1971 it was joined by CASA (Spain).
The name "Airbus" was taken from a nonproprietary term used by the
airline industry in the 1960s to refer to a commercial aircraft of a
certain size and range, as term was acceptable to the French
linguistically.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/airbus)
1970 The first radioactive
pacemaker was put into a patient in France.
(Econ, 3/7/09, TQ p.26)
1970s Presidents Georges Pompidou
[1969-1974] and Valery Giscard d’Estaing [1974-1981] incorporated the
former Belgian colonies of Africa into France’s neoempire.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1971 Jan 10, Gabrielle "Coco"
Chanel (b.1883), French fashion designer, died in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel)
1971 Feb 24, Algeria nationalized
French oil companies.
(www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Algeria-ENERGY-AND-POWER.html)
1971 Mar 10, In France a group of
homosexuals of both sexes disrupted a live general public radio show,
devoted to “Homosexuality, that painful problem,” and put the
newly-born gay movement on the French political map.
(http://tinyurl.com/5hafjv)
1971 Jun 16, Francois
Mitterrand (1916-1996) became the new leader of the French Socialist
Party at the Socialist Party Congress in Epinay. Over the next few
years he embarked on a strategy of electoral union with the Communist
Party. Jean Poperen (1925-1997) was present at the inception of the
modern-day Socialist Party. He served twice as a minister of
parliamentary relations and as a deputy for more than 15 years.
(SFC, 8/25/97,
p.A8)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v39/ai_5024046/pg_2)
1971 Jul 3, James Douglas Morrison
(b.1943), singer for the Doors rock group, died of an apparent heart
attack in Paris, France. Jim Morrison (27) was buried at the Pere
Lachaise cemetery.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.D2)(AP, 7/3/97)
1971 Jul 4, France performed a
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1971.html)
1971 Jul 24, The Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was promulgated in
Paris. It was first accepted in Berne in 1886 at the instigation of
Victor Hugo.
(www.ifla.org.sg/documents/infopol/copyright/ucc.txt)(PNI, 2/5/97, p.4)
1971 Sep 3, The Quadripartite
Agreement on Berlin, between the United States, the Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom and France. ended a long time source of tension.
(WUD, 1994, p.
1688)(http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga5-710903.htm)
1971 Dec 20, Ten French physicians
created a team that later became known as "Doctors Without Borders"
(Medecins Sans Frontreres) to help the people in the Nigerian region of
Biafra. They formed in frustration with the neutrality of the Int'l.
Committee of the Red Cross.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A17)(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.A14)
1971 There was an exhibition of
Musicalist art at the Salpetriere Basilica in Paris.
(Exc, 6/96, p.118)
1971 The French film “Le Chagrin
et la Pitie” was directed by Marcel Ophuls. It was banned in France for
years because it showed how many Frenchmen collaborated with the German
occupation forces under the Vichy regime of WW II.
(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A13)
1971 The film “Murmur of the
Heart” starred Benoit Ferreux and Lea Massari. It was directed by Louis
Malle. The French comedy was set in 1954.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.42)(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.W8)
1971 Peter Brook (b.1925), British
stage and film director, founded his Int’l. Center for Theater Research
in Paris. In 1998 Brook published his memoir "Threads of Time:
Recollections."
(SFEC, 6/14/98, BR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Brook)
1971 Franklin Louffrani, French
journalist, registered the mark for the yellow "smiley face," which he
began using in 1968 to show good news after the student riots. The very
earliest known examples of the graphic are attributed to Harvey Ball, a
commercial artist in Worcester, Massachusetts. He devised the face in
1963 for an insurance firm that wanted an internal campaign to improve
employee morale. In 2006 the Web site http://www.mysmiley.net/ came
online to provide a broad range of free smileys.
(WSJ, 7/1/98,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley)
1972 Jan 1, Maurice Chevalier
(b.1888), French actor, singer and dancer, died in Paris. He sang
“Thank Heaven for Little Girls” in the 1958 film “Gigi.”
(SSFC, 8/8/04, Par p.2)(www.jimpoz.com)
1972 Apr 24, Natalie Clifford
Barney (b.1876), lesbian writer and US expatriate, died in Paris. In
2002 Suzanne Rodriguez authored "Wild Heart, A Life: Natalie Clifford
Barney’s Journey From Victorian America to the Literary Salons of
Paris."
(SSFC, 10/27/02,
p.M6)(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7157)
1972 May 28, Edward VIII, the Duke
of Windsor (b.1894), died of throat cancer in Paris. He had abdicated
the English throne (1936) to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson (1937).
(AP,
5/28/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_viii_king.shtml)
1972 Jul 6, Pierre Messmer
(1916-2007), former member of the French Resistance, began serving as
prime minister of France under President Georges Pompidou.
(AP,
8/30/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Messmer)
1972 Jul 22, Eddy Merckx
(b.1945)), Belgian professional cyclist, won his 4th consecutive Tour
de France.
(WSJ, 10/22/04,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Tour_de_France)
1972 Aug 29, Rene Leibowitz
(b.1913), Warsaw-born French conductor and composer, died in Paris.
(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Ren%C3%A9_Leibowitz)
1972 Sep 19, Robert M Casadesus,
French pianist and composer (Prix DiAmer), died at 73.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1972 Oct 24, Henry Kissinger in
secret unauthorized talks in Paris proposed to end the war in Vietnam
by this date, but was urged by Pres. Nixon to stretch the timing a few
months so as to insure re-election in Nov. A drama was made in 1995
depicting these events based on the book by Walter Isaacson:
“Kissinger: A Biography.” The peace agreement allowed North Vietnam to
keep its army in the South.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-20)(WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-15)
1972 Dec 11, In Paris peace
negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho collapsed after Kissinger
presented a list of 69 changes demanded by South Vietnamese President
Thieu. President Nixon now issues an ultimatum to North Vietnam that
serious negotiations must resume within 72 hours. Hanoi does not
respond. As a result Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II (see Dec
18), eleven days and nights of maximum force bombing against military
targets in Hanoi by B-52 bombers.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Janet Flanner wrote her book
“Paris Was Yesterday.”
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)
1972 The film “Two English Girls”
with Jean-Pierre Leaud was directed by Francois Truffaut.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, DB p.37)
1972 David McTaggart (d.2001), one
of the founders of Greenpeace Int’l., sailed his small boat into the
French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1973 Jan 8, Secret peace talks
between the US and North Vietnam resumed near Paris.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1973 Jan 27, The Paris Agreement
froze the status quo on the ground in South Vietnam. The agreement by
the United States and North Vietnam included a ban on infiltration of
arms or personnel to reinforce North Vietnamese troops in the South, as
well as a ban on the use of Laotian or Cambodian territory for that
purpose. The Paris Agreement provided for continued US supply of the
army of the Republic of Vietnam. Peace Accords were signed in Paris
over events in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-19)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(HN,
1/27/99)
1973 Apr 8, Pablo Picasso
(b.1881), Spanish artist, died at his home near Mougins, France, at age
91. He left some 50,000 works that included 1,885 paintings, 1,228
sculptures, 2,880 ceramics, 18,095 engravings, 6,112 lithographs, 3,181
linocuts, 7,089 drawings plus 4,669 drawings and sketches in 149
notebooks, 11 tapestries and 8 rugs. Two books of a planned 4-volume
biography were published by John Richardson, who then interrupted the
series in 2000 with "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and
Douglas Cooper." Picasso’s estate owed so much in death duties that
many of his works fell into government hands. In 2007 John Richardson
authored “A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932.”
(AP, 4/8/97)(SFEC, 1/30/00, BR p.6)(SSFC, 5/20/01,
p.T8)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)
1973 Apr 12, Viet Nam and France
officially established diplomatic relations.
(www.mofa.gov.vn/en/nr040807104143/nr040807105001/ns050606140016)
1973 Jun 3, A Soviet supersonic
Tupelov 144, nicknamed Concordski, exploded in flight at the Paris Air
Show and crashed into a nearby village, killing the six-man crew and
seven people on the ground. The plane beat the French and English
through the sound barrier.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, p.T4)(AP,
7/27/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144)
1973 Aug 25, France
performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1973.html)
1973 Sep 26, Concorde flew from
Washington DC to Paris in 3hr. 33m.
(www.concordesst.com/02.html)
1973 Dec 13, Claude Vorilhon,
former French race car driver, began the Rael movement in France. While
commuting to his job as a sportswriter, he decided to drive past the
office and stop at a nearby volcano in Auvergne. During his stop,
Vorilhon saw the flashing red light of a space ship, which opened its
hatch to reveal a green alien with longish dark hair. Once aboard the
spaceship, he said he was entertained by voluptuous female robots and
learned that the first human beings were created by aliens called
Elohim, who cloned themselves. Vorilhon said that he was instructed to
take the name Rael and spread the news that humans were placed on Earth
by extraterrestrials who had engineered our DNA. In 1997 Rael founded
Clonaid, a company dedicated to cloning people. In 2001 the Raelian
movement numbered about 55,000 members world-wide.
(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.W14)(Reuters, 12/28/02)
1973 The film "Day for Night"
starred Jean-Pierre Aumont (d.2001 at 90). It was directed by Francois
Truffaut. It won a best foreign film Oscar in 1974.
(SFEC, 10/11/97, DB p.35)(SFEC, 5/9/99, DB
p.53)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1973 The 215 min. film “The Mother
and the Whore” starred Jean-Pierre Leaud, Francoise Lebrun and
Bernadette Lafont. It was directed by Jean Eustache.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.D3)
1973 French wines were re-ranked
according to taste, rather than price, and Mouton Rothschild was
elevated to the first rank.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1973 A Frenchman invented a
standard Eurobarometer poll to show how various member countries agreed
and disagreed. The first poll was published in 1974.
(Econ, 2/23/08,
p.72)(http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/standard_en.htm)
1973 Antoine Riboud (1918-2002)
merged his glassware company BSN with the dairy business Gervais
Danone, creating Danone, the biggest food group in France. The group
stopped making glass in 1981.
(http://tinyurl.com/7zxts)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.70)
1973-1980 Rolf Liebermann (d.1998 at 88), Swiss
composer, led the Paris opera.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.D2)
1974 Mar 3, A Turkish Airlines
DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris and 346
people were killed. It was the worst air disaster to date.
(AP,
3/3/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_981)
1974 Mar 8, Charles the Gaulle
Airport (aka Roissy I) opened outside of Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle_International_Airport)
1974 Apr 2,
French President Georges Pompidou (62) died in Paris. Alain Pohrer
(1909-1996) as president of the Senate then served as interim president
for 7 weeks.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)(AP, 4/2/97)
1974 Apr 18, Marcel Pagnol
(b.1895), French writer and film director, died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pagnol.htm)
1974 May 19, Valeri Giscard
d'Estaing won French presidential elections.
(SFEC, 11/12/00,
p.D4)(www.loc.gov/today/pr/2003/03-008.html)
1974 May 27, France’s Pres.
Valerie Giscard d’Estaing nominated Jacques Chirac (b.1932) to serve as
prime minister. Chirac served his 1st term as prime minister to Aug 26,
1976.
(Econ, 3/17/07,
p.28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac)
1974 Aug 7, French stuntman
Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New
York's World Trade Center. In 2002 Petit authored "To Reach the Clouds:
My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers." In 2003 Steven Galloway
authored "Ascension," a novel that featured a fictional Gypsy tightrope
walker named Ursari, who makes a final, fateful skywalk between the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on July 4, 1976. In 2008 James
Marsh produced his documentary film of the event: Man On Wire.”
(AP, 8/7/97)(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.M4)(SSFC, 10/11/03,
p.M3)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W1)
1974 Aug 24, France
performed another nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1974.html)
1974 Sep 13, In the Netherlands
the French embassy at the Hague was taken over by Haruo Wako and 2
other Japanese Red Army militants. A 4-day standoff ended with the
release of comrade Yutaka Suyaka from a French jail. The attack was
linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. In 2005 a Tokyo
District Court sentenced Wako to life imprisonment.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(SFC, 11/9/00,
p.C2)(http://my-my-miyuki.blogspot.com/)
1974 Oct 27, Chantal Langlace of
France ran a female world record marathon (2:46:24).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_world_best_progression)
1974 The French film “Touche Pas a
la Femme Blanche” (Don't Touch the White Woman) was directed by Marco
Ferreri. It was a Western satire with Marcello Mastroianni, Michel
Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi and Catherine Deneuve.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.E3)
1974 Rene Dumont (d.2001 at 97)
was the 1st candidate ever to run on an environmental platform.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.D5)
1974 The economy slowed following
the Arab oil embargo and the policy of recruiting foreign labor ended.
(NG, 5/93, p.110)
1974 General Electric began a
joint venture with Snecma, a French state-owned enterprise, to produce
jet engines. Snecma was privatized in 2004.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.79)
1974 Motorola helped launch the
smartcard market by building the first smartcard chip with Groupe Bull
of France.
(FT, 3/4/98, p.21)
1974 The Int'l. Energy Agency was
formed in Paris to coordinate oil sharing.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.R4)
1975 Mar 2, Madeleine Vionnet
(b.1876), French dressmaker, died at age 98. In 1999 Betty Kirke
published the biography: "Madeleine Vionnet."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, BR
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Vionnet)
1975 Apr 12, Josephine Baker
(b.1906), US-French revue artist (Folies-Bergere), died in Paris,
France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker)
1975 Jun 27, Two French
intelligence agents, Raymond Dous and Jean Donatini, who were
investigating attacks on planes of Israel’s El Al airline at Orly
Airport, were killed by Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
Sanchez was identified by an arrested Palestinian Front militant,
Michel Moukharbal, who was also killed.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(SFC,12/13/97, p.A10)
1975 Aug 21, A 3 truck pile up
killed 10 and injured 26 on a French highway.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1975 Nov 15, The first Summit of 6
leading industrialist nations, G-6, met in Rambouillet, France, for
discussions on currency and oil prices.
(SFC, 6/20/97,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_G6_summit)
1975 Jacques Pepin published "A
French Chef Cooks at Home."
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1975 The film "The Happy Hooker"
starred Jean-Pierre Aumont.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1975 The French film “The Story of
Adele H” with Isabelle Adjani was directed by Francois Truffaut. It was
based on the story of Adele Hugo, daughter of Victor Hugo.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A14)
1975 French law began to permit
abortions.
(SFC, 8/25/97, p.A8)
1975 French retailer Carrefour
began operating in Brazil.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.68)
1975 In France Ricard merged with
Pernod, another French maker of the pastis apertif.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.66)
1976 Jan 21, The supersonic
Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1976 Feb 13, Lily Pons (b.1898),
French, US soprano, opera diva (Met Opera), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Pons)
1976 Mar 3, Pierre Moliniere
(b.1900), French artist and photographer, shot himself to death rather
than face prostate surgery and a reduced sex life.
(WSJ, 11/22/96,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Molinier)
1976 Apr 1, Max Ernst (b.1891),
German-French surrealist painter, sculptor, died in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst)
1976 May 11, Col. Joaquin Zenteno
Anaya, Bolivia’s ambassador to France, was assassinated in Paris.
Members of the Che Guevara brigade claim credit. Zenteno had led the
army division that captured and executed Che Guevara in 1967.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1976-5/1976-05-11-ABC-13.html)
1976 May 24, Britain and France
opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington. This was the 1st
commercial supersonic transport (SST).
(AP, 5/24/97)
1976 May 24, In France 2
California wines won a tasting event over several French classics for
the 1st time. Stephen Spurrier, English owner of a wine shop and wine
school in Paris, held a competition tasting of French and American
wines. The best white wine was a 1973 Napa Valley Chardonnay from
Chateau Montelena. The best red wine was a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Winemaker Miljenko Grgich created the Napa
Chardonnay that beat French wines in the legendary Paris Tasting. In
2005 George M. Taber authored “Judgement of Paris,” an account of the
1976 tasting.
(SFC, 5/29/96, ZZ1 p.4)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T8)(WSJ,
5/24/01, p.A20)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.F4)
1976 Jun 27, An Air France Airbus
flight AF139, from Tel Aviv to Paris, was hijacked shortly after
departing Athens and taken to Uganda.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France)
1976 Jul 3, Israel launched its
daring mission to rescue 103 passengers and Air France crew members
being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers.
(AP, 7/3/97)
1976 Jul 4, Jonathan Netanyahu,
brother of Benjamin, led and was killed in an Israeli raid called
Operation Thunderball that rescued the [105] hostages held at Entebbe
Airport in Uganda. The raid was by Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s elite
counter-terrorist unit led by Muki Betser, and it freed all but 3 of
the 104 Israeli and Jewish hostages and crew of an Air France jetliner
seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. A total of 45 Ugandan soldiers
were killed during the raid. The events are described by Muki Betser
and Robert Rosenberg in "Secret Soldier, The True Life of Israel’s
Greatest Commando." The hijacking was linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe)(AP,
7/4/97)(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1976 Jul 16, In the "Spaggiari
Affair," a heist masterminded by Albert Spaggiari (1932-1989), a gang
tunneled into the vault of a branch of Societe Generale in Nice during
a public holiday, spent two days and two nights there and made off with
about 24 million euros (21 million pounds) worth of cash and valuables.
The heist spawned several books and movies.
(AP,
4/4/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spaggiari)
1976 Oct 25, Raymond Queneau
(b.1903), Parisian surrealist, died. His work included the prewar novel
"Les Enfants du Limon." In 1998 it was translated to English as
"Children of Clay."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Queneau)
1976 Nov 23, Andre Malraux
(b.1901), author (Conquerors) and French Minister of Culture
(1958-1969), died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/malraux.htm)
1976 James Monaco authored “The
New Wave,” an examination of the new French films.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M2)
1976 French composer Pierre Boulez
(b.1925) wrote "Messagesquisse." Boulez had studied under Messiaen.
(SFC, 1/31/03,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulez)
1976 Composers Gerard Grisey
(d.1998 at 52), Michael Levinas and Tristan Murail formed the group
L’Iteneraire and pioneered what they called “spectral music.”
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.D10)
1977 Jan 11, France set off an
international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of
involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich
Olympics. In 1999 Mohammed Oudeh, aka Abu Daoud, published an
autobiography in France in which he admitted to playing a mastermind
role in the 1972 Munich hostage episode.
(AP, 1/11/98)(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A14)
1977 Jan 12, Anti-French
demonstrations took place in Israel after Paris released Abu Daoud,
responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9801/12/)
1977 Jan 12, Henri-Georges Clouzot
(b.1907), French film director and producer, died. His films included
“Les Diaboliques” (1955) and “La Verite” (1960).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Georges_Clouzot)
1977 Apr 11, Jacques Prevert
(b.1900), French poet (La puil et le beau), died.
(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pr%C3%A9vert)
1977 Jun 8, The final run of the
Paris to Istanbul Orient Express, begun in 1883, took place.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express)
1977 Jun 27, Djibouti gained
independence from France.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1977 Sep 10, Convicted murderer
Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, became the last person to date
to be executed by the guillotine in France.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 9/10/97)
1977 Oct 19, The body of West
German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by
left-wing extremists, was found in the trunk of a car in Mulhouse,
France.
(AP, 10/19/97)
1977 Nov 21, The 1st commercial
flight of the Anglo-French Concorde jet was from London to Bahrain.
(www.britishairways.com/concorde/faq.html#4)
1977 Nov 22, Regular passenger
service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on
a trial basis.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1977 Dec 8, In Argentina Leonie
Duquet, a French nun, was abducted in a commando-style operation by
state security agents. Alice Domon, another French nun, was abducted
later this month, but her remains were never recovered. They were
killed after befriending mothers of detained dissidents, who were among
the first victims of a crackdown on dissent against the 1976-83
dictatorship.
(AP, 12/9/07)
1977 In Paris the Georges Pompidou
Center, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, opened.
(SFEC, 4/20/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/3/00, p.A24)
1977 France’s 1st nuclear plant,
built by Areva, began operations near Colmar. It was rated at 900
megawatts.
(Econ, 9/8/07, TQ
p.26)(www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1369259,00.html)
1977 France banned frog fishing to
protect the local green and red varieties. Poaching remained a problem.
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A1)
1977-1995 Jacques Chirac served as mayor of Paris,
France.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.56)
1978 Mar 16, The Amoco-Cadiz oil
tanker spilled a record 1.6 million barrels of crude oil off the coast
of France.
(WSJ, 9/13/99,
p.R4)(www.cedre.fr/uk/spill/amoco/amoco.htm)
1978 Aug 17, The first successful
trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Americans Maxie Anderson, Ben
Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle II outside Paris.
(AP, 8/17/97)(HN, 8/17/98)
1978 Oct 3, Ayatollah Khomeini
(1902-1989) left Iraq for Kuwait after the Shah sought his deportation.
He was refused entry in Kuwait and moved to Paris.
(www.iranchamber.com/history/rkhomeini/ayatollah_khomeini.php)
1978 Oct 9, Jacques Brel (b.1929),
Belgian-born French cabaret singer, died. He was buried at Atuona on
the Marquesas Island of Hiva Oa. An American musical revue of his
songs, “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” debuted in
1968 and has played around the world since.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel)(SSFC,
10/11/03, p.C9)
1978 The film “Robert and Robert”
starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Claude Lelouch.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1978 French Pres. Valery Giscard
d’Estaing (b.1926) created the centrist UDF party. He served as
president from 1974 to 1981.
(Econ, 5/20/06,
p.51)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val%C3%A9ry_Giscard_d'Estaing)
1978-1981 Maurice Papon served as the French Budget
Minister.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A12)
1979 Feb 12, Jean Renoir (b.1894),
French actor and director (Rules of the Game), died in Beverly Hills,
Ca. His body was returned to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Renoir)
1979 Jun 28, Philippe Cousteau
(b.1940), the youngest son of Jacques Cousteau, was killed while
testing a seaplane near Lisbon.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1979 Oct 10, Paul Paray (b.1886),
French composer, died at age 93. He was the resident conductor of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1951-1962) for more than a decade.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Paray)
1979 Martin Bouygues founded
Maison Bouygues to sell prefabricated homes in France. By 1984 the firm
was France’s 2nd largest of its kind.
(Econ, 12/2/06, p.72)
1979 Claude Tabet (b.1924), French
painter and illustrator, died.
(SFC, 1/25/06, p.G2)
1980 Feb 25, Roland Barthes
(b.1915), French philosopher and writer, died. His books included
“Mythologies” (1957), a collection of his essays.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes)
1980 Apr 15, Existentialist
philosopher, novelist and dramatist, Jean-Paul Sartre (b.1905) died in
Paris at the age of 74. His work included "Being and Time" (1927) and
"Nausea" (19238). He won the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature and his
work included "Being and Nothingness." Philosophical replies to this
work were written by Claude Levi-Strauss: "The Raw and the Cooked," a
book that popularized structuralism in France, and by Michael Foucault:
"Words and Things," ("The Order of Things" in the American edition).
"If you're lonely while you’re alone, you’re in bad company." In 2000
Bernard-Henri Levy authored "Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth
Century."
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.8)(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.8)(AP,
4/15/99)(Econ, 8/30/03, p.60)
1980 May 30, Pope John Paul II
arrived in France on the first visit by the head of the Roman Catholic
Church since the early 19th century.
(AP, 5/30/97)
1980 Aug 14, It was reported that
France’s Moet-Hennessy is buying Schieffelin & Co., its New York
based US distributor. The deal also included the Simi Winery in
Healdsburg, Ca.
(SFC, 8/12/05, p.F3)
1980 Sep 17, The musical Les
Miserables opened at the Palais des Sports in Paris. Boublil &
Schonberg composed the music.
(SI-WPC, 12/6/96)(www.hugo-online.org/070402.htm)
1980 Gisele Freund (d.2000 at 91)
won France’s national Grand Prize for Photography.
(SFC, 4/1/00, p.A26)
1980 Jean Dausset (1916-2009),
French immunologist, shared the Nobel Prize for medicine with Americans
George D. Snell and Baruj Benacerraf for their work on genetically
determined structures on cell surfaces that regulate immunological
reactions. Dausset's discovery in 1958 of the human leukocyte antigen
(HLA) tissue system allowed doctors to verify compatibility between
donor and receiver for an organ transplant.
(AP, 6/24/09)
1980 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
US bourbon Wild Turkey.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1980 French oil giant Total SA
leased an oil patch in southern Sudan the size of Pennsylvania. In 2005
the lease came under dispute as southern Sudan gained limited autonomy
and signed an oil deal with London-based White Nile Ltd.
(WSJ, 6/19/06,
p.A1)(www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article20234)
1980 Marius Giuge (b.1909), French
potter, died. He had begun working in the Vallouris around 1950.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.G4)
1980 The 2,032 passenger SS France
became the SS Norway, flagship of the Norwegian Cruise Lines.
(www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/France%20index.htm)
1981 Feb 26, The French Trainset
16 averaged 380 kph as part of Operation TGV 100.
(www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A711785)
1981 Mar 15, Rene Clair (b.1898),
French director (It Happened Tomorrow), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Clair)
1981 May 10, Socialist Francois
Mitterrand defeated Valery Giscard d’Estaing for Pres. of France
in the second round of presidential elections. When the socialists took
power they increased the money supply and the deficit. The franc
collapsed and inflation accelerated.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A8)(AP,
5/10/01)
1981 May 21, Francois Mitterrand
began serving as president of France. He was the first socialist
president of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of
government since 1957.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand)
1981 Jul 7, The 1st solar-powered
aircraft, Solar Challenger, crossed the English Channel flying 163
miles from Paris to Canterbury. It was created by Dupont and Paul
MacCready.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html)(Econ,
9/8/07, p.88)
1981 Sep 18, The French National
Assembly voted to abolish the death penalty. This in effect outlawed
execution by the guillotine.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Z1
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_France)
1981 Sep 24, Four Armenian gunmen
seized the Turkish consulate in Paris, holding 60 hostages for 15 hours
before surrendering.
(AP 9/24/01)
1981 Sep, Pres. Mitterrand
announced the Grand Louvre Project to renovate and modernize the
exhibition spaces of the museum.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A20)
1981 Nov 10, Abel Gance (b.1889),
French movie director, died in Paris. In 1919 he achieved international
recognition for his 3 hour epic “J’Accuse,” a powerful anti-war film
which included location filming of battles shot towards the end of
World War I. His films also included “Napoleon” (1927).
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0018192/)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Gance)
1981 Nov, Pres. Francois Mitterand
was diagnosed with prostate cancer but the information was kept secret
until disclosed by his physician, Dr. Claude Gubler, in his 1996 book
“The Great Secret.” A court banned release of the book.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)
1981 The French film “Diva” was
produced.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.C13)
1981 French Pres. Mitterand
(1916-1996) nationalized the country’s banks. Similar rounds of
nationalization had taken place in 1936 and 1945-46.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.15)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1981 French Pres. Mitterand
introduced a tax on great wealth (impot sur les grandes fortunes). It
was abolished in 1986 under PM Jacques Chirac and reintroduced in 1988
under the name impot de solidarite sur la fortune (ISF) and applied to
total assets greater than $850,000.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.45)
1981 The wartime role of Maurice
Papon was revealed by a satirical weekly. A committee composed of top
French resistance figures said Papon gave occasional service to the
underground, but concluded he should have resigned when the roundup of
Jews began in July 1942.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1981 The club Les Henokiens was
formed in France as a fraternity of companies whose members were at
least 200 years old.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)
1981 The Trains Grand Vitesse
(TGVs) were initiated with speeds of 168 mph on the Paris-Lyon line.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.T8)
1982 Feb 16, In France Magdalena
Kopp, lover of Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was
captured by French officials.
(www.colin-smith.info/pages/books/extracts/carlos/extract_03.htm)(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)
1982 Mar 2, The French term
"région" was officially created by the Law of Decentralization,
when by the same act their legal status was conferred. The first direct
regional elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986.
France is administratively divided into 26 regions (French:
régions), of which 22 are on mainland France, and four are
overseas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_France)
1982 Mar 29, The Paris-Toulouse
express train was bombed. 5 people were killed and 15 injured. The
attack was attributed to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27801114.htm)
1982 Apr 22, A bombing in Paris
killed a pregnant woman and injured 63 people. The attack was
attributed to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)(http://lists.jammed.com/IWAR/1997/12/0117.html)
1982 May 29, Romy Schneider
(b.1938), Austrian-born actress, died in Paris of cardiac arrest. Her
many films included “The Cardinal” (1963).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0002769/)
1982 Sep 24, US, Italian and
French peacekeeping troops began arriving in Lebanon. Some 400,000
Israelis gathered at the first of many demonstrations to protest the
Lebanon War.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/usmnf.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2o8vkl)
1982 Oct 18, Pierre Mendes-France
(b.1907), premier of France (1954-55), died. "Let them drink milk!"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Mend%C3%A8s-France)
1982 Nov 4, Jacques Tati (b.1909),
French mime and director, died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0004244/)
1982 Nov 28, The United States led
by John McEnroe beat France 4-1 to win the Davis Cup.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Davis_Cup)
1982 Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese
Zen master, founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community in southern
France.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1982 Holocaust victims filed suit
against Maurice Papon and Bordeaux prosecutors opened investigations.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1982 The French firm JC Decaux
invented the self-cleaning toilet.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B5)
1983 Jan 25, Klaus Barbie, SS
chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, was arrested in Bolivia.
(www.exilordinaire.org/rubriques/?keyRubrique=klaus_barbie2)
1983 Feb 5, Former Nazi Gestapo
official Klaus Barbie (1913-1991), expelled from Bolivia, was brought
to trial in Lyon, France. He was convicted and sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 2/5/03)(www.izieu.com/new_page_7.htm)
1983 Mar 7, In France Claude
Vivier (b.1948), a French-Canadian composer, was found stabbed to
death. A 19-year-old man was convicted of the murder. Vivier left
behind 48 completed scores and part of a 49th. His 1976 "Siddartha" was
a 30 minute orchestral piece written on commission from the CBC
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Vivier).
(SFEC, 1/4/98, DB. p.31)
1983 Apr 5, France threw out 47
Soviet diplomats.
(http://tinyurl.com/2n2m92)
1983 May 25, France performed a
nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.
(http://tinyurl.com/33meyn)
1983 Jul 15, In France a bomb
explodes in front of the THY counter at Orly airport. 8 people were
killed and more than sixty injured. A 29 years old Syrian-Armenian
named Varadjian Garbidjian confessed to having planted the bomb. He
admitted that the bomb was intended to have exploded once the plane was
airborne.
(http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2006/12/1273-this-month-in-history-armenian.html)
1983 Aug 25, The French cultural
center in West Berlin was bombed. One person was killed and 23 injured.
The attack was attributed to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez.
(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)(http://lists.jammed.com/IWAR/1997/12/0117.html)
1983 Oct 23, A truck filled with
explosives, driven by a Moslem suicide terrorist, crashed into the U.S.
Marine barracks near the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. The
bomb killed 241 Marines and sailors and injured 80. Almost
simultaneously, a similar incident occurred at French military
headquarters, where 58 died and 15 were injured. Hezbollah leader Imad
Mughniyeh was suspected of involvement.
(WSJ, 8/1/96/p.B1)(AP, 10/23/97)(HN, 10/23/98)(WSJ,
9/19/01, p.A14)
1983 Dec 12, A truck bomb exploded
at the US Embassy in Kuwait. Shiite Muslims backed by Iran drove
bomb-laden trucks into six targets. The most deadly of these struck the
US Embassy, killing five persons and wounding 62. Other trucks
destroyed the French embassy and several Kuwaiti installations
(www.danielpipes.org/article/173).
(WSJ, 4/28/05, p.A1)
1983 Dec 31, In France bombings in
the main railroad terminal in Marseilles and on the Paris-Marseilles
express train killed 5 people and injured 50. The attack was attributed
to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)(http://lists.jammed.com/IWAR/1997/12/0117.html)
1983 The opera “St. Francis
d’Assise” by Olivier Messiaen premiered in Paris.
(SFC, 9/30/02, p.D1)
1983 The French film “The Balance”
starred Philippe Leotard (d.2001 at 60).
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C7)
1983 The French film “Sans Soleil”
was directed by Chris Marker.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.38)
1983 The French Green Party was
founded.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.D5)
1983 Maurice Papon was first
charged with crimes against humanity. Thirty-seven new families file
suit and Papon was again charged.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1983 In France Dr. Luc Montagnier
and his team, which included Dr. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, published a
paper fingering HIV as the cause of AIDS.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.110)
1984 Apr 22, The US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) said French researchers had discovered that a
virus causes AIDS. Scientists identified a retrovirus named human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A20)(www.avert.org/his81_86.htm)
1984 Jul 3, Raoul Salan (b.1899),
French general, OAS leader (Algeria), died. Salan was one of the four
Generals who organized the 1961 Algiers Putsch operation, and then
founded the Organization armée secrète (OAS) terrorist
group.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Salan)
1984 Oct 16, Gregory Villemin (4)
was found drowned in the Vologne River in the eastern Vosges region
with his hands and feet tied. A suspect identified as “the Crow” was
never caught.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.C3)
1984 Oct 18, Henri Michaux
(b.1899), Belgian poet and painter, died. In 1954 he became a citizen
of France, and he lived the rest of his life there along with his
family. In 1965 he won the National Prize of Literature, which he
refused to accept. His books included “Miserable Miracle” and “The
Major Ordeals of the Mind and the Countless Minor Ones.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Michaux)
1984 Oct 21, Francois Truffaut
(b.1932), French film director (Fahrenheit 451), died of brain cancer.
In 1999 Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana published "Truffaut: A
Biography."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut)(SFEC, 5/9/99, DB
p.53)(SFEC, 6/27/99, BR p.4)
1984 French composer Oliver
Messiaen composed his 5-hour opera “Saint Francis d’Assise.”
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.B1)
1984 Isabelle Adjani won the best
actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for “Deadly Summer.”
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C13)
1984 France-based Hermes
introduced its Birkin handbag, named after British actress Jane Birkin,
at a starting price of around $7,000. In 2008 Michael Tonello authored
“Bringing Home the Birkin.”
(WSJ, 4/25/08,
p.W5)(www.alphadictionary.com/business-tree/bags/bag%20birkin.html)
1984 Pres. Francois Mitterand
appointed Laurent Fabius (38) as Prime Minister.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A1)
1984 Gyula Halasz, Hungarian born
photographer aka Brassai, died. He was a friend of Picasso and Henry
Miller and was known as the "Eye of Paris" for his night time
photographs in the 1930s. His "Secret Paris of the 30s" was published
in 1976. He published 2 books on Henry Miller and "Conversations With
Picasso."
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.W12)
1985 Mar 28, Marc Chagall
(b.1887), Belarus-born French painter, died.
(www.artelino.com/articles/marc_chagall.asp)
1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius, head
of the French Socialist government, blocked the sale of an AIDS virus
detection test made by Abbott Laboratories. Fabius and others were
later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter in the deaths
of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood. In 1999 Fabius
and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond Herve, the
health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence in 2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1985 Jul 10, French security
forces sank the Rainbow Warrior, a ship operated by Greenpeace near NZ.
Fernando Pereira, a Dutch photographer, was killed in the sinking.
(SFC, 5/7/99,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior)
1985 Aug 1, The French government
began to require the testing of all donated blood for AIDS following
the launch of a test by Diagnostic Pasteur. By this time some 1,300
hemophiliacs were contaminated with AIDS-tainted blood. By 1997 over
500 had died, most of them children. Four health officials were charged
and convicted in the case.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)
1985 Aug 26, French government
claimed no knowledge of assault on Rainbow Warrior.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1689202,00.html)
1985 Sep 1, A US-French expedition
located the wreckage of Titanic, sunk in 1915, about 560 miles off
Newfoundland, Canada.
(www.titanic-titanic.com/discovery_of_titanic.shtml)
1985 Sep 2, It was announced that
a U.S.-French expedition had located the wreckage of the Titanic about
560 miles off Newfoundland. [see Sep 1]
(AP, 9/2/97)
1985 Sep 22, In France the premier
confessed to the June 10 attack of Green Peace's Rainbow Warrior.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace)
1985 Sep 30, Simone Signoret,
German-French actress (Room at Top, Gina), died at 64.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0797531/)
1985 Nov 27, Fernand Braudel
(b.1902) died at age 83. He was a French historian, educator and one of
the most important historiographers of the 20th century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel)
1985 Dec 13, France sued the U.S.
over the discovery of an AIDS serum.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1985 Christo wrapped the 12 arches
of Pont-Neuf in Paris with some 450,000 square-feet of fabric. The
project cost some $3.5 million.
(SFC, 3/2/97, p.E4)(SSFC, 2/13/05, p.A10)
1985 Georges Vigarello (b.1941),
French historian and sociologist, authored “Le Propre et le Sale” (The
Clean and the Dirty).
(www.iiac.cnrs.fr/cetsah/spip.php?article35)(Econ,
12/19/09, p.139)
1985 Claude Simon (1913-2005,
French novelist, won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(AP,
10/8/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Simon)
1985 A French law prohibited the
demolition of the classy Parisian facades along the boulevard
Champs-Elysees.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G3)
1985 Magdalena Kopp, the wife of
Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was freed after a series
of bloody attacks against France.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1985 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Italian bitters group Ramazzotti.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1985-1995 Frenchman Jacques Delors served as
president of the European Commission.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.50)
1986 Jan 20, Britain and France
announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1986 Feb, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc”
Duvalier was ousted from power ending 28 years of family dictatorship.
He fled to France with his wife and mother.
(TMC, 1994, p.1986)(SFC,12/31/97, p.A17)
1986 Mar 7, In France thieves made
off with 1.5 million francs in an armored car robbery. In 2007 Jean
Pierre Belkalem, a former Cartier employee, was arrested in San
Francisco on charges of aiding and abetting in the robbery.
(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.D3)
1986 Mar 16, In France the first
direct regional elections for representatives took place. The French
term "région" was officially created by March 2, 1982, Law of
Decentralization.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_France)
1986 Mar 8, Four French television
crew members were abducted in west Beirut; a caller claimed the Islamic
Jihad was responsible. All four were eventually released.
(AP, 3/8/98)
1986 Apr 14, Simone de Beauvoir
(b.1908), French feminist author, died in Paris. Her books included
“The Second Sex” (1949). In 2008 her Wartime Diary was published in
English.
(AP, 4/14/02)(SFC, 12/23/08, p.E3)
1986 Apr 15, Jean Genet (75),
French playwright (Lesson Negres), was found dead in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Genet)
1986 Apr 24, Bessie Wallis
Warfield Simpson (b.6/19/1896), the Duchess of Windsor, for whom King
Edward VIII gave up the British throne, died in Paris at age 89. Wallis
Simpson was King Edward VIII's wife. In the early 1950s Simpson engaged
in an affair with playboy Jimmy Donahue. In 2000 Christopher Wilson
authored "Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue."
(AP, 4/24/97)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A5)(SFC, 1/4/01, p.D10)
1986 Sep 17, A bomb attack in
Paris killed 5 people. This began a 10 month series of bomb attacks in
France attributed to Lebanese and Armenian terrorists.
(http://tinyurl.com/y4fl69)
1986 Nov 17, Renault President
Georges Besse was shot to death by leftists of the Direct Action Group
in Paris.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1986 Dec 1, Musee d'Orsay opened
in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_d'Orsay)
1986 African art was brought to
Paris by the Dapper Foundation of Amsterdam and housed in an elegant
private museum at 50 Avenue Victor Hugo.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1986-1988 Jacques Chirac served his 2nd term as prime
minister of France.
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.28)
1986 In France Michel Lescanne, in
response to the crises in Ethiopia, founded Nutriset to develop a
product for feeding malnourished children. An initial product met WHO
standards F-75 and F-100 for therapeutic milk products that needed to
be mixed with water. In 1997 he hit upon a peanut-based spread and
called the new product Plumpy’nut.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A14)
1987 Jan 22, France named Manuel
Noriega, head of Panama, a Commander of the Legion of Honor (Legion
d’Honneur).
(http://watchingamerica.com/europe1000001.shtml)
1987 Feb 22, The Finance Ministers
and Central Bank Governors of six major industrial countries (Canada,
France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, G6) met in Paris
and agreed in the Louvre Accord to bring down the value of the dollar.
(Econ, 4/29/06,
p.82)(www.g7.utoronto.ca/finance/fm870408.htm)
1987 Mar 24, French Premier
Jacques Chirac signed a contract with Walt Disney Productions for the
creation of a Disneyland amusement park, the first in Europe.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1987 Apr 7, Ali Mecili, a lawyer
active in Algeria's human rights movement, was killed by three gunshots
in the foyer of his Paris apartment. Colleagues accused the Algerian
government of involvement. In 2008 Algerian diplomat Mohamed Ziane
Hasseni was arrested at an airport in the French port city of
Marseille, based on an international arrest warrant. A Paris judge had
signed the orders for the arrest of Hassani and the suspected killer,
Abdelmalek Amellouet, in December last year. Hasseni was released on
Feb 27.
(AP, 10/17/08)(http://tinyurl.com/67pryj)(AP, 2/2809)
1987 May 11, The trial of former
Gestapo official Klaus Barbie began in Lyons, France.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1987 Jun 30, The prosecutor at the
trial of Klaus Barbie in Lyon, France, denounced the crimes of the
former Nazi Gestapo official and demanded the maximum sentence of life
in prison. Barbie died in 1991 at age 77.
(AP, 6/30/97)
1987 Aug 11, Britain and
France ordered minesweepers to the Persian Gulf, but said they would
not be used in combined operations with the United States as it
escorted reflagged Kuwaiti ships.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1987 Oct 3, Jean Anouilh (77),
French playwright (Ball of the Voleurs), died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/anouilh.htm)
1987 Nov 27, French hostages
Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were freed by their pro-Iranian
captors in west Beirut, Lebanon.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1987 Dec 1, Digging of the
Eurotunnel began on the English side to link England and France, under
co-chairman Alastair Morton (d.2004).
(www.scripophily.net/eurotunnel.html)(Econ, 9/11/04,
p.82)
1987 The French film “36 Fillette”
was directed by Catherine Breillat. It was about a 14-year-old girl's
quest to lose her virginity.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.D1)
1987 The Monde Arabe (The Arab
World Institute) was opened in Paris. The building at 1 Rue des Fosses
Saint-Bernard was designed by Jean Nouvel.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1987 La Bellevilleuse was a
grass-roots group founded to protect residents in their Paris quarter
and improve living conditions.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T9)
1987 France ousted Libyan troops
from a disputed area of northern Chad. In the proxy war, code-named
Arid Farmer, France and the US backed government forces against Libyan
troops.
(SFC, 6/22/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.D8)
1987 An appeals court dismissed
the case against Maurice Papon case for procedural irregularities.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1987 Eurotunnel started trading on
the Paris Bourse for $6.35 a share. It peaked in 1989 at $23.04, but in
2004 was down to 44 cents.
(WSJ, 5/19/04, p.A1)
1987-2001 In France Michel Fourniret, dubbed the
"Ogre of the Ardennes", admitted in his trial to murdering, raping and
kidnapping seven young girls and women during this period. His wife,
Monique Olivier, was accused of helping him trap the victims. In 2008
Fourniret (66) and Olivier (59) were convicted and sentenced to life in
prison for the murders.
(AFP, 5/26/08)(AFP, 5/28/08)
1988 Jan 20, Philippe de
Rothschild (b.1902), Bordeaux Vineyard manager, died in Paris.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Philippe_de_Rothschild)
1988 May 8, French President
Francois Mitterrand was elected to a second seven-year term, defeating
conservative challenger Jacques Chirac.
(AP, 5/8/98)
1988 May 10, The Edgar Degas
sculpture "Danseresie of 14" (Little Dancer at 14 years of Age) sold
for $10,120,000. In 1996 it sold for nearly $12 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/lx277)(SFC, 11/13/96, p.A3)
1988 Jun 12, In runoff elections
in France, President Francois Mitterrand's Socialist Party fell short
of a majority in the National Assembly. But a right-wing coalition also
failed to retain its legislative control.
(AP, 6/12/98)
1988 Jun 26, Three people were
killed when a new Airbus A-320 jetliner carrying more than 130 people
crashed into a forest during an air show demonstration flight in
Mulhouse, France.
(AP, 6/26/98)
1988 Jun 27, Fifty-seven people
were killed in a train collision in Paris.
(AP, 6/27/98)
1988 Aug 11, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
(b.1932), French opera director (Figaro, Barber of Seville, numerous
operas in Europe, Bayreuth, Met Opera), died in Munich, Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Ponnelle)
1988 Oct 18, Maurice Allais of
France won the Nobel Prize in economics for contributions to the theory
of markets and the efficient use of resources.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(AP, 10/18/98)(AP, 10/11/09)
1988 Oct 26, A French
pharmaceutical company, Roussel Uclaf, announced it would halt
worldwide distribution of RU-486, a pill to induce abortions, because
of "an outcry of opinion at home and abroad." The French government
ordered the company to reverse itself two days later.
(AP, 10/26/98)
1988 Oct 28, A French
pharmaceutical company that manufactured the abortion pill RU-486
announced it would resume distribution on command of the French
government.
(AP, 10/28/98)
1988 Michel Deville made his film
“La Lectrice” with Maria Casares (1922-1996).
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.B2)
1988 Controls on capital movement
across borders were abandoned by France, Italy and other member states
of the European Community.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-44)
1988 Maurice Papon was again
charged with crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1988 French Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre was expelled for defying the liberal reforms of the 1962-65
Vatican Council. The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre after he
consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. The bishops also were
excommunicated.
(AP, 5/5/06)
1988 George Soros, billionaire
financier, traded shares of French bank Societe Generale prior to a
takeover. A court in 2002 alleged insider knowledge and fined him $2.2
million. Soros had declined to participate in takeover deal but bought
shares that gained him $2.28 million.
(SFC, 12/21/02, p.B1)
1988 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Irish whiskies Jameson, Paddy and Bushmills.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1988 Albert Fert of France and
Peter Grunberg of Germany independently discovered the phenomenon of
giant magnetoresistance. It was later adopted for use in computer
hard-drives. In 2007 they won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their
discovery.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.94)
1988 Patrice Vic (31) jumped out
of his 12th story apartment window. His death was linked to counseling
sessions and charges to the Church of Scientology.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A10)
1988-1993 Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris and Alain
Juppe was the finance director.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A10)
1989 Mar 29, I.M. Pei's glass
pyramidal entrance to the Louvre opened in Paris.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)(http://tinyurl.com/emvfc)
1989 May 24, French war criminal
Paul Touvier was arrested in a monastery in Nice.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1989 Jul 2, Jean Painleve
(b.1902), French film maker, died. His science and nature films
inspired the Surrealists.
(WSJ, 6/19/00, p.A44)(http://tinyurl.com/z8n2m)
1989 Jul 12, A farmer in eastern
France went on a shooting rampage, killing 14 people before being
captured.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1989 Jul 15, Leaders of the seven
major industrial democracies, meeting in Paris, voiced support for
democracy behind the Iron Curtain and condemned repression in China.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1989 Jul 23, Greg LeMond of the
United States won the Tour de France.
(AP, 7/23/99)
1989 Sep 6, The Guardian reported
that a French police computer had mixed codes and accused 41,000
Parisians of murder and prostitution rather than traffic fines.
(www.phrack.org/phrack/28/P28-11)
1989 Sep 19, A Paris-bound French
DC-10, UTA Flight 772, was bombed over the Sahara desert of Niger and
all 170 passengers died. French authorities placed the blame on Libya’s
Abdallah Senoussi, brother-in-law of Moammar Khadafy and chief of
foreign operations for the Libyan secret service. The six Libyan
suspects were named by a French judge in 1998 and tried in absentia in
1999. The attack was in retaliation for French intervention on behalf
of Chad in a war with Libya since the mid 1980s. In 2004 Libya signed a
$170 million compensation accord with families of the people killed. In
2008 a federal judge in Washington ordered Libya and six of its
officials to pay more than $6 billion in damages to the families of 7
Americans killed in the attack.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C3)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)(WSJ,
1/30/98, p.A1)(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A11)(SFC, 3/9/99, p.B10)(AP,
9/19/99)(AP, 1/9/04)(Reuters, 1/16/08)
1989 Oct 6, Actress Bette Davis
(81) died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. In 1962 she authored her memoir
“The Lonely Life.” In 2006 Charlotte Chandler authored “The Girl Who
Walked Home Alone,” a personal biography of Davis.
(AP, 10/6/97)(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.P8)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.W8)
1989 Nov 26, In the Comoro Islands
Pres. Ahmed Abdallah was assassinated in his presidential palace in
Moroni. In 1999 Bob Denard (Gilbert Bourgeaud), a French mercenary and
head of the presidential guard, and Dominique Malacrino were put on
trial for the killing. Denard was acquitted.
(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15) (SFC, 5/20/99,
p.A13)(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Ahmed_Abdallah)
1989 Dec 5, A French TGV train
reached a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record)
1989 Dec 22, Samuel Beckett (83,
playwright, died in Paris. His work included the novel "The Unnamable."
In 1997 2 biographies of Beckett were published: "Damned to Fame" by
James Knowlson and "Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist," by Anthony
Cronin. In 1999 Maurice Harmon published "No Author Better Served: The
Correspondence of Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider." Schneider
(d.1984) was Beckett's American director.
(SFEC, 9/30/96, p.A23)(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)(SFEC,
1/17/99, BR p.7)(AP, 12/22/99)
1989 Patrick Rance (d.1999)
authored "The French Cheese Book."
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A24)
1989 Construction of the new Tres
Grand Bibliotheque (aka TGB, the national library) was begun. It was
designed by Dominique Perrault and the first quarter was scheduled to
open in 1997.
(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)
1989 Maria Casares (1922-1996) won
the Moliere prize for best comedienne.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.B2)
1989 Christine Deviers-Joncour was
hired by state-owned Elf oil company to use her wiles on foreign
minister Roland Dumas to go along with a sale of 6 French-made warships
to Taiwan. In 1998 she published “The Whore of the Republic,” and told
her story.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A14)
1989 Gerard Fusil, a French
journalist, conceived “adventure racing” as a sport.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)
1989 France ruled that the school
ban on religious symbols was illegal.
(WPR, 3/04, p.9)
1989 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Australian wine brand Jacob’s Creek.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1989 A cable car accident killed 8
people in the Isere region of the French Alps.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A10)
1989 Bernard Villemot (b.1911),
French poster artist, died. In 1945-1946 he carried out many posters
for the Red Cross.
(SFC, 10/21/06,
p.F3)(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villemot)
1990 Apr 18, A Franco-German
proposal was made at the Dublin summit for the political union of the
12 European Community member countries.
(www.unesco.org/mitterrand/anglais/ieuroues.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/36pexa)
1990 May 18, The French TGV-train
hit record speed of 515.3 kph.
(www.netfundu.com/geography/aworld/france.htm)
1990 Jul 3, Maurice Girodias (71),
French publisher, died.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1990 Jul 4, France performed
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(Maggio)
1990 Sep 15, France announced it
would send 4,000 more soldiers to the Persian Gulf and expel Iraqi
military attaches in Paris in response to Iraq’s raids on French,
Belgian and Canadian diplomatic compounds in Kuwait.
(AP, 9/15/00)
1990 Oct 22, Louis Althusser
(b.1918), Algeria-born French Marxist philosopher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser)
1990 Oct 23, Iraq announced the
release of 330 French hostages.
(http://tinyurl.com/s498l)
1990 Oct, French Pres. Francois
Mitterand called for an economic government of Europe during a
Franco-German summit in Paris.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.58)
1990 Nov 19, Leaders of 16 NATO
members and the remaining six Warsaw Pact nations signed treaties in
Paris making sweeping cuts in conventional arms throughout Europe and
pledging non-aggression toward one another. The Treaty on Conventional
Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was signed by the United States and 21
other NATO and WTO countries at a CSCE summit in Paris.
(AP,
11/19/00)(www.fas.org/nuke/control/cfe/chron.htm)
1990 Dec 1, British and French
workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally met
after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1990 Maria Casares (1922-1996) won
the National Grand prix of Theater.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.B2)
1990 The Australian firm Thomas
Hardy & Sons, a family firm that had made wine for 160 years,
entered the market in Europe with an investment in Domaine de la Baume
in Languedoc, France.
(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
1990-1993 Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, an
ethnic Hutu, requested French troops to help block an ethnic Tutsi
exile force that was penetrating the country from Uganda. French troops
were present over the next 3 1/2 years.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1991 Feb 23, French forces
unofficially started the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the
Saudi-Iraqi border. Lessons learned in the savage 1972 Eastertide
Offensive paid off at the Battle of Khafji in the Gulf War.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1991 Mar 2, Serge Gainsbourg
(b.1928), French singer-songwriter, actor and director, died of a heart
attack. His extremely varied musical style and individuality make him
difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he
is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular
musicians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg)
1991 Mar, Sartrouville, France,
was badly scarred by riots after the killing of Djamel Chettouh (18) by
a Euromarche supermarket security guard.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.50)(http://tinyurl.com/25eqm7)
1991 May 15, French President
Francois Mitterrand appointed Edith Cresson to be France’s first female
premier.
(AP, 5/15/01)
1991 May 18, France performed a
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1991 Jun 10, Vercors (b.1902)
[Jean Bruller], French writer (Silence of Mer), died.
(http://440.com/twtd/archives/feb26.html)
1991 Jul 28, Miguel Indurain of
Spain won the Tour de France bicycle race.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1991 Aug 6, Former Iranian PM
Shahpour Bakhtiar and his chief of staff were killed in Bakhtiar’s
residence outside Paris. Their bodies were found 2 days later. In 1994
Ali Vakili Rad was arrested in Switzerland and sentenced to life in
prison for stabbing Shapour Bakhtiar to death. In 2010 France issued a
deportation order to send Rad back to Iran shortly after Tehran freed a
young French academic accused of spying.
(AP, 8/8/01)(AP, 5/17/10)
1991 Sep 25, Nazi war criminal
Klaus Barbie died in Lyon, France, at age 77.
(AP, 9/20/01)
1991 Nov 9, Singer-actor Yves
Montand died near Paris at age 70. His body was exhumed in 1998 for DNA
tests in a paternity suit filed by Aurore Drossard (22).
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A17)(AP, 11/9/01)
1991 Nov 18, France deported
Marlon Brando's daughter Cheyenne (21) to Tahiti to face charges of
acting as an accomplice in the killing of her lover last year.
(http://tinyurl.com/p9yhg)
1991 Pierre Pflimlin (d.2000 at
93), former mayor of Strasbourg, published his memoirs: “Memoirs of a
European under the Fourth and Fifth Republic.” Pflimlin served as
president of the European Parliament from 1984-1987.
(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A21)
1991 The French film "The Lovers
on the Bridge" starred Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche. It was set in
1989 on the Pont Neuf. It was directed by Leos Carax.
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.C3)
1991 The French film “Tous les
Matins du Monde” was based on the life of composer Marin Marais
(1656-1728) and his teacher Monsieur de Sainte Colombe. Jordi Savall,
artist of the viola da gamba, performed on the soundtrack.
(Econ, 4/22/06,
p.82)(www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/marais.html)
1991 The French satirical magazine
La Grosse Berthe was launched.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.76)
1991 Edith Cresson became the
first female prime minister in France.
(SFC, 3/2/00, p.A11)
1991 Jen-Pierre Chevenement
resigned as defense minister over France’s involvement in the Gulf War
against Iraq. He later became head of the center-left Citizens’
Movement party.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A14)
1991 French frigates were sold to
Taiwan. In 2004 a fake list of French public figures (including later
president Nicolas Sarkozy), who allegedly held accounts at a
Luxembourg-based clearing house (Clearstream Banking S.A.), was leaked
to a French judge. This came to be known as the 2nd Clearstream affair.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearstream)(Econ,
12/6/08, p.70)
1991 Executive Life, a large
California insurer, collapsed under the stewardship of Frederick Carr.
He had invested premiums of policy holders in junk bonds, whose value
plunged as the US economy tanked. Credit Lyonnais, a French bank, made
an illegal arrangement to purchase the depressed bonds and together
with French billionaire Francois Pinault reaped a $2.54 billion profit.
In 2004 the French government pleaded guilty to fraud for its role.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.A1)
1992 Jan 20, A French Airbus A-320
crashed near Strasbourg, killing 87 people.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1992 Feb 7, Russian President
Boris N. Yeltsin and President Francois Mitterrand signed a cooperation
treaty in Paris.
(AP, 2/7/02)
1992 Feb 8, The 16th Olympic
Winter Games opened in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/8/02)
1992 Feb 13, Donna Weinbrecht of
the United States won the gold medal in women's freestyle skiing moguls
at the Olympic games in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/13/02)
1992 Feb 14, American speed skater
Bonnie Blair won her second gold medal of the Albertville Olympics, in
the 1,000 meters event.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1992 Feb 21, Kristi Yamaguchi of
the United States won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the
Albertville Olympics; Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy
Kerrigan of the United States the bronze.
(AP, 2/21/98)
1992 Feb 22, At the Winter
Olympics in Albertville, France, American speedskater Cathy Turner won
the women's 500-meter race.
(AP, 2/22/02)
1992 Feb 23, The XVI Winter
Olympic Games ended in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/23/02)
1992 Mar 14, Jean Poiret (65),
French actor, writer (La Cage aux Folles), died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9001144)
1992 Mar 22, France's governing
Socialist Party was rebuffed in regional elections.
(AP, 3/22/02)
1992 Apr 2, French Premier Edith
Cresson, who had served 10 turbulent months as France's first woman
prime minister, resigned after election setbacks for the ruling
Socialists.
(AP, 4/2/02)
1992 Apr 12, After five years in
the making, Euro Disneyland, a theme park costing $4 billion, opened in
Marne-La-Vallee, France, amid controversy as French intellectuals
bemoaned the invasion of American pop culture.
(AP, 4/12/97)
1992 Apr 27, Olivier Messiaen
(b.1908), French composer, died. His work included the 1983 opera "St.
Francis d’Assise."
(WSJ, 10/3/02,
p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Messiaen)
1992 May 6, Actress Marlene
Dietrich (b.1901), film star and singer, died at her Paris home at age
90. She was buried in Germany on May 16.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.D-2)(AP, 5/16/97)
1992 Jul 26, Miguel Indurain of
Spain won cycling's Tour de France for the second year in a row.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1992 Aug 26, The United States,
Britain and France imposed a 2nd no-fly zone south of the 32nd
parallel, the southern one-third of Iraq aimed at protecting Iraqi
Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1992 Sep 20, French voters
narrowly approved the Maastricht Treaty on European union.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1992 Sep, The French finance
ministry placed Credit Lyonnais under administrative control. A 1998
bailout of the company ended up costing French taxpayers twice the
bank’s 1991 published capital.
(Econ, 5/20/06, Survey
p.13)(www.erisk.com/Learning/CaseStudies/CreditLyonnais.asp)
1992 Oct 14, The Nobel Prize for
physics went to George Charpak of France.
(AP, 10/14/97)
1992 Oct 19, Maurice le Roux,
French conductor and composer (Contes immoraux), died.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1992 Marc Sautet, philosophy
professor and writer, started philosophy debates at the Cafe des Phares
in Paris. Success encouraged him to export the idea of philosophy cafes
around the world.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A9)
1992 Foreign investors account for
more than 20% of shareholdings in French companies, up from 12% in 1977.
(WSJ, 10/17/95, A-20)
1992 Elf-Aquitaine purchased the
former East German Leuna refinery. It was later alleged that bribes
totaling $44 million were paid by the French government to the German
Social Democrats under Helmut Kohl.
(SFC, 1/24/00, p.A6)
1992 An Italian court sentenced
Marina Petrella, a member of the Red Brigades, in absentia to life in
prison on charges including murder and kidnapping. In 2007 French
police arrested Petrella for a petty crime and planned to extradite her
to Italy. In 2008 a French court ordered her that she be freed from
prison because of health problems.
(AP, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/5/08)
1993 Jan 6, Ballet dancer Rudolf
Nureyev died of AIDS in Paris at age 54. In 1961 his defection from the
Soviet Union made headline news. In 2007 Julie Kavanagh authored
“Nureyev: The Life.”
(AP, 1/6/98)(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 10/14/07,
p.M3)
1993 Jan 9, In France Jean-Claude
Romand killed his wife and children in an effort to saved his pride
following years of lies. Romand also killed his parents rather than
face his lies. In 2001 Emmanuel Carrere authored “The Adversary: A True
Story of Murder and Deception.”
(www.truecrimeink.com/bkreview01.htm)(WSJ, 6/9/07,
p.P8)
1993 Jan 15, In Paris a historic
disarmament ceremony ended with the last of 125 countries signing a
treaty banning chemical weapons.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1993 Mar 21, Voters in France
handed the Socialist government a devastating defeat in first-round
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/21/03)
1993 May 13, In suburban Paris, a
masked man armed with dynamite took a roomful of nursery school
children hostage, demanding $18.5 million. The man was shot to death by
police two days later.
(AP, 5/13/98)
1993 Aug 30, The 150 millionth
person visited the Eiffel Tower.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1993 Sep 5, Claude Renoir, French
cinematographer (Spy Who Loved Me), died at 78.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0005841/)
1993 Sep 6, Automakers Renault of
France and Volvo of Sweden announced they would merge; however, Volvo
canceled the deal the following December.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1993 Nov 23, Record cold was
blamed for at least 34 deaths in parts of Europe and prompted the
French army to send out troops to feed the homeless in Paris.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1993 Amin Maalouf (b.1949),
Lebanese writer, won France’s Prix Goncourt for his novel “The Rock of
Tanios.”
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.91)
1993 French Pres. Mitterrand moved
the offices of the Ministry of Finance out of the Louvre’s Richelieu
Wing to free 245,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A20)
1993 France forbade polygamy as it
tightened immigration laws to stop husbands from bringing extra wives
into the country.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.55)
1993 French Dr. Luc Montagnier
created the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention under the
auspices of UNESCO. He was one of the first to isolate the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A1)
1993 Sanofi-Aventis of France
introduced its Ambien sleeping pill to the US.
(SFC, 3/3/06, p.D1)
1994 Jan 22, Jean-Louis Barrault
(83), French actor (La Ronde), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Barrault)
1994 Jan 30, Pierre Boulle
(b.1912), French writer (Executioner), died.
{Writer, France}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulle)
1994 Feb 24, Jean Sablon (87),
French crooner, died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1994 Mar 28, Absurdist playwright
Eugene Ionesco died in Paris at age 81.
(AP, 3/28/99)
1994 May 6, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally opened
the Channel Tunnel between their countries.
(AP, 5/6/04)
1994 Jun 6, President Clinton
joined leaders from America's World War II allies to mark the 50th
anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
(AP, 6/6/04)
1994 Jun 14, Marcel Mouloudji
(b.1922), Algeria-born French actor/chansonnier, died in Paris.
(www.inthe90s.com/generated/obit1994.shtml)
1994 Jun 23, French marines and
Foreign Legionnaires headed into Rwanda to try to stem the country's
ethnic slaughter.
(AP, 6/23/99)
1995 Jul 25, A bomb exploded at
the Paris subway St. Michel station, killing seven people and injuring
at least 60. The Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility. In 1999
five people linked to Algerian militants were sentenced to 10-year
prison terms for the attacks. 16 others received lesser sentences. In
2002 Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, Islamic militants,
were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the
bombings. British police arrested Rachid Ramda (25) at the request of
the French government due to his connections with Bensaid. In 2005
Ramda was still in Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition.
(www.emergency.com/frncboms.htm)(AP, 7/25/00)(Econ,
10/22/05, p.61)
1994 Aug 14, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," was captured in
Khartoum, Sudan. He was jailed in France the next day.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A18)(AP, 8/15/97)
1994 Aug 15, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," was jailed in
France after being captured in Sudan. By his own count he had killed 83
people before being captured. Bernard Violet is the author of
“Carlos - The Secret networks of Int’l. Terrorism.”
(AP, 8/15/97)(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2,4)
1994 Oct 4, Florence Rey (19), a
literature student, participated in a bungled holdup that left 3 police
officers, a taxi driver, and her accomplice-lover dead following a car
chase. In 1998 she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)
1994 Nov 14, The 1st trains for
public ran in Channel Tunnel under the English Channel.
(www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukcCorporate/ukcMediaCentre/ukpPressPack.htm)
1994 Nov 30, Guy Debord (b.1931),
French political theorist and filmmaker, died. His books included
“Society of the Spectacle” (1967).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Debord)
1994 Nov, The Var River overflowed
and washed away bridges and stretches of the Nice-Digne railroad track.
Rail service was not restored until Apr 1996 at a cost of F50 Million
(US$10 mil).
(Hem., 1/97, p.116)
1994 Dec 24, Armed Islamic
fundamentalists hijacked an Air France Airbus A-300 carrying 227
passengers at the Algiers airport; three passengers were killed before
the hijackers were killed by French commandos in Marseille two days
later.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP, 12/24/99)
1994 Dec 26, French commandos
stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseille,
killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages. The Air
France plane was hijacked by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP, 12/26/99)
1994 Dec 27, Four Roman Catholic
priests—three French and a Belgian—were shot to death in their rectory
in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who had
hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille.
(AP, 12/27/00)
1994 Dana Facaros and Michael
Pauls authored their guidebook “The South of France: Provence, Cote
d’Azur & Languedoc-Rousillon.”
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1994 The Cartier Foundation
building at 261 Boulevard Raspail was opened. It was designed by Jean
Nouvel with 7 floors above ground and 8 below.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1994 The French education minister
ruled that public schools could ban “ostentatious” religious symbols.
(WPR, 3/04, p.9)
1994 Elf Aquitaine, a state-owned
oil company, was privatized.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A6)
1994 Baron Edmond Adolphe Maurice
Jules Jacques de Rothschild (d.1997 at 71) was named an officer in the
Legion of Honor.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A19)
1994 French legislator Yann Piat
of the UDF was shot to death in her car by 2 men on motorcycle. A 1997
book, “The Yann Piat Case” by Andre Rougeot and Jean-Michel Verne,”
says that she was killed by the French secret service to keep her from
revealing a plot to sell military land to the Mafia. The book was
suspended after its first printing sold out. Many believe the tale to
be disinformation. Seven men were on trial in 1998 for the murder.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A25)(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A14)
1994 Pakistan’s military purchased
three Agosta 90 B submarines from France.
(AP, 6/25/09)(www.digitaljournal.com/article/274427)
1995 Feb 22, France accused four
American diplomats and a fifth U.S. citizen of spying, and asked them
to leave the country.
(AP, 2/22/00)
1995 May 7, Jacques Chirac, the
conservative mayor of Paris, won France's presidency in his third
attempt, defeating Lionel Jospin in a runoff to end 14 years of
Socialist rule.
(AP, 5/7/00)
1995 May 17, Jacques Chirac was
sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of Socialist
Francois Mitterrand.
(AP, 5/17/00)
1995 May 27, In Bosnia General
Mladic launched an assault against the UN observation point of the
Vrbanja bridge. French soldiers Marcel Amaru and Jacky Humboldt were
killed in the operation of liberating the Vrbanja Bridge under siege in
Sarajevo. They became the symbol of the 84 French soldiers, who gave
their lives for Bosnia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNPROFOR)(http://tinyurl.com/qdsxo)
1995 Jun 13, France announced it
would abandon its 1992 moratorium on nuclear testing and conduct eight
more tests between September and May.
(AP, 6/13/00)
1995 Jul 25, A bomb exploded at
the Paris subway St. Michel station, killing 8 people and injuring some
200. The Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility. In 1999 five
people linked to Algerian militants were sentenced to 10-year prison
terms for the attacks. 16 others received lesser sentences. In 2002
Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, Islamic militants, were
convicted and sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the
bombings. British police arrested Rachid Ramda (25) at the request of
the French government due to his connections with Bensaid. In 2005
Ramda was still in Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition. In 2007 Ramda
(38) was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for
22 years.
(www.emergency.com/frncboms.htm)(AP, 7/25/00)(Econ,
10/22/05, p.61)(AP, 10/26/07)
1995 Sep 5, France under Pres.
Chirac resumed nuclear testing, after a three-year moratorium, in the
French South Pacific atoll of Mururoa. World-wide protests failed to
stop testing.
(WSJ, 9/8/95, p.A-8)(AP, 9/5/00)
1995 Sep 24, A 16-year-old boy in
Cuers, France, killed 13 people before turning a gun on himself.
(AP, 9/24/00)
1995 Sep, Bob Denard, a French
mercenary soldier, and accomplices overthrew Comoran President Mohammed
Djohar, and put opposition leaders Mohammed Taki and Said-Ali Kemal in
power in the Indian Ocean state. The French army intervened in October
under bilateral accords with the Comoros islands, a former French
colony, and captured the mercenaries. In 2006 Denard was found
guilty for his part in the coup and given a suspended five-year prison
sentence. His 26 accomplices were found guilty but were given suspended
sentences or were not penalized.
(Reuters, 6/20/06)
1995 Oct 1, France detonated
another nuclear device, 5 times more powerful than the last one, on
Fangatouga Atoll in the South Pacific.
(WSJ, 10/2/95, P.A-1)
1995 Nov, In France weeks of chaos
in the streets and paralysis to the railways began as Pres. Chirac
tried to end the country’s “special regimes” for public sector pensions.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.57)
1995 Nov, France conducted its
4th nuclear test at the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1995 Dec 23, 16 cult members of
the Order of the Solar Temple were found dead in an Alpine clearing in
eastern France. This was the same cult in the 1994 mass suicide in
Switzerland and Canada.
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-1)
1995 Dec 27, France set off a
fifth nuclear bomb at a South Pacific Atoll.
(WSJ, 12/28/95, p. A-1)
1995 Dec, A wave of strikes
lasted weeks as the French government struggled to establish cuts to
rein in its $65.5 bil. deficit. Led by the railroad workers, the
strikes bring transport to a halt. France was attempting to restructure
its finances in time to meet the deadline for European monetary union
in 1999.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-12)(Econ, 9/22/07, p.63)
1995 Dec, Mr. Juppe backed down
from a bid to force public sectors workers to work 40 years instead of
37.5 for full pension benefits. Cost cutting plans for the state
railway are also set aside for re-negotiation.
(WSJ, 12/18/95, p.A-10)
1995 Jacques Foccart (1913-1997),
architect of French policy in Africa, published “Foccart Speaks,” a
book on French policymaking in Africa under Charles de Gaulle.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1995 The French film ”La Haine”
(Hate) was made by Mathieu Kassovitz.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.89)
1995 The French film “Son of
Gascogne” starred Gregoire Colin and was directed by Pascal Aubier. It
was about a young man mistaken for the son of a fabled New Wave
filmmaker.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C3)
1995 France imposed lengthy
cross-checks for Algerians traveling to Europe due to the war with
Islamist rebels. The weeks long wait was finally reduced in 2006.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.48)
1995 State prosecutors in Bordeaux
reduced charges against Maurice Papon to complicity in crimes against
humanity.
(AP, 9/18/02)
1995 French retailer Carrefour
began operating in China.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.68)
1995 British income per head
overtook the French.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.28)
1995 The Vatican dismissed bishop
Jacques Gaillot of Paris for preaching liberal views on homosexuality,
priest celibacy and other touchy issues.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A9)
1995 The population of France was
about 57 million people. The 1995 budget-deficit target under PM Alain
Juppe was $322 bil.
(WSJ, 11/17/95, p.A-10)
1995-1997 Alain Juppe served as prime minister of
France.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.44)
1996 Jan 8, Francois Mitterand,
79, Socialist ex-minister died of prostate cancer. He had been in
office for 14 years and helped to make France an engine of European
unity and changed the face of Paris with his grand projects.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)
1996 Jan 27, The sixth and most
powerful nuclear bomb was detonated. In 1998 the Int’l. Atomic Energy
Agency confirmed that the test sites in the South Pacific would be
contaminated for centuries. Plutonium particles were scattered in the
sediment of the lagoons at Mururoa and Fangatoufa.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A7)
1996 Jan 29, French President
Jacques Chirac ordered an early end to underground nuclear tests in the
South Pacific.
(AP, 1/29/01)
1996 Mar 3, Marguerite Duras,
French writer, died at age 81 in Paris. She was very prolific and was
best known for her novel “The Lover.” In 2008 her Wartime Writings:
1943-1949,” translated by Linda Coverdale, was published.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)(SSFC, 3/30/08, Books p.1)
1996 Apr, Pres. Jacques Chirac
announced that the draft would be phased out over the next 5 years. The
army would be shrunk from 500,000 to 350,000.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A15)
1996 May 14, Renault outlined a
plan to become majority owned by private investors after more than 5
decades of state control.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)
1996 May 16, French unions
scheduled a series of strikes to protest Prime Minister Juppe’s plans
to eliminate thousands of civil service jobs.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jun 3, Prime Minister Juppe
proposed a major reform of the tax system over 5 years and shift the
cost of health care from wages onto savings.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 11.6%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jun 28, In France immigrants
began a hunger strike at St. Bernard’s Church in Paris in protest to
new hard-line immigration policies.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.A3)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in France was $3.41.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 21, Danish cyclist Bjarne
Riis won the Tour de France. In 2007 he admitted to using performance
enhancing drugs to win the race.
(WSJ, 5/26/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Tour_de_France)
1996 Jul, Caroline Dickinson, a
13-year-old British girl, was raped and strangled at a youth hostel in
the town of Pleine-Fougeres. A DNA test was planned to be performed on
volunteers of the 170 young men in the town who fit an age profile of
the murderer.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A8)
1996 Aug 17, The first French
woman in space, Claudie Andre-Deshays (later Haignere), took off from
the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz-U rocket.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A2)
1996 Aug 21, Thousands marched in
support of illegal immigrants and called for the removal of newly
appointed Interior Minister Jean Louis-Debre.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E2)
1996 Sep 4, France said it will
stop changing its clocks twice a year.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 5, Prime Minister Alain
Juppe proposed a tax cut. It would reduce the top marginal rate to 54%
next year from 56.8%, and to 47% in 2000.
(WSJ, 9/66/96, p.A11)
1996 Sep 17, In France Maurice
Papon, a member of the Vichy government of WW II, was declared eligible
for trial for his role in arresting and deporting 1,690 Jews during WW
II.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 18, The 1997 budget was
unveiled with total spending of $301.88 bil.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A14)
1996 Oct 5, A bomb exploded in the
mayoral offices of French Prime Minister Alain Juppe. There were no
casualties.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, A12)
1996 Oct 17, A one-day strike was
held by about 1.6 million public employees, a third of the total public
service sector. French unemployment stood at 12.5%.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A14)
1996 Nov 15, The SF Symphony
performed in Paris and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas was awarded
the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, France’s highest arts honor.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A15)
1996 Nov 22, Truckers continued
their Operation Escargot strike for higher pay and earlier retirement
for a 5th day.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 29, Truckers signed
agreements to end a 12-day strike. The government agreed to allow early
retirement at age 55 with boosts in sick pay. An issue of work hours
was still pending.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A14)
1996 Dec 2, The Roussel Uclaf SA
of France, a pharmaceutical firm mostly owned by Hoechst of Germany,
agreed to reduce the workweek for 7,000 domestic employees to 35 from
38 hours without pay cuts. Employees will also get less in profit
sharing but more vacation.
(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A17)
1996 Dec 3, In France a bomb
exploded in the Paris subway at the Port-Royal station. Two (4) people
were killed and dozens injured. It appeared to be the work of Algerian
extremists.
(WSJ, 12/4/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/3/97)
1996 Dec 6, The National Assembly
approved tax breaks for Corsica.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 10, The African aid
budget was more than $3 billion, nearly 4 times that of the US aid to
Africa. French troops were garrisoned in Cameroon, the CAR, Chad, Cote
d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon and Senegal.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A22)
1996 Dec 27, The foreign ministry
said that it would no longer participate in the Operation Provide
Comfort after the end of the year. The operation was a multi-national
air reconnaissance effort to safeguard Kurdish civilians in northern
Iraq.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1996 Andre Comte-Sponville
authored “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues.” The English
translation was published in 2001.
(WSJ, 9/5/01, p.A24)
1996 The French film “For Ever
Mozart” by John-Luc Godard starred Madeleine Assas.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.D5)
1996 The French film “Ponette” by
Jacques Doillon starred little Victoire Thivisol as a 4-year-old who
has lost her mother in a car accident. She won the best actress award
at the Venice Film Festival.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, DB p.11)
1996 The Francis Poulenc Museum of
Sacred Art opened in Rocamadour. It featured a collection religious
objects spanning 8 centuries.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T11)
1996 Jean-Claude Mery (d.1999), an
aide to Pres. Chirac, made a video tape that accused Chirac of
operating a slush fund through kickbacks while mayor of Paris. The tape
was made public in 2000.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D2)
1996 The French firm Ecco merged
with Adia of Switzerland to form Adecco. The merger made Adecco the
world’s largest employment firm ahead of Manpower.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.57)
1996 Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy
purchased Duty Free Shopper (DFS), founded in the 1960s by Chuck Feeney
(b.1931) and partners. In the 1980s Feeney had put most of his
one-third share and other assets into charitable trusts in Bermuda
operating as Atlantic Philanthropies. Feeney scheduled the foundation
to go out of business by 2016. In 2007 Connor O’Clery authored “The
Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made And Gave Away a
Fortune.
(WSJ, 9/26/07, p.D13)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.99)
1997 Jan 7, It was announced that
a 20.6% value-added tax would be placed on telephone services offered
by phone companies outside the European Union. The charge was directed
at “call-back” services mainly in the US.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan, The Paris Music Museum,
Musee de la Musique, opened as part of the Cite de la Musique complex
at 221 avenue Jean-Jaures.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T7)
1997 Feb 17, Striking bus and tram
drivers in Lille returned to work after an agreement was reached to
reduce their workweek to 35 hours from 38, without a pay reduction,
along with an extra 2 weeks annual vacation.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A10)
1997 Feb 17, The National Front
was the fastest growing political party in the country and was led by
Bruno Megret (47), a former student at UC Berkeley. The party
championed a national preference program where jobs, public housing and
univ. slots would be reserved for the ethnic French majority.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A1)
1997 Feb-Mar, Over 700 dolphins
and whales piled up on the Atlantic coast of France. They had been
discarded by mid-water commercial fishing trawlers as bycatch.
(NG, 12/97, p.149)
1997 Mar 9, French journalist
Jean-Dominique Bauby died in Paris. He had been completely paralyzed in
Dec 1995 and had recently finished dictating the book: “Le Scaphandre
et le Papillon” (The Diving Suit and the Butterfly) by blinking his
left eyelid, the only moveable part of his body. The book was published
2 days before he died. The film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,”
based on the book, was directed by Julian Schnabel and opened in the US
in 2007.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A20)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
1997 Mar 22, Etienne Bacrat, “the
Mozart of Chess,” became a grand master at the age of 14.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar 29, Over 25,000 people
demonstrated against the convention of the racist National Front
Party led by Jean-Pierre Le Pen.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A18)
1997 Apr 24, The French film “When
the Cat’s Away” opened at the SF film festival.
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.D6)
1997 May 1, The French film “La
Promesse” was shown at the SF Film Festival.
(SFC, 4/23/97, p.D3)
1997 May 25, The Socialist Party
and allies claimed 42.8% of the popular vote in elections. In the first
round of parliamentary elections, French voters gave the leftist
opposition the biggest share of votes in a surprising setback for
President Jacques Chirac's conservatives.
(SFC, 5/26/97, p.A10) (AP, 5/25/98)
1997 May 26, France's deeply
unpopular prime minister, Alain Juppe, announced he would resign, a day
after the country's governing center-right coalition suffered major
losses in first-round parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/98)
1997 May 27, In Paris, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin joined 16 NATO leaders, including President
Clinton, to sign a historic agreement giving Moscow a voice in NATO
affairs.
(AP, 5/27/98)
1997 Jun 1, The Socialists won
control of the government and party leader Lionel Jospin was expected
to become prime minister. New conditions for creating the new European
Union and new common currency were expected. Value added taxes on
common purchases were expected to be slashed; plans to privatize France
Telecom were expected to be abolished and the legal workweek was
expected to be reduced to 35 hours without paycuts to provide more jobs.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A1,9)
1997 Jun 2, Lionel Jospin was
handed the premiership by Pres. Chirac.
(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 4, In France PM Lionel
Jospin appointed women to 6 of 16 ministerial positions.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 6, The French film “A
Single Girl” opened in SF. It was directed by Benoit Jacquot and
starred Virginie Ledoyen and Benoit Magimel.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.D7)
1997 Jun 25, Oceanographer
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (b.1910) died in Paris. In 2009 Brad Matsen
authored “Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King.”
(AP, 6/25/98)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.97)
1997 Jun, Ira Einhorn was arrested
in France. A French court ruled against extradition and released
Einhorn. Einhorn was arrested in 1998 under a new extradition warrant.
The events were broadcast as a TV crime story in 1999 titled "The Hunt
for the Unicorn Killer." In 1999 The French Supreme Court ruled that
Einhorn should be returned to the US. In Sep 1977, in Philadelphia
Helen “Holly” Maddux, a Bryn Mawr College graduate from Tyler, Texas,
was murdered and stuffed into a steamer trunk for 18 months until her
body was discovered. Ira Einhorn, “hippie guru” was arrested for the
murder in 1979 but released on bail. He fled to hide in France. Fred
Maddux, Holly's father, committed suicide in 1988. Einhorn was
convicted in absentia in 1993.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A2)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A17)(SFC,
9/22/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(SFC, 5/28/99,
p.D3)
1997 Aug 21, Pope John Paul II
began a visit to Paris with an outdoor encounter with 500,000 young
people from around the world.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Aug 24, In France Pope John
Paul II offered tough challenges and affectionate encouragement to more
than 1 million faithful attending Mass during closing World Youth Day
ceremonies in Paris.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1997 Aug 31, Princess Diana (36)
and Dodi al-Fayed were killed in a car crash in Paris while trying to
evade paparazzi photographers.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 8, In France a passenger
train collided with a gasoline truck in Perigord town and killed at
least 12 people and injured 39.
(WSJ, 9/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 29, The oil company Total
signed a $2 billion contract to explore for gas in Iran despite
warnings from the Clinton administration.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 27, In the Comoros the
island of Anjouan held a referendum to re-unite with France and voters
overwhelmingly approved the measure. France refused to accept the
results.
(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A10)(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107423.html)
1997 Nov 30, In Tajikistan Karine
Mane of France and 5 of her suspected abductors were killed by a
grenade during a confrontation with government forces trying to free
her. A companion had been released hours earlier. Faction leader Rezvon
Sadirov was accused of the kidnapping, staged to seek freedom for his
brother, Bakhrom, who was awaiting trial on kidnapping charges.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)(AP, 11/30/98)
1997 Oct 4, It was reported that
France banned 20% of all cars from the streets of Paris for one day
last week due to smog.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A17)
1997 Oct 4, It was reported that
Greenpeace had found crabs contaminated with twice Europe’s allowed
radiation level near the La Hague nuclear waste reprocessing plant near
Cherbourg in northwestern France.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A17)
1997 Oct 6, In Vitrolles the cafe
Sous-marin was shut down for criticism of the National Front, a
far-right party in control of the town.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A15)
1997 Oct 8, The trial of Maurice
Papon opened in Bordeaux after a court rejected his appeal. During the
trial the judge called 4 historians to explain the background to the
jury. These included Robert O. Paxton, who in 2004 authored The Anatomy
of Fascism.”
(AP, 9/18/02)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.85)
1997 Oct 8, A 36-hour rail strike
disrupted travelers.
(SFC, 10/9/97, p.A17)
1997 Oct 10, Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin proposed a law to cut the workweek to 35 hours from 39 as a
means to create jobs by Jan 1, 2000.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A9)
1997 Nov 2, Some 250,000 union
truckers began a strike over pay and work hours. Huge traffic pile-ups
resulted.
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A12)
1997 Nov 5, Trucker barricades
went up in Paris. Unions representing France’s 300,000 truckers
demanded pay raises up to 7% and a guaranteed salary 0f $1,600 for 200
hours work per month plus compensation for downtime during loading.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.C2)
1997 Nov 6, Paul Ricard, the
aperitif king, died at age 88. [see 1932]
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)
1997 Nov 7, Most truckers ended
their strike after the largest signed an agreement for a 6% raise by
year 2000 and a guaranteed $1700 for 200 hours of work per month.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 24, Singer Monique Serf,
stage-name Barbara, died at 67. She was famous for her songs “Aigle
Noir,” “Nantes,” “La Solitude,” and “Une Petite Cantate.”
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C4)
1997 Nov 30, It was reported that
Stephane Courtois led 11 scholars in the publication of the “Black Book
of Communism.” It was called the first global balance sheet of the
“crimes, terror and repression” committed under communism.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A19)
1997 Dec 1, Stephane Grappelli,
jazz violinist, died in Paris. In the mid-30s the Quintet of the Hot
Club of France, with Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, recorded “Tiger
Rag,” “Dinah,” and “Lady Be Good.” His albums included “Live at
Carnegie Hall, “Jazz Round Midnight,” “Plays Jerome Kern,” “Tivoli
Gardens” (1979), “Satin Doll,” ‘’Stardust,” ‘For Django,” and “Plays
Gershwin.”
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)(SFC, 12/4/97, p.E3)
1997 Dec 4, It was reported that
Paul Cezanne graces the new 100 franc bill. He replaces Eugene
Delacroix, who was on the old bill with his painting depicting the
French Revolution and its topless symbol Marianne.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C5)
1997 Dec 12, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," went
on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a
Lebanese national. He was convicted and began serving a life prison
sentence.
(AP, 12/12/98)
1997 Dec 17, In France Salima
Ghezali, Algerian human rights campaigner, received the European
Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.
(SFC,12/18/97, p.C12)
1997 Dec 17, The US and 33 other
countries signed a convention in Paris aimed at eradicating bribery in
international business. Turkey was one of 34 signatories of the OECD’s
anti-corruption convention. By 2008 38 countries had signed on.
(AP, 12/17/98)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.14)(Econ,
5/1/10, p.73)
1997 Dec 23, In France "Carlos the
Jackal," aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was convicted in the murder of 2
French agents and a Lebanese informant on Jun 27, 1975. He was
sentenced the next day to life in prison.
(SFC,12/24/97, p.A6)
1997 Dec 24, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the aging revolutionary known as "Carlos the Jackal," was
sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of
two French investigators and a Lebanese national.
(AP, 12/24/98)
1997 Jean Guitton (d.1999 at 97),
Catholic philosopher and author, published "The Spiritual Genius of St.
Therese."
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.C2)
1997 The sci-fi film by Luc Besson
“The Fifth Element” was set in Manhattan in the year 2259. The film
used a song by Khaled Hadj Brahim, the Algerian-born singer who
combined western and African music in a style called “rai.” His latest
song, “Aicha,” has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Besson won a 1998
French Cesar Award for best director. The film was France’s top
box-office hit.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, DB p.39)(SFEC, 9/14/97, Par
p.14)(SFC, 3/3/98, p.B5)
1997 The French film “Irma Vep”
with Maggie Cheung was written and directed by Olivier Assayas. It was
a remake of the 1915-1916 10-part silent serial “Les Vampires” by Louis
Feuillade.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.D3)
1997 The French comedy film “Les
Visiteurs” was about 2 men transplanted from the Middle Ages to
modern-day France.
(WSJ, 11/5/97, p.B1)
1997 The film “Marius et
Jeannette” was a love story by Robert Guediguian.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.B5)
1997 The French film “On Cunnait
la Chanson” (Same Old Song) won the 1998 Cesar Award for best French
film of the year.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.B5)
1997 The French film “A Self-Made
Hero” starred Matthieu Kassovitz and was directed by Jacques Audiard.
It was about a man who joins the French underground near the end of the
war.
(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.43)(SFC,12/5/97, p.C3)
1997 The French film “Un Air de
Famille” (Family Resemblances) was directed by Cedric Klapisch. It was
based on the play by Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri.
(WSJ, 6/12/98, p.W5)(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D3)
1997 The French film “When the
Cat’s Away” was directed by Cedric Klapisch. One of its songs was ”Mona
Ki Ngi Xica” by Barcelo de Carvalho, aka “Bongo,” recorded on the album
“Angola 72.”
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.D6)(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1997 Jacques Pepin, gourmet chef,
received the Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts from the government.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1997 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Spanish gin Larios.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1997 Francois Furet, French
historian, died. He was the acknowledged pre-eminent historian of the
French Revolution and in 1995 authored "The Passing of an Illusion." It
was translated by his wife into English in 1999.
(WSJ, 5/11/99, p.A20)
1998 Jan 8, Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin was forced to meet with protestors angry over the nation’s 12.4%
unemployment.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jan 9, Prime Minister Jospin
pledged $160 million to help the unemployed, in an attempt to end over
a month of sit-ins at unemployment offices across the country.
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 23, In France a massive
avalanche killed at least 11 people near the Italian border.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A9)
1998 Feb 6, In Corsica Claude
Erignac, the French governor, was shot a killed by 2 gunmen. In 2003
French police arrested Yvan Colonna for the murder.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A11)(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)
1998 Feb 10, French legislators
approved a reduction in the workweek from 39 to 35 hours.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.B3)
1998 Mar 17, Alain Bosquet, poet,
novelist and critic, died at 78. He was born as Anatole Bisk in Odessa
in the Ukraine. His autobiographical novel “A Russian Mother” was a
best-seller in France and translated to English in 1996.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 28, In France tens of
thousands marched in demonstrations against the right-wing National
Front, which made gains in recent regional elections.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 31, In Lille an
18-year-old boy was shot dead by a fellow student in front of his
classmates and teacher.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 2, A French court found
Maurice Papon (1910-2007), a career civil servant, guilty of deporting
Jews from Bordeaux in 1942-1943, when he was secretary-general of the
Gironde Prefecture. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but served
only 3 due to ill health.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.C2)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)(Econ,
2/24/07, p.99)
1998 May 8, A bomb exploded in
Marseilles and damaged the Regional Council building. Corsican
militants were suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 9, A bomb exploded near
the Spanish border at Siant-Pierre d’Irube and caused damage to a bank
branch and the City Hall. Basque militants were suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 20, The EU approved a
rescue package to save the French Credit Lyonnais banking group. In
exchange the state bank would be privatized and assets would have to be
sold.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)
1998 May 24, At the 51st Cannes
Film Festival the Golden Palm award went to the Greek film “Mia
Eoniotita Ke Mia Mera (Eternity and a Day), directed by Theo
Angelopoulos. The Grand Prize went to the Italian film “La Vita e
Bella” (Life Is Beautiful) by director Roberto Benigni.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E5)
1998 May 26, Police in 5 European
countries arrested 74 alleged Algerian separatists. 53 were arrested in
France and 21 in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The idea was
to dismantle terrorist networks prior to the World Cup.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 1, In France pilots of
Air France began a pay-dispute strike.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A11)
1998 Jun 10, Pilots agreed to end
their strike after accepting shares in Air France in exchange for
salary cuts.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 12, Jean-Paul Guerlain
(63), renowned perfumer, was shot and his mansion was plundered when
some 12 armed and masked men invaded his home.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Jun 10-1998 Jul 12, The World
Cup soccer championships were held in France.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 Jul 12, The French soccer
team beat Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup finals.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 30, A Proteus Airlines
Beechcraft collided with a Cessna off the west coast and 15 people were
killed.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Jun, Rhone-Poulenc, a French
pharmaceutical maker later acquired by Sanofi-Aventis, spun off Rhodia
SA. It was later alleged that costly environmental and pension
liabilities were dumped on the Rhodia and not disclosed to investors.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C1)
1998 Aug 13, Julien Green (97),
the first American to be elected to the Academie Francaise, died in
Paris. The Catholic and homosexual writer produced 18 novels that
included “Moira” and “Each in his Darkness.” He also published
14 volumes of journals and 5 volumes of memoirs.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A18)
1998 Sep 24, French doctors
performed a hand transplant on a New Zealand man, Clint Hallam (48). He
had lost his hand in a sawing accident in a New Zealand prison where he
was serving a 2-year sentence for fraud. The hand was removed in 2001
due to alleged failure to follow correct immuno-suppression treatment.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A5)
1998 Sep 25, Frenchman Benoit
Lecomte reached the Brittany coast after a 72-day swim across the
Atlantic that began Jul 16 at Hyannis, Mass.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 30, Gerhard Schroeder
visited with Socialist leaders in France and endorsed controls on
capital flows.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 8, A wildcat
transportation strike went into its 3rd day.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 12, In France thousands
of high-school students demonstrated for more teachers and school
equipment.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, Over 200,000
high-school students protested overcrowded classes, a shortage of
teachers, over-loaded schedules, and ill-equipped, unsafe schools.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 20, Over 300,000
high-school students demonstrated for smaller classes and more
teachers. There was scattered violence.
(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 21, In France the
government announced emergency plans to improve conditions in the high
schools.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 8, Jean Marais, French
actor, died at age 84. His films included the 1946 “Beauty and the
Beast” by Jean Cocteau (d.1963).
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 21, Rail workers in
southern France extended their strike for the 12th day. A Europe-wide
rail strike was planned for Nov 27.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)
1998 Nov 28, Countries fighting in
Congo agreed to a cease-fire during an African summit in Paris. The
deal was brokered by UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan. Rebel leaders were not
present.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 4, Britain and France
signed an agreement for greater cooperation in crises management and
military operations. At the Anglo-French summit in St Malo, the leaders
of the UK and France decided on the need for a "capacity for autonomous
action, backed up by credible military forces." This led to the
establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP).
(www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/bg2053.cfm)(SFC,
12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 9, In France the National
Assembly instituted the Civil Solidarity Pact, a bill to improve the
lot of cohabiting gay and unmarried couples.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 13, Riots erupted in the
Reynerie suburb of Toulouse after a teenager was killed by a stray
police bullet during an alleged car theft arrest.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 30, Jean-Claude Forest,
creator of the Barbarella sci-fi comic character, died at age 68 in
Paris.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
1998 Dec, The Explor@dome opened
in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a children's park in the suburbs of
Paris. It was modeled after the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.E1)
1998 In France Eric Baratay and
Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier authored “Zoo: A History of Zoological
Gardens in the West.” An English translation by Oliver Welsh was
published in 2002.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M6)
1998 Christine Deviers-Joncour
(51) published “The Whore of the Republic.” In it she told how she had
been hired in 1989 by state-owned Elf oil company to use her wiles on
foreign minister Roland Dumas to go along with a sale of 6 French-made
warships to Taiwan.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A14)
1998 Michel Houellebecq authored
“Les Particules Elementaires” (The Elementary Particles), a nihilist
novel that looked at the current era from the year 2079. In it 2 half
brothers served as emblems of 2 self-destructive tendencies in modern
life: radical individual autonomy and technological perfection. It
created a literary scandal in France and was denounced as racist,
fascist, sexist, and homophobic. An English translation came out in
2000.
(WSJ, 11/15/00, p.A24)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.87)(WSJ,
5/27/06, p.P8)
1998 The French book “The City of
Man,” by Pierre Manent was translated to English by Marc A. LePain. It
was a philosophical assault on the principles of modernity that began
with the Enlightenment.
(WSJ, 6/18/98, p.A16)
1998 Michael Tournier’s book, “The
Mirror of Ideas,” was translated into English from the French. The 58
essays revived the ancient notion that a limited number of concepts and
categories govern all our thoughts, and that their staying power is
owed to our custom of pairing them off.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.8)
1998 The French film “Diary of a
Seducer” starred Chiara Mastroianni and Melvil Oiupaud. It was directed
by Daniele Dubroux.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.C5)
1998 The French film “Full Speed”
was directed by Gael Morel. It was about a young writer who undergoes a
rite of passage with the publication of his latest novel.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.E2)
1998 The French film “Geneologies
of a Crime” starred Catherine Deneuve and was directed by Raoul Ruiz.
It was a psychological mystery of a killer whose crime was predicted by
his victim.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B6)
1998 The French film “Marie Baie
des Anges” starred Frederic Malgras and Vahina Giocante. It was about
teenage passion on the Riviera.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.10)
1998 The French film “Post Coitum”
was directed by Brigitte Rouan.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A14)
1998 The French film “La
Separation” starred Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil and was
directed by Christian Vincent.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A20)
1998 The French comedy film
“Western” was written and directed by Manuel Poirier. It starred Sergi
Lopez and Sacha Bourdo.
(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A20)
1998-2002 Thierry Breton, Rhodia SA director, chaired
the chemicals group’s audit committee.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C1)
1999 Jan, Raymond Peynet, cartoon
illustrator, died at age 90. He was known for the starry-eyed "Lovers"
created during World War II.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A18)
1999 Jan 19, In France 8 men were
sentenced to prison for providing arms and logistics to the banned
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 22, France convicted 107
people for supporting insurgents in Algeria.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.C1)
1999 Feb 8, A French helicopter
crashed in Antarctica and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A7)
1999 Feb 9, In Europe heavy snows
caused avalanches that killed at least 5 people. Ten people were killed
in the French Alps.
(WSJ, 2/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 14, In Rambouillet,
France, Madeline Albright brought together the Serb and Albanian sides
in the Kosovo peace talks and the talks were extended one week. The
plan for a 3-year interim settlement included a NATO force of some
25,000 troops, who would collect the weapons of the Albanian rebels.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 23, In France the Kosovo
Albanians agreed in principle to a peace settlement but asked for 2
more weeks for consultations at home.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Heavy rain and snow
in the Alps left 5 people dead and 13 missing in Austria, Switzerland,
France and Germany. An avalanche in the Austrian Alps at Galtuer killed
9 people and at least 30 were missing.
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 9, French police arrested
Javier Arizcuren-Ruiz, aka Kantauri, leader of the military wing of the
Basque ETA along with 5 other ETA members.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 14, In Kosovo heavy
fighting preceded the resumption of peace talks in Paris.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 20, In Paris thousands of
French teachers marched to demand a greater say in educational reform.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 24, In the 7-mile Mt.
Blanc tunnel between France and Italy a fire erupted from a truck
transporting flour. The death toll was raised to 9 with 24 injured. The
fire was extinguished after 3 days and the death toll rose to 35.
Identification of the remains of at least 40 people began Mar 28.
Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc
tunnel in France and burned for two days. It re-opened in 2002. In 2005
a French court convicted 10 people and 3 companies for safety lapses in
the 2-day fire.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)(SFC,
3/29/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/24/00)(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.C4)(AP, 3/24/04)(WSJ,
7/28/05, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Prime Minister Jospin
dissolved an antiterrorist squad linked to the firebombing of a
restaurant in Corsica frequented by nationalists.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1999 May 19, Employees of the
Culture Ministry went on strike and shut down the government-owned
museums and historic chateaus.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A26)
1999 Jun 1, Olivier Debre,
abstract painter, died in Paris at age 79. His work included the stage
curtain at the Comedie Francaise. He attempted to evoke emotion through
abstraction in what he called figurative and landscape signs: "signes
personnages" and "signes paysages."
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A20)
1999 Jun 21, Mayor Jean Tiberi
inaugurated a sundial at the Place de la Concorde. The Obelisk of Luxor
was the pointer (gnomon), and the base was the northern half of the
Place de la Concorde.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A24)
1999 Jul 1, In France a cable car
crashed and killed 21 people in Grenoble.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 13, Merhan Karini Nasseri
(54), a resident of Charles DeGaulle Airport for the last 11 years, was
granted refugee credentials by Belgium.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 21, David Ogilvy (88),
British-born American advertising executive, died in Bonnes, France. In
2009 Kenneth Roman authored “the King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy
and the making of Modern Advertising.”
(AP, 7/21/00)(WSJ, 1/21/08, p.A15)
1999 Jul 25, Lance Armstrong won
the Tour de France cycling race for his 1st time. In 2005 a French
sports newspaper reported that frozen urine specimens indicated that
Armstrong had used EPO (erythropoietin), a hormone drug that boosts
production of red cells.
(AP, 7/25/00)(SFC, 8/26/05, p.A1)
1999 Aug 21, The St.
Pierre-de-Trivisy town council, home of Roquefort cheese, imposed a
100% tax on Coca Cola in retaliation for American tariffs on European
goods.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.D4)
1999 Aug, Jose Bove and 9 others
were arrested after trashing a soon-to-open McDonald’s. Bove was the
author of the book “The World Is Not Merchandise.” In 2000 Bove was
sentenced to 3 months in prison.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A18)(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C2)
1999 Sep 29, Euro Disney unveiled
plans for a movie theme park outside Paris next door to its Magic
Kingdom park.
(WSJ, 9/30/99, p.A18)
1999 Oct 4, Bernard Buffet,
painter, killed himself at age 71. The prolific figurative painter
often completed a work every other day and was respected abroad but not
at home.
(SFC, 10/5/99, p.A26)
1999 Oct 20, In France it was
reported that Maurice Papon (89), convicted for collaboration with the
Nazis, had fled the country.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 21, France’s highest
court upheld the conviction of Maurice Papon, the former Vichy official
who had fled France rather than face prison for his role in sending
Jews to Nazi death camps; Papon was captured in Switzerland and
deported the following day to begin a 10-year sentence.
(AP, 10/21/00)(AP, 9/18/02)
1999 Oct, In France thousands of
fish were killed when the residue of seasonal pressing for champagne
grapes was washed into the Marne River by heavy rains. Dead fish were
piled 6 feet high along a 20-mile stretch and fisherman said it could
take 10 years for stocks to return to normal.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.C1)
1999 Oct 11, In Paris riot police
used tear gas against egg-throwing chefs, who demanded that the
government lift a 20.6% tax on restaurant meals.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 13, France legalized same
sex unions under legislation called "civil solidarity pacts" pushed
through by the Socialist-dominated National Assembly.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 15, The French
organization "Doctors Without Borders" (Medecins Sans Frontieres) won
the Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 20, In France it was
reported that Maurice Papon (89), convicted for collaboration with the
Nazis, had fled the country.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 20, Nathalie Sarraute, a
Russian-born French novelist, died at age 99. Her 17 books included 10
novels and her form was characterized by Sartre as the "antinovel." In
1983 she authored her autobiographical "Childhood."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1999 Oct 22, Maurice Papon (89),
was arrested in Gstaad, Switzerland, and turned over to French police.
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 23, Pres. Jiang Zemin of
China visited France and signed a $2.5 billion deal that included an
order for 28 Airbus planes.
(SFEC, 10/24/99, p.A28)
1999 Oct 29, A EU Commission ruled
that British beef was safe to eat despite French arguments for a ban to
guard against mad cow disease.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 2, In France the
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the finance minister, resigned in a corruption
scandal.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C3)
1999 Nov 13, Heavy rains in
southeastern France caused mudslides that left at least 22 people dead
in the Tarn Aude, Eastern Pyranees and Herault regions.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A15)
1999 Nov, The French government
decided to make morning-after contraception pills available to teenage
girls through school nurses. 10,000 girls under 18 were becoming
pregnant each year and 6,000 were having abortions.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.A15)
1999 Dec 5, In France Michele
Alliot-Marie (53) was elected as the 1st female leader of the
conservative Rally for the Republic.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 9, In France a court
ruled that Seita, the maker of Gauloise and Gitane cigarettes, was
partly responsible for the death of a Richard Gourlain, a 3-pack-a-day
smoker.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.C8)
1999 Dec 12, The Erika, a Maltese
registered oil tanker, broke in two during a storm off the coast of
Brest, France, with 8 million gallons of diesel oil. Half the ship was
towed to deeper waters and 3 million gallons were spilled. In 2008 a
French court found Total SA guilty of maritime pollution and fined it
the maximum penalty of $560,000. It also ordered Total and three other
defendants to pay total damages of $285 million.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.A1)(SFC,
11/20/02, p.A14)(AP, 1/16/08)
1999 Dec 18, Robert Bresson, film
director, died at age 98. His films included "La Femme Douce" and
"L'Argent."
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1999 Dec 26, In Europe heavy winds
and rain killed 88 people in France, 17 dead in Germany and 13 dead in
Switzerland. A 2nd storm hit a day later. Damages from the storms were
later estimated to be at least $4 billion. The storms destroyed an
estimated 400 million trees across France.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/28/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A11)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/25/09)
1999 Jean Douchet authored “French
New Wave.”
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M2)
1999 Jonathan Fenby, English
journalist, published "France on the Brink," a diagnosis of what ails
French society.
(WSJ, 8/4/99, p.A20)
1999 Bruce LeFavour authored
"France on Foot, Village to Village, Hotel to Hotel: How to Walk the
French Trail System on Your Own" with photographs by Faith Ecthermeyer.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, BR p.8)
1999 The French psychological
drama film “Dry Cleaning” starred Miou Miou, Charles Berling and
Stanislas Merhar. It was directed by Anne Fontaine. A reserved couple
get involved with a group of sexually ambiguous nightclub performers.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.D3)
1999 The French film “I Stand
Alone” was directed by Gaspar Noe. It was about an unemployed butcher.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.39)
1999 The French musical film
“Jeanne and the Perfect Guy” starred Oliver Duscatel and Jacques
Martineau.
(SFC, 7/26/99, p.E3)
1999 The French film "Late August,
Early September" starred Mathieu Amalric and Virginie Ledoyen. It was
directed by Olivier Assayas.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.C5)
1999 The French film "Romance" was
written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It was about a woman's
sexual journey and starred Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi and
Caroline Ducey.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, DB p.60)(SFC, 9/29/99, p.D1)
1999 The French film "Same Old
Song" was directed by Alain Resnais.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.37)
1999 The French film "Sitcom" was
directed by Francois Ozon.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.B3)
1999 The French film "The School
of Flesh" was directed by Benoit Jacquot.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.C3)
1999 The French romantic comedy
film "Seventh Heaven" starred Sandrina Kimberlain and Vincent Lindon
and was directed by Benoir Jacquot.
(SFC, 4/9/99, p.C7)
1999 The French film “So Be it”
starred Gerard Blain.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1999 The French film "Soleil"
starred Sophie Loren and Philippe Noiret. It was directed by Roger
Hanin. It was about Jewish mother and her family pushed to
Algiers during WW II.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.C6)
1999 The French film "Women"
starred Carmen Maura, Miou-Miou, and Marisa Berenson. It was directed
by Luis Glavao Teles.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.C3)
1999 In France the Sangatte Red
Cross center, near the 33-mile Channel Tunnel, was set up to house
refugees.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A4)
1999 France finally called the
Algerian conflict a "war." Prior to this France referred only to
operations to "maintain order.”
(AP, 11/29/05)
1999 France tried Manuel Noriega,
former dictator of Panama, in absentia on money laundering charges. He
was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39077)
1999 French retailer Carrefour
merged with Promodes, a French supermarket chain, to form the world’s
2nd biggest retailer. This marked the beginning of problems for
Carrefour.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.71)(Econ, 3/17/07, p.72)
1999 Renault of France spent $50
million to acquire a controlling stake in Dacia, a sickly Romanian car
maker formerly owned by the state. The first Renault-Dacia Logan was
produced in 2004. The millionth Logan was produced in mid 2008.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.14)
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