Timeline France 1650-1795
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1650 Feb 11, Rene Descartes (b.1596), French mathematician and philosopher: "I think therefore I am", died in Stockholm. In 1666 his bones were exhumed for transfer to France. In 2008 Russell Shorto authored “Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the conflict Between Faith and Reason."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.E3)
1650 Jun, Jean Rotrou (b.1609), French playwright, died of the plague. In his day he was considered second only to Corneille.
(SFC, 12/31/08, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rotrou)
1650 Oct 21, Jean Bart, French captain and sea hero, was born. He escaped from Plymouth.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1651 Apr 30, Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French priest, theorist, saint, was born.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1651 Aug 6, Francois Fenelon (d.1715), French theologian and writer (Playing for Time), was born. "Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies."
(AP, 11/27/98)(MC, 8/6/02)
1651 Nov 7, King Louis XIV of France (13) was declared of full age.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1652 Jul 4, Prince of Cond‚ started a blood bath in Paris.
(Maggio)
1652 Jul 22, Prince Conde's rebels narrowly defeated Chief Minister Mazarin's loyalist forces at St. Martin, near Paris.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1652 Oct 21, King Louis XIV returned to Paris.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1653 Nov 5, The Iroquois League signed a peace treaty with the French, vowing not to wage war with other tribes under French protection.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1653 Paris physician Louis Morin the thrice-daily temperature and pressure measurements as part of a short-lived international meteorological network created by the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
(AP, 9/15/07)
1654 Jun 7, Louis XIV was crowned King of France in Rheims.
(AP, 6/7/97)(HN, 6/7/98)
1655 Jul 28, French dramatist and novelist Cyrano de Bergerac, the inspiration for a play by Edmond Rostand, died in Paris.
(AP, 7/28/05)
1655 In Paris the church of St. Medard was built. Medard was a 6th century counselor to the Merovingian kings who bestowed wreaths of roses upon virtuous maidens.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C1)
1656 Dec 14, Artificial pearls were 1st manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris. They were made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1656 French King Louis XIV charged the architect Liberal Bruant to build a hospital on the location of a gun powder factory, founding the Hospice de la Salpetriere in Paris. The building was expanded in 1684.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salp%C3%AAtri%C3%A8re)
1657 Feb 11, Bernard Fontenelle, French scientist, writer (Plurality of Worlds), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1657 Mar 23, France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1657 Charles Chamois, a military architect, designed the Hotel de Lauzun on the Ile of Saint Louis for a cavalry commissioner named Gruyn.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.35)
1658 Mar 5, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French colonial governor of America, was born.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1658 Moliere was anointed with the patronage of King Louis XIV.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.D2)
1659 The French colony of Saint-Domingue was founded on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and continued to 1804.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Domingue)
1660 Aug 21, Hubert Gautier, engineer, wrote 1st book on bridge building, was born in Nimes, France.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1660 Dec 3, Jacques Sarazin (70), French sculptor and painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1661 Mar 9, Cardinal Jules Mazarin (58), the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis the 14th in full control.
(AP, 3/9/01)
1661 Aug 29, Louis Couperin (b.1626), French composer, died.
(Internet)
1661 Oct 11, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (Anti-Lucretius), was born.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1661 In France Nicolas Fouquet, treasurer to Louis XIV, invited the king to his new chateau Vaux le Vicomte. The king, peeved by the wealth of the nonroyal, ordered his arrest and had him imprisoned for embezzlement. The property was confiscated and Louis hired Fouquet's architects and designers to build Versailles.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1662 Apr 27, Netherlands and France signed a treaty of alliance in Paris.
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1767012)
1662 Oct 26, Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1662 Moliere authored his satirical play “The School for Wives."
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.G9)
1663 Apr 10, Samuel Pepys, London-based diarist, noted that he had enjoyed a French wine called Ho Bryan at the Royal Oak Tavern. This same year the Pontacs, a top wine-making family in Bordeaux, founded a fashionable London restaurant called Pontack’s Head. Ho Bryan later came to be called Chateau Haut Brion.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.131)
1663 The Institut de France was begun.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.50)
1663-1742 Jean Baptiste Massillon, French clergyman: "To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak."
(AP, 7/23/97)
1664 May, Benoit Rencorel, a shepherd girl in the French Alps, alleged that she began receiving apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Her apparitions continued to 1718. In 2008 the Vatican officially recognized the “supernatural origin" of the apparitions and made the site of Notre-Dame-du-Laus an official pilgrimage site.
(SFC, 5/5/08, p.A13)
1664 Aug 1, The Turkish army was defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1664-1769 The French East India Company was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies.
(WUD, 1994, p.449)
1665 Jan 12, Pierre de Fermat (b.1601), French lawyer, mathematician (Fermat's Principle), died. His equation xn + yn = zn is called Fermat's Last Theorem and remained unproven for many years. The history of its resolution and final proof by Andrew Wiles is told by Amir D. Aczel in his 1996 book Fermat's Last Theorem. "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh was published in 1997. In 1905 Paul Wolfskehl, a German mathematician, bequeathed a reward of 100,000 marks to whoever could find a proof to Fermat's "last theorem." It stumped mathematicians until 1993, when Andrew John Wiles made a breakthrough.
(MC, 1/12/02)(SFC, 10/2/02, p.D7)
1665 Feb 20, Michel Dorigny (b.1617), French painter, died.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/michel-dorigny-1)
1665 Sep 22, Moliere's "L'amour Medecin," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1665 Dec 4, Jean Racine's "Alexandre le Grand," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1665 Nicolas Poussin (b.1594), painter, known as the founder of French Classicism, died. He spent most of his career in Rome which he reached at age 30 in 1624. His Greco-Romanism work includes "The Death of Chione" (1622-1623) and "The Abduction of the Sabine Women." [WUD ends his life in 1655] In 1997 Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey authored "Nicholas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting."
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1126)(SFC,11/22/97, p.D5)(WSJ, 11/6/02, p.D8)
1665 In France Louis XIV began to systematically hollow out formal guarantees to the Protestants until they became little more than scraps of paper.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R23)
1665 French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the Saint Gobain company to replace imports of Venetian glass with home-made wares. The glass was to be used for the mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.74)
1666 Pierre-Paul Riquet convinced French finance minister Colbert for a canal from the Mediterranean port of Sete to Toulouse and the River Garonne. He oversaw the Canal du Midi project for 15 years and died 6 months before it was completed.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.T9)
1666 The French Academy of Sciences was founded.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.57)
1667 Apr 9, 1st public art exhibition (Palais Royale, Paris).
(MC, 4/9/02)
1667 Jun 15, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, French doctor, performed the 1st animal to human blood transfusion. He successfully transfused a few ounces of blood from a lamb into boy (15). Another experimental transfusion this year resulted in the patient’s death and Denys was accused of murder. In 2011 Holly Tucker authored “Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion)(Econ, 3/19/11, p.95)
1667 Sep 24, Jean-Louis Lully, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1667 Nov 7, Jean Racine's "Andromaque," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1667 In France Louis XIV opened the 1st stretch of the Champs-Elysees: a short extension of the Tuileries Gardens leading to the palace at Versailles.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G3)
1667-1668 The War of Devolution was fought between France and Spain as a result of the claim by Louis XIV of France that the ownership of the Spanish Netherlands devolved to his wife, Marie Therese, upon the death of her father, Philip IV of Spain. France conquered the area, now Belgium, and also seized the Franche-Comte, a Spanish possession that bordered on Switzerland.
(HNQ, 2/7/00)
1668 Feb 7, The Netherlands, England and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1668 May 2, Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of Devolution in France.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1668 May 8, Alain Rene Lesage, French novelist and dramatist, was born. He is best known for his works "The Adventures of Gil Blas" and "Turcaret."
(HN, 5/8/99)
1668 Nov 10, Francois Couperin, composer and organist (Concerts Royaux), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1668 Louis XIV of France purchased the 112 carot blue diamond from John Baptiste Tavernier for 220,000 livre. Tavernier was also given a title of nobility.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1668 Charles Alphonse Dufresnoy (b.1611), French artist, died. His work included the painting “The Death of Socrates" (1650).
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W8)
1669 Feb 1, French King Louis XIV limited the freedom of religion.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1669 A French ordnance created a forest code.
(Econ, 9/2/17, p.46)
1670 May 26, A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending hostilities between them.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1670 Nov 28, Pierre Corneille's "Tite et Berenice," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1670 Cafe Procope, the first cafe in Paris, began serving ice cream.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.E4)
1670 Le Notre, the royal landscaper of Louis XIV, laid out the Triumphal Way in Paris.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.C12)
1670s French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Great Lakes region of the New World.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)
1671 Apr 6, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French playwright, poet (Sacred Odes & Songs), was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1671-1729 John Law, Scotsman and financier for France. He controlled France's foreign trade, mints, revenue, national debt and the Louisiana territory. [see 1694]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1671 Moliere wrote his farce "Les Fourberies de Scapin" (The Wiles of Scapin or Scapin the Cheat).
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A9)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.D3)
1672 Apr 29, King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands. A French army of 100,000 crossed the Rhine and invaded the Dutch Republic. The Dutch Golden Age fell apart when England, France and a pair of German principlaities teamed up to attack the Netherlands and seize its colonies.
(HN, 4/29/99)(PC, 1992ed., p.255)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.38)
1673 Feb 17, Moliere, [Jean Baptiste Poquelin], French author (Tartuffe, Le Malade Imaginaire), died.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1673 May 17, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi.
(MC, 5/17/02)’
1673 Jun 25, French commander Charles de Batz (b.1611), known as D’Artagnan, was slain in the service of Louis XIV. He died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War and was one of the musketeers who inspired Dumas’ fiction.
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.E4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Artagnan)
1673 The Blue Diamond was recut to a 67 carot stone.
(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1674 Aug 18, Jean Racine's "Iphigenie," premiered in Versailles.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1675 Jun 11, France and Poland formed an alliance.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1675 Aug 27, The Strasbourg Agreement, signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire, banned the use of poison bullets in conflict.
(AP, 12/4/12)
1675 Lully composed "Thesee." The librettist was Philippe Quinault. This work established the tragedie lyrique operatic form.
(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.A10)
1675 In France taxes imposed by Louis XIV led to an uprising in Brittany. Protesters wore bonnets rouges (red wooly hats).
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.50)
1676 Lully (1632-1687), French composer born in Italy, composed his tragic opera "Atys."
(SFEC, 1/18/98, DB p.33)(WUD, 1994, p.852)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Racine wrote his drama Phedre in alexandrine meter. It was based on Euripides’ tragic Greek tale of Phaedra’s love for her stepson Hippolytus, son of Theseus.
(WSJ, 5/21/97, p.A12)(Econ, 6/20/09, p.89)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.92)
1678 Louis XIV claimed the region of Alsace from Germany.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1679 Jan 31, Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera "Bellerophon" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1681 May 17, Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declared war on France.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1681-1730 French Protestants, known as Huguenots, migrated in large numbers to England due to persecutions known as dragonnades wherein rowdy soldiers were billeted in their homes. They also lost a semblance of security in the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.85)
1682 Apr 9, The French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reached the Mississippi River. La Salle claimed lower Mississippi River and all lands that touched it for France.
(AP, 4/9/97)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)(HN, 4/9/98)
1682 May 6, King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France. The palace of Versailles was built by Mansart and the gardens were designed by Le Notre.
(HN, 5/6/98)(Hem., 10/97, p.107)
1682 Nov 23, Claude Lorrain, French painter (also known as Claude Gelée), died. His birth is variously noted from 1600-1604.
(WSJ, 11/6/02, p.D8)(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9024243/Claude-Lorrain)
1682 Pere Lachaise, a Jesuit priest, was confessor to Louis XIV. His order built a house on the future site of the Paris cemetery named after him.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-6)
1683 Feb 20, Philip V, first Bourbon King of Spain, was born. [see Dec 19]
(HN, 2/20/01)
1683 Sep 6, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (b.1619), French finance minister (1665-1683) under Louis XIV, died. He pioneered “dirigisme," i.e. state control of the economy and state intervention in industry. “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)(Econ, 2/22/14, SR p.5)
1683 Sep 25, Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer, was born in Dijon, France.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1683 Dec 19, Philip V, King of Spain (1700-24, 24-46), was born in Versailles, France. [see Feb 20]
(MC, 12/19/01)
1683 French King Louis XIV married Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719), his mistress for the last 11 years, shortly after the death of his wife. The marriage was kept secret for the next 3 decades.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1684 Oct 1, Pierre Corneille, French lawyer and dramatist (El Cid, Polyeucte), died at 42.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1684 Oct 10, Jean Antoine Watteau (d.1721), French rococo painter, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1614)(AAP, 1964)(MC, 10/10/01)
1684 For one year Paris was the world's biggest city.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.8)
1684 French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, set sail for what is now Louisiana with 4 ships commissioned from King Louis XIV. On the way one ship was lost to pirates, another broke apart on a sand bar and a third returned home. The 4th was sunk in a storm in 1686.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)
1685 Oct 18, King Louis the XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes that had established legal toleration of France's Protestant population, the Huguenots. The French Parliament recorded the new edict four days later. The edict signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, had given the Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious liberties. He declared France entirely Catholic again.
(HN, 4/13/98)(HN, 10/18/98)(AP, 10/18/07)
1685 Sylvestre Dufour published "Traitez Nuveaux et Curieux de Cafe, du The, et du Chocolat."
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1686 Jan, A storm arose and sank the French ship “La Belle," of explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in Matagorda Bay, Texas. La Salle was off searching for the Mississippi River. This ended La Salle’s plan for a French colony and opened the door to Spain to come and occupy Texas. Archeologists found the ship in 1995 in 12-feet of water and began a recovery project. In 1996 a skeleton was bound onboard. In 2014 the remains of the ship were transported to the Bullock State History Museum in Austin.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)(SFC, 8/16/12, p.A7)(AP, 7/18/14)
1686 Feb 15, Jean Baptiste Lully's opera "Armide," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1687 Feb 22, Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer, died in Paris. Lully, Paris Opera director, had stabbed himself in the foot with a baton and died of blood poisoning.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.B3)(MC, 2/22/02)
1687 Mar 19, French explorer Robert Cavelier (b.1643), Sieur de La Salle, the first European to navigate the length of the Mississippi River, was murdered by mutineers while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in present-day Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier,_Sieur_de_La_Salle)(AP, 3/19/97)
1687 Aug 12, At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1687 Dec 31, The 1st Huguenots departed France to the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1688 Nov 26, Louis XIV declared war on the Netherlands.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1688 Dec 11, King James II attempted to flee London as the "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of Orange) and Queen Mary. James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23, 1688. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a generous pension. In 2007 Michael Barone authored “Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers."
(HN, 12/11/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 23, English King James II fled to France.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1688 Dec 23, Jean-Louis Lully (21), composer, died.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1688 Dec 25, English king James II landed in Ambleteuse, France.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1688 French writer Pierre d'Ortigue de Vaumoriere published anonymously his book, “The Art of Pleasing Conversation."
(WSJ, 5/13/05, p.W6)(http://tinyurl.com/d8tac)
1688 In France a blind Benedictine monk named Dom Perignon discovered the fermentation process that led to champagne. [see 1662] He later devised a cork stopper to hold the bubbles.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(Hem., 10/97, p.103)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1689 Jan 18, Charles Louis de Montesquieu (d.1755), French philosopher and writer (Letters Persanes), was born. "In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed." He authored "The Spirit of the Laws," the 1st great comparative study of civilizations.
(AP, 4/13/99)(WSJ, 11/1/00, p.A24)(MC, 1/18/02)
1689 Apr 15, French king Louis XIV declared war on Spain.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1689 May 11, The French and English naval battle took place at Bantry Bay.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1689 May 12, England’s King William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The "Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1689 Aug 4-5, War between England and France led them to use their native American allies as proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687, one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie (Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that only 24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois, but never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1689 Aug 25, Battle at Charleroi: Spanish and English armies chased the French.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1690 Feb 8, French and Indian troops set Schenectady, NY, settlement on fire.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1690 Mar 16, French king Louis XIV sent troops to Ireland.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1690 May 11, In the first major engagement of King William's War, British troops from Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French, their objective was to take Quebec.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1690 Jul 1, Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1691 Jul 12, William III defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1692 May 29, Battle at La Hogue: An English & Dutch fleet beat France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 Aug 3, French forces under Marshal Luxembourg defeated the English at the Battle of Steenkerke in the Netherlands.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1692 In Germany Rheinfels castle withstood a siege of 28,000 French troops sent by Louis XIV. French troops under Napoleon destroyed it in 1797.
(SSFC, 11/29/15, p.G6)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinfels_Castle)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio)
1693 Jul 29, The Army of the Grand Alliance was destroyed by the French at the Battle of Neerwinden in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1693 Aug 4, Dom Perignon invented champagne. [see 1688]
(MC, 8/4/02)
1693 Heidelberg was torched by the troops of Louis XIV in a dispute over a royal title.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T8)
1694 Nov 21, Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (d.1778), French philosopher, historian, dramatist and essayist, was born. Born to middle class parents, he later attended the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris. The environment exposed him to the world of society and the arts. After the success of his tragedy "Oedipe" in 1718, he was pronounced the successor to the great dramatist Racine. He adopted the pen name Voltaire, though its exact origins and meaning are uncertain. The author of "Candide" (1759) and the "Philosophical Dictionary" (1764), Voltaire's works often attacked injustice and intolerance and epitomized the Age of Enlightenment. He wrote that "Self-love resembles the instrument by which we perpetuate the species. It is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure and it has to be concealed." "All styles are good except the tiresome sort." "Love truth, but pardon error." "The great errors of the past are useful in many ways. One cannot remind oneself too often of crimes and disasters. These, no matter what people say, can be forestalled." S.G. Tellentyre said on Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
(WUD, 1994, p.1600)(G&M, 2/1/96, p.A-22)(AP, 7/17/97)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.8)(HNQ, 10/1/98)(SFEC, 10/11/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 11/21/98)(HNQ, 11/8/00)
1694 John Law, Scotsman, fled England after killing rival Edward Wilson in a duel. He traveled in Europe, played the casinos and studied finance. He set up a bank in France and issued paper money and established the Mississippi Company to exploit the French-controlled territories in America. [see 1720] In 2000 Janet Gleeson authored "Millionaire," a pseudo-biography of Law.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(WSJ, 6/30/00, p.W9)
1695 Apr 13, Jean de la Fontaine (b.1621), French fabulist and poet, died. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Fontaine)
1695 Sep 3, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Italian violinist and composer, was born.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1695 The Comediens Italiens were expelled from Paris for indiscretion in their opera parodies. The fair theaters took up where they left off with the use of vaudevilles and comedia dell'arte characters.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1696 Nov 19, Louis Tocque, French painter, was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1696 Jacques Ozanam, a visionary Frenchman, 1st proposed a “self-moving vehicle."
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1697 Apr 1, Abbe Prevost, French novelist, journalist (Manon Lescaut), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1697 Sep 20, The Treaty of Ryswick was signed in Holland. It ended the War of the Grand Alliance (aka War of the League of Augsburg,1688-1697) between France and the Grand Alliance. Under the Treaty France’s King Louis XIV (1638-1715) recognized William III (1650-1702) as King of England. The Dutch received trade concessions, and France and the Grand Alliance members (Holland and the Austrian Hapsburgs) gave up most of the land they had conquered since 1679. The signees included France, England, Spain and Holland. By the Treaty of Ryswick, a portion of Hispaniola was formally ceded to France and became known as Saint-Domingue. The remaining Spanish section was called Santo Domingo.
(www.caribbeanguides.net/hispaniola.htm)(www.jacobite.ca/documents/1697ryswick.htm)
1697 Charles Perrault first penned "La Petit Chaperon Rouge" (Little Red Riding Hood) as a sexual morality tale for the loose ladies of Louis XIV's court. In 2002 Catherine Orenstein authored "Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale."
(WSJ, 8/7/02, p.D14)(NW, 8/26/02, p.57)
1698 Oct 23, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French court architect (Place de la Concorde), was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1699 Apr 21, Jean Racine (59), French playwright (Phèdre), died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1699-1799 Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, French painter.
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
1701 Sep 7, England, Austria, and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1702 Apr 27, Jean Bart (51), French captain, sea hero (Escape out of Plymouth), died.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1702 Oct 12, [British] Admiral Sir George Rooke defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1703 Sep 30, The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffered only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1703 Nov 19, The "Man in the Iron Mask," a prisoner in Bastille prison in Paris, died.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1703 Francois Boucher, French painter, was born. He painted "Diana."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.174)
1704 Feb 24, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (church music), died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1704 Aug 13, The Battle of Blenheim, Germany, was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1705 Feb 15, Charles A. Vanloo, French painter, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1705 Dec 29, Prosper Jolyot's "Idomenee," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1705 The French began the construction of Fort George on Grenada. It was completed by the British.
(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.F5)
1706 May 23, Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeated the French and 17,000 were killed.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1706 Dec 28, Pierre Bayle (59), French theologist (History of Criticism), died.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1707 Apr 25, At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated Anglo-Portuguese.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1707 Sep 7, George-Louis Leclerc (d.1788), Comte de Buffon, French naturalist and theoretical biologist. He commented on the origins of marine invertebrate fossils in the hills of France. He also wrote a 35 volume work titled "Histoire Naturelle, Generale, et Particuliere," that was an attempt to record all that was known of the world of nature.
(DD-EVTT, p.114)(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)(MC, 9/7/01)
1708 Jul 11, The French were defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1708 Thomas Corneille mentioned Camembert cheese in his geographical dictionary.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.79)
1709 Jul 5, Etienne de Silhouette, French minister of finance, outline portrait artist, was born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1708 Dec 21, French forces seized control of the eastern shore of Newfoundland after winning a victory at St. John's.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1709 Sep 11, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1709 Oct 20, Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy took Mons in the Netherlands.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1709 Nov 19, Pierre Leclair, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1709 Dec 8, Thomas Corneille (74), French dramatist, died.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1709 Representatives of the Comedie-Francaise tore down the loges at the Foire de Saint-Germain. The loges were quickly rebuilt and the Comedie-Francasie people came back enraged and burned them. The theaters were rebuilt in a week and plays resumed.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1710 Feb 15, Louis XV (d.1774), King of France, was born. He ruled from 1715-1774.
(HN, 2/15/98)(WUD, 1994, p.848)
1710 French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) painted "The Fortune Teller" about this time.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau)(SFC, 5/26/18, p.E2)
1711 Sep 22, A French corsair captured Rio de Janeiro following its surprise appearance in Rio's harbor on 12 September. Four Portuguese ships of the line were lost, and the city had to pay a ransom to avoid destruction of its defenses.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rio_de_Janeiro)
1711 Marin Marais, a great French virtuoso on the viola da gamba, composed a pair of suites.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.D1)
1712 Feb 8, L. Joseph de Montcalm de Saint-Veran, French general in America, was born. [see Feb 29]
(MC, 2/8/02)
1712 Feb 29, Marquis Louis Joseph de Montcalm, Commander of French Forces in North America during French and Indian War, was born. [see Feb 8]
(HN, 2/29/00)
1712 Jun 28, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (d.1778), writer and philosopher, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His books include "The Social Contract" (1762) and Emile (1762).
(www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm)(HN, 6/28/99)
1713 Mar 15, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the Southern Hemisphere, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1713 Apr 11, The Peace of Utrecht was signed, France ceded Maritime provinces to Britain. The French colony of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain. The Acadians had come from western France to fish and farm. Those who would not swear allegiance to the crown were deported. Many of these deportees went to the bayou country of Louisiana.
(WUD, 1994, p.7)(WSJ, 9/4/96, p.A12)(HN, 4/11/98)
1713 Apr 21, Louis Duke de Noailles, marshal of France, was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1713 Oct 5, Denis Diderot (d.1784), French encyclopedist (Dictionnaire Encyclopedique), was born in Langres, Champagne, France. Age of Enlightenment philosopher, writer who with his friend Voltaire, scoffed at organized religion, ultimately bringing on the French Revolution. “The aims of the encyclopedia seem harmless enough to us. But authoritarian governments don’t like dictionaries. They live by lies and bamboozling abstractions, and can’t afford to have words accurately defined."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot)(http://tinyurl.com/y6o8gp5h)
1714 In France Dom Perignon invented champagne. [see 1688]
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.8)
1715 Jan 26, Claude Helvétius, French philosopher, was born. He advanced the theory that sensation is the source of all intellectual activity.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1715 May 4, A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1715 Sep 1, Louis XIV (b.1638), "the Sun King," king of France (1643-1715), died of gangrene. His wife was Madame de Maintenon, founder of the convent academy Maison St. Cyr. In 2006 Antonia Fraser authored “Love and Louis XIV."
(THC, 12/3/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France)(WSJ, 11/4/06, p.P10)
1715 Sep 30, Etienne B. de Condillac, French philosopher (sensualism, Cours d'etudes), was born.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1715-1770 France reneged on the terms of its debt five times during this period. Britain never missed an interest payment.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.104)
1715-1774 In France Louis XV, great-grandson of Louis XIV, ruled as king.
(WUD, 1994, p.848)(PCh, 1992, p.279)
1716 May 29, Louis J.M. Daubenton, French zoologist, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1716 John Law established a private bank in France called Law & Co. with the promise that his notes were redeemable on demand for coin. He had persuaded the regent of infant King Louis XV to establish a national bank , and to decree that all taxes and revenues be paid in its notes.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B1)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.56)
1717 Aug 4, A friendship treaty was signed between France and Russia.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1717 Nov 17, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (d.1783), French mathematician, philosopher and physicist, was born. He and Denis Diderot (1713-1784) designed and edited the "Encyclopedie," a massive reference work and polemical attempt to reform French society. In 1998 Andrew Crumey authored the novel "D'Alembert's Principle: A Novel in Three Panels."
(SFEC, 12/27/98, BR p.5)(www.nndb.com/people/405/000087144/)
1717 Watteau drew "Two Studies of a Flutist and a Study of the Head of a Boy."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1717 The French notes of John Law's bank were made receivable for taxes and other royal revenue.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1717 In France John Law proposed a company with exclusive rights to trade with and exploit the resources of the Mississippi territory and to pay down the government's debt from company profits. The regent and Parliament approved and the Companie d’Occident (Company of the West) was established.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.63)
1717 Louis Liger (b.1658), French writer, died. His 1700 book “Oeconomie Generale de la Campagne, ou Nouvelle Maison Rustique" included a chapter on French viticulture.
(SFC, 10/21/04, p.F3)(www.rappaport.it/catalogo.htm)
1717-1718 Voltaire (1694-1778), French writer, was imprisoned in the Bastille for his lampoons of the Regency.
(www.online-literature.com/voltaire/)
1718 Nov 18, Voltaire's "Oedipe" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1718 John Law's Bank was made the state-royal-bank. The Law bank bought the French tobacco monopoly.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1718 The Paris Meridian was first plotted. It was recalculated in the early 1800s by Arago.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.C12)
1718-1719 The French artist Watteau, known for his draftsmanship, created "Woman in Black" and "Head of a Man."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1719 Apr 7, Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (67), French priest, explorer, saint, died.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1719 Apr 15, In France Madame de Maintenon (b.1635), the wife of former King Louis XIV, died. In 1930 Maud Cruttwell authored the biography “Madame de Maintenon." In 2008 Veronica Buckley authored “Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.P10)(http://tinyurl.com/32xq5o)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1719 Sep, John Law announced that he would buy the entire debt of France.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1719 Dec 2, Pasquier Quesnel (85), French theologian (La Foi), died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1719 The fair theaters were closed through the intrigues of their enemies.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1719 The French government gave the Law company the right of coinage. By this time John Law controlled the mint, public finances, the bank, the sea trade, Louisiana, tobacco, and salt revenues.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1719 The French captured and burned the Spanish settlement Presidio Santa Maria de Galve (later Pensacola, Flordia), but handed Pensacola back to Spain three years later. Hurricanes forced the Spanish to repeatedly rebuild.
(AP, 3/24/06)
1720 cJan, John Law was appointed France's comptroller general.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Feb 27, The government ordered that no person should have more than 500 livres in coins or ingots to reduce the demand for coinage.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Mar 24, In Paris, banking houses closed in the wake of financial crisis. The "Mississippi Bubble" burst as panicked investors withdrew their money from John Law's bank and Mississippi Company [see South Sea Bubble, Jan, 1720].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(HN, 3/24/99)(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 May 21, The government issued an edict that devalued all the notes and shares of the Law company and fixed their prices. The edict was repealed after a week but the economy was severely damaged and John Law resigned as comptroller general.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 May 25, "Le Grand St. Antoine" reached Marseille, plague killed 80,000.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1720 Jun 1, The French state bank closed for 10 days.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Jun 10, The French state bank reopened and some people were crushed to death in the rush to get in.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Jul 17, Barricades, placed at the state bank, incited a crowd and 12 people were killed.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Nov 27, John Law's bank closed for the last time.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Dec, John Law left France and returned to England.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Paris, France, had 380 coffee houses by this time. Due to strict curbs on the press handwritten newsletters were exchanged there and government spies were common.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1720-1725 Francois Lemoyne, artist, created his work "Study of a Nude Woman."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1721 Jul 18, Jean Antoine Watteau (b.1684), French rococo painter, died. His work included "Le Mezzetin."
(WUD, 1994 p.1614)(MC, 10/10/01)(MC, 7/18/02)
1721 Dec 29, Madam Jeanne Poisson de Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, was born. She was later blamed for France's defeat in the Seven Years' War.
(HN, 12/29/00)
1721 The 10-volume Theatre de la Foire, containing plays by Lesage, Fuzelier, Dorneval and later Carolet began to be printed.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.5)
1721 The bandit Cartouche (The Cartridge) took refuge in a Belleville cabaret, Le Pistolet. He was captured while sleeping and was hung at the Place de Greve in the center of Paris.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)
1722 Three disgruntled playwrights, Lesage, Fuzelier, and Dorneval, bought a dozen marionettes and set themselves up at the Foire de Saint-Germain to give plays of their own composition.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1722 A French Jesuit got into the Jingdezhen, a gated porcelain producing city in China, and sent home detailed letters on porcelain production. Within decades France developed its own porcelain production plant at Sevres.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1725 Jean-Baptiste Greuze (d.1805), French artist, was born.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 5/14/02, p.D7)
1726 Jan 25, Guillaume Delisle (50), French geographer (Atlas geographique), died.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1726 Sep 7, Francois-Andre Danican Philidor, French composer and chess champion, was born.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1726 The puppet show "La Grandmere amoureuse" by Fuzelier and Dorneval was a spoof on French opera based on Lully's tragic 1676 opera "Atys." It was revived in 1998 by the SF Bay Area team of Magnificat and the Carter Family Marionettes. It made reference to a current dispute between the physicians and surgeons of Paris.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, DB p.33)(PNM, 1/25/98)
1726 St. Louis-en-l'Ile Church was built on the Ile St. -Louis on the Seine in Paris. It was vandalized during the French Revolution.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T8)
1726 Michael-Richard de Lalande (b.1657), French composer, died. He served as the court composer for Louis XIV.
(SFC, 3/20/04, p.E1)(Internet)
1727 Apr 29, Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer, choreographer (ballet d'action), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1727 May 10, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, French minister of Finance, was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1728 Oct 3, Charles G. Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, French duelist, spy and transvestite, was born.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1728 The French Count de Boulainvilliers wrote a life of Muhammad that described him as "an enlightened and wise lawgiver."
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A15)
1729 Voltaire and Charles Marie de la Condamine engaged in a bond fund scheme to take advantage of bonds issued by the French government.
(http://www.damninteresting.com/the-enlightenment-guide-to-winning-the-lottery/)
1729 Ruinart, a French Champagne house, was founded. In 2006 it remained the oldest Champagne house in the world.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.F2)
1729 Scotsman John Law (58), gambler, financier, and former French comptroller general, died in Venice. An inventory of his wealth included 488 paintings with works by Titian, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1730 Aug 10, Sebastien de Brossard (74), French composer, died. He authored the "Dictionnaire de musique" (Paris, 1703).
(MC, 8/10/02)(Internet)
1730 Jean Baptiste Oudry and Pierre-Josse Perrot, artists in the court of King Louis XV, created a drawing for the wall tapestry "Le Coq et Le Perle." The tapestry was made by French weaving house Savonnerie and went on auction in 1997 for $300-400 thousand.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.B10)
1731 The ship Diligent left a Breton port to pick up some 250 slaves for Martinique. 1st Lt. Robert Durand kept a diary that turned up in 1984. In 2002 Robert Harms authored "The Diligent."
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1732 Jan 24, Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (d.1799), French dramatist, was born. He was best remembered for his plays "Barber of Civil" and "Marriage of Figaro." He was a conduit for French gold and arms to American Revolution, persecuted by mob during French Rev. "It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them."
(AP, 12/21/99)(www.theatrehistory.com/french/beaumarchais001.html)
1732 Apr 5, Jean Honore Fragonard (d.1806), France, painter, was born. He painted "The Shady Grove." Hubert Robert was a painter friend and the painting "La Jardinaire" was painted by one or the other.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard)(AAP, 1964)(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.W12)
1732 Aug 13, Voltaire's "Zaire," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1732 The playwright Marivaux wrote "Le Triomphe de l'amour." In 1997 it was redone as the musical "Triumph of Love."
(WSJ, 10/29/97, p.A20)
1733 Sep 11, Francois Couperin, French composer (Le Grand), died at 64. [see Sep 12]
(MC, 9/11/01)
1733 Sep 12, Francois Couperin "Le Grand", French composer, died at 64. [see Sep 11]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1733 Oct 10, France declared war on Austria over the question of Polish succession.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1733 Voltaire authored his "Lettres Anglaises" in which he hailed England as a "nation of philosophers."
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A24)
1733 The opera "Hippolyte et Aricie" by Rameau had its premiere. The libretto was by Abbe Simon-Joseph Pellegrin and was based on Racine's 1677 drama Phèdre.
(WSJ, 5/21/97, p.A12)
1733 In Paris the pompiers began fighting fires on the initiative of Louis XV.
(Econ, 12/11/10, p.66)
1734 Apr 1, Louis Lully (69), French composer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1735 Chardin painted "A Lady Taking Tea."
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
1735 A French expedition to South America was led by Charles-Marie de la Condamine. It produced the earliest maps of the northern part of the continent and led to the introduction of platinum and rubber to Europe. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon." It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), the expedition’s mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Grameson. The couple married in Quito in 1741.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.1)
1736 May 26, British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia. In northwestern Mississippi the Chickasaw Indians, supported by the British, defeated a combined force of French soldiers and Chocktaw Indians, thus opening the region to English settlement.
(AHD, 1971, p.11)(HN, 5/26/98)
1736 Nov 26, Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, French publisher (Mercure de France), was born.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1737 Feb 20, French minister of Finance, Chauvelin, resigned.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1737 The French annual art exhibition known as the Salon was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 11/19/03, p.D12)
1737 Frenchman Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical, flute playing “android."
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.17)
1738 May 28, Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine, French inventor of the guillotine, was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1738 French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that could quack, flap,, paddle, drink, eat and “digest" grain.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A10)
1738 Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited a mechanical flute player that actually breathed.
(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.W8)
1740 Feb 7, Adam-Philippe Custine, French earl, general, MP, was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1740 Jun 2, Donatien Alphonse Francois (d.1814), writer, Marquis de Sade, was born in Paris. He was the French nobleman who was imprisoned for holding orgies in which he whipped and sodomized prostitutes. He wrote "The 120 Days of Sodom" and "Justine."
(http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/3539/)
(WUD, 1994, p.1259)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(HN, 6/2/99)
1740 Jul 8, Pierre Vigne (b.1670), Frenchman, died. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament. In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.catholic-forum.com)
1740 Aug 26, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor, born. He and his brother Jacques-Etienne invented the hot air balloon in 1783.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1741 May 8, France and Bavaria signed the Covenant of Nymphenburg.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1741 Nov 20, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat and clergyman, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1741 Voltaire, French playwright, wrote the play “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet." He used the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.
(WSJ, 3/6/06, p.A10)
1741-1788 Count Laperouse. He attempted to circumnavigate the globe in 1785 and was cut short by a typhoon near the Solomon Islands.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1742-1752 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau served as the inspector general of the navy.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1743 May 24, Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionist, was born. He advocated extreme violence and was assassinated in his own bath.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1743 Jun 27, King George of the English defeated the French at Dettingen, Bavaria. English armies were victorious over the French at Dettingen. This event was celebrated by Handel in his composition "Dettingen Te Deum."
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p. 317)(HN, 6/27/98)
1743 Aug 19, Marie Jeanne Becu Comtesse du Barry (d.1793), last mistress of Louis XV, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1743 Aug 26, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was born. He discovered "dephlogisticated air" which he called oxygen and was executed by the revolution in 1794.
(HN, 8/26/99)(RTH, 8/26/99)
1743 Sep 14, Nicolas Lancret, French artist, died. He was a brilliant depicter of light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society under the regent Orleans. His work included “Study of a Woman Seated on the Ground" and “Study of a Man."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Lancret)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.E3)
1743 Sep 17, Marquis Marie Jean de Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher, a leading thinker in the Enlightenment, was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1743 Joseph Nicolas Pancrace Royer created the opera-ballet: "Le Puvoir de l'Amour." Royer was later remembered for his harpsichord works.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A24)
1743 In France Louis XV commissioned an elevator installed at Versailles to link his apartment to that of his mistress.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
1743 French champagne maker Moet was founded.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.6)
1744 Feb 9, Battle at Toulon: French-Spanish faced the English fleet of Adm. Matthews.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1744 Feb 21, The British blockade of Toulon was broken by 27 French and Spanish warships attacking 29 British ships.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1744 Aug 1, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine Monnet de Lamarck, French zoologist, was born.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1744 Fort Richelieu was built in Sete on the Mediterranean coast of the Languedoc region.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1745 Jan 7, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier (d.1799), French inventor, was born. He and his brother, Joseph (1740-1810), launched the first successful hot-air balloon in 1783.
(HN, 1/7/99)(WUD, 1994 p.928)
1745 Apr 20, Philippe Pinel (d.1826), French physician and founder of psychiatry, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.)(HN, 4/20/98)
1745 May 11, French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1745 Jun 17, American New Englanders captured Louisburg, Cape Breton, from the French. The ragtag army captured France's most imposing North American stronghold on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
(HN, 5/17/98)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(MC, 6/17/02)
1745 Nov 28-29, French troops attacked Indians at Saratoga, NY.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1745 French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote the lyric comedy "Platee." It was an amalgam of song, dance and spectacle based on a simple plot where Jupiter tries to cure Juno of her jealousy. It was a parody of late-Baroque opera. It was staged on the occasion of the Dauphin Louis’ marriage to Princess Maria Teresa of Spain. It was about a lovesick frog.
(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A20)(SFC, 1/20/98, p.E1)(SFEM, 6/7/98, p.8)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)
1745 The French opera “Le Temple de la Gloire" (The Temple of Glory) by composer Jean-Philippe Rameau premiered at Versailles. The libretto was written by Voltaire.
(SFC, 4/27/17, p.E9)
1745 The renowned Champagne house of Moët & Chandon was established in the city of Epernay.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A12)
1745 Richard Hennessey arrived in France from Ireland as an exile from wars with England.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)
1746 Sep 20, Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France from Scotland.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1746 Sep 21, A French expeditionary army occupied Labourdonnais. Colonial governor Joseph Francois Dupleix occupied Madras.
(PCh, 1992, p.298)(MC, 9/21/01)
1746 Parisian book publisher Andre Francois Le Breton hired Denis Diderot (32) to work on a project called the Encyclopedie. The plan was to produce a French translation of Ephraim Chamber’s 1728 Cyclopedia. In 1747 he named Diderot co-editor with Jean D’Alembert.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)(WSJ, 6/29/05, p.D8)
1746 Nicholas de Largilliere (b.1656), French painter, died.
(WSJ, 10/30/03, p.D10)
1746-1818 Gaspard Monge, Comte de Peluse, French mathematician. He served with Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier on the revolutionary commission to devise the metric system.
(WUD, 1994, p.924)(NH, 12/98, p.24)
1747 Jul 2, Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1747 Parisian book publisher Andre Francois Le Breton, producer of the Encyclopedie, named Denis Diderot co-editor with Jean D’Alembert. In 2005 Philipp Blom authored “Enlightening the World," an account of the project.
(WSJ, 6/29/05, p.D8)
1747 In France the National School of Bridges and Roads was founded.
(Econ, 4/23/15, p.43)
1747-1830 Madame Dorothee Deluzy, French actress: "We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?"
(AP, 9/21/00)
1748 Aug 30, Jacques-Louis David (d.1825), Neoclassical painter (Death of Marat), was born. He painted "Madame Hamelin." He also painted a portrait of Napoleon crossing the St. Bernard Pass on a rearing horse. Jean Ingres began his career as a pupil of David.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.369)(WSJ, 5/19/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W12)(MC, 8/30/01)
1748 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, inspector general of the navy gave his ship models to Louis XV, which helped start the Musee National de la Marine.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1748 Henri Francois d’Aguesseau, chancellor of France, granted an official license for the new Encyclopedie following a presentation by Denis Diderot.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1749 Mar, Jean Godin, French geographer, left Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (later Ecuador), in an attempt to reach France to settle his family estate. He traveled by an eastern route across South America and became stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon." It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), French mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Godin. They managed to reunite in 1770.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.4)
1749 Mar 23, Pierre-Simon Laplace (d.1827), French mathematician, astronomer, physicist, was born.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace)
1749 Jun 19, Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, French revolutionary (Committee of Public Safety), was born.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1749 Jul 24, Denis Diderot was arrested in Paris during a government crackdown on writers and publishers of subversive books. He was released Nov 3 to continued his work on the Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1749 Sep 10, Emilie du Chatelet (b.1706), writer and mathematician, died from an infection that followed a pregnancy. Her work included a translation of Newton’s Principia from Latin to French. She met Voltaire in 1733 and they soon began living together. In 1957 Nancy Mitford authored “Voltaire in Love." In 2006 David Bodanis authored “Passionate Minds: The Great Enlightenment Love Affair" and Judith P. Zinsser authored “La Dame d’Esprit."
(www.math.wichita.edu/history/women/chatelet.html)(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)
1749 Rameau's composition "Zoroastre," a lyric tragedy, was first performed in Paris. It did not do well and the composer reworked it with his librettist, Louis de Cahusac, for a Les Arts performance in 1756.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A20)
1749 Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin launched her weekly dinners and provided the Enlightenment Republic of Letters a ‘center of unity’. The Republic of Letters emerged in the 17th century as a self-proclaimed community of scholars and literary figures that stretched across national boundaries but respected differences in language and culture.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters)
1750 Jun 15, Marguerite De Launay, Baronne Staal, French writer, died.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1750 Jul 28, Philippe Fabre d'Eglantine, poet, satirist, politician, was born in France.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1750 Aug 24, Laetitia Bonaparte-Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1751 Jul 28, In France the 1st volume of the Encyclopedie, edited by Diderot and D’Alembert, was published with a print run of 1,625.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1751 Dec 23, France set plans to tax clergymen.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1751 Voltaire published "Micromegas" in which he mentioned "aliens from outer space." This is believed to be the first mention of such aliens in literature.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1752 Feb 7, Publication, sale and distribution of the 1st 2 volumes of the Encyclopedie were summarily forbidden by order of King Louis XV. Chretien de Malesherbes, the French director of publications, managed to broker a compromise that included a layer of censorship and a 3rd volume was published by the end of 1753.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1752 Oct 18, The opera "Le Devin du Village" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau premiered.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1753 Mar 9, Jean-Baptiste Kleber, French general, architect, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1753 Mar 25, Voltaire left the court of Frederik II of Prussia.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1753 May 6, French King Louis XV observed a transit of Mercury at Mendon Castle.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1753 May 9, King Louis XV disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1753 May 31, Pierre V. Vergniaud, French politician, Girondin orator (guillotined in 1793), was born.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1753 Jul 4, Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard (d.1809), French balloonist, was born. He made the 1st balloon flights in England and US.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVblanchard.htm)
1753 Dec 14, French Captain Jacques Le Gardeur rejected the pretensions of the English to ownership of the Ohio Valley, but promised to forward Virginia Gov. Dinwiddie’s letter of trespass to his superiors in Canada.
(ON, 9/05, p.2)
1754 Feb 2, Charles Maurice de Tallyrand-Perigord (d.1838), minister of foreign affairs for Napoleon I, was born. He represented France brilliantly at the Congress of Vienna.
(WUD, 1994, p.1450)(HN, 2/2/99)
1754 Apr 2, A small expeditionary force of 159 men under Lt. Col. George Washington arrived at Will’s Creek and learned that the French had taken over the new Fort Prince George at the Forks of the Ohio from British soldiers and frontiersmen and renamed it Fort Duquesne.
(ON, 9/05, p.2)
1754 May 28, Col. George Washington led a 40-man detachment that defeated French and Indian forces in a skirmish near Great Meadows, Pa.
(ON, 9/05, p.3)
1754 Jul 3, George Washington surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity (later Pittsburgh) in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French, leaving them in control of the Ohio Valley. This marked the beginning of the French and Indian War also called the 7 Years' War. In 2005 Fred Anderson authored “The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War."
(HN, 7/13/98)(Arch, 1/05, p.46)(WSJ, 12/14/05, p.D15)
1754 Aug 2, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French engineer who designed the layout of Washington, D.C., was born.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1754 Aug 23, Louis XVI (d.1793), King of France (1774-1793), was born at Versailles. During the French Revolution he met his fate at the guillotine. He was the grandson of Louis XV and married Marie Antoinette.
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1754-1824 Joseph Joubert, French moralist. "Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve." "To be capable of respect is today almost as rare as to be worthy of it."
(AP, 3/22/97)(AP, 1/22/99)
1754-1838 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, statesman, served as the minister of foreign affairs during the reign of Napoleon.
(WUD, 1994, p.1450)
1755 Apr 1, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French lawyer (Fisiologia del Gusto), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1755 Jul 9, General Edward Braddock was killed when French and Indian troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which was on its way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen. Braddock's troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to accept Washington's advice on frontier style fighting.
(A & IP, ESM, p.11)(HN, 7/9/98)
1755 Aug 23, Jean Baptiste Lislet-Geoffroy, French geographer, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1755 Sep 8, British forces under William Johnson and 250 Indians defeated the French and their allied Indians at the Battle of Lake George, NY.
(HN, 9/8/98)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G6)
1755 Sep 13, Bertrand Barere, French Revolutionist, was born in Tarbes.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1755 Oct 24, A British expedition against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ended in failure.
(HN, 10/24/98)
1755 Nov 2, Marie Antoinette (d.1793), Queen of France, was born. She was the daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I; and wife of Louis XVI in 1770 and thus Queen of France. She was arrested by the Revolutionary Tribunal and beheaded on Oct. 15.
(CFA, '96, p.58)(HN, 11/2/98)
1755 Nov 17, Louis XVIII, 1st post-revolutionary king of France (1814-24), was born.
(HN, 11/17/98)(MC, 11/17/01)
1755 Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality," in which he denounced private property as the root of all evil.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1756 Apr 15, Jacques Cassini (b.1677), French astronomer and cartographer, died.
(http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/cassini_jac.html)
1756 May 17, After a year and a half of undeclared war Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War. England hoped to conquer Canada. The final defeat of the French came in 1763 with the British victory at the Battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 5/17/98)(HNPD, 9/13/98)(http://tinyurl.com/afbze)
1756 May 19, The island of Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea and a British possession since 1708, fell to the French as the British garrison at Fort Philip capitulated.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng)
1756 Aug 14, French commander Louis Montcalm took Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1756 Aug 31, The British at Fort William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1756 Fussier French Sevres porcelain, under the patronage of King Louis XV, gained the upper hand in porcelain production over Meissen. Its trademark pictured cobalt-blue crossed swords.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.W10)
1756-1763 The Seven Years War. France and Great Britain clashed both in Europe and in North America. In 2000 "Crucible of War" by Fred Anderson was published. France, Russia, Austria, Saxony, Sweden and Spain stood against Britain, Prussia and Hanover. Britain financed Prussia to block France in Europe while her manpower was occupied in America. This was later considered to be the first global war because of the number of countries involved.
(V.D.-H.K.p.223)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(WSJ, 2/10/00, p.A16)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.19)
1757 Jan 4, Robert Francois Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
(HN, 1/4/01)
1757 Aug 9, English Ft. William Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1757 Sep 3, Charles X, Duke of Prussia, was born in Versailles, France.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1757 Sep 6, Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, French soldier and statesman who aided George Washington during the American Revolution, was born in Auvergne, France.
(AP, 9/6/07)
1757 Oct 9, Charles X, last Bourbon king of France (1824-30), was born.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1757 Nov 5, Frederick II of Prussia defeated the French at Rosbach in the Seven Years War.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1757 Denis Diderot published his play "Le Fils Naturel."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/diderot.htm)
1758 Jan 2, The French began bombardment of Madras, India.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1758 May 6, Maximilien F.M.I. de Robespierre (d.1794), a leader of the French Revolution, was born. He was known as the "Sea-Green Incorruptible" from his sallow complexion. He decreed death for all those he considered enemies of the revolution.
(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(HN, 5/6/99)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1758 Jun 23, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1758 Jul 26, British battle fleet under Gen. James Wolfe captured France's Fortress of Louisbourg on Ile Royale (Capre Breton Island, Nova Scotia) after a 7-week siege, thus gaining control of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River.
(HN, 7/26/98)(MC, 7/26/02)
1758 Sep 18, James Abercromby [was] replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander, the Marquis of Montcalm, at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1758 Nov 25, In the French and Indian War British forces under General John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne. George Washington participated in the campaign. Forbes renamed the site Fort Pitt after William Pitt the Elder, who directed British military policy in the Seven Years' War of 1756-'53. Before his arrival, the French had burned the fort and retreated.
(AP, 11/25/97)(ON, 9/05, p.5)(HNQ, 7/17/98)
1759 Mar 8, French King Louis XV revoked the license of the Encyclopedie as the 8th volume was about to be printed.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1759 Apr 8, Francois de La Croix (76), composer, died.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1759 Apr 13, The French defeated European Allies in Battle of Bergen.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1759 Apr 23, British seized Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
(AP, 4/23/98)
1759 May 8, Hearing of his appointment in the west, General Napoleon Bonaparte left for Paris in order to obtain a different posting.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1759 Jul 25, British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada. During their 7 Years' War.
(HN, 7/25/98)(SC, 7/25/02)
1759 Jul 26, The French relinquished Fort Carillon in New York, to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst. The British changed the name to Fort Ticonderoga, from the Iroquois word Cheonderoga (land between the waters).
(HN, 7/26/98)(AH, 10/02, p.26)
1759 Aug 1, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany. The marquis de Lafayette was killed by a British cannonball and his son, Gilbert du Motier (2), inherited the title. In 1777 Lafayette joined the American Continental Army.
(HN, 8/1/98)(ON, 2/09, p.1)
1759 Aug 18, The French fleet was destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1759 Sep 3, Pope Clement XIII officially placed the French Encyclopedie on the Vatican’s Index of Prohibited Books.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1759 Sep 13, During the final French and Indian War, the Battle of Quebec [Canada] was fought. British Gen. James Wolfe's army defeated Commander Louis Joseph de Montcalm's French forces on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec City. "Measured by the numbers engaged," wrote historian Francis Parkman, the Battle of Quebec "was but a heavy skirmish; measured by results, it was one of the great battles of the world." Fought on the rainy morning of September 13, 1759, the armies of England and France clashed outside the walls of Quebec City and altered the balance of power of an entire continent. The battle on the Plains of Abraham lasted less than half an hour. By the time the rain had washed away the blood, Quebec had surrendered to the British. Four years later, the Treaty of Paris gave England sole dominion over most of the land that Quebec City had governed, from Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi River.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(AP, 9/13/97)(HNQ, 9/8/98)
1759 Sep 14, Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, French general died at 47 on the Plains of Abraham in Canada.
(MC, 9/14/01)
1759 Sep 18, Quebec surrendered to the British and the Battle of Quebec ended. The French surrendered to the British after their defeat on the Plains of Abraham.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Sep 18, British commander James Wolfe died at the Battle of Quebec.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1759 Oct 20, Marie Jean Herault de Sechelles, French author, politician, French Revolutionary, was born.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1759 Oct 26, Georges Jacques Danton, French Revolutionary leader, was born. He was an impassioned orator and minister of Justice. He was also the last hope of the moderates during the French Reign of Terror and his execution led directly to the overthrow of Robespierre in 1794.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1759 The philosopher Voltaire wrote his novel Candide.
(WUD, 1994, p.216)
1759 France eliminated the public practice of sitting on the stage during theater and opera performances.
(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1759 Britain triumphed over France in the naval victory at Quiberon Bay.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1759-1771 Emiland Gauthey, Burgundy canal engineer, remade Givry, France, over this period.
(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.F5)
1760 Apr 28, French forces besieging Quebec defeated the British in the second battle on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1760 May 10, Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, soldier, author, composer ("La Marseillaise"), was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French army back to Rhine River.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1760 Sep 8, The French surrendered the city of Montreal to British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. [see Sep 18, 1759]
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1760 Nov 23, Gracchus Babeuf, French agrarian agitator, politician and writer, was born.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1760 Nov 29, Major Roger Rogers took possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain. French commandant Belotre surrendered Detroit.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1760 Giovanni Battista Torre started a Paris shop selling books and prints. The shop was best know for its fireworks displays. In 1775 Torre’s son Anthony along with Paul Peter Colnaghi moved to London and established themselves as sellers and publishers of prints. In 2010 “Colnaghi: the History" was published as part of a 250 year anniversary celebration.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.87)
1760s Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour built the La Petit Trianon at Versailles as a retreat. She died before it was finished. Louis XVI later gave it to Marie Antoinette.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.26)
1760-1960 The textbook "France in Modern Times: 1760-1960" was one of the works of Prof. Gordon Justin Wright (d.2000 at age 87). His other books included "The Reshaping of French Democracy."
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C3)
1761 Jul 31, The French ship L’Utile, hit a coral reef near the Ile de Sable in the Indian Ocean. Nearly half of 160 slaves were killed. The French crew of 163 survived. On Sep 27 a white crew of 123 set sail on the Providence, built from the remains of L’Utile, and managed to reach Madagascar with just one death in four days. Fifteen years later a rescue ship found seven female survivors.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.94)
1761 George-Louis Leclerc (1707-1788), Comte de Buffon, French naturalist and theoretical biologist published the 9th volume of his 35 volume work titled "Histoire Naturelle, Generale, et Particuliere," an attempt to record all that was known of the world of nature. This volume expanded on his “theory of American degeneracy," his view that all animals in America were smaller than their European counterparts.
(http://tinyurl.com/7yspryd)(ON, 4/12, p.9)
1762 Jan, In France Diderot published the 1st volume of illustrations for his Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.10)
1762 Feb 5, Martinique, a major French base in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, surrendered to the British.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1762 Mar 10, Jean Calas, a French protestant (Huguenot), was tortured and executed in Toulouse on the charge that he had killed his son in 1761 to prevent him from converting to Catholicism. Voltaire took up the case believing that Catholic judges were biased. He wrote pamphlets and letters to support his case and urged high-placed friends to place the case before the Great Council of Louis XV. On March 9, 1765, Jean Calas and his family were acquitted and the death of the son was ruled a suicide.
(ON, 4/06, p.10)(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1762 Oct 29, Andre-Marie Chenier, French poet (Elegies), was born.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1762 Nov 3, Spain acquired Louisiana. [see Dec 3]
(MC, 11/3/01)
1762 Dec 3, France ceded to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi- the territory known as Upper Louisiana. [see Nov 3]
(CO, Grolier's, 11/10/95)(HN, 12/3/98)
1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau published his didactic novel "Emile," which spelled out his idea of his "natural system," and his work of political philosophy "The Social Contract." The books were banned in France and he was forced to leave.
(WSJ, 2/18/97, p.A18)(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M2)
1763 Feb 10, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French-Indian War. France ceded Canada to England and gave up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands. France retained the sugar colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
(HN, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/08)(SSFC, 7/6/14, p.L5)
1763 Feb 12, Pierre de Mariveaux (b.1688), French novelist and playwright, died.
(SFC, 5/30/09, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Marivaux)
1763 Jun 23, Josephine Martinique, empress of France (1804-14), was born.
(HN, 6/23/98)(MC, 6/23/02)
1763 France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominica)
1764 Jan 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8) played for the Royal Family at Versailles, France.
(http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/23-1764.html)
1764 Feb 11, Marie-Joseph de Chenier, French poet (Cajus Graechus), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1764 Apr 15, Jeanne-Antoinette-Poison LeNormant d'Etoiles, Marquis de Pomador, died.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1764 Sep 12, Jean Philippe Rameau, French composer (Castor en Pollux), died at 80.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1764 Nov 26, France banned Jesuits.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1764 Voltaire [Francois Marie Arouet] (1694-1778), French philosopher, historian, dramatist and essayist, authored the "Philosophical Dictionary."
(HNQ, 10/11/01)
1764 Catherine the Great hired Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) of France to create a statue of Peter the Great (d.1725). In 2003 Alexander M. Schenker authored "The Bronze Horseman: Falconet's Monument to Peter the Great."
(WSJ, 12/18/03, p.D6)
1764 The French established the 1st settlement on the Falkland Islands.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.36)
1765 Mar 7, Joseph N. Niepce (d.1883), French lithographer, inventor (photography), was born. Photo etching was invented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce early in the 19th century. He also invented photography. His partner, L.J.M. Daguerre, perfected Niepce's process and popularized daguerreotypes as the first commercial photographs.
(V.D.-H.K.p.273)(I&I, Penzias, p.114)(MC, 3/7/02)
1765 Sep, Printing of Diderot’s complete Encyclopedie was finished despite unauthorized edits by Le Breton, his chief publisher. The French government prohibited distribution in Paris or near Versailles.
(ON, 4/05, p.10)
1765 Richard Hennessey, an exile Ireland, founded a spirits export business in the Cognac region of France.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)
1765 La Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat, a glass factory, opened in France.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.G6)
1766 Mar 5, Spanish official Don Antonio de Ulloa arrived in New Orleans to take possession of the Louisiana Territory from the French.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1766 Nov 16, Rudolphe Kreutzer (d.1831), a leading French composer and violinist. Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata was dedicated to him. His Stradivarius violin sold for $1.58 mil. in 1998.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E4)(MC, 11/16/01)
1766 France handed its settlement on the Falkland Islands over to Spain.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.36)
1766-1769 The French expedition of Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe. Botanist Jeanne Baret, disguised as a man, likely collected a flower (bougainvillea) near Rio de Janeiro that was named after the captain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Bar%C3%A9)
1766-1817 Germaine de Stael, French author: "There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth: those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it."
(AP, 7/10/00)
1767 Mar 25, Joachim Murat (d.1815), Napoleon's brother in law, was born in Labastide-Murat. He was a French marshal and became king of Naples (1808-1815).
(WUD, 1994, p.941)(HN, 3/25/99)(HN, 3/25/99)
1767 Oct 23, H. Benjamin Constant, [de Rebeque], French politician and writer, was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1767 Fragonard (1732-1806) painted "The Swing."
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.D2)
1768 Mar 21, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (d.1830), French mathematician, physicist and Egyptologist, was born.
(HN, 3/21/98)(WUD, 1994, p.561)
1768 May 15, By the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/99)
1768 Jul 27, Charlotte Corday, French patriot who assassinated Jean Paul Marat, was born.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1768 Sep 4, Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand, French writer, novelist (Atala) and chef who gave his name to a style of steak, was born.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1768 Oct 28, Michel Blavet (68), French court flautist and composer, died.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1769 Jan 10, Michel Ney, French marshal (Waterloo), was born.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1769 Apr 22, Madame du Barry became King Louis XV's "official" mistress.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1769 Aug 15, Napoleon Bonaparte (d.1821), Emperor of France (1804-1813, 1814-1815) and continental Europe, was born on the island of Corsica.
(WUD, 1994, p.950)(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/02)(MC, 8/15/02)
1769 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau published "Histoire Des Poissons."
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1769 Gluck completed his opera "Paride ed Elena." It was the last of 3 collaborations with librettist Raniero de’ Calzabigi. It deals with the seduction of Helen by Paris.
(WSJ, 7/14/04, p.D14)
1769 The Parc Monceau in Paris was created on the property of the Duc de Chartres, father of future King Louis Philippe.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T12)
1770 May 16, Marie Antoinette (14), married the future King Louis XVI of France (15).
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 5/16/98)
1770 Dec 26, Pierre earl de Cambronne, French general (Waterloo, Elba), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1770 Francois Boucher (b.1703), French painter, died. He painted "Diana."
(Econ, 10/9/04, p.79)
1771 Nov 4, Carlo Goldoni's "Le Bourru Bienfaisant," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1771 Dec 26, Claude A. Helvétius (56), French encyclopedist (L'esprit), died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1772 Feb 10, Louis Tocque (75), French painter, died.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1772 The Paris Faculty of Medicine declared potatoes to be an edible food.
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1772 The French Veuve Clicquot champagne was first produced, but the first bottles were laid down for ten years.
(AFP, 7/17/10)
1773 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his bust of Madame du Barry.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1773-1827 Elizabeth de Meulan Guizot, French author: "Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes to others, rather than on what he ought to expect from them."
(AP, 7/18/99)
1774 Apr 19, Gluck's opera "Iphigenia in Aulis," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1774 May 10, Louis XV (64), King of France (1715-74), died of smallpox and was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI (19). Louis XVI soon appointed Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, as his new foreign minister.
(AP, 5/10/97)(HN, 5/10/99)(PCh, 1992, p.318)(AH, 2/06, p.55)
1774 Sep 13, Tugot, the new controller of finances, urged the king of France to restore the free circulation of grain in the kingdom.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1774 Dec 16, Francois Quesnay (b.1694), French economist, died. He was the first to think of the economy as a system of interacting parts to be judged by the necessities and conveniences it produces. Quesnay wrote his Tableau Économique (1758), renowned for its famous "zig-zag" depiction of income flows between economic sectors.
(Econ, 8/7/10, p.84)(www.economyprofessor.com/theorists/francoisquesnay.php)
1774 Dec, In Paris nearly 100 feet of the Rue d'Enfer ("street of Hell") collapsed to a depth of 100 feet.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)
1774 Kaspar David Friedrich (d.1840), German painter and master of numinous landscapes, was born. He painted "Wreck of the Hope."
(AAP, 1964)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1774-1792 King Louis XIV ruled.
(WUD, 1994, p.848)
1775 Dec 18-1775 Dec 27, In Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Francis Daymon, members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence, met 3 times at Carpenter’s Hall with French agent Chevalier Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir regarding French support for American Independence.
(www.historynet.com/benjamin-franklin-revolutionary-spymaster.htm/3)
1776 Mar 1, French minister Charles Gravier advised his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.
(HN, 3/1/99)
1776 Apr, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, the French foreign minister, enlisted Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, playwright and French spy, to establish a commercial firm to supply America with arms, munitions and equipment.
(AH, 2/06, p.59)
1776 May 12, Turgot, French minister of Finance, resigned.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1776 Jun, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais established Hortalez et Cie, a fictitious company, to facilitate the transfer of arms to revolutionaries in America. It facilitated the transfer of weapons and munitions from France and Spain to the Americans. Under the scheme, France and Spain each loaned funds to the company for the purchase of munitions and the Americans would in turn pay for the material with rice, tobacco and other products. The scandal-plagued operation continued after the signing of the Franco-American alliance permitting open shipments of military aid between the two countries.
(HNQ, 4/20/00)
1776 Jul 27, Silas Deane (1737-1789), secretly sent to France as America’s first official envoy, wrote a letter to the US Congress informing them that he has been successful beyond his expectations. Deane had served as the Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress.
(http://tinyurl.com/lwd7xq)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Deane)
1776 Oct 29, Benjamin Franklin departed for France one month to the day after being named an agent of a diplomatic commission by the Continental Congress. He served from 1776-1778 on a three-man commission to France charged with the critical task of gaining French support for American independence.
(http://tinyurl.com/kuarvn)(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1776 Dec 23, Continental Congress negotiated a war loan of $181,500 from France.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1776 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his "Monument to Buffon."
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1777 Feb 13, The Marquis de Sade was arrested without charge and imprisoned in Vincennes fortress.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1777 Jul 27, The Marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious colonists fight the British.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1777 Aug 16, France declared a state of bankruptcy.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1777 Dec 17, France recognized American independence.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1778 Jan 27, Nicolo Piccinni's (1728-1800) opera "Roland" premiered in Paris.
(WUD, 1994 p.1088)(MC, 1/27/02)
1778 Feb 6, The United States won official recognition from France as the nations signed a treaty of aid in Paris. The Franco-American Treaty of Alliance bound the 2 powers together "forever against all other powers." It was the first alliance treaty for the fledgling US government and the last until the 1949 NATO pact. Benjamin Franklin signed for the US.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/6/97)(AH, 2/06, p.59)
1778 Feb 6, England declared war on France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1778 May 30, Voltaire (b.1694), French writer born as Francois-Marie Arouet, died. His books included Candide (1759).
(www.online-literature.com/voltaire/)
1778 Jul 2, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b.1712), Swiss-born writer and philosopher, died in France. He was considered part of the French Enlightenment along with Voltaire and Diderot. In 2005 Leo Damrosch authored “Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius."
(www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm)(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A24)
1778 Jul 10, In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI declared war on England.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1778 Jul 27, British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1778 Dec 19, Marie-Therese-Charlotte, daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1778 Benjamin Franklin, on a diplomatic mission in France, approved a plan by John Paul Jones to disrupt British merchant shipping along Britain's undefended west coast.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)
1778-1781 Under the Treaty of Commerce and Friendship, France aided the American revolutionaries. Some 44,000 French troops served during the American War of Independence.
(AP, 5/3/03)
1779 Apr 24, Mr. H. Sykes, an English optician living in Paris, wrote to Ben Franklin and explained a delay in sending an order for special spectacles, complaining that he was having difficulty making them. Franklin is believed to have ordered his first pair of bifocals from Sykes.
(www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm)
1779 Jun 18, French fleet occupied St Vincent.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1779 Jul 4, French fleet occupied Grenada.
(Maggio)
1779 Jul 24, The Siege of Gibraltar by the Spanish and French was begun. It was finally lifted on Feb 7, 1783.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1779 Dec 6, Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin (80), French still life painter, died.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1779 Dec 19, Auguste-Gaspard-Louis Desnoyers, engraver, was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1779 Benjamin Franklin presented his credentials to the French court, becoming the first American Minister (the 18th American century equivalent of ambassador) to be received by a foreign government.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1780 Mar 21, The Marquis de Lafayette set sail for the US aboard the Hermione after persuading French King Louis XVI to provide military and financial aid to support George Washington’s troops.
(SSFC, 4/19/15, p.A2)
1780 Aug 24, King Louis XVI abolished torture as a means to get suspects to confess.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1780 Aug 29, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (d.1867), French painter, was born. His work included the "Portrait of Monsieur de Norvins" and "Valpincon Bather."
(WUD, 1994, p.731)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(MC, 8/29/01)
1780 A communal grave at the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris cracked and spilled into the cellars of adjoining houses and prompted its closure.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)
1780 Guillaume Raynal, a French historian, proclaimed Puerto Rico to be "in proportion to its size the very best island in the New World."
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.A3)
1781 Apr 29, French fleet stopped Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1781 Aug 30, The French fleet arrived in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
(HN, 8/30/00)
1781 Sep 5, The British fleet arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three straggling lines. Rear Adm. Thomas Graves waited for the French to form their battle lines and then fought for 5 days. Outgunned and unnerved he withdrew to New York. The French had some 37 ships and 29,000 soldiers and sailors at Yorktown while Washington had some 11,000 men engaged. French warships defeated British fleet, trapping Cornwallis in Yorktown.
(NG, 6/1988, p.763)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC, 9/5/01)
1781 The French Marquis de Condorcet authored his pamphlet “Reflections on Negro Slavery."
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.94)
1782 Apr 12, The British navy won its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies off Dominica. A British fleet beat the French.
(HN, 4/12/99)(MC, 4/12/02)
1782 May 26, British officer Capt. Charles Asgill (20), a captive from Yorktown, drew a short straw and was thereby selected to be executed should Capt. Lippincott not be turned over to the Patriots for trial. Asgill was spared following an appeal by French foreign minister Comte de Vergennes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Huddy)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.49)
1782 Sep 13, The British fortress at Gibraltar came under attack by French and Spanish forces.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1782 Nov 30, The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1782 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos authored his novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses" (The Dangerous Liaisons). In 1988 a historical drama film of the same name was based upon Christopher Hampton's play Les liaisons dangereuses, an adaptation of the novel. In 1994 composer Conrad Susa (1935-2013) and Philip Littell created an opera of the same name based on the novel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Liaisons)(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.C10)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A20)
1782 The Comedie Francaise installed benches in the pit to prevent a mob-like atmosphere.
(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1783 Jan 20, The fighting of the Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(HN, 1/20/99)
1783 Jan 23, Stendahl (d.1842), [Marie Henri Beyle], French critic and writer (Le Rouge et de Noir), was born. In 1997 Jonathon Keates published his book "Stendhal," which covers the writer's life story. "Beauty is the promise of happiness." "One can acquire everything in solitude, except character."
(WSJ, 3/25/97, p.A16)(AP, 12/4/97)(AP, 6/6/98)(MC, 1/23/02)
1783 Feb 7, The Siege of Gibraltar, which was pursued by the Spanish and the French since July 24, 1779, was finally lifted. [see Sep 13, 1782]
(HN, 2/7/99)
1783 Apr 10, Hortense E. de Beauharnais, French queen of Netherlands (1806-10), was born.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1783 Jun 4, The Montgolfier brothers launched their 1st hot-air balloon (unmanned) in a 10-minute flight over Annonay, France.
(http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm)
1783 Aug 27, The 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned), made by Professor Jacques Charles, successfully completed its inaugural flight in Paris.
(www.twinring.jp/english/balloon/what_balloon/)
1783 Sep 3, The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War. The Treaty of 1783, which formally ended the American Revolution, is also known as the Definitive Treaty of Peace, the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. The treaty bears the signatures of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay.
(AP, 9/3/97) (HNQ, 7/19/98)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1783 Sep 19, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier launched a duck, a sheep and a rooster aboard a hot-air balloon at Versailles, France.
(AP, 9/19/06)
1683 Sep 24, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1783 Oct 15, Francois Pilatre de Rozier (Jean Piletre de Rozier) made the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet. [see Jun 5]
(HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)
1783 Oct 29, Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert (66), philosopher, mathematician, died. He co-compiled the Encyclopedia with Denis Diderot.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1783 Nov 21, Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier (1754-1785) and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first free-flight ascent in a balloon, to over 500 feet, in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Romain)(NPub, 2002, p.2)
1783 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his "Psyche Abandoned."
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1784 Jan 14, The United States ratified a peace treaty with England, the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/14/98)
1784 Feb 29, Marquis de Sade was transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1784 Apr, The idea of resetting clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in his essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light," published in the Journal de Paris, as a way to save electricity.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/whostarteddaylightsavingtime)
1784 May 20, Peace of Versailles ended the war between France, England, and Holland.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1784 Jun 4, Elizabeth Thible became the first woman to fly aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, over Lyon, France.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1784 Jul 30, Denis Diderot (b.1713), French philosopher, critic, and encyclopedist, died. "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
(WSJ, 6/15/99, p.A16)( www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/denis_diderot_a001.htm)
1784 Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote "The Marriage of Figaro," the sequel to "The Barber of Seville." A 1997 film, "Beaumarchais," was a look at the artist, who was also a womanizer, a spy and an arms runner.
(WSJ, 12/19/96, p.A16)(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.14)
1784 King Louis XVI appointed a French commission to examine the theory of “animal magnetism," developed by German Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). The commission, which included American ambassador Benjamin Franklin, branded Mesmer a fraud.
(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
1784 Virginia Congressman Thomas Jefferson (41) became the US Commissioner and Minister to France. He continued there to 1798 and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
(www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation)
1785 Jan 7, The first balloon flight across the English Channel was made. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and the American Dr. John Jeffries crossed the English Channel for the first time in a hydrogen balloon.
(HN, 5/15/98)(HN, 1/7/99)
1785 Mar 27, Louis XVII, Pretender to the throne (1793-1795) during the French Revolution, was born. His father may have been Marie Antoinette's Swedish lover, Count Axel von Fersen.
(HN, 3/27/98)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A18)(MC, 3/27/02)
1785 May 23, Benjamin Franklin in Paris spoke of his invention of bifocals in a letter to friend and philanthropist George Whatley.
(www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm)
1785 Jun 15, Two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed, in possibly the first fatal aviation accident.
(AP, 2/26/13)(www.space.com/16595-montgolfiers-first-balloon-flight.html)
1785 Jul 17, France limited the importation of goods from Britain.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1785 Aug 15, French Cardinal De Rohan (51), Bishop of Strasbourg, was arrested in the affair of the diamond necklace. He was accused of forging the queen’s signature to gain possession of a necklace containing 647 diamonds. In 2014 Jonathan Beckman authored “How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds, and the Scandal that Shook the French Throne."
(PC, 1992, p.335)(Econ, 7/12/14, p.76)
1785 Sep 28, Napoleon Bonaparte (16) graduated from the military academy in Paris. He was 42nd in a class of 51.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1785 The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) authored “The 120 Days of Sodom." It tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate sexual gratification in orgies.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_120_Days_of_Sodom)
1785 Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (1743-1794), French philosopher and mathematician, wrote the “Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions," one of his most important works. This work described several now famous results, including Condorcet's jury theorem, which states that if each member of a voting group is more likely than not to make a correct decision, the probability that the highest vote of the group is the correct decision increases as the number of members of the group increases.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)
1785 Thomas Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as US ambassador to France.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1786 Apr, The process of moving the bones from the Cemetery of the Innocents to the new site in the limestone quarries began. The process took 2 years. The Revolutionary Government of Paris had decided to relieve congestion and improve sanitary conditions by emptying the city cemeteries into an official ossuary. The Cemetery of the Innocents and other church cemeteries were moved to the limestone quarries south of the city.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.G3)
1786 Jul 24, Jean-Louis Nicollet, French explorer, was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1786 Aug 8, Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard became the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.
(HN, 8/8/98)(ON, 4/04, p.1)
1786 Sep 14, Two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey, the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies. Aboard was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers, illustrators, and physicians. For the next ten days Jean Francois de La Pérouse, the commander of this expedition, took detailed notes on the life and character of the area. Perouse’s notes were later published under the title “Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786: The Journals of Jean Francois De LA Perouse."
(http://tinyurl.com/fbuud)
1786 Sep 26, France and Britain signed a trade agreement in London.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1786 Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne began writing in a new genre, the nighttime prowl. His "Les Nuits de Paris ou Le Spectateur nocturne" was a rambling account of 1,001 nights wandering the streets of Paris.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.35)
1786-1859 Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French actress and poet: "Who will give me back those days when life had wings and flew just like a skylark in the sky."
(AP, 2/28/99)
1787 Jul 2, The Marquis de Sade shouted from Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1787 Jul 30, The French parliament refused to approve a more equitable land tax.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1787 Aug 2, Horace the Saussure reached the top of Mont Blanc.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1787 Sep 4, Louis XVI of France recalled parliament.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1787 Nov 18, Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French painter (daguerreotype), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1787 Nov 29, Louis XVI promulgated an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
(HN, 11/29/98)(WSJ, 11/1/01, p.A19)
1787 Quatremiere de Quincy coined the term "Baroque" and defined it as absurdity carried to excess.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A17)
1787 Thomas Jefferson toured Bordeaux while serving as US ambassador to France. He purchased cases Haut-Brion, d’Yquiem, and Margaux for himself and George Washington.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A9)
1788 May 29, Jacques Aliamet (61), French etcher, engraver, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1788 Jul 6, Ten thousand troops were called out in Paris as unrest mounted in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1788 Jul 15, Louis XVI jailed 12 deputies who protest new judicial reforms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1788 Jul 19, Prices plunged on the Paris stock market.
(HN, 7/19/98)
1788 Jul 20, The governor of the French colony of Pondicherry, Vietnam, abandoned plans to place King Nhuyen Anh back on the throne.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1788 Aug 8, King Louis XVI called the French States and Generals together.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1788 Aug 8, Louis FAD Duke de Richelieu (92), French marshal, died.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1788 Aug 27, Jacques Neeker was named French minister of Finance.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1788 Sep 19, Charles de Barentin became lord chancellor of France.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1788 Sep 23, Louis XVI of France declared the Parliament restored.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1788 Sep 24, After having been dissolved, the French Parliament of Paris reassembled in triumph.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1788 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) painted "Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and Remorse Follows."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1789 Jan 21, Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach (b.1723), a French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment, died. In 2010 Philipp Blom authored “A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment," the story of the Paris salon run by Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach.
(Econ, 10/30/10, p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach)
1789 Feb 2, Armand-Louis Couperin (63), French composer, organist at Notre Dame, died.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1789 Mar, In France the cahiers de doleances (lists of grievances) began to be drawn up by each of the three Estates. Their compilation between March and April was ordered by Louis XVI, who had convened the Estates-General to manage the revolutionary situation.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahiers_de_dol%C3%A9ances)
1789 May 5, In France the Estates General, summoned by King Louis XVI, convened to repair the national finances. It sat for several weeks in May and June, but came to an impasse as the three Estates clashed over their respective powers. It was brought to an end when many members of the Third Estate formed themselves into a National Assembly, signaling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates-General_of_1789)
1789 Jun 10, Bernard-Jordan de Launay, military governor of the Bastille, suspended the prisoners' daily supervised walks outside the Bastille walls.
(ON, 4/01, p.1)
1789 Jun 17, The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and undertook to frame a constitution.
(AP, 6/17/97)
1789 Jun 20, Oath on the Tennis Court in Versailles, France, bonded members of the Third Estate to resist eviction until they have a new constitution.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1789 Jul 9, In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1789 cJul 11, Just days before the Bastille was taken the tavern keepers and wine merchants of Belleville, angered by levies on food and drink, sacked the local tax collector's office.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)
1789 Jul 13, Parisians rioted over an increase in price of grain. The mob plundered the armories and opened the prison gates of St. Lazare. The King at Versailles refused to withdraw his troops from Paris.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1789 July 14 , Bastille Day. Tens of thousands of the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille, the Paris fortress used as a prison to hold political prisoners, and released the prisoners inside at the onset of the French Revolution. Over 100 rioters were killed or wounded. The average Frenchman was 5 foot 2 and weighed 105 pounds. France’s Louis XIV made a diary entry that read “Rien" (nothing). Historian Francois Furet (1927-1997), a leading writer on the French Revolution, was best known for his work: "Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution." He refuted Marxist interpretations of the events that preceded and followed the fall of the monarchy. In 1939 W. Higgins edited "The French Revolution Told by Contemporaries."
(AP, 7/14/97)(HN, 7/14/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R12)(ON, 4/01, p.1)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.52)(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A18)
1789 Jul 14, The French Revolution. "It was not the literate and cultured minority of Frenchmen who brought down the government, as had been the case in England and America. Instead it was the common people, who marched upon the king and queen in their palace at Versailles. The Jacobins promulgated a Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen that went beyond the American Bill of Rights in affirming, "Nothing that is not forbidden by Law may be hindered, and no one may be compelled to do what the Law does not ordain," for "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others."
(V.D.-H.K.p.230-231)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)
1789 Jul 15, The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the government.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1789 Jul 18, Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1789 Jul 23, The Great Fear swept through France as the Revolution continued.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1789 Aug 4, The Constituent Assembly in France dissolved feudal system by abolishing the privileges of nobility.
(HN, 8/4/98)(MC, 8/4/02)
1789 Aug 21, Augustin-Louis Baron Cauchy, French mathematician, was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1789 Aug 26, The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approved the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1789 Aug 27, French National Assembly issued "Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1789 Sep 13, Guardsmen in Orleans, France, opened fire on rioters trying to loot bakeries, killing 90.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1789 Sep 16, Jean-Paul Marat set up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple (The Friend of the People).
(HN, 9/16/98)(ON, SC, p.7)
1789 Oct 10, In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin said the most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1789 Nov 2, The property of the Church in France was taken away by the state.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1789 Nov 5, French National Assembly declared all citizens equal under law.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1789 Dec 3, Claude-Joseph Vernet, French seascape painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1789 Dec 13, The National Guard was created in France.
(HN, 12/13/98)
c1789 The Marquis de Lafayette wrote the original version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He was appalled by the excesses of the revolution and fled to Austria where he was imprisoned for 5 years.
(WSJ, 1/15/97, p.A12)
1789 A French decree allowed wine and coffee to be served on the same premises.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.105)
1789 Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General, said the third estate is everything, has nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1789 In 1999 Rachel Wright authored "Paris: 1789," an informative children's book of Parisian life on the eve of the Revolution.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, Par p.8)
1789 The French dwarf Richeborg stood 23 inches and was costumed as a baby in diapers during the French Revolution. In the arms of innocent girls he could eavesdrop on sensitive conversations and carried secret dispatches in and out of Paris.
(SFC, 6/23/96, zone 1 p.2)
1789 The bankruptcy of the French government brought banks across Europe to their knees.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R48)
1789 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French nobleman and chemist, presented a paper on the geology of the Earth that proposed that sea level had oscillated over time, as opposed to a stationary sea with linear sedimentation.
(NH, 12/98, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier)
1789 Pierre Ordinaire, French chemist, invented absinthe as a digestive or all-purpose tonic. It quickly caught on as an apéritif. It was popularized by Henri-Louis Pernod, who opened his first distillery in Switzerland before moving to Pontarlier, France, in 1805.
(http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/a/absinthe.htm)(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A3)
1789-1914 In 2006 Michael Burleigh authored “Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War."
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.87)
1790 Jan 21, Joseph Guillotine proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1790 Feb 6, The last stone of the Bastille, torn down by order of the revolutionary leaders, was presented to the National Assembly.
(ON, 4/01, p.3)
1790 Feb 26, As a result of the Revolution, France was divided into 83 departments.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1790 Mar 31, In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre was elected president of the Jacobin Club.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1790 May 21, Paris was divided into 48 zones.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1790 Jul 3, In Paris, the Marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1790 Jul 12, The French Assembly approved a Civil Constitution providing for the election of priests and bishops.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1790 Jul 26, An attempt at a counter-revolution in France was put down by the National Guard at Lyons.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1790 Sep 4, Jacques Necker was forced to resign as finance minister in France.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1790 Oct 21, Alphonse-Marie Louis de Lamartine, writer (Rene), was born in Macon, France.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1790 Oct 21, The Tricolor was chosen as the official flag of France.
(HN, 10/21/98)
1790 Dec 23, Jean François Champollion, French founder of Egyptology, was born. He deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
(HN, 12/23/99)
1790 US Minister to France, Gouverneur Morris, said that the French "have taken Genius instead of Reason for their Guide, adopted Experiment instead of Experience, and wander in the Dark because they prefer Lightning to Light." In 2000 Susan Dunn published "Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.28)
1790 The celerifere bicycle appeared in Paris about this time and was a two-wheeled, un-steerable vehicle that the rider propelled by striking his feet on the ground. This was improved upon with a bar to steer the front wheel in 1816 by Baron von Drais of Germany, and was called a draisine. The ordinary, which had a high front wheel, wire-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires, was developed in the 1870s.
(HNQ, 10/29/99)
1790-1792 Sans-culottes (French for without knee-breeches) was a term created during this period by the French to describe the poorer members of the Third Estate, according to the dominant theory because they usually wore pantaloons (full-length trousers) instead of the chic knee-length culotte. The term came to refer to the ill-clad and ill-equipped volunteers of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, but, above all, to the working class radicals of the Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-culottes)
1790-1799 The revolutionary tide that swept Europe during this period was later covered by R.R. Palmer in his book “The Age of the Democratic Revolution."
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)
1790-1869 Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, French poet, womanizer, historian and statesman.
(WUD, 1994, p.803)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T5)
1791 Mar 10, Pope condemned France's Civil Constitution of the clergy.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1791 Apr 18, National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1791 Jun 20, King Louis XVI of France attempted to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes, but was caught.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1791 Jun 21, King Louis XVI and the French royal family were arrested in Varennes. In 2003 Timothy Tackett authored "When the King Took Flight," an examination of the political culture during this period of transformation.
(HN, 6/21/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1791 Jul 13, The bones of the greatest French satirist, philosopher, and writer, Voltaire (Jean-Marie Arouet) were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1791 Jul 16, Louis XVI was suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1791 Jul 17, National Guard troops opened fire in Paris on a crowd of demonstrators calling for the deposition of the king.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1791 Jul 24, Robespierre expelled all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French Revolution.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1791 Sep 3, The French National Assembly passed a French Constitution passed.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1791 Sep 9, French Royalists took control of Arles and barricaded themselves inside the town.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1791 Sep 13, France's King Louis XVI accepted a constitution.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1791 Sep 14, Louis XVI solemnly swore his allegiance to the French constitution.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1791 Sep 26, J.L.A. Theodore Gericault, French painter, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1791 Sep 27, Jews in France were granted French citizenship. Jews were granted religious and civic rights in 1791.
(HN, 9/27/98)(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A13)
1791 Oct 1, In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly held its first meeting.
(HN, 10/1/98)
1791 Englishman Thomas Paine wrote the “Rights of Man" in Paris, promoting the French Revolution. It defended the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's attack in “Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790).
(ON, 6/2011, p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Man)
1791 French Comte de Volney (1757-1820) authored “The Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires," a treatise on why civilizations fell and what men should do to find happiness.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.128)
1791 Legend says the Harel family began making Camembert cheese before this time. The family had given a priest refuge, who in gratitude gave them the recipe. In 2003 Pierre Boisard authored "Camembert: A National Myth."
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.M3)
1792 Feb 15, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre (42), astronomer and surveyor, was elected to the French Academy of Sciences to help establish the length of a proposed new unit of measurement, the meter.
(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1792 Apr 14, France declared war on Austria, starting French Revolutionary Wars.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1792 Apr 20, France declared war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
(AP, 4/20/97) (HN, 4/20/98)
1792 Apr 24, Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an officer stationed in Strasbourg, composed "La Marseillaise," which later became the national anthem of France.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)
1792 Apr 25, Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine.
(AP, 4/25/97)(HN, 4/25/98)
1792 May 21, Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis (d.1843), French engineer and mathematician, was born. He became first person to describe the Coriolis force.
(SFC, 5/21/09, p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_Coriolis)
1792 Jul 18, American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45. His body was preserved in rum in case the American government wished him back. In 1905 his body was transported to the US and placed in a crypt in Annapolis. In 2003 Evan Thomas authored "John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy."
(AP, 7/18/97)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.M3)
1792 Jul 30, The French national anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.
(AP, 7/30/99)
1792 Aug 10, Some 10,000 Parisians attacked the Tuileries Palace of Louis XVI at the instigation of Georges Jacques Danton (33), after Louis ordered his Swiss guard to stop firing on the people. The mob massacred some 600 guardsmen. The king was later arrested, put on trial for treason, and executed the following January.
(PC, 1992, p.345)(AP, 8/10/07)(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Aug 11, A revolutionary commune was formed in Paris, France.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1792 Aug 13, Revolutionaries imprisoned the French royal family, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. [see Aug 10]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1792 Sep 2, Verdun, France, surrendered to the Prussian Army.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1792 Sep 2, In the "September Massacres"- French mobs removed nobles and clergymen from jails, and some 1,600.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.80)
1792 Sep 3, In France Princess de Lamballe (b.1749), the best friend of Marie Antoinette, was killed and her body mutilated by an angry mob. Her head was displayed under the window of Marie Antoinette, interned in Temple Prison.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G5)(www.batguano.com/vigeeart100.html)
1792 Sep 5, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the National Convention in France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1792 Sep 21, Collot D'Herbois proposed to abolish the monarchy in France. The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy. 1st French Republic formed
(AP, 9/21/97)(MC, 9/21/01)
1792 Sep 22, The first French Republic was proclaimed.
(AP, 9/22/06)
1792 Nov 6, Battle at Jemappes: French army beat the Austrians.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1792 Dec 11, France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. Louis was convicted and executed the following month.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1792 The crown jewels of France were stolen including the 67 carot Blue Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1793 Jan 9, The first US manned balloon flight occurred as Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J. He stayed airborne for 46 minutes, traveled close to 15 miles and set down at the "old Clement farm" in Deptford, New Jersey. [see Jun 23, 1784, Mar 9, 1793]
(WSJ, 3/31/98, p.A1)(AP, 1/9/99)(ON, 6/09, p.2)
1793 Jan 19, French King Louis XVI was sentenced to death. [see Jan 21]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1793 Jan 21, Louis XVI (38), last of the French Bourbon dynasty, was executed on the guillotine. The vote in the National Convention for execution for treason won by a margin of one vote. The Great Terror followed his execution.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(NH, 6/97, p.23)(AP, 1/21/98)
1793 Feb 1, France declared war on Britain and the Netherlands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1793 Mar 4, French troops conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 10, In France, on a proposal by Georges-Jacques Danton (1759-1794), the National Convention decreed that there should be established in Paris an extraordinary criminal tribunal. The news of the failure of the French arms in Belgium had given rise in Paris to popular movements on March 9 and 10, 1793. On Oct 20 the extraordinary criminal tribunal received by decree the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Tribunal)
1793 Mar 18, The 2nd Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beat France.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1793 Mar 26, Pro-royalist uprising took place in Vendée region of France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1793 Apr 6, In France all executive power was conferred upon a Committee of Public Safety. Georges-Jacques Danton was one of the nine original members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Danton)
1793 Apr 14, A royalist rebellion in Santo Domingo was crushed by French republican troops.
(HN, 4/14/99)
1793 Jun 2, Maximillian Robespierre, a member of France's Committee on Public Safety, initiated the "Reign of Terror," a purge of those suspected of treason against the French Republic. Months of the Great Terror, followed the Revolution in France as thousands died beneath the guillotine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(HN, 6/2/98)
1793 Jun 24, The first republican constitution in France was adopted.
(AP, 6/24/97)
1793 Jul 13, Pierre Dupont de Nemours was ordered arrested in Paris on charges of plotting with rebels against the French Revolutionary National Assembly.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1793 Jul 13, French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was executed four days later. In 1970 Marie Cher authored "Charlotte Corday, and Certain Men of the Revolutionary Torment."
(AP, 7/13/97)(ON, SC, p.8)
1793 Jul 23, The French garrison at Mainz, Germany, fell to the Prussians.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1793 Jul 24, France passed the 1st copyright law.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1793 Jul 27, In France, Robespierre became a member of the Committee of Public Safety.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1793 Jul, Napoleon Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet that made a good impression on the Jacobin faction that had seized power in Paris.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Aug 14, Republican troops in France laid siege to the city of Lyons.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1793 Aug 22, Louis Duke de Noailles (80), marshal of France, was guillotined.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1793 Aug 27, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1793 Aug 28, Adam-Philippe Custine, Duke de Lauzun (French duke, general, fought in American Revolution, hero in both countries), was guillotined in Paris.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1793 Sep 5, The Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities. One delegate, claiming that the middle class Girondist (moderates) leaders be sentenced to death cried, "It is time for equality to wield its scythe over all the heads. Very well, Legislator, place Terror on the agenda!" The delegates agreed to arrest all suspects and dissenters, try them swiftly in the kangaroo courts known as the Revolutionary Tribunals, and sentence them uniformly to death.
(MC, 9/5/01)(AP, 9/4/07)
1793 Sep 6, French General Jean Houchard and his 40,000 men began a three-day battle against an Anglo-Hanoverian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of the French Revolution.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1793 Sep 17, Captain Napoleon Bonaparte reached Toulon and presented himself to his new commander, General Carteaux, a former house painter and policeman.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Oct 10, The rebellious French city of Lyons surrendered to Revolutionary troops.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1793 Oct 16, During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette was beheaded. Prosecutors claimed she had sexually abused her son and financially abused the French Monarchy. In mourning for her husband, Louis XVI, who had been guillotined the previous January, clad in rags, her once-dazzling locks shorn by the executioner's assistant, she even suffered the indignity of a crude sketch by the great French painter, Jacques Louis David. Antoinette bore herself with a regal indifference to her martyrdom. Madame Tussaud used her severed head as a model for her wax bust death mask. In 2001 Antonia Fraser authored "Marie Antoinette: The Journey."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.T5)(AP, 10/16/97)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.W13)
1793 Oct 19, Captain Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to chef de bataillon (major) giving him greater voice in the councils of war and the siege of Toulon.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Oct 20, In France an extraordinary criminal tribunal received the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal by a decree. The news of the failure of the French arms in Belgium gave rise in Paris to popular movements on March 9 and 10, 1793, and on March 10, on the proposal of Danton, the Convention decreed that there should be established in Paris an extraordinary criminal tribunal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Tribunal)
1793 Oct 31, Execution of 21 Girondins (moderates) in Paris, stepping up the Reign of Terror. Pierre V. Vergniaud (40), French politician and elegant, impassioned orator of Girondins, was guillotined.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1793 Nov 8, The Louvre opened in Paris as a museum. It was originally constructed as a fortress in the early thirteenth century.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MC, 11/8/01)
1793 Nov 10, France outlawed the forced worship of God.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1793 Nov 12, Jean-Sylvain Bailley (53), French astronomer and mayor of Paris, was guillotined.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1793 Nov 19, The Jacobin Club was formed in Paris. Robespierre (1758-1794), Jacobin leader: "Terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe and inflexible."
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)(MC, 11/19/01)
1793 Nov 26, Republican calendar replaced the Gregorian calendar in France.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1793 Nov, Philippe Aspairt, a hospital porter, ventured alone into the limestones quarries south of Paris, site of the new cemetery, and got lost. Workmen found his bones 11 years later.
(Hem., 3/97, p.119)
1793 Dec 6, Marie Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du Barry, flamboyant mistress of Louis XV, was guillotined in Paris.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1793 Dec 19, French troops recaptured Toulon from the British. Napoleon Bonaparte led the intense shelling of British positions. This led to his promotion to brigadier general.
(ON, 2/12, p.6)
1793 Jacques-Louis David painted "Death of Marat."
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.5)
1793 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) painted "Cupid Laughs at the Tears He Causes."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1793 Augustin Ximenez (1726-1817), Marquis of Ximenez, a Frenchman of Spanish origin, wrote a poem with the line “Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion," which means "Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters." The poet of perfidy later lectured French soldiers that “Il est beau de perir," which means “it is beautiful to perish."
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M4)(http://tinyurl.com/ye6bd7)
1794 Feb 4, France’s First Republic (Convention) voted for the abolition of slavery in all French colonies. The abolition decree stated that "the Convention declares the slavery of the Blacks abolished in all the colonies; consequently, all men, irrespective of color, living in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy all the rights provided by the Constitution." Slavery was restored by the Consulate in 1802, and was definitively abolished in 1848 by the Second Republic, on Victor Schoelcher’s initiative.
(www.ambafrance-uk.org/Slavery-Slavery-was-abolished-in.html)
1794 Mar 28, Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (b.1743), mathematician (Theory of Comets) and philosopher, died as a fugitive from French Revolution Terrorists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)
1794 Apr 5, Georges-Jacques Danton (b.1759), French revolutionary leader, was guillotined along with Marie Jean Herault de Sechelles, French author, politician, and Camille Desmoullins, popular journalist. In 2009 Jonathan Cape authored “Danton: The Gentle Giant of Terror."
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Danton)
1794 May 6, In Haiti Toussaint Louverture (L’Ouverture), Haitian rebel leader, ended his alliance with the Iberian monarchy and embraced the French Republicans. An order followed that led to the massacre of Spaniards.
(www.travelinghaiti.com/history_of_haiti/toussaint_louverture.asp)(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.W4)
1794 May 8, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry (identified oxygen), was executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror. In 2005 Madison Smartt Bell authored “Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in the Age of Revolution."
(AP, 5/8/97)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.E1)
1794 May 10, In France Elizabeth (30), the sister of King Louis XVI, was beheaded.
(HN, 5/10/99)(MC, 5/10/02)
1794 May 18, The 2nd battle of Bouvines was between France and Austria.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1794 Jun 1, English fleet under Richard Earl Howe defeated the French. (MC, 6/1/02)
1794 Jun 4, Robespierre was unanimously elected president of the Convention in the French Revolution.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 8, Maximilian Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader, worried about the influence of French atheists and philosophers, staged the "Festival of the Supreme Being" in Paris.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1794 Jun 15, The Guillotine was moved to outskirts of Paris.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1794 Jun 26, The French defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus. The French used a tethered balloon to observe the battlefield and direct artillery fire.
(www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_fleurus_1794.html)(NPub, 2002, p.4)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1794 Jul 13, Robespierre boycotted the Committee of Public Safety and the National convention after being denounced as a dictator.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1794 Jul 23, Chaos and anarchy were averted temporarily when Robespierre joined conciliation talks in Paris.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1794 Jul 26, After remaining uncharacteristically silent for several weeks, Robespierre demanded that the National Convention punish "traitors" without naming them.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1794 Jul 26, The French defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus in France.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1794 Jul 27, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1794 Jul 28, Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine. Robespierre had dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the "Reign of Terror." He asserted the collective dictatorship of the revolutionary National Convention and attacked factions led by men such as Jacques-René Hébert which he felt threatened the government's power. Factions opposed to Robespierre gained momentum in the summer of 1794. Declared an outlaw of the National Convention, Robespierre and many of his followers were captured and he—along with 22 of his supporters—were guillotined before cheering crowds.
(AP, 7/28/97)(HN, 7/28/98)(HNQ, 11//00)
1794 Jul 29, Seventy of Robespierre's followers were guillotined.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1794 Aug 21, France surrendered the island of Corsica to the British.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1794 Sep 28, The Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which was directed against France, was signed.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1794 Nov 3, Thomas Paine was released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador James Monroe. He had been arrested in 1893 for not endorsing the execution of Louis XVI and thus offending the Robespierre faction. While in prison Paine began writing his "The Age of Reason" (1794-1796).
(HN, 11/3/99)(www.ushistory.org/Paine/index.htm)
1794 Nov 22, Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1794 Napoleon's occupying army in Maastricht, Netherlands, took back to France a giant dinosaur head that was found in a dark recess of St. Peter's mountain in 1780. It was named the Mosasaurus and roamed the seas some 70 million years ago. The head was lugged to the home of Theodorus Godding, a canon at the local church. The French say that he swapped it to Napoleon for 600 bottles of wine. Records however seem to indicate otherwise.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
1794 A French inventor mixed ground graphite with clay and water and fired it to make strong pencil leads.
(WSJ, 11/24/00, p.A1)
1794-1815 An anthology of first hand reports on the naval war between France and Britain was edited by Dean King and John B. Hattendorf and published in 1997.
(SFEC,11/2/97, Par p.10)
1795 Feb 4, France abolished slavery in her territories and conferred slaves to citizens.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1795 Feb 21, Freedom of worship was established in France under constitution.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1795 May 4, Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1795 May 6, Dr. Pierre-Joseph Dessault visited the incarcerated 10-year-old dauphin, the heir to the French throne. He found the dying child in abject misery. The boy died June 8.
(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)
1795 May 15, Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan in triumph. After taking Milan he released his troops on the townspeople who became victims of an orgy of destroying, raping and killing. The events are described in the 1998 biography "Napoleon Bonaparte" by Alan Schom.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR p.9)(HN, 5/15/98)
1795 May 16, In the Treaty of Basel France compelled Spain to withdraw from the anti-France coalition and Spain ceded the eastern portion of the island of Hispaniola making the entire island French territory.
(www.enlou.com/time/year1795.htm)
1795 Jun 8, In France the Dauphin (Louis XVII), son and sole survivor of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, died at age 10 after succumbing to tuberculosis in the Temple prison. His heart was cut from his body when he died in prison, pickled, stolen, returned, and DNA-tested two centuries later. In 2002 Deborah Cadbury authored "The Lost King of France."
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)(AP, 6/3/04)
1795 Jul 7, Thomas Paine defended the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1795 Jul 14, "La Marseillais," written in 1792, became the French national anthem.
(http://tinyurl.com/7a4p9)
1795 Jul 22, Spain signed a peace treaty with France and ceded Santo Domingo to France.
(http://tinyurl.com/2d58vl)
1795 Sep 23, A national plebiscite approved the new French constitution, but so many voters sustained that the results were suspect.
(HN, 9/23/99)
1795 Sep 23, Conseil of the Cinq-Cents (Council of 500), formed in Paris.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1795 Oct 4, General Napoleon Bonaparte led the rout of counterrevolutionaries in the streets of Paris, beginning his rise to power. France was in the midst of economic disaster—a factor that aided royalist counterrevolutionaries in their attempts to incite rebellion against the young republican government. Bonaparte, looking for a new command while on half pay in Paris, joined the defense of the Convention against overwhelming odds.
(HN, 10/4/99)(HNQ, 10/26/00)
1795 Oct 5, The day after he routed counterrevolutionaries in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte accepted their formal surrender. Napoleon takes charge.
(HN, 10/5/99)
1795 Oct 11, In gratitude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France's National Convention appointed Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior.
(HN, 10/11/99)
1795 Oct 26, Napoleon Bonaparte, second-in-command, became the army's commander when General Paul Barras resigned his commission as head of France's Army of the Interior to become head of the Directory.
(HN, 10/26/99)
1795 In Paris the Place de la Concorde, a public square designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755, was renamed Place de la Revolution.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde)
1795 France adopted the metric system. France had begun moving to base ten in the 16th century after using a vigesimal, base 20, system.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.62)
Go to France 1796
Return to home
1650 Feb 11, Rene Descartes (b.1596), French mathematician and philosopher: "I think therefore I am", died in Stockholm. In 1666 his bones were exhumed for transfer to France. In 2008 Russell Shorto authored “Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the conflict Between Faith and Reason."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.E3)
1650 Jun, Jean Rotrou (b.1609), French playwright, died of the plague. In his day he was considered second only to Corneille.
(SFC, 12/31/08, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rotrou)
1650 Oct 21, Jean Bart, French captain and sea hero, was born. He escaped from Plymouth.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1651 Apr 30, Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French priest, theorist, saint, was born.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1651 Aug 6, Francois Fenelon (d.1715), French theologian and writer (Playing for Time), was born. "Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies."
(AP, 11/27/98)(MC, 8/6/02)
1651 Nov 7, King Louis XIV of France (13) was declared of full age.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1652 Jul 4, Prince of Cond‚ started a blood bath in Paris.
(Maggio)
1652 Jul 22, Prince Conde's rebels narrowly defeated Chief Minister Mazarin's loyalist forces at St. Martin, near Paris.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1652 Oct 21, King Louis XIV returned to Paris.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1653 Nov 5, The Iroquois League signed a peace treaty with the French, vowing not to wage war with other tribes under French protection.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1653 Paris physician Louis Morin the thrice-daily temperature and pressure measurements as part of a short-lived international meteorological network created by the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
(AP, 9/15/07)
1654 Jun 7, Louis XIV was crowned King of France in Rheims.
(AP, 6/7/97)(HN, 6/7/98)
1655 Jul 28, French dramatist and novelist Cyrano de Bergerac, the inspiration for a play by Edmond Rostand, died in Paris.
(AP, 7/28/05)
1655 In Paris the church of St. Medard was built. Medard was a 6th century counselor to the Merovingian kings who bestowed wreaths of roses upon virtuous maidens.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C1)
1656 Dec 14, Artificial pearls were 1st manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris. They were made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1656 French King Louis XIV charged the architect Liberal Bruant to build a hospital on the location of a gun powder factory, founding the Hospice de la Salpetriere in Paris. The building was expanded in 1684.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salp%C3%AAtri%C3%A8re)
1657 Feb 11, Bernard Fontenelle, French scientist, writer (Plurality of Worlds), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1657 Mar 23, France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1657 Charles Chamois, a military architect, designed the Hotel de Lauzun on the Ile of Saint Louis for a cavalry commissioner named Gruyn.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.35)
1658 Mar 5, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French colonial governor of America, was born.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1658 Moliere was anointed with the patronage of King Louis XIV.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.D2)
1659 The French colony of Saint-Domingue was founded on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and continued to 1804.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Domingue)
1660 Aug 21, Hubert Gautier, engineer, wrote 1st book on bridge building, was born in Nimes, France.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1660 Dec 3, Jacques Sarazin (70), French sculptor and painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1661 Mar 9, Cardinal Jules Mazarin (58), the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis the 14th in full control.
(AP, 3/9/01)
1661 Aug 29, Louis Couperin (b.1626), French composer, died.
(Internet)
1661 Oct 11, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (Anti-Lucretius), was born.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1661 In France Nicolas Fouquet, treasurer to Louis XIV, invited the king to his new chateau Vaux le Vicomte. The king, peeved by the wealth of the nonroyal, ordered his arrest and had him imprisoned for embezzlement. The property was confiscated and Louis hired Fouquet's architects and designers to build Versailles.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1662 Apr 27, Netherlands and France signed a treaty of alliance in Paris.
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1767012)
1662 Oct 26, Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1662 Moliere authored his satirical play “The School for Wives."
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.G9)
1663 Apr 10, Samuel Pepys, London-based diarist, noted that he had enjoyed a French wine called Ho Bryan at the Royal Oak Tavern. This same year the Pontacs, a top wine-making family in Bordeaux, founded a fashionable London restaurant called Pontack’s Head. Ho Bryan later came to be called Chateau Haut Brion.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.131)
1663 The Institut de France was begun.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.50)
1663-1742 Jean Baptiste Massillon, French clergyman: "To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak."
(AP, 7/23/97)
1664 May, Benoit Rencorel, a shepherd girl in the French Alps, alleged that she began receiving apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Her apparitions continued to 1718. In 2008 the Vatican officially recognized the “supernatural origin" of the apparitions and made the site of Notre-Dame-du-Laus an official pilgrimage site.
(SFC, 5/5/08, p.A13)
1664 Aug 1, The Turkish army was defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1664-1769 The French East India Company was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies.
(WUD, 1994, p.449)
1665 Jan 12, Pierre de Fermat (b.1601), French lawyer, mathematician (Fermat's Principle), died. His equation xn + yn = zn is called Fermat's Last Theorem and remained unproven for many years. The history of its resolution and final proof by Andrew Wiles is told by Amir D. Aczel in his 1996 book Fermat's Last Theorem. "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh was published in 1997. In 1905 Paul Wolfskehl, a German mathematician, bequeathed a reward of 100,000 marks to whoever could find a proof to Fermat's "last theorem." It stumped mathematicians until 1993, when Andrew John Wiles made a breakthrough.
(MC, 1/12/02)(SFC, 10/2/02, p.D7)
1665 Feb 20, Michel Dorigny (b.1617), French painter, died.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/michel-dorigny-1)
1665 Sep 22, Moliere's "L'amour Medecin," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1665 Dec 4, Jean Racine's "Alexandre le Grand," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1665 Nicolas Poussin (b.1594), painter, known as the founder of French Classicism, died. He spent most of his career in Rome which he reached at age 30 in 1624. His Greco-Romanism work includes "The Death of Chione" (1622-1623) and "The Abduction of the Sabine Women." [WUD ends his life in 1655] In 1997 Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey authored "Nicholas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting."
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1126)(SFC,11/22/97, p.D5)(WSJ, 11/6/02, p.D8)
1665 In France Louis XIV began to systematically hollow out formal guarantees to the Protestants until they became little more than scraps of paper.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R23)
1665 French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the Saint Gobain company to replace imports of Venetian glass with home-made wares. The glass was to be used for the mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.74)
1666 Pierre-Paul Riquet convinced French finance minister Colbert for a canal from the Mediterranean port of Sete to Toulouse and the River Garonne. He oversaw the Canal du Midi project for 15 years and died 6 months before it was completed.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.T9)
1666 The French Academy of Sciences was founded.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.57)
1667 Apr 9, 1st public art exhibition (Palais Royale, Paris).
(MC, 4/9/02)
1667 Jun 15, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, French doctor, performed the 1st animal to human blood transfusion. He successfully transfused a few ounces of blood from a lamb into boy (15). Another experimental transfusion this year resulted in the patient’s death and Denys was accused of murder. In 2011 Holly Tucker authored “Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion)(Econ, 3/19/11, p.95)
1667 Sep 24, Jean-Louis Lully, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1667 Nov 7, Jean Racine's "Andromaque," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1667 In France Louis XIV opened the 1st stretch of the Champs-Elysees: a short extension of the Tuileries Gardens leading to the palace at Versailles.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G3)
1667-1668 The War of Devolution was fought between France and Spain as a result of the claim by Louis XIV of France that the ownership of the Spanish Netherlands devolved to his wife, Marie Therese, upon the death of her father, Philip IV of Spain. France conquered the area, now Belgium, and also seized the Franche-Comte, a Spanish possession that bordered on Switzerland.
(HNQ, 2/7/00)
1668 Feb 7, The Netherlands, England and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1668 May 2, Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of Devolution in France.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1668 May 8, Alain Rene Lesage, French novelist and dramatist, was born. He is best known for his works "The Adventures of Gil Blas" and "Turcaret."
(HN, 5/8/99)
1668 Nov 10, Francois Couperin, composer and organist (Concerts Royaux), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1668 Louis XIV of France purchased the 112 carot blue diamond from John Baptiste Tavernier for 220,000 livre. Tavernier was also given a title of nobility.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1668 Charles Alphonse Dufresnoy (b.1611), French artist, died. His work included the painting “The Death of Socrates" (1650).
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W8)
1669 Feb 1, French King Louis XIV limited the freedom of religion.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1669 A French ordnance created a forest code.
(Econ, 9/2/17, p.46)
1670 May 26, A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending hostilities between them.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1670 Nov 28, Pierre Corneille's "Tite et Berenice," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1670 Cafe Procope, the first cafe in Paris, began serving ice cream.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.E4)
1670 Le Notre, the royal landscaper of Louis XIV, laid out the Triumphal Way in Paris.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.C12)
1670s French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Great Lakes region of the New World.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)
1671 Apr 6, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French playwright, poet (Sacred Odes & Songs), was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1671-1729 John Law, Scotsman and financier for France. He controlled France's foreign trade, mints, revenue, national debt and the Louisiana territory. [see 1694]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1671 Moliere wrote his farce "Les Fourberies de Scapin" (The Wiles of Scapin or Scapin the Cheat).
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A9)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.D3)
1672 Apr 29, King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands. A French army of 100,000 crossed the Rhine and invaded the Dutch Republic. The Dutch Golden Age fell apart when England, France and a pair of German principlaities teamed up to attack the Netherlands and seize its colonies.
(HN, 4/29/99)(PC, 1992ed., p.255)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.38)
1673 Feb 17, Moliere, [Jean Baptiste Poquelin], French author (Tartuffe, Le Malade Imaginaire), died.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1673 May 17, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi.
(MC, 5/17/02)’
1673 Jun 25, French commander Charles de Batz (b.1611), known as D’Artagnan, was slain in the service of Louis XIV. He died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War and was one of the musketeers who inspired Dumas’ fiction.
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.E4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Artagnan)
1673 The Blue Diamond was recut to a 67 carot stone.
(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1674 Aug 18, Jean Racine's "Iphigenie," premiered in Versailles.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1675 Jun 11, France and Poland formed an alliance.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1675 Aug 27, The Strasbourg Agreement, signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire, banned the use of poison bullets in conflict.
(AP, 12/4/12)
1675 Lully composed "Thesee." The librettist was Philippe Quinault. This work established the tragedie lyrique operatic form.
(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.A10)
1675 In France taxes imposed by Louis XIV led to an uprising in Brittany. Protesters wore bonnets rouges (red wooly hats).
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.50)
1676 Lully (1632-1687), French composer born in Italy, composed his tragic opera "Atys."
(SFEC, 1/18/98, DB p.33)(WUD, 1994, p.852)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Racine wrote his drama Phedre in alexandrine meter. It was based on Euripides’ tragic Greek tale of Phaedra’s love for her stepson Hippolytus, son of Theseus.
(WSJ, 5/21/97, p.A12)(Econ, 6/20/09, p.89)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.92)
1678 Louis XIV claimed the region of Alsace from Germany.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1679 Jan 31, Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera "Bellerophon" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1681 May 17, Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declared war on France.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1681-1730 French Protestants, known as Huguenots, migrated in large numbers to England due to persecutions known as dragonnades wherein rowdy soldiers were billeted in their homes. They also lost a semblance of security in the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.85)
1682 Apr 9, The French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reached the Mississippi River. La Salle claimed lower Mississippi River and all lands that touched it for France.
(AP, 4/9/97)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)(HN, 4/9/98)
1682 May 6, King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France. The palace of Versailles was built by Mansart and the gardens were designed by Le Notre.
(HN, 5/6/98)(Hem., 10/97, p.107)
1682 Nov 23, Claude Lorrain, French painter (also known as Claude Gelée), died. His birth is variously noted from 1600-1604.
(WSJ, 11/6/02, p.D8)(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9024243/Claude-Lorrain)
1682 Pere Lachaise, a Jesuit priest, was confessor to Louis XIV. His order built a house on the future site of the Paris cemetery named after him.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-6)
1683 Feb 20, Philip V, first Bourbon King of Spain, was born. [see Dec 19]
(HN, 2/20/01)
1683 Sep 6, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (b.1619), French finance minister (1665-1683) under Louis XIV, died. He pioneered “dirigisme," i.e. state control of the economy and state intervention in industry. “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)(Econ, 2/22/14, SR p.5)
1683 Sep 25, Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer, was born in Dijon, France.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1683 Dec 19, Philip V, King of Spain (1700-24, 24-46), was born in Versailles, France. [see Feb 20]
(MC, 12/19/01)
1683 French King Louis XIV married Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719), his mistress for the last 11 years, shortly after the death of his wife. The marriage was kept secret for the next 3 decades.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1684 Oct 1, Pierre Corneille, French lawyer and dramatist (El Cid, Polyeucte), died at 42.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1684 Oct 10, Jean Antoine Watteau (d.1721), French rococo painter, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1614)(AAP, 1964)(MC, 10/10/01)
1684 For one year Paris was the world's biggest city.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.8)
1684 French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, set sail for what is now Louisiana with 4 ships commissioned from King Louis XIV. On the way one ship was lost to pirates, another broke apart on a sand bar and a third returned home. The 4th was sunk in a storm in 1686.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)
1685 Oct 18, King Louis the XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes that had established legal toleration of France's Protestant population, the Huguenots. The French Parliament recorded the new edict four days later. The edict signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, had given the Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious liberties. He declared France entirely Catholic again.
(HN, 4/13/98)(HN, 10/18/98)(AP, 10/18/07)
1685 Sylvestre Dufour published "Traitez Nuveaux et Curieux de Cafe, du The, et du Chocolat."
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1686 Jan, A storm arose and sank the French ship “La Belle," of explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in Matagorda Bay, Texas. La Salle was off searching for the Mississippi River. This ended La Salle’s plan for a French colony and opened the door to Spain to come and occupy Texas. Archeologists found the ship in 1995 in 12-feet of water and began a recovery project. In 1996 a skeleton was bound onboard. In 2014 the remains of the ship were transported to the Bullock State History Museum in Austin.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A7)(SFC, 8/16/12, p.A7)(AP, 7/18/14)
1686 Feb 15, Jean Baptiste Lully's opera "Armide," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1687 Feb 22, Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer, died in Paris. Lully, Paris Opera director, had stabbed himself in the foot with a baton and died of blood poisoning.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.B3)(MC, 2/22/02)
1687 Mar 19, French explorer Robert Cavelier (b.1643), Sieur de La Salle, the first European to navigate the length of the Mississippi River, was murdered by mutineers while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in present-day Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier,_Sieur_de_La_Salle)(AP, 3/19/97)
1687 Aug 12, At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1687 Dec 31, The 1st Huguenots departed France to the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1688 Nov 26, Louis XIV declared war on the Netherlands.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1688 Dec 11, King James II attempted to flee London as the "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of Orange) and Queen Mary. James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23, 1688. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a generous pension. In 2007 Michael Barone authored “Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers."
(HN, 12/11/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 23, English King James II fled to France.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1688 Dec 23, Jean-Louis Lully (21), composer, died.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1688 Dec 25, English king James II landed in Ambleteuse, France.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1688 French writer Pierre d'Ortigue de Vaumoriere published anonymously his book, “The Art of Pleasing Conversation."
(WSJ, 5/13/05, p.W6)(http://tinyurl.com/d8tac)
1688 In France a blind Benedictine monk named Dom Perignon discovered the fermentation process that led to champagne. [see 1662] He later devised a cork stopper to hold the bubbles.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(Hem., 10/97, p.103)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1689 Jan 18, Charles Louis de Montesquieu (d.1755), French philosopher and writer (Letters Persanes), was born. "In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed." He authored "The Spirit of the Laws," the 1st great comparative study of civilizations.
(AP, 4/13/99)(WSJ, 11/1/00, p.A24)(MC, 1/18/02)
1689 Apr 15, French king Louis XIV declared war on Spain.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1689 May 11, The French and English naval battle took place at Bantry Bay.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1689 May 12, England’s King William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The "Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1689 Aug 4-5, War between England and France led them to use their native American allies as proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687, one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie (Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that only 24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois, but never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1689 Aug 25, Battle at Charleroi: Spanish and English armies chased the French.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1690 Feb 8, French and Indian troops set Schenectady, NY, settlement on fire.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1690 Mar 16, French king Louis XIV sent troops to Ireland.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1690 May 11, In the first major engagement of King William's War, British troops from Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French, their objective was to take Quebec.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1690 Jul 1, Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1691 Jul 12, William III defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1692 May 29, Battle at La Hogue: An English & Dutch fleet beat France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 Aug 3, French forces under Marshal Luxembourg defeated the English at the Battle of Steenkerke in the Netherlands.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1692 In Germany Rheinfels castle withstood a siege of 28,000 French troops sent by Louis XIV. French troops under Napoleon destroyed it in 1797.
(SSFC, 11/29/15, p.G6)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinfels_Castle)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio)
1693 Jul 29, The Army of the Grand Alliance was destroyed by the French at the Battle of Neerwinden in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1693 Aug 4, Dom Perignon invented champagne. [see 1688]
(MC, 8/4/02)
1693 Heidelberg was torched by the troops of Louis XIV in a dispute over a royal title.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T8)
1694 Nov 21, Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (d.1778), French philosopher, historian, dramatist and essayist, was born. Born to middle class parents, he later attended the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris. The environment exposed him to the world of society and the arts. After the success of his tragedy "Oedipe" in 1718, he was pronounced the successor to the great dramatist Racine. He adopted the pen name Voltaire, though its exact origins and meaning are uncertain. The author of "Candide" (1759) and the "Philosophical Dictionary" (1764), Voltaire's works often attacked injustice and intolerance and epitomized the Age of Enlightenment. He wrote that "Self-love resembles the instrument by which we perpetuate the species. It is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure and it has to be concealed." "All styles are good except the tiresome sort." "Love truth, but pardon error." "The great errors of the past are useful in many ways. One cannot remind oneself too often of crimes and disasters. These, no matter what people say, can be forestalled." S.G. Tellentyre said on Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
(WUD, 1994, p.1600)(G&M, 2/1/96, p.A-22)(AP, 7/17/97)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.8)(HNQ, 10/1/98)(SFEC, 10/11/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 11/21/98)(HNQ, 11/8/00)
1694 John Law, Scotsman, fled England after killing rival Edward Wilson in a duel. He traveled in Europe, played the casinos and studied finance. He set up a bank in France and issued paper money and established the Mississippi Company to exploit the French-controlled territories in America. [see 1720] In 2000 Janet Gleeson authored "Millionaire," a pseudo-biography of Law.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(WSJ, 6/30/00, p.W9)
1695 Apr 13, Jean de la Fontaine (b.1621), French fabulist and poet, died. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Fontaine)
1695 Sep 3, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Italian violinist and composer, was born.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1695 The Comediens Italiens were expelled from Paris for indiscretion in their opera parodies. The fair theaters took up where they left off with the use of vaudevilles and comedia dell'arte characters.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1696 Nov 19, Louis Tocque, French painter, was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1696 Jacques Ozanam, a visionary Frenchman, 1st proposed a “self-moving vehicle."
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1697 Apr 1, Abbe Prevost, French novelist, journalist (Manon Lescaut), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1697 Sep 20, The Treaty of Ryswick was signed in Holland. It ended the War of the Grand Alliance (aka War of the League of Augsburg,1688-1697) between France and the Grand Alliance. Under the Treaty France’s King Louis XIV (1638-1715) recognized William III (1650-1702) as King of England. The Dutch received trade concessions, and France and the Grand Alliance members (Holland and the Austrian Hapsburgs) gave up most of the land they had conquered since 1679. The signees included France, England, Spain and Holland. By the Treaty of Ryswick, a portion of Hispaniola was formally ceded to France and became known as Saint-Domingue. The remaining Spanish section was called Santo Domingo.
(www.caribbeanguides.net/hispaniola.htm)(www.jacobite.ca/documents/1697ryswick.htm)
1697 Charles Perrault first penned "La Petit Chaperon Rouge" (Little Red Riding Hood) as a sexual morality tale for the loose ladies of Louis XIV's court. In 2002 Catherine Orenstein authored "Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale."
(WSJ, 8/7/02, p.D14)(NW, 8/26/02, p.57)
1698 Oct 23, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French court architect (Place de la Concorde), was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1699 Apr 21, Jean Racine (59), French playwright (Phèdre), died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1699-1799 Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, French painter.
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
1701 Sep 7, England, Austria, and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1702 Apr 27, Jean Bart (51), French captain, sea hero (Escape out of Plymouth), died.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1702 Oct 12, [British] Admiral Sir George Rooke defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1703 Sep 30, The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffered only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1703 Nov 19, The "Man in the Iron Mask," a prisoner in Bastille prison in Paris, died.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1703 Francois Boucher, French painter, was born. He painted "Diana."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.174)
1704 Feb 24, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (church music), died.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1704 Aug 13, The Battle of Blenheim, Germany, was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1705 Feb 15, Charles A. Vanloo, French painter, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1705 Dec 29, Prosper Jolyot's "Idomenee," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1705 The French began the construction of Fort George on Grenada. It was completed by the British.
(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.F5)
1706 May 23, Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeated the French and 17,000 were killed.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1706 Dec 28, Pierre Bayle (59), French theologist (History of Criticism), died.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1707 Apr 25, At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated Anglo-Portuguese.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1707 Sep 7, George-Louis Leclerc (d.1788), Comte de Buffon, French naturalist and theoretical biologist. He commented on the origins of marine invertebrate fossils in the hills of France. He also wrote a 35 volume work titled "Histoire Naturelle, Generale, et Particuliere," that was an attempt to record all that was known of the world of nature.
(DD-EVTT, p.114)(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)(MC, 9/7/01)
1708 Jul 11, The French were defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1708 Thomas Corneille mentioned Camembert cheese in his geographical dictionary.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.79)
1709 Jul 5, Etienne de Silhouette, French minister of finance, outline portrait artist, was born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1708 Dec 21, French forces seized control of the eastern shore of Newfoundland after winning a victory at St. John's.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1709 Sep 11, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1709 Oct 20, Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy took Mons in the Netherlands.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1709 Nov 19, Pierre Leclair, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1709 Dec 8, Thomas Corneille (74), French dramatist, died.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1709 Representatives of the Comedie-Francaise tore down the loges at the Foire de Saint-Germain. The loges were quickly rebuilt and the Comedie-Francasie people came back enraged and burned them. The theaters were rebuilt in a week and plays resumed.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1710 Feb 15, Louis XV (d.1774), King of France, was born. He ruled from 1715-1774.
(HN, 2/15/98)(WUD, 1994, p.848)
1710 French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) painted "The Fortune Teller" about this time.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau)(SFC, 5/26/18, p.E2)
1711 Sep 22, A French corsair captured Rio de Janeiro following its surprise appearance in Rio's harbor on 12 September. Four Portuguese ships of the line were lost, and the city had to pay a ransom to avoid destruction of its defenses.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rio_de_Janeiro)
1711 Marin Marais, a great French virtuoso on the viola da gamba, composed a pair of suites.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.D1)
1712 Feb 8, L. Joseph de Montcalm de Saint-Veran, French general in America, was born. [see Feb 29]
(MC, 2/8/02)
1712 Feb 29, Marquis Louis Joseph de Montcalm, Commander of French Forces in North America during French and Indian War, was born. [see Feb 8]
(HN, 2/29/00)
1712 Jun 28, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (d.1778), writer and philosopher, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His books include "The Social Contract" (1762) and Emile (1762).
(www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm)(HN, 6/28/99)
1713 Mar 15, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the Southern Hemisphere, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1713 Apr 11, The Peace of Utrecht was signed, France ceded Maritime provinces to Britain. The French colony of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain. The Acadians had come from western France to fish and farm. Those who would not swear allegiance to the crown were deported. Many of these deportees went to the bayou country of Louisiana.
(WUD, 1994, p.7)(WSJ, 9/4/96, p.A12)(HN, 4/11/98)
1713 Apr 21, Louis Duke de Noailles, marshal of France, was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1713 Oct 5, Denis Diderot (d.1784), French encyclopedist (Dictionnaire Encyclopedique), was born in Langres, Champagne, France. Age of Enlightenment philosopher, writer who with his friend Voltaire, scoffed at organized religion, ultimately bringing on the French Revolution. “The aims of the encyclopedia seem harmless enough to us. But authoritarian governments don’t like dictionaries. They live by lies and bamboozling abstractions, and can’t afford to have words accurately defined."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot)(http://tinyurl.com/y6o8gp5h)
1714 In France Dom Perignon invented champagne. [see 1688]
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.8)
1715 Jan 26, Claude Helvétius, French philosopher, was born. He advanced the theory that sensation is the source of all intellectual activity.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1715 May 4, A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1715 Sep 1, Louis XIV (b.1638), "the Sun King," king of France (1643-1715), died of gangrene. His wife was Madame de Maintenon, founder of the convent academy Maison St. Cyr. In 2006 Antonia Fraser authored “Love and Louis XIV."
(THC, 12/3/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France)(WSJ, 11/4/06, p.P10)
1715 Sep 30, Etienne B. de Condillac, French philosopher (sensualism, Cours d'etudes), was born.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1715-1770 France reneged on the terms of its debt five times during this period. Britain never missed an interest payment.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.104)
1715-1774 In France Louis XV, great-grandson of Louis XIV, ruled as king.
(WUD, 1994, p.848)(PCh, 1992, p.279)
1716 May 29, Louis J.M. Daubenton, French zoologist, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1716 John Law established a private bank in France called Law & Co. with the promise that his notes were redeemable on demand for coin. He had persuaded the regent of infant King Louis XV to establish a national bank , and to decree that all taxes and revenues be paid in its notes.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B1)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.56)
1717 Aug 4, A friendship treaty was signed between France and Russia.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1717 Nov 17, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (d.1783), French mathematician, philosopher and physicist, was born. He and Denis Diderot (1713-1784) designed and edited the "Encyclopedie," a massive reference work and polemical attempt to reform French society. In 1998 Andrew Crumey authored the novel "D'Alembert's Principle: A Novel in Three Panels."
(SFEC, 12/27/98, BR p.5)(www.nndb.com/people/405/000087144/)
1717 Watteau drew "Two Studies of a Flutist and a Study of the Head of a Boy."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1717 The French notes of John Law's bank were made receivable for taxes and other royal revenue.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1717 In France John Law proposed a company with exclusive rights to trade with and exploit the resources of the Mississippi territory and to pay down the government's debt from company profits. The regent and Parliament approved and the Companie d’Occident (Company of the West) was established.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.63)
1717 Louis Liger (b.1658), French writer, died. His 1700 book “Oeconomie Generale de la Campagne, ou Nouvelle Maison Rustique" included a chapter on French viticulture.
(SFC, 10/21/04, p.F3)(www.rappaport.it/catalogo.htm)
1717-1718 Voltaire (1694-1778), French writer, was imprisoned in the Bastille for his lampoons of the Regency.
(www.online-literature.com/voltaire/)
1718 Nov 18, Voltaire's "Oedipe" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1718 John Law's Bank was made the state-royal-bank. The Law bank bought the French tobacco monopoly.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1718 The Paris Meridian was first plotted. It was recalculated in the early 1800s by Arago.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.C12)
1718-1719 The French artist Watteau, known for his draftsmanship, created "Woman in Black" and "Head of a Man."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1719 Apr 7, Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (67), French priest, explorer, saint, died.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1719 Apr 15, In France Madame de Maintenon (b.1635), the wife of former King Louis XIV, died. In 1930 Maud Cruttwell authored the biography “Madame de Maintenon." In 2008 Veronica Buckley authored “Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.P10)(http://tinyurl.com/32xq5o)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1719 Sep, John Law announced that he would buy the entire debt of France.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1719 Dec 2, Pasquier Quesnel (85), French theologian (La Foi), died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1719 The fair theaters were closed through the intrigues of their enemies.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1719 The French government gave the Law company the right of coinage. By this time John Law controlled the mint, public finances, the bank, the sea trade, Louisiana, tobacco, and salt revenues.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1719 The French captured and burned the Spanish settlement Presidio Santa Maria de Galve (later Pensacola, Flordia), but handed Pensacola back to Spain three years later. Hurricanes forced the Spanish to repeatedly rebuild.
(AP, 3/24/06)
1720 cJan, John Law was appointed France's comptroller general.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Feb 27, The government ordered that no person should have more than 500 livres in coins or ingots to reduce the demand for coinage.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Mar 24, In Paris, banking houses closed in the wake of financial crisis. The "Mississippi Bubble" burst as panicked investors withdrew their money from John Law's bank and Mississippi Company [see South Sea Bubble, Jan, 1720].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(HN, 3/24/99)(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 May 21, The government issued an edict that devalued all the notes and shares of the Law company and fixed their prices. The edict was repealed after a week but the economy was severely damaged and John Law resigned as comptroller general.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 May 25, "Le Grand St. Antoine" reached Marseille, plague killed 80,000.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1720 Jun 1, The French state bank closed for 10 days.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Jun 10, The French state bank reopened and some people were crushed to death in the rush to get in.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Jul 17, Barricades, placed at the state bank, incited a crowd and 12 people were killed.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Nov 27, John Law's bank closed for the last time.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Dec, John Law left France and returned to England.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1720 Paris, France, had 380 coffee houses by this time. Due to strict curbs on the press handwritten newsletters were exchanged there and government spies were common.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1720-1725 Francois Lemoyne, artist, created his work "Study of a Nude Woman."
(WSJ, 12/9/99, p.A24)
1721 Jul 18, Jean Antoine Watteau (b.1684), French rococo painter, died. His work included "Le Mezzetin."
(WUD, 1994 p.1614)(MC, 10/10/01)(MC, 7/18/02)
1721 Dec 29, Madam Jeanne Poisson de Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, was born. She was later blamed for France's defeat in the Seven Years' War.
(HN, 12/29/00)
1721 The 10-volume Theatre de la Foire, containing plays by Lesage, Fuzelier, Dorneval and later Carolet began to be printed.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.5)
1721 The bandit Cartouche (The Cartridge) took refuge in a Belleville cabaret, Le Pistolet. He was captured while sleeping and was hung at the Place de Greve in the center of Paris.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)
1722 Three disgruntled playwrights, Lesage, Fuzelier, and Dorneval, bought a dozen marionettes and set themselves up at the Foire de Saint-Germain to give plays of their own composition.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.4)
1722 A French Jesuit got into the Jingdezhen, a gated porcelain producing city in China, and sent home detailed letters on porcelain production. Within decades France developed its own porcelain production plant at Sevres.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1725 Jean-Baptiste Greuze (d.1805), French artist, was born.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 5/14/02, p.D7)
1726 Jan 25, Guillaume Delisle (50), French geographer (Atlas geographique), died.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1726 Sep 7, Francois-Andre Danican Philidor, French composer and chess champion, was born.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1726 The puppet show "La Grandmere amoureuse" by Fuzelier and Dorneval was a spoof on French opera based on Lully's tragic 1676 opera "Atys." It was revived in 1998 by the SF Bay Area team of Magnificat and the Carter Family Marionettes. It made reference to a current dispute between the physicians and surgeons of Paris.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, DB p.33)(PNM, 1/25/98)
1726 St. Louis-en-l'Ile Church was built on the Ile St. -Louis on the Seine in Paris. It was vandalized during the French Revolution.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T8)
1726 Michael-Richard de Lalande (b.1657), French composer, died. He served as the court composer for Louis XIV.
(SFC, 3/20/04, p.E1)(Internet)
1727 Apr 29, Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer, choreographer (ballet d'action), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1727 May 10, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, French minister of Finance, was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1728 Oct 3, Charles G. Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, French duelist, spy and transvestite, was born.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1728 The French Count de Boulainvilliers wrote a life of Muhammad that described him as "an enlightened and wise lawgiver."
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A15)
1729 Voltaire and Charles Marie de la Condamine engaged in a bond fund scheme to take advantage of bonds issued by the French government.
(http://www.damninteresting.com/the-enlightenment-guide-to-winning-the-lottery/)
1729 Ruinart, a French Champagne house, was founded. In 2006 it remained the oldest Champagne house in the world.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.F2)
1729 Scotsman John Law (58), gambler, financier, and former French comptroller general, died in Venice. An inventory of his wealth included 488 paintings with works by Titian, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1730 Aug 10, Sebastien de Brossard (74), French composer, died. He authored the "Dictionnaire de musique" (Paris, 1703).
(MC, 8/10/02)(Internet)
1730 Jean Baptiste Oudry and Pierre-Josse Perrot, artists in the court of King Louis XV, created a drawing for the wall tapestry "Le Coq et Le Perle." The tapestry was made by French weaving house Savonnerie and went on auction in 1997 for $300-400 thousand.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.B10)
1731 The ship Diligent left a Breton port to pick up some 250 slaves for Martinique. 1st Lt. Robert Durand kept a diary that turned up in 1984. In 2002 Robert Harms authored "The Diligent."
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1732 Jan 24, Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (d.1799), French dramatist, was born. He was best remembered for his plays "Barber of Civil" and "Marriage of Figaro." He was a conduit for French gold and arms to American Revolution, persecuted by mob during French Rev. "It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them."
(AP, 12/21/99)(www.theatrehistory.com/french/beaumarchais001.html)
1732 Apr 5, Jean Honore Fragonard (d.1806), France, painter, was born. He painted "The Shady Grove." Hubert Robert was a painter friend and the painting "La Jardinaire" was painted by one or the other.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard)(AAP, 1964)(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.W12)
1732 Aug 13, Voltaire's "Zaire," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1732 The playwright Marivaux wrote "Le Triomphe de l'amour." In 1997 it was redone as the musical "Triumph of Love."
(WSJ, 10/29/97, p.A20)
1733 Sep 11, Francois Couperin, French composer (Le Grand), died at 64. [see Sep 12]
(MC, 9/11/01)
1733 Sep 12, Francois Couperin "Le Grand", French composer, died at 64. [see Sep 11]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1733 Oct 10, France declared war on Austria over the question of Polish succession.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1733 Voltaire authored his "Lettres Anglaises" in which he hailed England as a "nation of philosophers."
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A24)
1733 The opera "Hippolyte et Aricie" by Rameau had its premiere. The libretto was by Abbe Simon-Joseph Pellegrin and was based on Racine's 1677 drama Phèdre.
(WSJ, 5/21/97, p.A12)
1733 In Paris the pompiers began fighting fires on the initiative of Louis XV.
(Econ, 12/11/10, p.66)
1734 Apr 1, Louis Lully (69), French composer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1735 Chardin painted "A Lady Taking Tea."
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
1735 A French expedition to South America was led by Charles-Marie de la Condamine. It produced the earliest maps of the northern part of the continent and led to the introduction of platinum and rubber to Europe. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon." It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), the expedition’s mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Grameson. The couple married in Quito in 1741.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.1)
1736 May 26, British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia. In northwestern Mississippi the Chickasaw Indians, supported by the British, defeated a combined force of French soldiers and Chocktaw Indians, thus opening the region to English settlement.
(AHD, 1971, p.11)(HN, 5/26/98)
1736 Nov 26, Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, French publisher (Mercure de France), was born.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1737 Feb 20, French minister of Finance, Chauvelin, resigned.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1737 The French annual art exhibition known as the Salon was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 11/19/03, p.D12)
1737 Frenchman Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical, flute playing “android."
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.17)
1738 May 28, Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine, French inventor of the guillotine, was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1738 French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that could quack, flap,, paddle, drink, eat and “digest" grain.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A10)
1738 Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited a mechanical flute player that actually breathed.
(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.W8)
1740 Feb 7, Adam-Philippe Custine, French earl, general, MP, was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1740 Jun 2, Donatien Alphonse Francois (d.1814), writer, Marquis de Sade, was born in Paris. He was the French nobleman who was imprisoned for holding orgies in which he whipped and sodomized prostitutes. He wrote "The 120 Days of Sodom" and "Justine."
(http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/3539/)
(WUD, 1994, p.1259)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(HN, 6/2/99)
1740 Jul 8, Pierre Vigne (b.1670), Frenchman, died. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament. In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.catholic-forum.com)
1740 Aug 26, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor, born. He and his brother Jacques-Etienne invented the hot air balloon in 1783.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1741 May 8, France and Bavaria signed the Covenant of Nymphenburg.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1741 Nov 20, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat and clergyman, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1741 Voltaire, French playwright, wrote the play “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet." He used the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.
(WSJ, 3/6/06, p.A10)
1741-1788 Count Laperouse. He attempted to circumnavigate the globe in 1785 and was cut short by a typhoon near the Solomon Islands.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1742-1752 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau served as the inspector general of the navy.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1743 May 24, Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionist, was born. He advocated extreme violence and was assassinated in his own bath.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1743 Jun 27, King George of the English defeated the French at Dettingen, Bavaria. English armies were victorious over the French at Dettingen. This event was celebrated by Handel in his composition "Dettingen Te Deum."
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p. 317)(HN, 6/27/98)
1743 Aug 19, Marie Jeanne Becu Comtesse du Barry (d.1793), last mistress of Louis XV, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1743 Aug 26, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was born. He discovered "dephlogisticated air" which he called oxygen and was executed by the revolution in 1794.
(HN, 8/26/99)(RTH, 8/26/99)
1743 Sep 14, Nicolas Lancret, French artist, died. He was a brilliant depicter of light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society under the regent Orleans. His work included “Study of a Woman Seated on the Ground" and “Study of a Man."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Lancret)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.E3)
1743 Sep 17, Marquis Marie Jean de Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher, a leading thinker in the Enlightenment, was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1743 Joseph Nicolas Pancrace Royer created the opera-ballet: "Le Puvoir de l'Amour." Royer was later remembered for his harpsichord works.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A24)
1743 In France Louis XV commissioned an elevator installed at Versailles to link his apartment to that of his mistress.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
1743 French champagne maker Moet was founded.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.6)
1744 Feb 9, Battle at Toulon: French-Spanish faced the English fleet of Adm. Matthews.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1744 Feb 21, The British blockade of Toulon was broken by 27 French and Spanish warships attacking 29 British ships.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1744 Aug 1, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine Monnet de Lamarck, French zoologist, was born.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1744 Fort Richelieu was built in Sete on the Mediterranean coast of the Languedoc region.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1745 Jan 7, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier (d.1799), French inventor, was born. He and his brother, Joseph (1740-1810), launched the first successful hot-air balloon in 1783.
(HN, 1/7/99)(WUD, 1994 p.928)
1745 Apr 20, Philippe Pinel (d.1826), French physician and founder of psychiatry, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.)(HN, 4/20/98)
1745 May 11, French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1745 Jun 17, American New Englanders captured Louisburg, Cape Breton, from the French. The ragtag army captured France's most imposing North American stronghold on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
(HN, 5/17/98)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(MC, 6/17/02)
1745 Nov 28-29, French troops attacked Indians at Saratoga, NY.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1745 French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote the lyric comedy "Platee." It was an amalgam of song, dance and spectacle based on a simple plot where Jupiter tries to cure Juno of her jealousy. It was a parody of late-Baroque opera. It was staged on the occasion of the Dauphin Louis’ marriage to Princess Maria Teresa of Spain. It was about a lovesick frog.
(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A20)(SFC, 1/20/98, p.E1)(SFEM, 6/7/98, p.8)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)
1745 The French opera “Le Temple de la Gloire" (The Temple of Glory) by composer Jean-Philippe Rameau premiered at Versailles. The libretto was written by Voltaire.
(SFC, 4/27/17, p.E9)
1745 The renowned Champagne house of Moët & Chandon was established in the city of Epernay.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A12)
1745 Richard Hennessey arrived in France from Ireland as an exile from wars with England.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)
1746 Sep 20, Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France from Scotland.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1746 Sep 21, A French expeditionary army occupied Labourdonnais. Colonial governor Joseph Francois Dupleix occupied Madras.
(PCh, 1992, p.298)(MC, 9/21/01)
1746 Parisian book publisher Andre Francois Le Breton hired Denis Diderot (32) to work on a project called the Encyclopedie. The plan was to produce a French translation of Ephraim Chamber’s 1728 Cyclopedia. In 1747 he named Diderot co-editor with Jean D’Alembert.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)(WSJ, 6/29/05, p.D8)
1746 Nicholas de Largilliere (b.1656), French painter, died.
(WSJ, 10/30/03, p.D10)
1746-1818 Gaspard Monge, Comte de Peluse, French mathematician. He served with Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier on the revolutionary commission to devise the metric system.
(WUD, 1994, p.924)(NH, 12/98, p.24)
1747 Jul 2, Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1747 Parisian book publisher Andre Francois Le Breton, producer of the Encyclopedie, named Denis Diderot co-editor with Jean D’Alembert. In 2005 Philipp Blom authored “Enlightening the World," an account of the project.
(WSJ, 6/29/05, p.D8)
1747 In France the National School of Bridges and Roads was founded.
(Econ, 4/23/15, p.43)
1747-1830 Madame Dorothee Deluzy, French actress: "We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?"
(AP, 9/21/00)
1748 Aug 30, Jacques-Louis David (d.1825), Neoclassical painter (Death of Marat), was born. He painted "Madame Hamelin." He also painted a portrait of Napoleon crossing the St. Bernard Pass on a rearing horse. Jean Ingres began his career as a pupil of David.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.369)(WSJ, 5/19/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W12)(MC, 8/30/01)
1748 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, inspector general of the navy gave his ship models to Louis XV, which helped start the Musee National de la Marine.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1748 Henri Francois d’Aguesseau, chancellor of France, granted an official license for the new Encyclopedie following a presentation by Denis Diderot.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1749 Mar, Jean Godin, French geographer, left Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (later Ecuador), in an attempt to reach France to settle his family estate. He traveled by an eastern route across South America and became stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon." It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), French mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Godin. They managed to reunite in 1770.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)(ON, 5/05, p.4)
1749 Mar 23, Pierre-Simon Laplace (d.1827), French mathematician, astronomer, physicist, was born.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace)
1749 Jun 19, Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, French revolutionary (Committee of Public Safety), was born.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1749 Jul 24, Denis Diderot was arrested in Paris during a government crackdown on writers and publishers of subversive books. He was released Nov 3 to continued his work on the Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1749 Sep 10, Emilie du Chatelet (b.1706), writer and mathematician, died from an infection that followed a pregnancy. Her work included a translation of Newton’s Principia from Latin to French. She met Voltaire in 1733 and they soon began living together. In 1957 Nancy Mitford authored “Voltaire in Love." In 2006 David Bodanis authored “Passionate Minds: The Great Enlightenment Love Affair" and Judith P. Zinsser authored “La Dame d’Esprit."
(www.math.wichita.edu/history/women/chatelet.html)(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)
1749 Rameau's composition "Zoroastre," a lyric tragedy, was first performed in Paris. It did not do well and the composer reworked it with his librettist, Louis de Cahusac, for a Les Arts performance in 1756.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A20)
1749 Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin launched her weekly dinners and provided the Enlightenment Republic of Letters a ‘center of unity’. The Republic of Letters emerged in the 17th century as a self-proclaimed community of scholars and literary figures that stretched across national boundaries but respected differences in language and culture.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters)
1750 Jun 15, Marguerite De Launay, Baronne Staal, French writer, died.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1750 Jul 28, Philippe Fabre d'Eglantine, poet, satirist, politician, was born in France.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1750 Aug 24, Laetitia Bonaparte-Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, was born.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1751 Jul 28, In France the 1st volume of the Encyclopedie, edited by Diderot and D’Alembert, was published with a print run of 1,625.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1751 Dec 23, France set plans to tax clergymen.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1751 Voltaire published "Micromegas" in which he mentioned "aliens from outer space." This is believed to be the first mention of such aliens in literature.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1752 Feb 7, Publication, sale and distribution of the 1st 2 volumes of the Encyclopedie were summarily forbidden by order of King Louis XV. Chretien de Malesherbes, the French director of publications, managed to broker a compromise that included a layer of censorship and a 3rd volume was published by the end of 1753.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1752 Oct 18, The opera "Le Devin du Village" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau premiered.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1753 Mar 9, Jean-Baptiste Kleber, French general, architect, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1753 Mar 25, Voltaire left the court of Frederik II of Prussia.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1753 May 6, French King Louis XV observed a transit of Mercury at Mendon Castle.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1753 May 9, King Louis XV disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1753 May 31, Pierre V. Vergniaud, French politician, Girondin orator (guillotined in 1793), was born.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1753 Jul 4, Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard (d.1809), French balloonist, was born. He made the 1st balloon flights in England and US.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVblanchard.htm)
1753 Dec 14, French Captain Jacques Le Gardeur rejected the pretensions of the English to ownership of the Ohio Valley, but promised to forward Virginia Gov. Dinwiddie’s letter of trespass to his superiors in Canada.
(ON, 9/05, p.2)
1754 Feb 2, Charles Maurice de Tallyrand-Perigord (d.1838), minister of foreign affairs for Napoleon I, was born. He represented France brilliantly at the Congress of Vienna.
(WUD, 1994, p.1450)(HN, 2/2/99)
1754 Apr 2, A small expeditionary force of 159 men under Lt. Col. George Washington arrived at Will’s Creek and learned that the French had taken over the new Fort Prince George at the Forks of the Ohio from British soldiers and frontiersmen and renamed it Fort Duquesne.
(ON, 9/05, p.2)
1754 May 28, Col. George Washington led a 40-man detachment that defeated French and Indian forces in a skirmish near Great Meadows, Pa.
(ON, 9/05, p.3)
1754 Jul 3, George Washington surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity (later Pittsburgh) in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French, leaving them in control of the Ohio Valley. This marked the beginning of the French and Indian War also called the 7 Years' War. In 2005 Fred Anderson authored “The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War."
(HN, 7/13/98)(Arch, 1/05, p.46)(WSJ, 12/14/05, p.D15)
1754 Aug 2, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French engineer who designed the layout of Washington, D.C., was born.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1754 Aug 23, Louis XVI (d.1793), King of France (1774-1793), was born at Versailles. During the French Revolution he met his fate at the guillotine. He was the grandson of Louis XV and married Marie Antoinette.
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1754-1824 Joseph Joubert, French moralist. "Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve." "To be capable of respect is today almost as rare as to be worthy of it."
(AP, 3/22/97)(AP, 1/22/99)
1754-1838 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, statesman, served as the minister of foreign affairs during the reign of Napoleon.
(WUD, 1994, p.1450)
1755 Apr 1, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French lawyer (Fisiologia del Gusto), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1755 Jul 9, General Edward Braddock was killed when French and Indian troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which was on its way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen. Braddock's troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to accept Washington's advice on frontier style fighting.
(A & IP, ESM, p.11)(HN, 7/9/98)
1755 Aug 23, Jean Baptiste Lislet-Geoffroy, French geographer, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1755 Sep 8, British forces under William Johnson and 250 Indians defeated the French and their allied Indians at the Battle of Lake George, NY.
(HN, 9/8/98)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G6)
1755 Sep 13, Bertrand Barere, French Revolutionist, was born in Tarbes.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1755 Oct 24, A British expedition against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ended in failure.
(HN, 10/24/98)
1755 Nov 2, Marie Antoinette (d.1793), Queen of France, was born. She was the daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I; and wife of Louis XVI in 1770 and thus Queen of France. She was arrested by the Revolutionary Tribunal and beheaded on Oct. 15.
(CFA, '96, p.58)(HN, 11/2/98)
1755 Nov 17, Louis XVIII, 1st post-revolutionary king of France (1814-24), was born.
(HN, 11/17/98)(MC, 11/17/01)
1755 Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality," in which he denounced private property as the root of all evil.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1756 Apr 15, Jacques Cassini (b.1677), French astronomer and cartographer, died.
(http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/cassini_jac.html)
1756 May 17, After a year and a half of undeclared war Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War. England hoped to conquer Canada. The final defeat of the French came in 1763 with the British victory at the Battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 5/17/98)(HNPD, 9/13/98)(http://tinyurl.com/afbze)
1756 May 19, The island of Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea and a British possession since 1708, fell to the French as the British garrison at Fort Philip capitulated.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng)
1756 Aug 14, French commander Louis Montcalm took Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1756 Aug 31, The British at Fort William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1756 Fussier French Sevres porcelain, under the patronage of King Louis XV, gained the upper hand in porcelain production over Meissen. Its trademark pictured cobalt-blue crossed swords.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.W10)
1756-1763 The Seven Years War. France and Great Britain clashed both in Europe and in North America. In 2000 "Crucible of War" by Fred Anderson was published. France, Russia, Austria, Saxony, Sweden and Spain stood against Britain, Prussia and Hanover. Britain financed Prussia to block France in Europe while her manpower was occupied in America. This was later considered to be the first global war because of the number of countries involved.
(V.D.-H.K.p.223)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(WSJ, 2/10/00, p.A16)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.19)
1757 Jan 4, Robert Francois Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
(HN, 1/4/01)
1757 Aug 9, English Ft. William Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1757 Sep 3, Charles X, Duke of Prussia, was born in Versailles, France.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1757 Sep 6, Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, French soldier and statesman who aided George Washington during the American Revolution, was born in Auvergne, France.
(AP, 9/6/07)
1757 Oct 9, Charles X, last Bourbon king of France (1824-30), was born.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1757 Nov 5, Frederick II of Prussia defeated the French at Rosbach in the Seven Years War.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1757 Denis Diderot published his play "Le Fils Naturel."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/diderot.htm)
1758 Jan 2, The French began bombardment of Madras, India.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1758 May 6, Maximilien F.M.I. de Robespierre (d.1794), a leader of the French Revolution, was born. He was known as the "Sea-Green Incorruptible" from his sallow complexion. He decreed death for all those he considered enemies of the revolution.
(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(HN, 5/6/99)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1758 Jun 23, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1758 Jul 26, British battle fleet under Gen. James Wolfe captured France's Fortress of Louisbourg on Ile Royale (Capre Breton Island, Nova Scotia) after a 7-week siege, thus gaining control of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River.
(HN, 7/26/98)(MC, 7/26/02)
1758 Sep 18, James Abercromby [was] replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander, the Marquis of Montcalm, at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1758 Nov 25, In the French and Indian War British forces under General John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne. George Washington participated in the campaign. Forbes renamed the site Fort Pitt after William Pitt the Elder, who directed British military policy in the Seven Years' War of 1756-'53. Before his arrival, the French had burned the fort and retreated.
(AP, 11/25/97)(ON, 9/05, p.5)(HNQ, 7/17/98)
1759 Mar 8, French King Louis XV revoked the license of the Encyclopedie as the 8th volume was about to be printed.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1759 Apr 8, Francois de La Croix (76), composer, died.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1759 Apr 13, The French defeated European Allies in Battle of Bergen.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1759 Apr 23, British seized Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
(AP, 4/23/98)
1759 May 8, Hearing of his appointment in the west, General Napoleon Bonaparte left for Paris in order to obtain a different posting.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1759 Jul 25, British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada. During their 7 Years' War.
(HN, 7/25/98)(SC, 7/25/02)
1759 Jul 26, The French relinquished Fort Carillon in New York, to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst. The British changed the name to Fort Ticonderoga, from the Iroquois word Cheonderoga (land between the waters).
(HN, 7/26/98)(AH, 10/02, p.26)
1759 Aug 1, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany. The marquis de Lafayette was killed by a British cannonball and his son, Gilbert du Motier (2), inherited the title. In 1777 Lafayette joined the American Continental Army.
(HN, 8/1/98)(ON, 2/09, p.1)
1759 Aug 18, The French fleet was destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1759 Sep 3, Pope Clement XIII officially placed the French Encyclopedie on the Vatican’s Index of Prohibited Books.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1759 Sep 13, During the final French and Indian War, the Battle of Quebec [Canada] was fought. British Gen. James Wolfe's army defeated Commander Louis Joseph de Montcalm's French forces on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec City. "Measured by the numbers engaged," wrote historian Francis Parkman, the Battle of Quebec "was but a heavy skirmish; measured by results, it was one of the great battles of the world." Fought on the rainy morning of September 13, 1759, the armies of England and France clashed outside the walls of Quebec City and altered the balance of power of an entire continent. The battle on the Plains of Abraham lasted less than half an hour. By the time the rain had washed away the blood, Quebec had surrendered to the British. Four years later, the Treaty of Paris gave England sole dominion over most of the land that Quebec City had governed, from Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi River.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(AP, 9/13/97)(HNQ, 9/8/98)
1759 Sep 14, Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, French general died at 47 on the Plains of Abraham in Canada.
(MC, 9/14/01)
1759 Sep 18, Quebec surrendered to the British and the Battle of Quebec ended. The French surrendered to the British after their defeat on the Plains of Abraham.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Sep 18, British commander James Wolfe died at the Battle of Quebec.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1759 Oct 20, Marie Jean Herault de Sechelles, French author, politician, French Revolutionary, was born.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1759 Oct 26, Georges Jacques Danton, French Revolutionary leader, was born. He was an impassioned orator and minister of Justice. He was also the last hope of the moderates during the French Reign of Terror and his execution led directly to the overthrow of Robespierre in 1794.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1759 The philosopher Voltaire wrote his novel Candide.
(WUD, 1994, p.216)
1759 France eliminated the public practice of sitting on the stage during theater and opera performances.
(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1759 Britain triumphed over France in the naval victory at Quiberon Bay.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1759-1771 Emiland Gauthey, Burgundy canal engineer, remade Givry, France, over this period.
(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.F5)
1760 Apr 28, French forces besieging Quebec defeated the British in the second battle on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1760 May 10, Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, soldier, author, composer ("La Marseillaise"), was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French army back to Rhine River.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1760 Sep 8, The French surrendered the city of Montreal to British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. [see Sep 18, 1759]
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1760 Nov 23, Gracchus Babeuf, French agrarian agitator, politician and writer, was born.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1760 Nov 29, Major Roger Rogers took possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain. French commandant Belotre surrendered Detroit.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1760 Giovanni Battista Torre started a Paris shop selling books and prints. The shop was best know for its fireworks displays. In 1775 Torre’s son Anthony along with Paul Peter Colnaghi moved to London and established themselves as sellers and publishers of prints. In 2010 “Colnaghi: the History" was published as part of a 250 year anniversary celebration.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.87)
1760s Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour built the La Petit Trianon at Versailles as a retreat. She died before it was finished. Louis XVI later gave it to Marie Antoinette.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.26)
1760-1960 The textbook "France in Modern Times: 1760-1960" was one of the works of Prof. Gordon Justin Wright (d.2000 at age 87). His other books included "The Reshaping of French Democracy."
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C3)
1761 Jul 31, The French ship L’Utile, hit a coral reef near the Ile de Sable in the Indian Ocean. Nearly half of 160 slaves were killed. The French crew of 163 survived. On Sep 27 a white crew of 123 set sail on the Providence, built from the remains of L’Utile, and managed to reach Madagascar with just one death in four days. Fifteen years later a rescue ship found seven female survivors.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.94)
1761 George-Louis Leclerc (1707-1788), Comte de Buffon, French naturalist and theoretical biologist published the 9th volume of his 35 volume work titled "Histoire Naturelle, Generale, et Particuliere," an attempt to record all that was known of the world of nature. This volume expanded on his “theory of American degeneracy," his view that all animals in America were smaller than their European counterparts.
(http://tinyurl.com/7yspryd)(ON, 4/12, p.9)
1762 Jan, In France Diderot published the 1st volume of illustrations for his Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.10)
1762 Feb 5, Martinique, a major French base in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, surrendered to the British.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1762 Mar 10, Jean Calas, a French protestant (Huguenot), was tortured and executed in Toulouse on the charge that he had killed his son in 1761 to prevent him from converting to Catholicism. Voltaire took up the case believing that Catholic judges were biased. He wrote pamphlets and letters to support his case and urged high-placed friends to place the case before the Great Council of Louis XV. On March 9, 1765, Jean Calas and his family were acquitted and the death of the son was ruled a suicide.
(ON, 4/06, p.10)(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1762 Oct 29, Andre-Marie Chenier, French poet (Elegies), was born.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1762 Nov 3, Spain acquired Louisiana. [see Dec 3]
(MC, 11/3/01)
1762 Dec 3, France ceded to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi- the territory known as Upper Louisiana. [see Nov 3]
(CO, Grolier's, 11/10/95)(HN, 12/3/98)
1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau published his didactic novel "Emile," which spelled out his idea of his "natural system," and his work of political philosophy "The Social Contract." The books were banned in France and he was forced to leave.
(WSJ, 2/18/97, p.A18)(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M2)
1763 Feb 10, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French-Indian War. France ceded Canada to England and gave up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands. France retained the sugar colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
(HN, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/08)(SSFC, 7/6/14, p.L5)
1763 Feb 12, Pierre de Mariveaux (b.1688), French novelist and playwright, died.
(SFC, 5/30/09, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Marivaux)
1763 Jun 23, Josephine Martinique, empress of France (1804-14), was born.
(HN, 6/23/98)(MC, 6/23/02)
1763 France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominica)
1764 Jan 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8) played for the Royal Family at Versailles, France.
(http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/23-1764.html)
1764 Feb 11, Marie-Joseph de Chenier, French poet (Cajus Graechus), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1764 Apr 15, Jeanne-Antoinette-Poison LeNormant d'Etoiles, Marquis de Pomador, died.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1764 Sep 12, Jean Philippe Rameau, French composer (Castor en Pollux), died at 80.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1764 Nov 26, France banned Jesuits.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1764 Voltaire [Francois Marie Arouet] (1694-1778), French philosopher, historian, dramatist and essayist, authored the "Philosophical Dictionary."
(HNQ, 10/11/01)
1764 Catherine the Great hired Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) of France to create a statue of Peter the Great (d.1725). In 2003 Alexander M. Schenker authored "The Bronze Horseman: Falconet's Monument to Peter the Great."
(WSJ, 12/18/03, p.D6)
1764 The French established the 1st settlement on the Falkland Islands.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.36)
1765 Mar 7, Joseph N. Niepce (d.1883), French lithographer, inventor (photography), was born. Photo etching was invented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce early in the 19th century. He also invented photography. His partner, L.J.M. Daguerre, perfected Niepce's process and popularized daguerreotypes as the first commercial photographs.
(V.D.-H.K.p.273)(I&I, Penzias, p.114)(MC, 3/7/02)
1765 Sep, Printing of Diderot’s complete Encyclopedie was finished despite unauthorized edits by Le Breton, his chief publisher. The French government prohibited distribution in Paris or near Versailles.
(ON, 4/05, p.10)
1765 Richard Hennessey, an exile Ireland, founded a spirits export business in the Cognac region of France.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.N4)
1765 La Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat, a glass factory, opened in France.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.G6)
1766 Mar 5, Spanish official Don Antonio de Ulloa arrived in New Orleans to take possession of the Louisiana Territory from the French.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1766 Nov 16, Rudolphe Kreutzer (d.1831), a leading French composer and violinist. Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata was dedicated to him. His Stradivarius violin sold for $1.58 mil. in 1998.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E4)(MC, 11/16/01)
1766 France handed its settlement on the Falkland Islands over to Spain.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.36)
1766-1769 The French expedition of Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe. Botanist Jeanne Baret, disguised as a man, likely collected a flower (bougainvillea) near Rio de Janeiro that was named after the captain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Bar%C3%A9)
1766-1817 Germaine de Stael, French author: "There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth: those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it."
(AP, 7/10/00)
1767 Mar 25, Joachim Murat (d.1815), Napoleon's brother in law, was born in Labastide-Murat. He was a French marshal and became king of Naples (1808-1815).
(WUD, 1994, p.941)(HN, 3/25/99)(HN, 3/25/99)
1767 Oct 23, H. Benjamin Constant, [de Rebeque], French politician and writer, was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1767 Fragonard (1732-1806) painted "The Swing."
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.D2)
1768 Mar 21, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (d.1830), French mathematician, physicist and Egyptologist, was born.
(HN, 3/21/98)(WUD, 1994, p.561)
1768 May 15, By the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/99)
1768 Jul 27, Charlotte Corday, French patriot who assassinated Jean Paul Marat, was born.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1768 Sep 4, Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand, French writer, novelist (Atala) and chef who gave his name to a style of steak, was born.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1768 Oct 28, Michel Blavet (68), French court flautist and composer, died.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1769 Jan 10, Michel Ney, French marshal (Waterloo), was born.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1769 Apr 22, Madame du Barry became King Louis XV's "official" mistress.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1769 Aug 15, Napoleon Bonaparte (d.1821), Emperor of France (1804-1813, 1814-1815) and continental Europe, was born on the island of Corsica.
(WUD, 1994, p.950)(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/02)(MC, 8/15/02)
1769 Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau published "Histoire Des Poissons."
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1769 Gluck completed his opera "Paride ed Elena." It was the last of 3 collaborations with librettist Raniero de’ Calzabigi. It deals with the seduction of Helen by Paris.
(WSJ, 7/14/04, p.D14)
1769 The Parc Monceau in Paris was created on the property of the Duc de Chartres, father of future King Louis Philippe.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T12)
1770 May 16, Marie Antoinette (14), married the future King Louis XVI of France (15).
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 5/16/98)
1770 Dec 26, Pierre earl de Cambronne, French general (Waterloo, Elba), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1770 Francois Boucher (b.1703), French painter, died. He painted "Diana."
(Econ, 10/9/04, p.79)
1771 Nov 4, Carlo Goldoni's "Le Bourru Bienfaisant," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1771 Dec 26, Claude A. Helvétius (56), French encyclopedist (L'esprit), died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1772 Feb 10, Louis Tocque (75), French painter, died.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1772 The Paris Faculty of Medicine declared potatoes to be an edible food.
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1772 The French Veuve Clicquot champagne was first produced, but the first bottles were laid down for ten years.
(AFP, 7/17/10)
1773 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his bust of Madame du Barry.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1773-1827 Elizabeth de Meulan Guizot, French author: "Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes to others, rather than on what he ought to expect from them."
(AP, 7/18/99)
1774 Apr 19, Gluck's opera "Iphigenia in Aulis," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1774 May 10, Louis XV (64), King of France (1715-74), died of smallpox and was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI (19). Louis XVI soon appointed Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, as his new foreign minister.
(AP, 5/10/97)(HN, 5/10/99)(PCh, 1992, p.318)(AH, 2/06, p.55)
1774 Sep 13, Tugot, the new controller of finances, urged the king of France to restore the free circulation of grain in the kingdom.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1774 Dec 16, Francois Quesnay (b.1694), French economist, died. He was the first to think of the economy as a system of interacting parts to be judged by the necessities and conveniences it produces. Quesnay wrote his Tableau Économique (1758), renowned for its famous "zig-zag" depiction of income flows between economic sectors.
(Econ, 8/7/10, p.84)(www.economyprofessor.com/theorists/francoisquesnay.php)
1774 Dec, In Paris nearly 100 feet of the Rue d'Enfer ("street of Hell") collapsed to a depth of 100 feet.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)
1774 Kaspar David Friedrich (d.1840), German painter and master of numinous landscapes, was born. He painted "Wreck of the Hope."
(AAP, 1964)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1774-1792 King Louis XIV ruled.
(WUD, 1994, p.848)
1775 Dec 18-1775 Dec 27, In Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Francis Daymon, members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence, met 3 times at Carpenter’s Hall with French agent Chevalier Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir regarding French support for American Independence.
(www.historynet.com/benjamin-franklin-revolutionary-spymaster.htm/3)
1776 Mar 1, French minister Charles Gravier advised his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.
(HN, 3/1/99)
1776 Apr, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, the French foreign minister, enlisted Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, playwright and French spy, to establish a commercial firm to supply America with arms, munitions and equipment.
(AH, 2/06, p.59)
1776 May 12, Turgot, French minister of Finance, resigned.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1776 Jun, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais established Hortalez et Cie, a fictitious company, to facilitate the transfer of arms to revolutionaries in America. It facilitated the transfer of weapons and munitions from France and Spain to the Americans. Under the scheme, France and Spain each loaned funds to the company for the purchase of munitions and the Americans would in turn pay for the material with rice, tobacco and other products. The scandal-plagued operation continued after the signing of the Franco-American alliance permitting open shipments of military aid between the two countries.
(HNQ, 4/20/00)
1776 Jul 27, Silas Deane (1737-1789), secretly sent to France as America’s first official envoy, wrote a letter to the US Congress informing them that he has been successful beyond his expectations. Deane had served as the Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress.
(http://tinyurl.com/lwd7xq)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Deane)
1776 Oct 29, Benjamin Franklin departed for France one month to the day after being named an agent of a diplomatic commission by the Continental Congress. He served from 1776-1778 on a three-man commission to France charged with the critical task of gaining French support for American independence.
(http://tinyurl.com/kuarvn)(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1776 Dec 23, Continental Congress negotiated a war loan of $181,500 from France.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1776 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his "Monument to Buffon."
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1777 Feb 13, The Marquis de Sade was arrested without charge and imprisoned in Vincennes fortress.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1777 Jul 27, The Marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious colonists fight the British.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1777 Aug 16, France declared a state of bankruptcy.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1777 Dec 17, France recognized American independence.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1778 Jan 27, Nicolo Piccinni's (1728-1800) opera "Roland" premiered in Paris.
(WUD, 1994 p.1088)(MC, 1/27/02)
1778 Feb 6, The United States won official recognition from France as the nations signed a treaty of aid in Paris. The Franco-American Treaty of Alliance bound the 2 powers together "forever against all other powers." It was the first alliance treaty for the fledgling US government and the last until the 1949 NATO pact. Benjamin Franklin signed for the US.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/6/97)(AH, 2/06, p.59)
1778 Feb 6, England declared war on France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1778 May 30, Voltaire (b.1694), French writer born as Francois-Marie Arouet, died. His books included Candide (1759).
(www.online-literature.com/voltaire/)
1778 Jul 2, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b.1712), Swiss-born writer and philosopher, died in France. He was considered part of the French Enlightenment along with Voltaire and Diderot. In 2005 Leo Damrosch authored “Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius."
(www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm)(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A24)
1778 Jul 10, In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI declared war on England.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1778 Jul 27, British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1778 Dec 19, Marie-Therese-Charlotte, daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1778 Benjamin Franklin, on a diplomatic mission in France, approved a plan by John Paul Jones to disrupt British merchant shipping along Britain's undefended west coast.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)
1778-1781 Under the Treaty of Commerce and Friendship, France aided the American revolutionaries. Some 44,000 French troops served during the American War of Independence.
(AP, 5/3/03)
1779 Apr 24, Mr. H. Sykes, an English optician living in Paris, wrote to Ben Franklin and explained a delay in sending an order for special spectacles, complaining that he was having difficulty making them. Franklin is believed to have ordered his first pair of bifocals from Sykes.
(www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm)
1779 Jun 18, French fleet occupied St Vincent.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1779 Jul 4, French fleet occupied Grenada.
(Maggio)
1779 Jul 24, The Siege of Gibraltar by the Spanish and French was begun. It was finally lifted on Feb 7, 1783.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1779 Dec 6, Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin (80), French still life painter, died.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1779 Dec 19, Auguste-Gaspard-Louis Desnoyers, engraver, was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1779 Benjamin Franklin presented his credentials to the French court, becoming the first American Minister (the 18th American century equivalent of ambassador) to be received by a foreign government.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1780 Mar 21, The Marquis de Lafayette set sail for the US aboard the Hermione after persuading French King Louis XVI to provide military and financial aid to support George Washington’s troops.
(SSFC, 4/19/15, p.A2)
1780 Aug 24, King Louis XVI abolished torture as a means to get suspects to confess.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1780 Aug 29, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (d.1867), French painter, was born. His work included the "Portrait of Monsieur de Norvins" and "Valpincon Bather."
(WUD, 1994, p.731)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(MC, 8/29/01)
1780 A communal grave at the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris cracked and spilled into the cellars of adjoining houses and prompted its closure.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)
1780 Guillaume Raynal, a French historian, proclaimed Puerto Rico to be "in proportion to its size the very best island in the New World."
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.A3)
1781 Apr 29, French fleet stopped Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1781 Aug 30, The French fleet arrived in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
(HN, 8/30/00)
1781 Sep 5, The British fleet arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three straggling lines. Rear Adm. Thomas Graves waited for the French to form their battle lines and then fought for 5 days. Outgunned and unnerved he withdrew to New York. The French had some 37 ships and 29,000 soldiers and sailors at Yorktown while Washington had some 11,000 men engaged. French warships defeated British fleet, trapping Cornwallis in Yorktown.
(NG, 6/1988, p.763)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC, 9/5/01)
1781 The French Marquis de Condorcet authored his pamphlet “Reflections on Negro Slavery."
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.94)
1782 Apr 12, The British navy won its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies off Dominica. A British fleet beat the French.
(HN, 4/12/99)(MC, 4/12/02)
1782 May 26, British officer Capt. Charles Asgill (20), a captive from Yorktown, drew a short straw and was thereby selected to be executed should Capt. Lippincott not be turned over to the Patriots for trial. Asgill was spared following an appeal by French foreign minister Comte de Vergennes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Huddy)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.49)
1782 Sep 13, The British fortress at Gibraltar came under attack by French and Spanish forces.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1782 Nov 30, The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1782 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos authored his novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses" (The Dangerous Liaisons). In 1988 a historical drama film of the same name was based upon Christopher Hampton's play Les liaisons dangereuses, an adaptation of the novel. In 1994 composer Conrad Susa (1935-2013) and Philip Littell created an opera of the same name based on the novel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Liaisons)(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.C10)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A20)
1782 The Comedie Francaise installed benches in the pit to prevent a mob-like atmosphere.
(SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)
1783 Jan 20, The fighting of the Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(HN, 1/20/99)
1783 Jan 23, Stendahl (d.1842), [Marie Henri Beyle], French critic and writer (Le Rouge et de Noir), was born. In 1997 Jonathon Keates published his book "Stendhal," which covers the writer's life story. "Beauty is the promise of happiness." "One can acquire everything in solitude, except character."
(WSJ, 3/25/97, p.A16)(AP, 12/4/97)(AP, 6/6/98)(MC, 1/23/02)
1783 Feb 7, The Siege of Gibraltar, which was pursued by the Spanish and the French since July 24, 1779, was finally lifted. [see Sep 13, 1782]
(HN, 2/7/99)
1783 Apr 10, Hortense E. de Beauharnais, French queen of Netherlands (1806-10), was born.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1783 Jun 4, The Montgolfier brothers launched their 1st hot-air balloon (unmanned) in a 10-minute flight over Annonay, France.
(http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm)
1783 Aug 27, The 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned), made by Professor Jacques Charles, successfully completed its inaugural flight in Paris.
(www.twinring.jp/english/balloon/what_balloon/)
1783 Sep 3, The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War. The Treaty of 1783, which formally ended the American Revolution, is also known as the Definitive Treaty of Peace, the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. The treaty bears the signatures of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay.
(AP, 9/3/97) (HNQ, 7/19/98)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1783 Sep 19, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier launched a duck, a sheep and a rooster aboard a hot-air balloon at Versailles, France.
(AP, 9/19/06)
1683 Sep 24, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1783 Oct 15, Francois Pilatre de Rozier (Jean Piletre de Rozier) made the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet. [see Jun 5]
(HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)
1783 Oct 29, Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert (66), philosopher, mathematician, died. He co-compiled the Encyclopedia with Denis Diderot.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1783 Nov 21, Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier (1754-1785) and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first free-flight ascent in a balloon, to over 500 feet, in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Romain)(NPub, 2002, p.2)
1783 Augustin Pajou, sculptor, completed his "Psyche Abandoned."
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1784 Jan 14, The United States ratified a peace treaty with England, the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/14/98)
1784 Feb 29, Marquis de Sade was transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1784 Apr, The idea of resetting clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in his essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light," published in the Journal de Paris, as a way to save electricity.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/whostarteddaylightsavingtime)
1784 May 20, Peace of Versailles ended the war between France, England, and Holland.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1784 Jun 4, Elizabeth Thible became the first woman to fly aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, over Lyon, France.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1784 Jul 30, Denis Diderot (b.1713), French philosopher, critic, and encyclopedist, died. "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
(WSJ, 6/15/99, p.A16)( www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/denis_diderot_a001.htm)
1784 Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote "The Marriage of Figaro," the sequel to "The Barber of Seville." A 1997 film, "Beaumarchais," was a look at the artist, who was also a womanizer, a spy and an arms runner.
(WSJ, 12/19/96, p.A16)(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.14)
1784 King Louis XVI appointed a French commission to examine the theory of “animal magnetism," developed by German Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). The commission, which included American ambassador Benjamin Franklin, branded Mesmer a fraud.
(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
1784 Virginia Congressman Thomas Jefferson (41) became the US Commissioner and Minister to France. He continued there to 1798 and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
(www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation)
1785 Jan 7, The first balloon flight across the English Channel was made. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and the American Dr. John Jeffries crossed the English Channel for the first time in a hydrogen balloon.
(HN, 5/15/98)(HN, 1/7/99)
1785 Mar 27, Louis XVII, Pretender to the throne (1793-1795) during the French Revolution, was born. His father may have been Marie Antoinette's Swedish lover, Count Axel von Fersen.
(HN, 3/27/98)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A18)(MC, 3/27/02)
1785 May 23, Benjamin Franklin in Paris spoke of his invention of bifocals in a letter to friend and philanthropist George Whatley.
(www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm)
1785 Jun 15, Two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed, in possibly the first fatal aviation accident.
(AP, 2/26/13)(www.space.com/16595-montgolfiers-first-balloon-flight.html)
1785 Jul 17, France limited the importation of goods from Britain.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1785 Aug 15, French Cardinal De Rohan (51), Bishop of Strasbourg, was arrested in the affair of the diamond necklace. He was accused of forging the queen’s signature to gain possession of a necklace containing 647 diamonds. In 2014 Jonathan Beckman authored “How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds, and the Scandal that Shook the French Throne."
(PC, 1992, p.335)(Econ, 7/12/14, p.76)
1785 Sep 28, Napoleon Bonaparte (16) graduated from the military academy in Paris. He was 42nd in a class of 51.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1785 The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) authored “The 120 Days of Sodom." It tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate sexual gratification in orgies.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_120_Days_of_Sodom)
1785 Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (1743-1794), French philosopher and mathematician, wrote the “Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions," one of his most important works. This work described several now famous results, including Condorcet's jury theorem, which states that if each member of a voting group is more likely than not to make a correct decision, the probability that the highest vote of the group is the correct decision increases as the number of members of the group increases.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)
1785 Thomas Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as US ambassador to France.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)
1786 Apr, The process of moving the bones from the Cemetery of the Innocents to the new site in the limestone quarries began. The process took 2 years. The Revolutionary Government of Paris had decided to relieve congestion and improve sanitary conditions by emptying the city cemeteries into an official ossuary. The Cemetery of the Innocents and other church cemeteries were moved to the limestone quarries south of the city.
(Hem., 3/97, p.129)(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.G3)
1786 Jul 24, Jean-Louis Nicollet, French explorer, was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1786 Aug 8, Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard became the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.
(HN, 8/8/98)(ON, 4/04, p.1)
1786 Sep 14, Two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey, the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies. Aboard was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers, illustrators, and physicians. For the next ten days Jean Francois de La Pérouse, the commander of this expedition, took detailed notes on the life and character of the area. Perouse’s notes were later published under the title “Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786: The Journals of Jean Francois De LA Perouse."
(http://tinyurl.com/fbuud)
1786 Sep 26, France and Britain signed a trade agreement in London.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1786 Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne began writing in a new genre, the nighttime prowl. His "Les Nuits de Paris ou Le Spectateur nocturne" was a rambling account of 1,001 nights wandering the streets of Paris.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.35)
1786-1859 Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French actress and poet: "Who will give me back those days when life had wings and flew just like a skylark in the sky."
(AP, 2/28/99)
1787 Jul 2, The Marquis de Sade shouted from Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1787 Jul 30, The French parliament refused to approve a more equitable land tax.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1787 Aug 2, Horace the Saussure reached the top of Mont Blanc.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1787 Sep 4, Louis XVI of France recalled parliament.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1787 Nov 18, Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French painter (daguerreotype), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1787 Nov 29, Louis XVI promulgated an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
(HN, 11/29/98)(WSJ, 11/1/01, p.A19)
1787 Quatremiere de Quincy coined the term "Baroque" and defined it as absurdity carried to excess.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A17)
1787 Thomas Jefferson toured Bordeaux while serving as US ambassador to France. He purchased cases Haut-Brion, d’Yquiem, and Margaux for himself and George Washington.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A9)
1788 May 29, Jacques Aliamet (61), French etcher, engraver, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1788 Jul 6, Ten thousand troops were called out in Paris as unrest mounted in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1788 Jul 15, Louis XVI jailed 12 deputies who protest new judicial reforms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1788 Jul 19, Prices plunged on the Paris stock market.
(HN, 7/19/98)
1788 Jul 20, The governor of the French colony of Pondicherry, Vietnam, abandoned plans to place King Nhuyen Anh back on the throne.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1788 Aug 8, King Louis XVI called the French States and Generals together.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1788 Aug 8, Louis FAD Duke de Richelieu (92), French marshal, died.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1788 Aug 27, Jacques Neeker was named French minister of Finance.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1788 Sep 19, Charles de Barentin became lord chancellor of France.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1788 Sep 23, Louis XVI of France declared the Parliament restored.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1788 Sep 24, After having been dissolved, the French Parliament of Paris reassembled in triumph.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1788 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) painted "Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and Remorse Follows."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1789 Jan 21, Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach (b.1723), a French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment, died. In 2010 Philipp Blom authored “A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment," the story of the Paris salon run by Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach.
(Econ, 10/30/10, p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach)
1789 Feb 2, Armand-Louis Couperin (63), French composer, organist at Notre Dame, died.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1789 Mar, In France the cahiers de doleances (lists of grievances) began to be drawn up by each of the three Estates. Their compilation between March and April was ordered by Louis XVI, who had convened the Estates-General to manage the revolutionary situation.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahiers_de_dol%C3%A9ances)
1789 May 5, In France the Estates General, summoned by King Louis XVI, convened to repair the national finances. It sat for several weeks in May and June, but came to an impasse as the three Estates clashed over their respective powers. It was brought to an end when many members of the Third Estate formed themselves into a National Assembly, signaling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates-General_of_1789)
1789 Jun 10, Bernard-Jordan de Launay, military governor of the Bastille, suspended the prisoners' daily supervised walks outside the Bastille walls.
(ON, 4/01, p.1)
1789 Jun 17, The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and undertook to frame a constitution.
(AP, 6/17/97)
1789 Jun 20, Oath on the Tennis Court in Versailles, France, bonded members of the Third Estate to resist eviction until they have a new constitution.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1789 Jul 9, In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1789 cJul 11, Just days before the Bastille was taken the tavern keepers and wine merchants of Belleville, angered by levies on food and drink, sacked the local tax collector's office.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)
1789 Jul 13, Parisians rioted over an increase in price of grain. The mob plundered the armories and opened the prison gates of St. Lazare. The King at Versailles refused to withdraw his troops from Paris.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1789 July 14 , Bastille Day. Tens of thousands of the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille, the Paris fortress used as a prison to hold political prisoners, and released the prisoners inside at the onset of the French Revolution. Over 100 rioters were killed or wounded. The average Frenchman was 5 foot 2 and weighed 105 pounds. France’s Louis XIV made a diary entry that read “Rien" (nothing). Historian Francois Furet (1927-1997), a leading writer on the French Revolution, was best known for his work: "Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution." He refuted Marxist interpretations of the events that preceded and followed the fall of the monarchy. In 1939 W. Higgins edited "The French Revolution Told by Contemporaries."
(AP, 7/14/97)(HN, 7/14/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R12)(ON, 4/01, p.1)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.52)(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A18)
1789 Jul 14, The French Revolution. "It was not the literate and cultured minority of Frenchmen who brought down the government, as had been the case in England and America. Instead it was the common people, who marched upon the king and queen in their palace at Versailles. The Jacobins promulgated a Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen that went beyond the American Bill of Rights in affirming, "Nothing that is not forbidden by Law may be hindered, and no one may be compelled to do what the Law does not ordain," for "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others."
(V.D.-H.K.p.230-231)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)
1789 Jul 15, The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the government.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1789 Jul 18, Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1789 Jul 23, The Great Fear swept through France as the Revolution continued.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1789 Aug 4, The Constituent Assembly in France dissolved feudal system by abolishing the privileges of nobility.
(HN, 8/4/98)(MC, 8/4/02)
1789 Aug 21, Augustin-Louis Baron Cauchy, French mathematician, was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1789 Aug 26, The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approved the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1789 Aug 27, French National Assembly issued "Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1789 Sep 13, Guardsmen in Orleans, France, opened fire on rioters trying to loot bakeries, killing 90.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1789 Sep 16, Jean-Paul Marat set up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple (The Friend of the People).
(HN, 9/16/98)(ON, SC, p.7)
1789 Oct 10, In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin said the most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1789 Nov 2, The property of the Church in France was taken away by the state.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1789 Nov 5, French National Assembly declared all citizens equal under law.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1789 Dec 3, Claude-Joseph Vernet, French seascape painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1789 Dec 13, The National Guard was created in France.
(HN, 12/13/98)
c1789 The Marquis de Lafayette wrote the original version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He was appalled by the excesses of the revolution and fled to Austria where he was imprisoned for 5 years.
(WSJ, 1/15/97, p.A12)
1789 A French decree allowed wine and coffee to be served on the same premises.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.105)
1789 Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General, said the third estate is everything, has nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1789 In 1999 Rachel Wright authored "Paris: 1789," an informative children's book of Parisian life on the eve of the Revolution.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, Par p.8)
1789 The French dwarf Richeborg stood 23 inches and was costumed as a baby in diapers during the French Revolution. In the arms of innocent girls he could eavesdrop on sensitive conversations and carried secret dispatches in and out of Paris.
(SFC, 6/23/96, zone 1 p.2)
1789 The bankruptcy of the French government brought banks across Europe to their knees.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R48)
1789 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French nobleman and chemist, presented a paper on the geology of the Earth that proposed that sea level had oscillated over time, as opposed to a stationary sea with linear sedimentation.
(NH, 12/98, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier)
1789 Pierre Ordinaire, French chemist, invented absinthe as a digestive or all-purpose tonic. It quickly caught on as an apéritif. It was popularized by Henri-Louis Pernod, who opened his first distillery in Switzerland before moving to Pontarlier, France, in 1805.
(http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/a/absinthe.htm)(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A3)
1789-1914 In 2006 Michael Burleigh authored “Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War."
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.87)
1790 Jan 21, Joseph Guillotine proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1790 Feb 6, The last stone of the Bastille, torn down by order of the revolutionary leaders, was presented to the National Assembly.
(ON, 4/01, p.3)
1790 Feb 26, As a result of the Revolution, France was divided into 83 departments.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1790 Mar 31, In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre was elected president of the Jacobin Club.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1790 May 21, Paris was divided into 48 zones.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1790 Jul 3, In Paris, the Marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1790 Jul 12, The French Assembly approved a Civil Constitution providing for the election of priests and bishops.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1790 Jul 26, An attempt at a counter-revolution in France was put down by the National Guard at Lyons.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1790 Sep 4, Jacques Necker was forced to resign as finance minister in France.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1790 Oct 21, Alphonse-Marie Louis de Lamartine, writer (Rene), was born in Macon, France.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1790 Oct 21, The Tricolor was chosen as the official flag of France.
(HN, 10/21/98)
1790 Dec 23, Jean François Champollion, French founder of Egyptology, was born. He deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
(HN, 12/23/99)
1790 US Minister to France, Gouverneur Morris, said that the French "have taken Genius instead of Reason for their Guide, adopted Experiment instead of Experience, and wander in the Dark because they prefer Lightning to Light." In 2000 Susan Dunn published "Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.28)
1790 The celerifere bicycle appeared in Paris about this time and was a two-wheeled, un-steerable vehicle that the rider propelled by striking his feet on the ground. This was improved upon with a bar to steer the front wheel in 1816 by Baron von Drais of Germany, and was called a draisine. The ordinary, which had a high front wheel, wire-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires, was developed in the 1870s.
(HNQ, 10/29/99)
1790-1792 Sans-culottes (French for without knee-breeches) was a term created during this period by the French to describe the poorer members of the Third Estate, according to the dominant theory because they usually wore pantaloons (full-length trousers) instead of the chic knee-length culotte. The term came to refer to the ill-clad and ill-equipped volunteers of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, but, above all, to the working class radicals of the Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-culottes)
1790-1799 The revolutionary tide that swept Europe during this period was later covered by R.R. Palmer in his book “The Age of the Democratic Revolution."
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)
1790-1869 Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, French poet, womanizer, historian and statesman.
(WUD, 1994, p.803)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T5)
1791 Mar 10, Pope condemned France's Civil Constitution of the clergy.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1791 Apr 18, National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1791 Jun 20, King Louis XVI of France attempted to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes, but was caught.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1791 Jun 21, King Louis XVI and the French royal family were arrested in Varennes. In 2003 Timothy Tackett authored "When the King Took Flight," an examination of the political culture during this period of transformation.
(HN, 6/21/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1791 Jul 13, The bones of the greatest French satirist, philosopher, and writer, Voltaire (Jean-Marie Arouet) were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1791 Jul 16, Louis XVI was suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1791 Jul 17, National Guard troops opened fire in Paris on a crowd of demonstrators calling for the deposition of the king.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1791 Jul 24, Robespierre expelled all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French Revolution.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1791 Sep 3, The French National Assembly passed a French Constitution passed.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1791 Sep 9, French Royalists took control of Arles and barricaded themselves inside the town.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1791 Sep 13, France's King Louis XVI accepted a constitution.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1791 Sep 14, Louis XVI solemnly swore his allegiance to the French constitution.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1791 Sep 26, J.L.A. Theodore Gericault, French painter, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1791 Sep 27, Jews in France were granted French citizenship. Jews were granted religious and civic rights in 1791.
(HN, 9/27/98)(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A13)
1791 Oct 1, In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly held its first meeting.
(HN, 10/1/98)
1791 Englishman Thomas Paine wrote the “Rights of Man" in Paris, promoting the French Revolution. It defended the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's attack in “Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790).
(ON, 6/2011, p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Man)
1791 French Comte de Volney (1757-1820) authored “The Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires," a treatise on why civilizations fell and what men should do to find happiness.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.128)
1791 Legend says the Harel family began making Camembert cheese before this time. The family had given a priest refuge, who in gratitude gave them the recipe. In 2003 Pierre Boisard authored "Camembert: A National Myth."
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.M3)
1792 Feb 15, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre (42), astronomer and surveyor, was elected to the French Academy of Sciences to help establish the length of a proposed new unit of measurement, the meter.
(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1792 Apr 14, France declared war on Austria, starting French Revolutionary Wars.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1792 Apr 20, France declared war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
(AP, 4/20/97) (HN, 4/20/98)
1792 Apr 24, Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an officer stationed in Strasbourg, composed "La Marseillaise," which later became the national anthem of France.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)
1792 Apr 25, Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine.
(AP, 4/25/97)(HN, 4/25/98)
1792 May 21, Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis (d.1843), French engineer and mathematician, was born. He became first person to describe the Coriolis force.
(SFC, 5/21/09, p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_Coriolis)
1792 Jul 18, American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45. His body was preserved in rum in case the American government wished him back. In 1905 his body was transported to the US and placed in a crypt in Annapolis. In 2003 Evan Thomas authored "John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy."
(AP, 7/18/97)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.M3)
1792 Jul 30, The French national anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.
(AP, 7/30/99)
1792 Aug 10, Some 10,000 Parisians attacked the Tuileries Palace of Louis XVI at the instigation of Georges Jacques Danton (33), after Louis ordered his Swiss guard to stop firing on the people. The mob massacred some 600 guardsmen. The king was later arrested, put on trial for treason, and executed the following January.
(PC, 1992, p.345)(AP, 8/10/07)(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Aug 11, A revolutionary commune was formed in Paris, France.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1792 Aug 13, Revolutionaries imprisoned the French royal family, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. [see Aug 10]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1792 Sep 2, Verdun, France, surrendered to the Prussian Army.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1792 Sep 2, In the "September Massacres"- French mobs removed nobles and clergymen from jails, and some 1,600.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.80)
1792 Sep 3, In France Princess de Lamballe (b.1749), the best friend of Marie Antoinette, was killed and her body mutilated by an angry mob. Her head was displayed under the window of Marie Antoinette, interned in Temple Prison.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G5)(www.batguano.com/vigeeart100.html)
1792 Sep 5, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the National Convention in France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1792 Sep 21, Collot D'Herbois proposed to abolish the monarchy in France. The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy. 1st French Republic formed
(AP, 9/21/97)(MC, 9/21/01)
1792 Sep 22, The first French Republic was proclaimed.
(AP, 9/22/06)
1792 Nov 6, Battle at Jemappes: French army beat the Austrians.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1792 Dec 11, France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. Louis was convicted and executed the following month.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1792 The crown jewels of France were stolen including the 67 carot Blue Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1793 Jan 9, The first US manned balloon flight occurred as Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J. He stayed airborne for 46 minutes, traveled close to 15 miles and set down at the "old Clement farm" in Deptford, New Jersey. [see Jun 23, 1784, Mar 9, 1793]
(WSJ, 3/31/98, p.A1)(AP, 1/9/99)(ON, 6/09, p.2)
1793 Jan 19, French King Louis XVI was sentenced to death. [see Jan 21]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1793 Jan 21, Louis XVI (38), last of the French Bourbon dynasty, was executed on the guillotine. The vote in the National Convention for execution for treason won by a margin of one vote. The Great Terror followed his execution.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(NH, 6/97, p.23)(AP, 1/21/98)
1793 Feb 1, France declared war on Britain and the Netherlands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1793 Mar 4, French troops conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 10, In France, on a proposal by Georges-Jacques Danton (1759-1794), the National Convention decreed that there should be established in Paris an extraordinary criminal tribunal. The news of the failure of the French arms in Belgium had given rise in Paris to popular movements on March 9 and 10, 1793. On Oct 20 the extraordinary criminal tribunal received by decree the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Tribunal)
1793 Mar 18, The 2nd Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beat France.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1793 Mar 26, Pro-royalist uprising took place in Vendée region of France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1793 Apr 6, In France all executive power was conferred upon a Committee of Public Safety. Georges-Jacques Danton was one of the nine original members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Danton)
1793 Apr 14, A royalist rebellion in Santo Domingo was crushed by French republican troops.
(HN, 4/14/99)
1793 Jun 2, Maximillian Robespierre, a member of France's Committee on Public Safety, initiated the "Reign of Terror," a purge of those suspected of treason against the French Republic. Months of the Great Terror, followed the Revolution in France as thousands died beneath the guillotine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(HN, 6/2/98)
1793 Jun 24, The first republican constitution in France was adopted.
(AP, 6/24/97)
1793 Jul 13, Pierre Dupont de Nemours was ordered arrested in Paris on charges of plotting with rebels against the French Revolutionary National Assembly.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1793 Jul 13, French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was executed four days later. In 1970 Marie Cher authored "Charlotte Corday, and Certain Men of the Revolutionary Torment."
(AP, 7/13/97)(ON, SC, p.8)
1793 Jul 23, The French garrison at Mainz, Germany, fell to the Prussians.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1793 Jul 24, France passed the 1st copyright law.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1793 Jul 27, In France, Robespierre became a member of the Committee of Public Safety.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1793 Jul, Napoleon Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet that made a good impression on the Jacobin faction that had seized power in Paris.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Aug 14, Republican troops in France laid siege to the city of Lyons.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1793 Aug 22, Louis Duke de Noailles (80), marshal of France, was guillotined.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1793 Aug 27, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1793 Aug 28, Adam-Philippe Custine, Duke de Lauzun (French duke, general, fought in American Revolution, hero in both countries), was guillotined in Paris.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1793 Sep 5, The Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities. One delegate, claiming that the middle class Girondist (moderates) leaders be sentenced to death cried, "It is time for equality to wield its scythe over all the heads. Very well, Legislator, place Terror on the agenda!" The delegates agreed to arrest all suspects and dissenters, try them swiftly in the kangaroo courts known as the Revolutionary Tribunals, and sentence them uniformly to death.
(MC, 9/5/01)(AP, 9/4/07)
1793 Sep 6, French General Jean Houchard and his 40,000 men began a three-day battle against an Anglo-Hanoverian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of the French Revolution.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1793 Sep 17, Captain Napoleon Bonaparte reached Toulon and presented himself to his new commander, General Carteaux, a former house painter and policeman.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Oct 10, The rebellious French city of Lyons surrendered to Revolutionary troops.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1793 Oct 16, During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette was beheaded. Prosecutors claimed she had sexually abused her son and financially abused the French Monarchy. In mourning for her husband, Louis XVI, who had been guillotined the previous January, clad in rags, her once-dazzling locks shorn by the executioner's assistant, she even suffered the indignity of a crude sketch by the great French painter, Jacques Louis David. Antoinette bore herself with a regal indifference to her martyrdom. Madame Tussaud used her severed head as a model for her wax bust death mask. In 2001 Antonia Fraser authored "Marie Antoinette: The Journey."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.T5)(AP, 10/16/97)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.W13)
1793 Oct 19, Captain Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to chef de bataillon (major) giving him greater voice in the councils of war and the siege of Toulon.
(ON, 2/12, p.5)
1793 Oct 20, In France an extraordinary criminal tribunal received the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal by a decree. The news of the failure of the French arms in Belgium gave rise in Paris to popular movements on March 9 and 10, 1793, and on March 10, on the proposal of Danton, the Convention decreed that there should be established in Paris an extraordinary criminal tribunal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Tribunal)
1793 Oct 31, Execution of 21 Girondins (moderates) in Paris, stepping up the Reign of Terror. Pierre V. Vergniaud (40), French politician and elegant, impassioned orator of Girondins, was guillotined.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1793 Nov 8, The Louvre opened in Paris as a museum. It was originally constructed as a fortress in the early thirteenth century.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MC, 11/8/01)
1793 Nov 10, France outlawed the forced worship of God.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1793 Nov 12, Jean-Sylvain Bailley (53), French astronomer and mayor of Paris, was guillotined.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1793 Nov 19, The Jacobin Club was formed in Paris. Robespierre (1758-1794), Jacobin leader: "Terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe and inflexible."
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)(MC, 11/19/01)
1793 Nov 26, Republican calendar replaced the Gregorian calendar in France.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1793 Nov, Philippe Aspairt, a hospital porter, ventured alone into the limestones quarries south of Paris, site of the new cemetery, and got lost. Workmen found his bones 11 years later.
(Hem., 3/97, p.119)
1793 Dec 6, Marie Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du Barry, flamboyant mistress of Louis XV, was guillotined in Paris.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1793 Dec 19, French troops recaptured Toulon from the British. Napoleon Bonaparte led the intense shelling of British positions. This led to his promotion to brigadier general.
(ON, 2/12, p.6)
1793 Jacques-Louis David painted "Death of Marat."
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.5)
1793 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) painted "Cupid Laughs at the Tears He Causes."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1793 Augustin Ximenez (1726-1817), Marquis of Ximenez, a Frenchman of Spanish origin, wrote a poem with the line “Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion," which means "Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters." The poet of perfidy later lectured French soldiers that “Il est beau de perir," which means “it is beautiful to perish."
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M4)(http://tinyurl.com/ye6bd7)
1794 Feb 4, France’s First Republic (Convention) voted for the abolition of slavery in all French colonies. The abolition decree stated that "the Convention declares the slavery of the Blacks abolished in all the colonies; consequently, all men, irrespective of color, living in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy all the rights provided by the Constitution." Slavery was restored by the Consulate in 1802, and was definitively abolished in 1848 by the Second Republic, on Victor Schoelcher’s initiative.
(www.ambafrance-uk.org/Slavery-Slavery-was-abolished-in.html)
1794 Mar 28, Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (b.1743), mathematician (Theory of Comets) and philosopher, died as a fugitive from French Revolution Terrorists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)
1794 Apr 5, Georges-Jacques Danton (b.1759), French revolutionary leader, was guillotined along with Marie Jean Herault de Sechelles, French author, politician, and Camille Desmoullins, popular journalist. In 2009 Jonathan Cape authored “Danton: The Gentle Giant of Terror."
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Danton)
1794 May 6, In Haiti Toussaint Louverture (L’Ouverture), Haitian rebel leader, ended his alliance with the Iberian monarchy and embraced the French Republicans. An order followed that led to the massacre of Spaniards.
(www.travelinghaiti.com/history_of_haiti/toussaint_louverture.asp)(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.W4)
1794 May 8, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry (identified oxygen), was executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror. In 2005 Madison Smartt Bell authored “Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in the Age of Revolution."
(AP, 5/8/97)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.E1)
1794 May 10, In France Elizabeth (30), the sister of King Louis XVI, was beheaded.
(HN, 5/10/99)(MC, 5/10/02)
1794 May 18, The 2nd battle of Bouvines was between France and Austria.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1794 Jun 1, English fleet under Richard Earl Howe defeated the French. (MC, 6/1/02)
1794 Jun 4, Robespierre was unanimously elected president of the Convention in the French Revolution.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 8, Maximilian Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader, worried about the influence of French atheists and philosophers, staged the "Festival of the Supreme Being" in Paris.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1794 Jun 15, The Guillotine was moved to outskirts of Paris.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1794 Jun 26, The French defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus. The French used a tethered balloon to observe the battlefield and direct artillery fire.
(www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_fleurus_1794.html)(NPub, 2002, p.4)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1794 Jul 13, Robespierre boycotted the Committee of Public Safety and the National convention after being denounced as a dictator.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1794 Jul 23, Chaos and anarchy were averted temporarily when Robespierre joined conciliation talks in Paris.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1794 Jul 26, After remaining uncharacteristically silent for several weeks, Robespierre demanded that the National Convention punish "traitors" without naming them.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1794 Jul 26, The French defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus in France.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1794 Jul 27, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1794 Jul 28, Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine. Robespierre had dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the "Reign of Terror." He asserted the collective dictatorship of the revolutionary National Convention and attacked factions led by men such as Jacques-René Hébert which he felt threatened the government's power. Factions opposed to Robespierre gained momentum in the summer of 1794. Declared an outlaw of the National Convention, Robespierre and many of his followers were captured and he—along with 22 of his supporters—were guillotined before cheering crowds.
(AP, 7/28/97)(HN, 7/28/98)(HNQ, 11//00)
1794 Jul 29, Seventy of Robespierre's followers were guillotined.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1794 Aug 21, France surrendered the island of Corsica to the British.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1794 Sep 28, The Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which was directed against France, was signed.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1794 Nov 3, Thomas Paine was released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador James Monroe. He had been arrested in 1893 for not endorsing the execution of Louis XVI and thus offending the Robespierre faction. While in prison Paine began writing his "The Age of Reason" (1794-1796).
(HN, 11/3/99)(www.ushistory.org/Paine/index.htm)
1794 Nov 22, Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1794 Napoleon's occupying army in Maastricht, Netherlands, took back to France a giant dinosaur head that was found in a dark recess of St. Peter's mountain in 1780. It was named the Mosasaurus and roamed the seas some 70 million years ago. The head was lugged to the home of Theodorus Godding, a canon at the local church. The French say that he swapped it to Napoleon for 600 bottles of wine. Records however seem to indicate otherwise.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
1794 A French inventor mixed ground graphite with clay and water and fired it to make strong pencil leads.
(WSJ, 11/24/00, p.A1)
1794-1815 An anthology of first hand reports on the naval war between France and Britain was edited by Dean King and John B. Hattendorf and published in 1997.
(SFEC,11/2/97, Par p.10)
1795 Feb 4, France abolished slavery in her territories and conferred slaves to citizens.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1795 Feb 21, Freedom of worship was established in France under constitution.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1795 May 4, Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1795 May 6, Dr. Pierre-Joseph Dessault visited the incarcerated 10-year-old dauphin, the heir to the French throne. He found the dying child in abject misery. The boy died June 8.
(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)
1795 May 15, Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan in triumph. After taking Milan he released his troops on the townspeople who became victims of an orgy of destroying, raping and killing. The events are described in the 1998 biography "Napoleon Bonaparte" by Alan Schom.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR p.9)(HN, 5/15/98)
1795 May 16, In the Treaty of Basel France compelled Spain to withdraw from the anti-France coalition and Spain ceded the eastern portion of the island of Hispaniola making the entire island French territory.
(www.enlou.com/time/year1795.htm)
1795 Jun 8, In France the Dauphin (Louis XVII), son and sole survivor of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, died at age 10 after succumbing to tuberculosis in the Temple prison. His heart was cut from his body when he died in prison, pickled, stolen, returned, and DNA-tested two centuries later. In 2002 Deborah Cadbury authored "The Lost King of France."
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)(AP, 6/3/04)
1795 Jul 7, Thomas Paine defended the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1795 Jul 14, "La Marseillais," written in 1792, became the French national anthem.
(http://tinyurl.com/7a4p9)
1795 Jul 22, Spain signed a peace treaty with France and ceded Santo Domingo to France.
(http://tinyurl.com/2d58vl)
1795 Sep 23, A national plebiscite approved the new French constitution, but so many voters sustained that the results were suspect.
(HN, 9/23/99)
1795 Sep 23, Conseil of the Cinq-Cents (Council of 500), formed in Paris.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1795 Oct 4, General Napoleon Bonaparte led the rout of counterrevolutionaries in the streets of Paris, beginning his rise to power. France was in the midst of economic disaster—a factor that aided royalist counterrevolutionaries in their attempts to incite rebellion against the young republican government. Bonaparte, looking for a new command while on half pay in Paris, joined the defense of the Convention against overwhelming odds.
(HN, 10/4/99)(HNQ, 10/26/00)
1795 Oct 5, The day after he routed counterrevolutionaries in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte accepted their formal surrender. Napoleon takes charge.
(HN, 10/5/99)
1795 Oct 11, In gratitude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France's National Convention appointed Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior.
(HN, 10/11/99)
1795 Oct 26, Napoleon Bonaparte, second-in-command, became the army's commander when General Paul Barras resigned his commission as head of France's Army of the Interior to become head of the Directory.
(HN, 10/26/99)
1795 In Paris the Place de la Concorde, a public square designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755, was renamed Place de la Revolution.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde)
1795 France adopted the metric system. France had begun moving to base ten in the 16th century after using a vigesimal, base 20, system.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.62)
Go to France 1796
