Return to home1796 Jan 8,
Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois (46), French Revolution leader, died in
exile. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety that ruled
during The Terror.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1796 Mar 9, Napoleon Bonaparte,
age 26, married Josephine Tascher de Beauharnais (32) in Paris.
(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1796 Apr 2, Haitian revolt
leader Toussaint L’Ouverture commanded French forces at Santo
Domingo.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1796 Apr 13, Battle at
Millesimo, Italy: Napoleon beat the Austrians.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1796 Apr 22, Napoleon defeated
the Piedmontese at Battle of Mondovi.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1796 May 10, Napoleon Bonaparte
won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in
Italy.
(HN, 5/10/99)
1796 Jul 16,
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (d.1875), French painter, was born. His
work included "Madame Corot" (1833-1835) and "Interrupted Reading"
(1870-1873). He led the way toward new forms of perspective and
composition that was later mined by impressionism and photography.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 10/25/96, p.A15)(WSJ,
3/25/97, p.A16)(MC, 7/16/02)
1796 Nov 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated an Italian army near the Alpone River, Italy, in the Battle
of Arcole.
(HN, 11/17/98)(MC, 11/17/01)
1796 In France Michael Thonet
was born in the Rhenish village of Boppard. He invented the classic
bent wood chair.
(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A20)
1796 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823) painted "Marie-Anne-Celestine Pierre de Vellefrey," the
portrait of a little girl.
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1796-1797 Napoleon conquered northern Italy.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR p.9)
1797 Jan 14, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated Austrians at Rivoli in northern Italy.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1797 Feb 19, Pope Pius VI ceded
papal territory to France in the Treaty of Tolentino.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.353)
1797 Feb 22, The last invasion
of Britain took place when some 1,400 Frenchmen landed at Fishguard,
in Wales.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1797 Feb 23, Antoine d'Auvergne
(83), French opera composer (Coquette), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1797 Mar 13, Cherubini's opera
"Medee," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1797 Apr 14, Adolphe Thiers,
1st president of 3rd French Republic (1871-77), was born. [see Apr
18]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1797 Apr 18, Louis-Adolphe
Thiers, president of France, was born. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 4/18/02)
1797 Apr 18, France and Austria
signed a cease fire.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1797 Oct 22, French balloonist
Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing
safely from a height of about 3,000 feet; at some 2,200 feet over
Paris.
(AP, 10/22/97)(HN, 10/22/98)
1797 Henry-Louis Pernod began
to manufacture absinthe. The drink was made with fennel, aniseed and
the oil of wormwood which contained thujone, a poisonous ketone.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)
1797 French forces attacked
Britain at the port of Fishguard. The event was depicted in the
tapestry "The Last Invasion of Britain."
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)
1797 The wine bottles of
Chateau Lafite that date back to this year are recorked every 25
years to safeguard the wine and prevent deterioration caused by
oxidation through decayed corks.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.A12)
1797 The Republic of Liguria in
NW Italy was set up by Napoleon.
(WUD, 1994, p.830)
1797-1863 Theophile Bra, French academic sculptor.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.C18)
1798 Feb 20, Pope Pius VI fled
Rome to Siena following an invasion of French forces. He was later
arrested and deported 1st to Florence and then to France.
(www.zum.de/whkmla/region/italy/papalstate17891799.html)(WSJ,
4/14/06, p.W5)
1798 Apr 26, Ferdinand Eugene
Delacroix (d.1863), French painter, lithograph, etcher (Journal),
was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix)
1798 May 19, A French armada of
335 ships carrying nearly 40,000 men set sail for Alexandria, Egypt,
which Napoleon planned to conquer. In 2008 Paul Strathern authored
“Napoleon in Egypt.”
(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1798 Jul 1, Napoleon Bonaparte
took Alexandria, Egypt. In 1962 J.C. Herold authored "Bonaparte in
Egypt." A corps of 150 civilian artists and scientists traveled with
Napoleon’s troops to Egypt. In 2007 Nina Burleigh authored “Mirage:
Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt.”
(SFC, 9/11/97, p.E3)(HN, 7/1/98)(ON, 12/99,
p.4)(SFC, 12/14/07, p.E3)
1798 Jul 7, Napoleon
Bonaparte's army began its march towards Cairo, Egypt, from
Alexandria.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1798 Jul 21, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated Murad Bey and his Arab Mameluke warriors on the outskirts
of Cairo at the Battle of the Pyramids, thus becoming the master of
Egypt.
(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1798 Jul 22, Napoleon captured
Cairo, Egypt.
(PC, 1992, p.354)
1798 Aug 1, Admiral Horatio
Nelson routed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir
Bay, Egypt. Nelson's fleet of 14 ships led the attack on Napoleon's
fleet in Abu Qir Bay, capturing six and destroying seven of the 17
French vessels. The flagship of Napoleon's fleet, L'Orient, sank in
the battle. It was uncovered by a French team in 1998. More than
1,500 Frenchmen and 200 British soldiers reportedly died in the sea
battle.
(AP, 4/19/05)
1798 Aug 21, Jules Michelet,
French historian was born in Paris to a family with Huguenot
traditions. He wrote the 24-volume "Historie de France".
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Michelet)
1798 Sep 2, The Maltese people
revolted against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to
take refuge in the citadel of Valetta in Malta.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1798 Dec 24, Russia and England
signed a Second anti-French Coalition.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1798 Eugene Delacroix (d.1863),
French artist, was born. His work included the "Baron Schwiter."
(WUD, 1994, p.381)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)
1798 Napoleon annexed Egypt.
(SFC, 9/11/97, p.E3)
1798 The French National
Assembly began sitting in the Palais Bourbon.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.51)
1798 Henri Jomini (d.1869),
began his military career volunteering his services to the French
Army. With the peace of Amiens, he left the army and wrote his
"Treatise of Grand Military Operations." The book impressed Napoleon
enough to have Jomini appointed a staff colonel in 1805, Jomini
having volunteered again in 1804. Jomini rose to become chief of
staff under Marshall Ney, but left the French army to fight for
Russia in 1813 as a general and aide-de-camp of Alexander I.
(HNQ, 9/1/00)
1798 Napoleon expelled the
Knights of Malta from their base in Malta. The Sovereign Military
Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem (SMOM), without citizens
or territory, became a permanent observer at the UN in 1994.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A1)
1798-1857 Auguste Comte, the French founder of the
philosophical system of Positivism.
(WUD, 1994, p.303)(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)
1799 Feb 9, The USS
Constellation captured the French frigate Insurgente off the coast
of Wisconsin.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1799 Mar 6, Napoleon captured
Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(MC, 3/6/02)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine,
Napoleon captured Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000
Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/7/99)
1799 Mar 12, Austria declared
war on France.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1799 Mar 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
and his army reached the Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d'Acra,
only to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1799 Mar 19, Napoleon Bonaparte
began the siege of Acre ( later Akko, Israel), which was defended by
Turks.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte
captures Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Apr 14, Napoleon called
for establishing Jerusalem for Jews.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1799 May 18, Pierre de
Beaumarchais (b.1732), French inventor and dramatist, died. In 2007
Hugh Thomas authored “Beaumarchais in Seville.” In 2009 Susan
Emanuel translated to English “Beaumarchais: A Biography” by
Maurice Lever (d.2006).
(www.theatrehistory.com/french/beaumarchais001.html)(SFC, 5/30/09,
p.E2)
1799 May 20, Honore de Balzac,
French novelist, was born in Tours, France. He is considered the
founder of the realistic school and wrote "The Human Comedy" and
"Lost Illusions."
(AP, 5/20/99)(HN, 5/20/99)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt.
Plague had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a
retreat. Napoleon, in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian
rebellion against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but
after a siege of two months (March–May) was repulsed by the Turks.
(HN,
5/20/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel)
1799 Jun 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
incorporated Italy into his empire.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1799 Jun 22, In France a
scientific congress adopted the length of the meter as one
ten-millionth of the distance along the surface of the Earth from
its equator to its pole, in a curved line of latitude passing
through the center of Paris. The congress used data gathered by
astronomers, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and Pierre-François-André
Mechain. The established meter proved to be .2 millimeters too
short, due to incorrect latitude data gathered by Mechain.
(http://etherwave.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/hump-day-history-the-length-of-the-meter/)(ON,
2/09, p.9)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Jul 30, The French
garrison at Mantua, Italy surrendered to the Austrians.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1799 Aug 2, Jacques-Etienne
Montgolfier (54), balloonist, died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1779 Aug 10, Louis XVI of
France freed the last remaining serfs on royal land.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1799 Aug 22, Napoleon slipped
through the British blockade of the Egyptian coast and returned to
France.
(ON, 12/99, p.4)
1799
Aug 29, Pope Pius VI (b.1717) died in Valence, France.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/12131a.htm)
1799 Oct 7, Napoleon landed at
Saint Raphael, 50 miles east of Toulon.
(ON, 1/02, p.11)
1799 Oct 16, Napoleon arrived
in Paris and met with government leaders.
(ON, 1/02, p.11)
1799 Nov 9, Napoleon Bonaparte
instigated coup of 18 Brumaire and declared himself dictator, 1st
consul, of France.
(HN, 11/9/98)(Econ, 9/20/14, p.77)
1799 Dec 10, The metric system
was established in France.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1799 Dec 24, A Jacobin plot
against Napoleon was uncovered.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1799 Dec 25, Napoleon’s new
constitution went into effect. It gave him, as First Consul, powers
to promulgate laws, nominate senior officials, control finances and
conduct negotiations with foreign powers.
(ON, 1/02, p.12)
1799 Jacques-Louis David
created his painting “Rape of the Sabines.”
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.D11)
1799 Jean Baptiste Simeon
Chardin (b.1699), French painter, died.
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
1799 In Paris, France, the
Passage de Panoramas, a covered arcade, was built on the site of the
former Hotel de Montmorency-Luxembourg. It was the first building in
Paris equipped for gas lighting.
(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.M4)
1799-1914 This period in France was covered by
Robert Gildea in his 2008 book: Children of the Revolution: The
French 1799-1914.”
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.87)
1800 Jan 8, Victor of Aveyron
(~1785-1828), a feral child, emerged from French forests on his own.
In 1797 he had been found wandering the woods near
Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, and was captured, but soon escaped.
He was later portrayed in the 1969 movie, The Wild Child
(L'Enfant sauvage), by François Truffaut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_of_Aveyron)
1800 Jan 20, Carolina, the
sister of Napoleon I, married King Joachim Murat of Naples.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1800 Mar 20, French army
defeated Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1800 May 5, Louis Hachette,
French publisher (Librairie Hachette), was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1800 Jun 14, French General
Napoleon Bonaparte pushed the forces of Austria out of Italy in the
Battle of Marengo. In 2007 the sword he wore was auctioned off for
over $6.4 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo)(SFC, 6/11/07, p.A2)
1800 Jun 14, Jean-Baptiste
Kleber (47), French general, architect, was murdered.
(MC, 6/14/02)
1800 Sep 5, Malta surrendered
to British after they blockaded French troops.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1800 Oct 1, Spain ceded
Louisiana to France in a secret treaty.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1800 Dec 3, Austrians were
defeated by the French at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1800 Robert Fulton (35) tested
a 20-foot model of his torpedo-armed submarine on the Seine. He made
two 20-minute dives himself.
(WSJ, 9/24/01, p.A22)
1801 Mar 21, The Kingdom of
Etruria was created by the Treaty of Aranjuez. It was made up a
large part of modern Tuscany and its name from Etruria, the old
Roman name for the land of the Etruscans. The first king (Louis I)
died young in 1803. His underage son Charles Louis succeeded him and
continued to 1807 when Napoleon dissolved the kingdom and integrated
it into France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Etruria)
1801 Jun 29, Frederic Bastiat
(d.1850), French free-market economist, was born in Bayonne. "The
state is the great fictitious entity in which everyone seeks to live
at the expense of everyone else."
(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.A12)
1801 Jul 15, Pope Pius VII and
Napoleon signed the Concordat of 1801 brokering religious peace with
Rome and granting equality to Jews. It solidified the Roman Catholic
Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its
civil status.
(Econ, 10/18/14,
p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordat_of_1801)
1801 Oct 6, Napoleon Bonaparte
imposed a new constitution on Holland.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1801 French artist Girodet
depicted Ossian, the mythical 3rd century blind Scottish poet,
before the story was exposed as a fraud.
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W8)
1801 Francois Rene de
Chateaubriand (1768-1848), French writer, authored his novel “Atala”
following a trip to the US.
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A13)
1801 Napoleon opened the Louvre
to the public.
(SFC, 2/11/97, p.E5)
1801 Napoleon's army in Egypt
surrendered to Turkish and English forces. The French civilian toll
topped 25 of 150, while the military toll topped 25,000 over the
3-year expedition.
(ON, 12/99, p.4)(SFC, 12/14/07, p.E3)
1801-1806 Alexandre Dumas (d.1870) covered these
years of French history in an 1869 serialized novel printed in the
journal, "The Universal Monitor." In the 1980s Claude Schopp, a
retired French lecturer, discovered the epic novel on microfilm. He
got it published under the title "Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine,"
and in 2005 it became a top ten seller.
(Reuters, 7/20/05)
1802 Jan 25, Napoleon was
elected president of Italian (Cisalpine) Republic.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1802 Feb 26, Victor Hugo
(d.1885), French novelist and poet, was born in Besancon. In 1998
Graham Robb published the biography: "Victor Hugo." "Initiative is
doing the right thing without being told."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 6/13/99)
1802 Feb, Napoleon sent a large
army under his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to regain control of
St. Domingue. Thousands of soldiers died mainly to yellow fever and
French control was abandoned so as to support military ventures in
Europe. Toussaint L'Ouverture turned to guerrilla warfare inspired
by the ideals of the French Revolution and its motto of "Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity."
(CO, Grolier's, 11/10/95)(AP, 4/7/03)
1802 Mar 27, Treaty of Amiens
was signed. The French Revolutionary War ended.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1802 Apr 8, French Protestant
church became state-supported and controlled.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1802 May 19 Napoleon
established the French Order of Legion d'Honneur award (Legion of
Honor). It was a general military and civil order of merit conferred
without regard to birth or religion, provided that anyone admitted
swore to uphold liberty and equality.
(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.5)(SFC, 10/19/96, A7)
1802 May, In Saint-Domingue
(later Haiti) Gen. Toussaint L’Ouverture surrendered to French
forces. Many of his generals continued to wage a guerilla campaign
against the French.
(ON, 2/10, p.9)
1802 Jul 8, Gen. Toussaint
L'Ouverture of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) was sent to France in
chains.
(AP, 4/7/03)(ON, 2/10, p.9)
1802 Jul 24, Alexandre Dumas
(d.1870), French novelist and dramatist who wrote "The Count of
Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers," was born. Alexandre Dumas,
pere, French author of romantic plays and novels. He wrote "The Man
in the Iron Mask." He was the father of Alexandre Dumas fils
(1824-1895), French author of plays of social realism.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AHD, 1971, p.403)(WUD, 1994,
p.441)(HN, 7/24/98)
1802 Aug 2, Napoleon Bonaparte
was proclaimed "Consul for Life" by the French Senate after a
plebiscite from the French people.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1802 Aug 7, Napoleon ordered
the re-instatement of slavery on St. Domingue (Haiti).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1802 Aug 25, Toussaint
L'Ouverture was imprisoned in Fort de Joux, Jura, France.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1802 Sep 4, A French aeronaut
dropped eight-thousand feet equipped with a parachute.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1802 Sep 11, Piedmont, Italy,
was annexed by France.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1802 Dec 20, The United States
bought the Louisiana territory from France. [see Jan 11, 1803]
(HN, 12/20/98)
1802 French author
Chateaubriand (1768-1848) authored “Rene” and introduced to the
world the French youth whose existence embodied the mal du siècle.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.84)
1802 Vivant Denon (1747-1825),
French author and archeologist, authored Voyage dans la Basse et la
Haute Egypte” (Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt during the campaigns
of General Bonaparte in that country).
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.127)
1802 The Rosetta Stone was
seized by the British in Egypt after the defeat of Napoleon’s army
and was sent to England.
(RFH-MDHP, p.182)
1803 Jan 11, Monroe and
Livingston sailed for Paris to buy New Orleans; they ended up buying
Louisiana. [see Dec 20, 1802]
(MC, 1/11/02)
1803 Apr 7, Francois D.
Toussaint L'Ouverture (Louverture), Haitian revolutionary, died in a
dungeon at Fort Joux in the French Alps. In 2007 Madison Smartt Bell
authored “Toussaint Louverture: A Biography.”
(AP,
4/7/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_L'Ouverture)(SFC,
1/15/07, p.D7)
1803 Apr 26, Villagers of
L’Aigle, France, witnessed a meteor shower. The rocks helped to
convince scientists that meteors were of extraterrestrial origin.
(ON, 7/02, p.5)
1803 May 16, Great Britain and
France renewed their war.
(PCh, 1992, p.362)
1803 May 18, Great Britain
declared war on France after General Napoleon Bonaparte continued
interfering in Italy and Switzerland.
(HN, 5/18/99)(ON, 11/99, p.4)(SC, 5/18/02)
1803 May 23, Lord Elgin and his
family were detained in Paris. Elgin's family was allowed to proceed
but he was arrested and declared a prisoner of war.
(ON, 11/99, p.4)
1803 May 24, Charles LJL
Bonaparte, Corsican, French prince of Canino, Musignano, was born.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1803 Sep 28, Prosper Merimee
(d.1870), archeologist and playwright (Carmen-1845), was born in
Paris, France.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/merimee.htm)(www.nndb.com/people/584/000107263/)
1803 Nov 30, Spain, in a
ceremony at New Orleans, completed the process of ceding Louisiana
to France, which had sold it to the United States.
(CO, Grolier’s, 11/10/95)(AP, 11/30/04)
1803 Dec 3, Hector Berlioz,
French composer (Symphony Fantastique), was born. [see Dec 11]
(MC, 12/3/01)
1803 Dec 11, Hector Berlioz
(d.1869), French composer and conductor, was born. He introduced
arresting and gaudy instrumental colors in combinations that had not
been dreamed of before him. He composed "Romeo and Juliet" in 1939
and conducted its first performance. He also composed the "Death of
Cleopatra." He composed "Symphonie Fantastique" and "La Damnation de
Faust." [see Dec 1]
(T&L, 10/80, p. 58)(SFC, 10/5/96, p.E1)(HN,
12/11/99)
1803 Dec 20, The Louisiana
Purchase was completed as the territory was formally transferred
from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
French Prefect Pierre Clement Laussat, US Gov. William CC Claiborne
and US Gen. James Wilkinson signed 4 copies the treaty. The
Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the existing U.S.
With 827,987 square miles in the deal, that price translates to
roughly $18 per square mile- under 3 cents/acre.
(AP, 12/20/97)(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.A2)
1803 French economist
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) penned "A Treatise on Political
Economy," an exposition and expansion of the economic ideas of
Adam Smith. Here he said that management is a factor of production.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R14)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say%27s_Political_Economy)(Econ,
8/12/17, p.54)
1803 The French Academy of
Sciences insisted that meteorites could not exist because no
specimens had been produced.
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-15)
1803-1815 In 2007 Charles Esdaile covered this
period in his book: “Napoleon’s Wars: An International History,
1803-1815.”
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.103)
1804 Jan 1, Jean-Jacques
Dessalines proclaimed the Republic of Haiti and declared
independence from France. Documentation of his speech was then lost
and only re-discovered in 2010 by a Canadian graduate student
searching in the British National Archives.
(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.19)(SFC,
4/2/10, p.A2)
1804 Mar 21, The French civil
code, later called the "Code Napoleon," was adopted.
(AP, 3/21/08)
1804 Apr 20, Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, Haitian rebel leader, commanded a massacre of the French
at town of Cape Francois. It is generally thought that Dessalines
had around 20,000 French slaughtered in early 1804.
(http://tinyurl.com/yu94s8)(http://tinyurl.com/23fdxf)
1804 May 18, The French Senate
proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.
(AP, 5/18/97) (HN, 5/18/98)
1804 Jul 1, George Sand
(Amandine-Aurore Lucille Dupin de Francueil, d.1876), French
novelist, was born in Paris. She wrote some 80 novels that included
“Consuelo” (1842) and “La Comtesse de Rudolstadt” (1843). In 1975
Curtis Cate published the biography: "George Sand." "I would rather
believe that God did not exist than believe that He was
indifferent."
(WUD, 1994, p.1265)(HN, 7/1/01) (AP,
10/17/98)(HN, 7/1/01)(Econ, 7/31/04, p.72)
1804 Jul 21, Victor Schoelcher,
abolished French slavery, was born in Guadeloupe.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1804 Dec 1, Emperor Napoleon
married Josephine de Beauharnais, of Martinique.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1804 Dec 2, Napoleon crowned
himself emperor of France with Josephine as Empress as Pope Pius VII
looked on. In 1807 Jacques-Louis David completed his painting of the
event.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.D10)(AP, 12/2/07)
1804 The 118 acre Pere
Lachaise Cemetery of Paris was founded. It was named after a Jesuit
priest, who was confessor to Louis XIV. His order built a house on
the site in 1682.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-6)
1804 Empress Josephine, wife of
Napoleon I, began a rose collection at Malmaison, and sparked a wide
interest in rose culture.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.4)
1804 French economist
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) enrolled in the National Conservatory
of Arts in Paris to learn the principles of spinning cotton.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.54)
1805 May 26, Napoleon Bonaparte
was crowned king of Italy.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1805 May 28, Napoleon was
crowned in Milan, Italy. [see May 26]
(HN, 5/28/98)
1805 Jul 29, Alexis de
Tocqueville (d.1859), French historian who wrote "Democracy in
America, was born. "America is a land of wonders, in which
everything is in constant motion and every change seems an
improvement."
(HN, 7/29/98)(AP, 1/20/01)
1805 Aug 9, Austria joined
Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the
Third Coalition against Napoleonic France and Spain.
(HN, 8/9/98)(HNQ, 10/19/98)
1805 Sep 30, Napoleon's army
entered the Rhine valley.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1805 Oct 19, Austrian general
Karl Mac surrendered to Napoleon’s army at the battle of Ulm.
(www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/n_war/campaign/page_6.html)
1805 Oct 21, A British fleet
commanded by Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish
fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar fought off Cape Trafalgar, Spain.
Admiral Nelson won his greatest victory and though fatally wounded
in the battle aboard his flagship, he lived long enough to see
victory: "England expects every man to do his duty." The crew
fittingly preserved his body in rum. Over 8,500 Englishmen,
Frenchmen and Spaniards were lost in the battle or the hurricane
that swept over the ships the next day. In 1807 Nelson’s surgeon
William Beatty authored “authentic narrative of the Death of Lord
Nelson.” In 1999 Barry Unsworth authored the novel "Losing Nelson."
In 2001 Joseph F. Callo edited "Nelson Speaks: Admiral Lord Nelson
in His Own Words." In 2005 Adam Nicolson authored “Men of Honour:
Trafalgar and the Making of the English Hero;” Roy Adkins authored
“Nelson’s Trafalgar,” and Adam Nicolson authored “Seize the Fire.”
(WSJ, 5/24/01, p.A20)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.82)(WSJ,
8/19/05, p.W6)(ON, 3/06, p.2)(Reuters, 7/13/10)
1805 Nov 14, Napoleon took
control of Vienna, Austria.
(SFC, 4/26/12,
p.A2)(www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/n_war/campaign/page_6.html)
1805 Nov 19, Ferdinand de
Lesseps, French diplomat and engineer (built Suez Canal), was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1805 Dec 2, Napoleon Bonaparte
celebrated the first anniversary of his coronation with a victory at
Austerlitz over a Russian and Austrian army.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1805 Dec 6, Nicholas-Jacques
Conti (b.1755), French pencil maker, died in Paris. He created the
number system used to rate pencil lead hardness: the higher the
number, the harder the graphite.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.C2)
1805 Dec 31, The French
Revolutionary calendar law was abolished. France returned to the
Gregorian calendar.
(K.I.-365D, p.43)(MC, 12/31/01)
1805 Napoleon defeated Austria
and Prussia. In 1997 Alistair Horne wrote: "How Far from Austerlitz?
Napoleon 1805-1815."
(WSJ, 7/10/96, p.A16)(WSJ, 5/19/97, p.A16)
1805 Liguria was incorporated
into France.
(WUD, 1994, p.830)
1805 Absinthe was popularized
by Henri-Louis Pernod, who opened his first distillery in
Switzerland before moving to Pontarlier, France, in 1805.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)(SFC,
3/24/00, p.A3)
1805 Jean-Baptiste Greuze
(b.1725), artist, died. Diderot said: "This man draws like an
angel."
(WSJ, 5/14/02, p.D7)
1805-1815 The 1997 book by British historian
Alistair Horne: "How Far From Austerlitz," covered this period
Napoleon Bonaparte.
(SFEC,11/2/97, Par p.10)
1806 Jun, Lord Elgin was
paroled by the French government.
(ON, 11/99, p.4)
1806 Jul 12, Napoleon granted
Liechtenstein sovereignty.
(AP, 7/12/06)
1806 Aug 22, Jean-Honore
Fragonard (74), French painter, engraver, died.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1806 Oct 8, British forces laid
siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by
Sir William Congreve.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1806 Oct 14, The forces of
French Emperor Napoleon I defeated the Prussians in the twin battles
of Jena and Auerstadt.
(AP, 10/14/07)
1806 Oct 27, Emperor Napoleon
entered Berlin.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1806 Nov 21, In the Decree of
Berlin Emperor Napoleon banned all trade with England.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1806 Nov 28, French forces led
by Joachim Murat entered Warsaw.
(AP, 11/28/06)
1806 Dec 26, Napoleon’s army
was checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1806 Jean Ingres painted his
magnificent: "Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne."
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W12)
1806 In Paris the 3-mile Canal
St. Marten waterway was built to connect the Seine to northeast
France.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T7)
1806 Napoleon issued his Berlin
Decrees. They established the Continental System to restrict
European trade with Britain.
(WSJ, 7/10/96, p.A16)
1806 Napoleon ordered that all
French citizens be vaccinated against smallpox.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.50)
1806-1813 Trieste was held under French rule.
(www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Rotunda/2209/Trieste.html)
1807 Jan 7, Responding to
Napoleon's blockade of the British Isles, The British blockaded
Continental Europe.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1807 Jan 20, Napoleon convened
the great Sanhedrin in Paris.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1807 Feb 8, At Eylau, Poland,
Napoleon’s Marshal Pierre Agureau attacked Russian forces in a heavy
snowstorm. Like Napoleon, to whom he is most often compared,
Alexsandr Suvorov believed that opportunities in battle are created
by fortune but exploited by intelligence, experience and an
intuitive eye. To him, mastery of the art and science of war was
not, therefore, purely instinctive. Napoleon’s forces ran low on
supplies at Eylau and ate their horses.
(HN, 2/7/97)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A8)
1807 Feb 9, French Sanhedrin
was convened by Napoleon.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1807 Apr 4, Joseph Jerome Le
Francaise de Lalande, French astronomer, died.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1807 Apr 20, Aloysius Bertrand
("Gaspard de la Nuit"), French poet, was born.
(HN, 4/20/01)
1807 Jun 25, Napoleon I of
France and Russian Czar Alexander I met near Tilsit, in northern
Prussia, to discuss terms for ending war between their empires.
(AP, 6/25/07)
1807 Jul 4, Giuseppe Garibaldi
(1807-1882) Italian military leader, was born in Nice, France. He
led the movement to make Italy one nation.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1807 Jul 7, Napoleon I of
France and Czar Alexander I of Russia signed a treaty at Tilsit
ending war between their empires. It divided Europe among themselves
and isolated Britain.
(HN, 7/7/98)(AP, 7/7/07)
1807 Aug 5, Jeanne Baret
(b.1740), botanist, died in France. She had joined the (1766-1769)
expedition of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, disguised as a man, and
enlisting as valet and assistant to the expedition's naturalist,
Philibert Commerson, shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed on a
voyage to circumnavigate the globe. In 2013 Glynis Ridley authored
“The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas,
and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Bar%C3%A9)
1807 Napoleon gave Danzig
(later Gdansk) 6 years of formal independence.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.A4)
1807 Britain seized Heligoland,
an island in the North Sea ruled by Danes, as a forward base to
break Napoleon’s economic blockade. In 2017 Jan Ruger authored
“Heligoland: Britain, Germany and the Struggle for the North Sea.”
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.69)
1807 France’s Pleyel piano
company was founded by Ignaz Pleyel, a composer and music publisher
who studied with Franz Joseph Haydn. In 2013 the company closed its
factory, unable to keep up with cheaper and more agile competition.
(SFC, 10/30/96, Z1 p.8) (AP, 11/16/13)
1807 In Naples, Italy, Major
Leopold Hugo, the father of Victor Hugo, was promoted after a
successful campaign against the Calabrian banditti.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1808 Feb 20, Honoré Daumier
(d.1879), French painter, sculptor, caricaturist and lithographer,
was born in Marseilles. He painted Crispin and Scapin.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.369)(WSJ, 3/10/00,
p.W16)(HN, 2/20/01)
1808 Mar 1, In France, Napoleon
created an imperial nobility.
(HN, 3/1/99)
1808 Mar 23, Napoleon's brother
Joseph took the throne of Spain.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1808 Mar 31, French created the
Kingdom of Westphalia and ordered Jews to adopt family names.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1808 Apr 17, The Bayonne Decree
by Napoleon I of France ordered the seizure of U.S. ships.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1808 Apr 20, Charles Louis
Napoleon (d.1873), nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was born. He later
served as president (1848-1852) and as emperor of France
(1852-1870).
(WUD, 1994, p.950)(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)(HN,
4/20/98)
1808 May 30, Napoleon annexed
Tuscany and gave it seats in French Senate.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1808 Jul 20, Napoleon decreed
that all French Jews adopt family names.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1808 Aug 1, Joachim Murat
(1767-1815), French marshal and Napoleon's brother in law, became
king of Naples (1808-1815) and Sicily.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Murat)
1808 Aug 21, Napoleon
Bonaparte's General Junot was defeated by Wellington at the first
Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimiero, Portugal.
(HN, 8/21/02)
1808 Napoleon chased Portugal’s
royal family to Brazil. King Joao VI of Portugal and his court were
installed in Rio de Janeiro by a British fleet.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.5)(Econ, 9/11/10, SR p.3)
1808 Napoleon codified the
French educational curriculum.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.91)
1809 Jan 4, Louis Braille
(d.1852), inventor of a universal reading system for the blind, was
born in Coupvray, France. He was blinded at age four as the result
of an accident in his father's shop. He became an accomplished
organist and cellist and won a scholarship in 1819 to attend the
National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. In 1821 Louis learned
of a communication system devised by Captain Charles Barbier of the
French Army. While Barbier's system was too complex to be practical,
Braille simplified and adapted it to a six-dot code representing
letters that enabled people with impaired vision to not only read
but also write for themselves. In 1829 his first Braille book was
published, but Braille himself died of tuberculosis at age
43--before his system gained widespread acceptance.
(AP,
1/4/98)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille)
1809 Mar 12, Great Britain
signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French out of the country.
(HN, 3/12/99)
1809 Mar 27, Georges-Eugene
Haussmann (d.1891), French town planner, was born. He designed
modern-day Paris.
(HN,
3/27/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Haussmann)
1809 Apr 10, Austria declared
war on France and her forces entered Bavaria.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1809 Apr 20, Napoleon defeated
Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.
(HN, 4/20/98)
1809 Apr 22, At the Battle at
Eckmahl Napoleon beat Austrian archduke Karl.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1809 May 17, The Papal States
were annexed by France. Pope Pius VII responded by excommunicating
Napoleon.
(MC, 5/17/02)(PTA, 1980, p.502)
1809 Jul 5, Pope Pius VII was
taken prisoner to France and held there until 1814.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.371)
1809 Jul 5-1809 Jul 6, Napoleon
beat Austria’s archduke Charles at the Battle of Wagram. He annexed
the Illyrian Provinces (now part of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro), and abolished the Papal
States.
(http://tinyurl.com/vx8dk)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wagram)
1809 Jul 27-1809 Jul 28, Arthur
Wellesley led the British army to triumph against the Spanish King
Joseph Bonaparte at Talavera de la Reina against a French army twice
his size. For this he was made Duke of Wellington.
(WSJ, 6/6/96, p.A15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.371)
1809 Oct 14, The Treaty of
Schönbrunn, also known as the Treaty of Vienna, ended hostilities
between France and Austria. This treaty ended the Fifth Coalition
during the Napoleonic Wars.
(PC, 1992 ed,
p.371)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn)
1809 Dec 16, Napoleon Bonaparte
was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French
Senate. Metternich had convinced Francis I of Austria to offer his
daughter Marie Louise as a bride to Napoleon.
(AP, 12/16/97)(ON, 5/04, p.2)
1809 Nicholas Appert won a
French prize of 12,000 francs for his method of keeping food in
glass bottles. Napoleon had offered the prize with military needs in
mind.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1809-1826 Civilians and soldiers who returned home
from Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt (1798-1801) published during
this period in serial form “Description de l’Egypte” (The
Description of Egypt), the most comprehensive view of Egypt to date.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.E3)(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1810 Jan 10, French church
annulled the marriage of Napoleon I & Josephine.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1810 Mar 11, Emperor Napoleon
of France was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of
Austria.
(AP, 3/11/98)(HN, 3/11/98)
1810 May 21, Charles Chevalier
d'Eon de Beaumont (81), French spy, cross dresser, died.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1810 Aug 21, Sweden’s Riksdag
elected Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France under Napoleon,
as heir apparent to the Swedish throne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadotte)(Econ,
10/14/06, p.73)
1810 Oct 4, Alexander Walewski,
French earl, foreign minister, son of Napoleon I, was born.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1810 General Count Hugo, the
father of Victor Hugo, governed Central Spain during the Peninsula
War. He exterminated guerrillas and nailed up their severed heads.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1810-1857 Alfred de Musset, French author: "How
glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception."
(AP, 5/6/00)
1811 Mar 20, Napoleon II, the
Duke of Reichstadt, was born. He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1811 Aug 5, C.L. Ambroise
Thomas, French composer (Mignon, Francoise de Rimini), was born.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1811 Aug 31, Théophile Gautier,
French poet, novelist and author of "Art for Art's Sake," was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1811 Napoleon Bonaparte gave to
his wife, Empress Marie Louise, a tiara with 950 diamonds (700
carats). The original emeralds were later replaced with Persian
turquoise. Now part of the Smithsonian Inst. and bequeathed by
Marjorie Merriweather Post.
(Postcard , Nat’l Mus. Nat. Hist.,1995)
1811-1823 The abbey at Cluny was quarried over
this period. It had been shut down by French Revolutionaries.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T4)
1811-1882 Louis Blanc, French utopian socialist,
proposed the social ideal of "from each according to his ability, to
each according to his needs." The nineteenth-century writer and
thinker had a profound influence on radical thought.
(HNQ, 4/12/99)
1812 Mar 9, Swedish Pomerania
was seized by Napoleon.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1812 Apr 15,
Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau, painter, was born.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1812 Jun 24, Napoleon crossed
the Nieman River [in Lithuania] and invaded Russia. The French army
under Napoleon crossed the Nemunas River near Kaunas. Prior to his
march into Russia, Napoleon had taken land from Russia and returned
it to Polish control in Warsaw. This assured him safe passage
through Poland and Lithuania on his way to Russia. In 1824 the
book “History of the Expedition to Russia, Undertaken by the Emperor
Napoleon in the Year 1812” by Count de Segur, a general in
Napoleon’s army, was first published. An English translation edited
by Gerard Shelley was published in 1928.
(HN, 6/24/98)(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)(H of L, 1931,
p.83-84)
1812 Jul 22, English troops
under the Duke of Wellington defeated the French at the Battle of
Salamanca in Spain.
(AP, 7/22/97)(HN, 7/22/98)
1812 Aug 12, British commander
the Duke of Wellington occupied Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph
Bonaparte.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1812 Aug 17, Napoleon
Bonaparte's army defeated the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk
during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1812 Aug 22, Charles Etienne
Gudin (44), one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite generals, died
after being hit by a cannon ball during Napoleon’s unsuccessful
invasion of Russia. His name was later inscribed on the Arc de
Triomphe in Paris. In 2019 his remains were formally identified by
DNA tests after a one-legged skeleton was found under a dance floor
in Smolensk.
(The Telegraph, 11/6/19)
1812 Sep 7, On the road to
Moscow, Napoleon won a costly victory over the Russians under
Kutuzov at Borodino. This was the greatest mass slaughter in the
history of warfare until the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In 2004
Adam Zamoyski authored “Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow.”
(HN, 9/7/98)(Econ, 4/17/04, p.81)
1812 Sep 14, The Russian army
left Moscow. Napoleon's invasion of Russia reached its climax as his
Grande Armee entered Moscow, only to find the enemy capital deserted
and burning, set afire by the few Russians who remained. The fires
were extinguished by Sep 19.
(ON, 10/2010,
p.11)(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/B/Borodino.html)
1812 Sep 18, A fire in Moscow
(set by Napoleon's troops) destroyed 90% of houses and 1,000
churches. [see Sep 14]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1812 Sep, In France as
Napoleon’s army proceeded to invade Russia it numbered 442,000
troops. In Sept. it reached Moscow with 100,000 men. The remains of
the Grandee Armee struggled out of Russia in 1813 with 10,000 men. A
map drawn by Charles Joseph Minard plots six variables to depict the
march over time: the size of the army, its location on a
2-dimensional surface, the direction of the army’s movement, and
temperatures on various days during the retreat from Moscow. In 1970
Curtis Cate published the book: "The War of the Two Emperors."
(Adv. E. Tufte, 5/18/96, p.4)(SFEC, 6/15/97, Z1
p.3)
1812 Oct 18, The Russian army
attacked French forces on the outskirts of Moscow. Some 2,500-3,000
French soldiers were killed.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)
1812 Oct 19, French forces
under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)
1812 Oct 23, There was a failed
coup against emperor Napoleon.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1812 Nov 9, Paul Abadie, French
master builder (renovated Notre Dame), was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1812 Nov 14, As Napoleon
Bonaparte's army retreated form Moscow, temperatures dropped to 20
degrees below zero. Michel Ney defended the Napoleon‘s rear during
the retreat from Moscow and was called by Napoleon "The bravest of
the brave." He rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days and the
Waterloo campaign. After Napoleon‘s defeat, he was found guilty of
treason and shot. It was later suggested that many soldiers died
because their tin coat buttons deteriorated in the extreme cold.
(HN, 11/14/99)(HNQ, 9/21/00)(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.M2)
1812 Nov 26, In Belarus
Napoleon Bonaparte's army began crossing the Beresina River over two
hastily constructed bridges. The Battle of Berezina began as
Napoleon’s army retreated from its invasion of Russia. Heavy losses
were later estimated to be as many as 25,000.
(HN, 11/26/99)(AP, 11/24/19)
1812 Nov 27, One of the two
bridges being used by Napoleon Bonaparte's army across the Beresina
River in Russia collapsed during a Russian artillery barrage.
(HN, 11/27/99)
1812 Nov 29, The last elements
of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armee retreated across the Beresina
River in Russia. Tens of thousands of French troops and civilians
perished when the Russians attacked Napoleon's army as it crossed
the Berezina River in Belarus on the punishing retreat from Moscow.
The following Spring it was recorded that 32,000 bodies were rounded
up and burned on the river banks near Studianka.
(HN, 11/29/99)(AP,
11/26/07)(www.wtj.com/articles/berezina/)
1812 Dec 6, The majority of
Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé staggered into Vilnius, Lithuania,
ending the failed Russian campaign. An estimated 50,000 soldiers
reached Lithuania and as many as 20,000 died there. As many as
450,000 soldiers from France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Germany and at
least 15 other countries died in the Russian campaign.
(HN, 12/6/99)(Arch, 9/02, p.41)
1812 Dec 13, The last remnants
of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé reached the safety of Kovno,
Poland, after the failed Russian campaign.
(HN, 12/13/99)
1812 Dec, 14, The last French
units of Napoleon’s Grand Armeé crossed the Nieman River of
Lithuania, leaving Russia.
(ON, 10/2010,
p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia)
1812 Dec 18, Napoleon Bonaparte
arrived in Paris after his disastrous campaign in Russia.
(HN, 12/18/99)
1812 Jacques-Louis David,
French artist, painted a portrait of Napoleon as a working ruler.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.126)
1812 Louis-Vincent-Leon
Palliere, French painter, created his work “Ulysses and Telemachus
Massacre Penelope’s Suitors.”
(WSJ, 12/28/05, p.D8)
1812 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823) painted "Venus and Adonis."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1812 Georges Cuvier, French
anatomist, published his 4 volume work "Recherches sur les ossemens
fossiles" (Research on Fossil Bones).
(NH, 8/96, p.18)
1812 The Testament of Peter the
Great was first published in Napoleonic France to demonstrate that
the Russian Empire had grand plans to conquer and subjugate Europe.
It was demonstrated to be a fraud in 1879. It was written by a
Polish general in the late 1700s and has continued to find
mainstream adherants in the modern era, particularly amongst
scholars, journalists and politicians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/Testament)
1813 Feb 28, Russia and
Prussia formed the Kalisz union against Napoleon.
(LHC,2/28/03)
1813 Mar 4, The Russians
fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison
evacuated the city without a fight.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1813 Apr 10, Joseph-Louis
Lagrange (b.1736), Italian-born mathematician, died in Paris. He is
considered to be the greatest mathematician of the eighteenth
century.
(www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Lagrange/RouseBall/RB_Lagrange.html)
1813 Jun 26, Metternich met
with Napoleon at Dresden and informed him that he must sue for peace
if he wanted continued Austrian support.
(ON, 5/04, p.3)
1813 Jul 15, Napoleon
Bonaparte's representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss
peace terms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1813 Aug 23, At the Battle of
Grossbeeren Prussians under Von Bulow repulsed the French.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1813 Aug 27, The 2-day Battle
of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major victory against the allied
forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia. French forces under Napoleon
scored a victory against the Allied army led by Field Marshal
Schwarzenberg. Three days after the battle, the Allies surrounded
and captured a French corps at the Battle of Kulm.
(www.napoleonguide.com/battle_dresden.htm)
1813 Oct 16-19, In the Battle
at Leipzig (aka Battle of the Nations) Napoleon faced Prussia,
Austria and Russia and suffered one of his worst defeats.
(DoW, 1999, p.325)
1813 Oct 18, The Allies
defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1813 Nov 2, Treaty of
Fulda. After the Battle of Leipzig (Oct 16-19) King Frederick I of
Württemberg (1754-1816) deserted Napoleon’s waning fortunes. By a
treaty made with Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich
(1773-1858) at Fulda, Hessen, Germany he secured the confirmation of
his royal title and of his recent acquisitions of territory, while
his troops marched with those of the allies into France.
(DoW, 1999, p.325)
1813 Nov 12, J. H. St. John de
Crevecouer, French explorer and writer, died. He had spent more than
half of his life in the New World and contributed two important
concepts to the American consciousness. The first is the idea of the
"American Adam," that there is something different, unique, special,
or new about these people called "Americans." The second idea is
that of the "melting pot," that people's "American-ness" transcends
their ethnic, cultural, or religious backgrounds.
(http://cs1.mcm.edu/~cetheridge/crevec.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/3cbq3j)
1813 Dec 31, Some 83,000
Prussian and Russian soldiers pursued Napoleon across the Rhine at
Pfalzgrafenstein Castle.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1813 A new 45 carat blue
diamond emerged in France. It was guessed to have been cut from the
112 carat Blue Diamond of the crown jewels. The 112 carot stone was
re-cut in 1673 to 67 carats.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1814 Feb 10, Napoleon
personally directed lightning strikes against enemy columns
advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians
at Champaubert. During the Napoleonic Wars a British naval officer
proposed the use of saturation bombing and chemical warfare to
undermine the strength of Emperor Napoleon.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1814 Feb 27, Napoleon's Marshal
Nicholas Oudinot was pushed back at Barsur-Aube by the Emperor's
allied enemies shortly before his abdication.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1814 Mar 10, Napoleon Bonaparte
was defeated by a combined Allied Army at the battle of Laon, in
France.
(HN, 3/10/99)
1814 Mar 30, Britain and allies
marched into Paris after defeating Napoleon.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1814 Mar 31, Forces allied
against Napoleon captured Paris.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1814 Apr 4, Napoleon Bonaparte
first abdicated at Fontainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title
of emperor. [see Apr 11]
(www.napoleonseries.org/reference/political/legislation/restoration.cfm)
1814 Apr 11, Napoleon Bonaparte
(45) abdicated at Fontainebleau a 2nd time and was banished to the
island of Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean, retaining the
title of emperor and 400 volunteers to act as his guard. He was
granted sovereignty over Elba and a pension from the French
government. [see Apr 6]
(www.napoleonseries.org/reference/political/legislation/restoration.cfm)
1814 Apr 20, Napoleon departed
for exile in Elba.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.94)
1814 Apr 26, King Louis XVIII
landed on Calais from England.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1814 Apr, The Duke of
Wellington led 60,000 troops against 325,000 French troops at
Toulouse and defeated them just days after Napoleon abdicated the
throne.
(WSJ, 1/6/95, A-10)
1814 May 4, Bourbon reign was
restored in France. Louis XVIII was crowned as successor to his
guillotined brother.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1814 May 29, Empress Josephine
(1804-14), first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, died. She maintained
grand roses at Malmaison, where there were an estimated 250
varieties.
(TGR, 1995, p.2)(SC, 5/29/02)
1814 May 30, The First Treaty
of Paris was declared, after Napoleon's first abdication. It
returned France to its 1792 borders and secured for the British
definite possession of the Cape of Good Hope.
(HN, 5/30/98)(HN, 5/30/99)(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1814 Jun 3, Nicolas Appert
(b.1749), French cook, died. He was the winner of a 12,000 franc
prize offered by Napoleon for developing a method to preserve food.
His original canning method took 14 years to develop and used glass
jars sealed with wax reinforced with wire.
(WSJ, 1/21/03, p.A1)(www.foodreference.com)
1814 Sep, The Congress of
Vienna convened in late September and continued to June 8, 1815.
Friedrich von Gentz of Austria served as secretary to the Congress.
It was held after the banishment of Napoleon to Elba. The congress
aimed at territorial resettlement and restoration to power of the
crowned heads of Europe with Prince Metternich of Austria as the
dominant figure. Viscount Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington
represented Britain. Alexander I stood for Russia. Talleyrand stood
for France. Prince von Hardenberg stood for Prussia. In 2007 Adam
Zamoyski authored “Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the
Congress of Vienna.” In 2008 David King authored “Vienna 1814: How
the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War and Peace at the Congress
of Vienna.
(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.94)(www.bartleby.com/65/vi/Vienna-C.html)(SSFC, 4/6/08, Books p.4)
1814 Oct 4, Jean Francois
Millet (d.1875), French painter, was born.
(www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=745)
1814 Jacques-Louis David
created his painting “Leonidas at Thermopylae.”
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.D11)
c1814 Pierre Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823), French artist, drew his "Bust of a Female Figure."
(WSJ, 12/5/96, p.A16)
1814 Jean Francois Champollion
(1790-1832), French scholar, published his 2-volume book “Egypt
Under the Pharaohs.” Income from the book provided him with
royalties to continue his studies on the hieroglyphics of the
Rosetta Stone.
(ON, 8/10,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Champollion)
1814 Alexander I of Russia
entered Paris at the head of an anti-Napoleon coalition.
(WSJ, 6/26/96, p.A16)
1814 The Marquis de Sade died.
His writings included "Justine," "Juliette," and "120 Days of
Sodom." In 1999 Neal Schaeffer published "The Marquis De Sade: A
Life," and Francine du Plessix Gray published "At Home With the
Marquis De Sade: A Life."
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.3)
1815 Feb 25, Napoleon left his
exile on the Island of Elba, intending to return to France.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1815 Feb 26, Napoleon, escaped
from the Island of Elba, and 1,200 of his men started the 100-day
re-conquest of France.
(HN, 2/26/98)(AP, 2/26/98)
1815 Mar 1, In France,
returning from Elba, Napoleon landed at Cannes with a force of 1,
500 men and marched on Paris.
(HN, 3/1/99)
1815 Mar 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule. He had escaped
from his imprisonment on the island of Elba off the coast of
Tuscany. He gathered his veterans and marched on Paris. At Waterloo,
Belgium, he met the Duke of Wellington, commander of the allied
anti-French forces and was resoundingly defeated. Napoleon was then
imprisoned on the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic. In
1997 Gregor Dallas published: "The Final Act: The Roads to
Waterloo." The book includes a good account of the Congress of
Vienna.
(AP, 3/20/97)(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(SFEC,11/2/97, Par
p.10) (HN, 3/20/98)
1815 Apr, British General
Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington, began assembling troops at
Brussels, Belgium. 73,000 British troops were joined by 33,000
German, Dutch and Belgian troops preparing to face Napoleon.
Prussian Gen. Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher gathered an army of
120,000 southeast of Brussels.
(ON, 4/06, p.1)
1815 May 5, Eugene-Marin
Labiche, French playwright, was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1815 Jun 16, Napoleon defeated
the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny, Belgium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ligny)
1815 Jun 16, A French attack at
the crossroads called Quatre Bras badly mauled Anglo-Dutch army
under Wellington, but failed to rout it or to take the crossroads.
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had marched into Belgium to find himself
confronted by two allied armies, which he tried to split apart.
Although similarly battered at Ligny that day, the Prussian army
also retired intact. Both armies would face Napoleon again two days
later at Waterloo.
(HNPD, 6/16/99)(Econ, 5/23/15, p.71)
1815 Jun 17, A heavy rainstorm
prevented French forces from catching up with Wellington’s army as
they retreated to Waterloo.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.15)(ON, 4/06, p.3)
1815 Jun 18, British and
Prussian troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon
Bonaparte and his forces at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium. The
French elite troops of the Imperial Guard wore bearskins to appear
more intimidating. Afterwards Britain established towering bear skin
hats for soldiers in ceremonial duties and to guard royal
residencies and the Tower of London. Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht
von Blucher made a short speech to his troops saying that he was
pregnant and about to give birth to an elephant. He was taken from
the front in protective custody and missed the battle. Napoleon lost
over 40,000 men at Waterloo; the British and Belgians lost 15,000;
the Prussians lost 7,000. The total losses in 3 days of fighting was
later estimated at 91,800. In 2002 Andrew Roberts authored "Napoleon
and Wellington." In 2005 Andrew Roberts authored “Waterloo:
Napoleon’s Last Gamble.”
(SFEC, 2/28/99, Z1p.10)(WSJ, 9/13/02,
p.W10)(Econ, 2/12/05, p.81)(ON, 4/06, p.5)
1815 Jun 22, Napoleon Bonaparte
abdicated a second time.
(AP, 6/22/97)
1815 Jul 7, After defeating
Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies marched into Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1815 Jul 9, King Louis XVIII
left Ghent for France.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1815 Jul 15, Napoleon Bonaparte
was captured by the British Navy at Rochefort, France, while
attempting to escape to America.
(ON, 4/06,
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon)
1815 Aug 8, Napoleon Bonaparte
set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the
remainder of his days in exile. He died there in 1821 at age 51.
(AP, 8/8/97)(SFEC, 8/1/99, Par p.16)
1815 Oct 7, Marshal Ney, one of
Napoleon's most trusted field commanders, was condemned to death and
shot for having left the services of the King.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1815 Oct 13, Joachim Murat,
marshal of France and King of Naples (1808-15), was executed.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1815 Oct 17, Napoleon (d.1821)
arrived in St. Helena.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1815 Nov 20, The treaties known
collectively as the 2nd Peace of Paris were concluded. Austria’s
Klemens von Metternich helped create a “Concert of Europe,” a system
by which 4-5 big powers kept miscreants in check and managed the
affairs of smaller states for over a decade.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ,
6/9/07, p.68)
1816 Jan 12, France decreed the
Bonaparte family to be excluded from the country forever.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1816 Jul 3, Dorothea Jordan
(65), French actress, mistress (William IV), died.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1816 Sep 5, Louis XVIII of
France dissolved the chamber of deputies, which had been challenging
his authority.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1816 Jacques Louis David
(1748-1825) painted the portrait: "Comte Henri-Amedee de Turenne".
(WUD, 1994 p.369)
1816 In France Joseph N.
Niepce developed the first photographic negative. His earliest
recorded image, an 1825 print of a man leading a horse, sold for
$443,220 in 2002.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.4)(SFC,
3/22/02, p.A2)
1816 France adopted the Paris
meridian as the standard clock time for the country. Sundials were
used up to this time.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A24)
1816 Dr. Rene Theophile
Hyacinthe Laennec invented the stethoscope.
(ON, 9/00, p.11)
1816 Saartjie Baartman (26),
taken from S. Africa in 1810, fell sick and died penniless and
friendless in France after being exhibited as the "Hottentot Venus."
Her body was dissected, her brain and genitals were bottled, and her
skeleton was wired and exhibited in the Musee de l’Homme in Paris.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela requested that she be returned home. In 2002
her remains were returned to S. Africa. In 2003 Barbara Chase-Ribaud
authored the novel "Hottentot Venus" based on the Baartman story. In
2007 Rachel Holmes authored “African Queen: The Real Life of the
Hottentot Venus.”
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.M6)(SFC,
1/1/07, p.D2)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.31)
1817 Jul 14, Madame de Stael
(51), writer and daughter of former French finance minister Jacques
Necker, died. She was intimate with Benjamin Constant and their
intellectual collaboration made them one of the most important
intellectual pairs of their time. In 2005 Maria Fairweather authored
“Madame de Stael.” In 2008 Renee Winegarten authored the dual
biography “Germaine de Stael & Benjamin Constant.”
(Econ, 3/19/05,
p.88)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/stael.htm)(WSJ, 6/23/08, p.A15)
1817 The Dutch and French
agreed on a final pact to divide the control of St. Martin Island.
The southern Dutch half comprises the Eilandgebied Sint Maarten
(Island Territory of St. Maarten) and is part of the Netherlands
Antilles. The northern French half comprises the Collectivité de
Saint-Martin (Collectivity of St. Martin) and is an overseas
collectivity of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Martin)
c1817-1924 Pierre Joseph Redoute printed "Les
Roses."
(SFEM, 4/6/97, p.16)
1818 Jun 17, Charles Francois
Gounod, opera composer of "Faust" and "Romeo et Juliette," was born
in Paris, France.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1818 Aug 7, Henri Charles
Litolff, French composer, pianist, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1818 Theophile Bra, French
academic sculptor, won the Prix de Rome.
(SFEM, 11/1/98, p.4)
1818 Baron Karl de Drais de
Sauerbrun of Germany invented the draisienne, the first 2-wheeled,
rider-propelled machine and exhibited it in Paris. The vehicle came
to be known as the “velocipede,” a 2-wheeled running machine without
pedals.
(Wired, 2/98, p.172)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1819 Jun 10, J.D. Gustave
Courbet (d.1877), French realist painter (Demoiselles the la Seine),
was born. His realistic landscapes were marked by bold shadows and
compositions fragmented by the play of natural light. This technique
was pursued more fully by the impressionists. His work included
"Rock at HautePierre."
(DPCP, 1984)(WSJ, 3/10/00, p.W16)(MC, 6/10/02)
1819 Jun 20, Jacques Offenbach
(d.1880), French composer (Tales of Hoffmann), was born in Cologne.
His work included the comedy opera "Barbe-Bleue" (Blue Beard).
(MC, 6/20/02)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1819 Sep 18, Leon Foucault,
French physicist, was born. [see Sep 17]
(HN, 9/18/00)
c1819 In France a silver soup
tureen was manufactured by Jean-Baptiste Claude Odiot. It fetched
over a million dollars in a 1997 auction.
(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.B18)
1820 Feb 15, French statesman
Pierre-Joseph Cambon (63), member of Committee of Public Safety
(French Revolution), died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Cambon)
1820 French economist
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) began working at the National
Conservatory of Arts in Paris as the country’s first professor of
economics.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.54)
1820s A road was constructed
through La Mas d'Azil, a tunnel cut by Arize River.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T4)
1821 Feb 11, Auguste Edouard
Mariette, French Egyptologist, (dug out Sphinx 12/16/42), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1821 May 5, Napoleon Bonaparte
(b.1769), former emperor of France (1799-1815), died in exile on the
island of St. Helena. He died by slow poisoning at the hands of his
companion Charles Tristan de Montholon. Scottish pathologist Dr.
Hamilton Smith later used Napoleon’s hair to determine that arsenic
had been administered about 40 times from 1820-1821. In 2010 a lock
of Napoleon’s hair fetched 140,000 New Zealand dollars ($97,000) at
auction. In 1992 Proctor Patterson Jones authored "Napoleon, An
Intimate Account." In 1999 an English translation of Jean-Paul
Kauffmann's "The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on St.
Helena" was published. In 1904 F. De Bouirrienne published "Memoirs
of Napoleon Bonaparte." In 1988 S. De Chair edited "Napoleon's
Memoirs." In 2014 Andrew Roberts authored “Napoleon the Great.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(AP, 5/5/97)(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR
p.9)(SFEC, 8/16/98, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C5)(AP, 8/8/97)(SFEC,
8/1/99, Par p.16)(AP, 7/01/10)(Econ, 9/20/14, p.77)
1821 Aug 19, There was a failed
liberal coup against French King Louis XVIII.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1821 Dec 12, Gustave Flaubert
(d.1880), French novelist, was born. "Our ignorance of history
causes us to slander our own times." [see May 8, 1880]
(V.D.-H.K.p.278)(AP, 6/19/99)(HN, 12/12/99)
1822 Sep 9, Napoleon J K P
Bonaparte, French prince and member National Convention, was born.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1822 Dec 27, Louis Pasteur
(d.1895), French chemist and microbiologist, was born in Dole,
France. One of his several monumental contributions to science and
industry was pasteurization, the process of heating wine, beer and
milk to kill microorganisms that cause fermentation and disease.
Pasteur also developed important vaccines and his work on molecular
asymmetry led to the science of stereochemistry. He was the first to
vaccinate animals for anthrax and chicken cholera, and in 1885 he
proved that his rabies vaccine could be used successfully on humans
when he saved the life of a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a
rabid dog. The Pasteur Institute was formed in Paris in 1888 for
research on rabies. Pasteur ran the institute until his death in
1895.
(WUD, 1994, p.1055)(AP, 12/27/97) (HNPD,
12/27/98)
1822 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823) painted "A Grief-Stricken Family." It was painted
shortly after his student and mistress, Constance Mayer, slit her
throat.
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1822 The French Bollore Group
started out as a family-run manufacturer of paper for cigarettes and
bibles.
(AFP, 4/24/18)
1823 Jan 27,
Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo, French composer (Symphonie
Espagnole), was born.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1823 Feb 28, Ernst Renan,
French philosopher, historian, scholar of religion, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1823 In Paris, France, the
Galerie Viviene, a covered arcade, was built.
(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.M4)
1824 Jul 27, Alexandre Dumas
fils, French playwright, novelist (Camille), was born.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1824 Jul 30, Gioacchino Rossini
became manager of Theatre Italian in Paris.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1824 The book “History of the
Expedition to Russia, Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year
1812” by Count de Segur, a general in Napoleon’s army, was first
published. An English translation edited by Gerard Shelley was
published in 1928.
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)
1825 May 20, Charles X became
King of France.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1825 Jun 9, Pauline Bonaparte
(44), the sister of Napoleon, died. In 2009 Flora Fraser authored
Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire.”
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.91)(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27659636)
1825 Jun 19, Gioacchino
Rossini's "Il Viaggio a Reims," premiered. Rossini wrote the "IL
Viaggio a Reims" opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X. The
libretto by Luigi Balocchi was intended to show all major European
nationalities coming together to celebrate the event.
(WSJ, 9/29/99, p.A20)(MC, 6/19/02)
1825 Jun 20, Coronation of
French king Charles X, the surviving brother of guillotined Louis
XVI.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1825 Oct 17, Franz Liszt's
operetta Don Sanche premiered in Paris
(MC, 10/17/01)
1825 Dec 29, Jacques-Louis
David (b.1748), French painter (Death of Marat), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.369)(MC, 12/29/01)
1825 Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), French lawyer and professor, invented
the genre of food writing with his book “The Physiology of Taste.”
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
1825 A French emissary of
Charles X demanded that Haiti pay 150 million gold francs in
exchange for recognition as French warships cruised over the
horizon. The deal required 5 annual payments of 30 million and
required a loan from a French bank for the 1st payment. Haiti
renegotiated the debt in 1838.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
1825 France established its
imperial paramilitary, the Gendarmerie Coloniale, for law
enforcement across its colonial empire.
(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1826 Feb 2, Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin (b.1755), French lawyer and epicure, died. “Tell me
what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” His famous work,
Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste), was published in
December 1825, two months before his death.
(WSJ, 7/19/08,
p.W1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brillat-Savarin)
1826 Apr 6, Gustave Moreau,
French painter, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1826 Theophile Bra, French
academic sculptor, experienced a nervous breakdown and began to make
visionary paintings.
(SFEM, 11/1/98, p.)
1826 Corot painted "Cascade of
Terni." "Its flat light, monumentalizing simplicity and minimal
content anticipated Courbet, Manet and Cezanne."
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)
1826 Ferdinand Eugene Delacroix
(d.1863), French artist, painted his “Portrait of Charles de
Verninac” about this time. De Verninac (1803-1834) died later in NYC
while returning home after catching yellow fever while serving as
French vice consul in Chile.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.E1)
1826 In Egypt Jean-Francois
Champollion, French Egyptologist and decipherer of the Rosetta
Stone, began collecting Egyptian artifacts. He convinced Charles X
to purchase the private collections of the French and English
consuls in Egypt.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
1826 Dr. Rene Theophile
Hyacinthe Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope, died from
tuberculosis.
(ON, 9/00, p.11)
1826-1829 Dumont d’Urville (1790-1842), French
explorer and naturalist, sailed around the Pacific Ocean.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.3)
1827 Feb 1, Alphonse de
Rothschild, French banker, was born.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1827 Mar 5, Pierre-Simon
Laplace (b.1749), French mathematician, astronomer, physicist, died.
He invented perturbation theory and wrote the 5-volume work
"Celestial Mechanics." In 1998 Charles Couiston Gillespie published
his biography "Pierre-Simon Laplace: A Life in Exact Science."
(WSJ, 2/19/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace)
1827 Jul 14, Augustin-Jean
Fresnel (b.1788), French engineer, died. He contributed
significantly to the establishment of the theory of wave optics.
Fresnel studied the behavior of light both theoretically and
experimentally. He worked out a way to focus light using diffraction
and was the first to construct a special type of lens, now called a
Fresnel lens, as a substitute for mirrors in lighthouses.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel)(Econ, 6/9/12,
p.85)
1827 Oct 20, British, French
and Russian squadrons entered the harbor at Navarino, Greece, and
destroyed most of the Egyptian fleet there. The Ottomans demanded
reparations.
(EWH, 4th ed,
p.770)(www.ipta.demokritos.gr/erl/navarino.html)
1827 Victor Hugo wrote the
official coronation ode for Charles X, the last Bourbon king.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1827 The first Egyptian Museum
was housed in the Louvre’s Cour Caree with Jean-Francois Champollion
as curator.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A20)
1827 The lithopane (lithophane)
was patented in Paris. It allowed a picture, embedded in porcelain,
to be viewed in light by varying the thickness of a porcelain base.
Generally credited as being the invention of Baron Paul de
Bourguignon, of Rubelles, France, in 1827, the earliest forms of
lithophanes were actually produced in China many years before other
countries produced them.
(SFC, 3/1/06,
p.G7)(http://bellerosefarm.com/html/_lithopane_history.html)
1827 Joseph Niepce, French
inventor, met with English botanist Francis Bauer, who agreed to
present Niepce’s ground breaking photographic work to the Royal
Society, which rejected the bid. Before leaving London Niepce made a
gift of his 1826 pewter image to Bauer. The pewter image was
re-discovered in 1952 by photo historian Helmut Gernsheim.
(ON, 10/08, p.8)
1828 Feb 8, French author Jules
Verne (d.1905) was born. He is considered the father of science
fiction. Many of his 19th-century works forecast amazing scientific
feats--feats that were actually carried out in the 20th
century--with uncanny accuracy. Verne's 1865 book From the Earth to
the Moon told the story of a space ship that is launched from
Florida to the moon and that returns to Earth by landing in the
ocean. Something of a scientist and traveler himself, Verne's 1870
work about a submarine, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and
"Around the World in Eighty Days" also foretold technological
advances that seemed fantastic at the time.
(HNPD, 2/8/99)
1828 Apr 16, Francisco Jose
Goya y Lucientes (b.1746), Spanish painter, cartoonist, died at age
82 in France. He had served 3 generations of Spanish kings as court
painter. In 2002 Julia Blackburn authored "Old Man Goya." In 2003
Robert Hughes authored "Goya." See link for Goya timeline.
(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.W8)(Econ, 10/18/03,
p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/ngxt7)
1828 Apr 21, Hippolyte Taine,
French philosopher, historian (Voyage in Italy), was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1828 Aug 22, Franz Joseph Gall
(70), German-French physician, fraud (phrenology), died.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1828 Sep 20, Gioacchino
Rossini’s opera "Le Comte Ory," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1828 Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet
was born in Lille. He moved to Paris in 1848 to study medicine and
developed a clientele of artists that included Pissarro and Cezanne.
He accepted paintings in exchanged for services and amassed a
sizable collection. He also painted and used the pseudonym Paul Van
Ryssel.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)
1828 A perfume and cosmetics
house was established. In 1998 the firm was led by Jean-Paul
Guerlain, the great-grandson of the founder.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A11)
1828 In France Louis Daguerre
contacted Joseph Niepce with an offer to work together on the
photographic process that Niepce had developed.
(ON, 10/08, p.8)
1829 Feb 16, Francois-Joseph
Gossec (95), Belgian-French composer (Messe de Morts), died.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1829 Aug 31, Giachinno
Rossini's final opera "William Tell" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1829 Dec 14, In France Joseph
Niepce signed a 10-year partnership agreement with Louis Daguerre to
perfect a new photographic imaging process discovered by Niepce.
(ON, 10/08, p.9)
1829 Dec 18, Jean-Baptiste de
Lamarck (~85), French nature investigator, died.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1829 The Obelisk of Luxor, a
gift from Egypt, was transported to the Place de la Concorde.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A24)
1829-1833 Honore Daumier created his bust of Comte
de Lameth. Daumier honed his caricaturing skills with a series of
terra-cotta busts that lampooned the right-wing leaders of the court
party. Lameth had fought for the colonists in the American
Revolution and had voted to abolish the aristocracy during the
French revolution.
(WSJ, 3/10/00, p.W16)
1830 Jan 28, Daniel Auber's
opera "Fra Diavolo," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1830 Feb, The Comedie-Francaise
performed "Hernani," a play whose hero swears vengeance against Don
Carlo, i.e. King Charles. The play "provoked a brouhaha that
heralded the July Revolution."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1830 Jul 5, The French occupied
the North African city of Algiers. A flotilla had set sail earlier
from Toulon to wrest Algeria from Ottoman control.
(AP, 7/5/97)(Econ, 3/1/14, p.83)
1830 Jul 10, Camille Pissarro
(d.1903), French impressionist painter, was born on the island of
St. Thomas in the West Indies. He studied as a child in Paris but
spent his early years as an artist in Caracas, Venezuela. In Paris
he became a devotee of the neo-Impressionist technique.
(WUD, 1994, p.1097)(DPCP 1984)(HN, 7/10/01)
1830 Jul 25, King Charles X of
France signed the July Ordinances, also known as "The Ordinances of
Saint-Cloud". These, among other steps, suspended the liberty of the
press, dissolved the newly elected Chamber of Deputies and excluded
the commercial middle-class from future elections.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution)
1830 Jul 27, A second
Revolution broke out in Paris opposing the laws of Charles X.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution)
1830 Jul 28, A revolution in
France replaced Bourbon King Charles X with Louis Philippe
(1773-1850).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Philippe_I)(Econ, 11/15/14,
p.84)
1830 Jul 29, Liberals led by
the Marquis of Lafayette seized Paris in opposition to the king's
restrictions on citizens' rights.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1830 Jul 31, Charles X of
France was forcibly ejected from the French throne. [see Jul 28]
(MC, 7/31/02)
1830 Aug 9, Louis Philippe
(d.1850) formally accepted the crown of France, following abdication
of Charles X, last brother of guillotined Louis XVI. He was the son
of the opportunistic Duke d'Orleans, first cousin to the late king,
who renounced his royal heritage and called himself plain Phillipe
Egalite. Louis-Philippe voted for his cousin's death in 1793, but
followed him to the guillotine in 1794.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1830 Dec 8, Henri-Benjamin
Constant de Rebecque (b.1767), Swiss-born thinker, writer and French
politician, died. He was intimate with Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
and their intellectual collaboration made them one of the most
important intellectual pairs of their time. In 2008 Renee Winegarten
authored the dual biography “Germaine de Stael & Benjamin
Constant.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Constant)
1830 Etienne Henri Dumaige
(d.1888), French sculptor, was born.
(SSFC, 2/10/02, p.G5)
1830 Stendhal (1783-1842), the
nom de plume of French author Henri Beyle, authored “The Red and the
Black,” the story of a peasant who reaches for upward mobility
through the favors of two mistresses.
(WSJ, 3/15/08, p.W10)
1830 The First Symphony by
Berlioz had its premiere.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E1)
1830 The Hotel de Ville (City
Hall), at 29 Rue de Rivoli, was built. It was rebuilt between 1874
and 1882 in the neo-Renaissance style and is used for official city
receptions.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1830 Henry Philip Hope
purchased the 45 carot blue diamond. It later began to be known as
the "Hope Diamond."
(THC, 12/3/97)
1830 A Frenchman patented a
sewing machine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1831 Sep 7, Victorien Sardou,
French stage writer (Madame Sans-Gene, Tosca), was born.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1831 Balzac wrote his story
"The Unknown Masterpiece." It became a parable of modern art.
(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.A8)
1831 The "Hunchback of Notre
Dame" (Notre Dame de Paris) by Victor Hugo was published. Disney
released an animated film based on the classic in 1996.
(WSJ, 6/20/95, p.B-1)
1832 Jan 6, Gustave Dore,
illustrator (Inferno, Ancient Mariner), was born in Strasbourg,
France.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1832 Jan 23, Edouard Manet
(d.1883), French impressionist painter, was born. His work was a
major influence on the young artists who created the Impressionist
movement. His style was influenced by the Spanish masters,
particularly Velasquez. His work included the "Execution of
Maximilian," "Luncheon on the Grass," the pastel "Portrait of
Mademoiselle Lemaire," "In the Boat," "La Promenade" and "Le Journal
Illustre" (ca. 1878-79).
(WUD, 1994, p.871)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(SFC,
8/21/96, p.A9)(AAP, 1964) (WUD, 1994, p.871)(WSJ, 2/13/97,
p.A16)(DPCP 1984)
1832 Mar 4, Jean Francois
Champollion (b.1790), French scholar, died. His work included the
2-volume book “Egypt Under the Pharaohs” (1814) and a translation of
the hieroglyphics of the Rosetta Stone, completed in 1822.
(ON, 8/10,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Champollion)
1832 May 31, Evariste Galois
(b.1811), French mathematician who developed a general theory of
equations, died from wounds suffered in a duel. In 2005 Mario Livio
authored “The Equation That couldn’t Be Solved: How Mathematical
Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry.”
(www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galois.html)(Econ,
8/27/05, p.68)
1832 Jun 5, In Paris an
insurrection took place during General Lamarque's funeral when
insurgents got as far as the Rue Montorgueil and were then driven
back.
(SFC, 6/30/07,
p.E2)(www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/07/01.htm)
1832 Nov 15, Jean-Baptiste Say
(b.1767), French economist, died. He is remembered for what came to
be called Say’s Law: “the supply (sale) of X creates the demand
(purchase) of Y.” This law can be shown by business-cycle
statistics. When downturns start, production is always first to
decline, ahead of demand. When the economy recovers, production
recovers ahead of demand. A society can’t consume if it does not
produce.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Say)(WSJ, 1/23/08,
p.A25)
1832 Dec 15, Alexandre-Gustave
Eiffel, designed named the tower in Paris, was born.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1832 Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin
(1809-1864), French artist, painted “Theseus Recognized by His
Father.”
(WSJ, 12/28/05,
p.D8)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/06096a.htm)
1832 Jean Ingres painted the
portrait of the self-made newspaperman "Louis-Francois Bertin."
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W12)
1832 Honore Daumier, French
artist, was imprisoned for 6 months for his barbs against King
Louis-Philippe.
(WSJ, 3/10/00, p.W16)
1832 Charles-Louis Havas sets
up a foreign newspapers translation agency.
(www.afp.com)
1833 Jan 19, Louis J. Ferdinand
Herold (41), French composer (Zampa), died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1833 Jul 5, Joseph Nicephore
Niepce (b.1765), French inventor most noted as the inventor of
photography, died. He is well-known for taking some of the earliest
photographs, dating to the 1820s.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce)
1833 In Paris the St. Vincent
de Paul Society was founded to provide aid to the poor.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1834 Apr 2, Frederic-Auguste
Bartholdi, sculptor (Statue of Liberty), was born in Colmar,
France.
(HN, 4/2/01)
1834 Apr 15, The Honore Daumier
painting "Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834" showed the ghastly
aftermath of a civilian massacre by government forces.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A24)
1834 May 20, The Marquis de
Lafayette (78), US Revolutionary War hero (Marie Joseph Paul Yves
Roche Gilbert du Motier), died in Paris, France. He was the 1st
foreigner to address Congress. In 2002 Congress moved to make him an
honorary US citizen. In 1983 Olivier Bernier authored “Lafayette,
Hero of Two Worlds.” In 200 Harlow Giles Unger authored “Lafayette.”
(www.marquisdelafayette.net/)(WSJ, 1/15/97,
p.A12)(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A2)(ON, 2/09, p.5)
1834 Jul 19, Hilaire Germain
Edgar Degas (d.1917), French impressionist painter, was born. His
mother was a Creole and he journeyed to New Orleans in the 1870s.
His work included "The Millinery Shop," "Combing the Hair," "Nude
Fixing Her Hair," "Two Dancers" (c1890-1898), "Frieze of Dancers"
(1893-1898), "Self Portrait" (c1863-1865 & c1895-1900) and "Blue
Dancers" (1895). He also collected art and by the time of his death
had amassed more than 500 paintings and 5,000 prints. The collection
was auctioned off in Paris from Mar 1918 to Jul 1919. His time in
New Orleans is covered in the 1997 book "Degas in New Orleans:
Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington
Cable" by Christopher Benfey.
(WUD, 1994, p.380)(WSJ, 10/2/96, p.B5)(SFC,
10/22/96,p.E8)(WSJ,10/21/97,p.A20)(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.9)(HN,
7/19/98)
1834 Honore Daumier created his
lithograph "The Legislative Belly."
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A24)
1834 David Johnston founded a
pottery in Bordeaux, France. He became mayor of Bordeaux in 1838 and
sold his factory to technical director Jules Vieillard in 1845.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.G5)
1834 The French mechanical
telegraph system was subverted in a bond-trading scam that went
undetected for two years.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.13)
1834 A Frenchman invented a
wire nail-making machine.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, Z1 p.8)
1834 Joseph-Marie Jacquard
(b.1752), French loom maker and inventor, died. In 2004 James
Essinger authored “Jacquard’s Web,” a biography that connects
Jacquard’s work to computer technology.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.W10)
1834-1910 Leon Walras, French economist. He
founded the marginalist school of economic thought, which held that
prices depend on the level of customer demand. He developed a
mathematical formulation of the mechanics of the price system with
equations that tied together theories of production, exchange, money
and capital. His general equilibrium theory is called "Walrasion
general equilibrium" and is still part of modern economic theory.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)
1835 Apr 26, Frederic Chopin’s
"Grand Polonaise Brillante," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1835 Jul 28, King Louis
Philippe of France survived an assassination attempt by Giuseppe
Maria Fieschi, who rigged 25 guns together and fired them all with
the pull of a single trigger.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9034220&query=July%20Revolution)
1835 Oct 9, Camille
Saint-Saens, composer (Carnival of the Animals, Organ Symphony,
Samson et Dalilah), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1835 Frenchman Alexis de
Tocqueville (25) wrote "Democracy in America." He had been
dispatched by the French government to study America’s penal system.
His book predicted that henceforth equality would always increase
everywhere, and justice be thereby served in the life of mankind. He
also foresaw that democratic man, no longer protected by traditional
institutions, found himself in danger of being exposed to the
absolute tyranny of the state that he himself had created, i.e. a
case of totalitarianism. He also predicted that the extremes of
social diversity would be lost and that more human beings would tend
to cluster around a central norm. He stated that: "Americans of all
ages, all conditions and all dispositions constantly form
associations." In 1938 George Wilson Pierson wrote "Tocqueville in
America."
(Smith., 4/1995, p.134)(SFEC, 6/14/98, Par
p.10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.92)
1835 The French government
prohibited political caricature.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.75)
1835 A foreign newspapers
translation agency, set up by Charles-Louis Havas, became the Agence
Havas, the first worldwide news agency.
(www.afp.com)
1836 Feb 21, Leo Delibes,
ballet composer (Coppelia), was born in Saint-Germain-du-Val,
France.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1836 Jun 10, Andre M. Ampere,
French mathematician, physicist (Amp), died.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1836 Jun 26, Claude-Joseph
Rouget de Lisle, author, composer ("La Marseillaise"), died.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1836 Jul 6, French General
Thomas Bugeaud defeated Abd al-Kader's forces beside the Sikkak
River in Algeria.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1836 Nov 6, Charles X (79),
King of France (1824-30), died.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1836 Nov 10, Charles Louis
Napoleon (1808-1873), nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, failed in an
attempted coup at Strasbourg and was exiled to the US by the
government of Louis Philippe.
(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0859871.html)
1836 Nov 27, Carle [Antoine CH]
Vernet, French painter and lithographer, died.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1836 Auguste Mayer painted
"Scene from the Battle of Trafalgar."
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.D7)
1836 The 107-foot-tall Egyptian
Obelisk reached Paris.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D3)
1836 In France the medieval
timber roof of the Chartres cathedral burned. Architect J.B. Lassus
replaced it with an innovative roof of iron.
(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W9)
1836 Schneider-Electric, a
French engineering firm, was founded. In 2011 CEO Jean-Pascal
Tricoire moved the top management to Hong Kong.
(Econ, 3/31/12, p.3)
1837 Jan 11, Francois Gerard
(66), French baron, painter, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1837 Aug 11, Marie Francois
Carnot, engineer, French pres (1887-94), was born.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1837 Dec 9, Charles Emile
Waldteufel, waltz composer (Skaters), was born in Strasbourg,
France.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1837 Thierry Hermes
(1801-1878), French saddle maker, established the Hermes company as
a harness workshop. It grew to become a maker of high fashion
leather goods. The company went public in 1993.
(Econ, 1/1/11,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herm%C3%A8s)
1837 French explorer Dumont
d’Urville (1790-1842) sailed along a coastal area of Antarctica that
he named the Adélie Coast in honor of his wife. He also named the
Adelie penguin after his wife.
(WSJ, 7/1/97,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumont_D'Urville)
1838 Apr 3, Leon Michel
Gambetta, French attorney, premier (1881-82), was born.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1838 Apr 3, Francesco
Antommarchi (57), Napoleon's physician on St Helena, died.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1838 May 17, Charles-Maurice
duke of Talleyrand-Perigord (84), diplomat, revolutionary, bishop
and former PM of France (1815), died. In 2006 David Lawday authored
“Napoleon’s Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Maurice_de_Talleyrand)(Econ,
9/30/06, p.93)
1838 Sep 4, Henrietta
d'Angeville (1794-1871) became the 1st woman to climb to the top of
Mt. Blanc, France. In 1808 mountain guides had carried Marie
Paradis, a local serving girl, to the top.
(ON, 4/04, p.1)
1838 Sep 10, The opera
"Benvenuto Cellini," by Hector Berlioz, premiered in Paris. It was
based on Cellini's autobiography.
(MC, 9/10/01)(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.D10)
1838 Oct 25, Georges
Alexandre-Cesar-Leopold Bizet, French composer (Carmen), was born.
(HN, 10/25/98)(MC, 10/25/01)
1838 Nov 8, Victor Hugo's "Ruy
Blas," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1838 Nov 30, Mexico declared
war on France.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1838 Frederic Chopin
(1810-1849), Polish-born composer and pianist, began a volatile
affair with French novelist George Sand. The relationship continued
to 1847.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.91)
1838 France agreed to reduce
Haiti's 1825 "debt" to 60 million fold francs to be paid over 30
years. The final payment was made in 1883. Payments on loans made to
repay France continued to 1947.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A6)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.47)
1838 Louis Daguerre caught an
image of a man who appears to be getting his shoes or boots shined
at a street corner in Paris. This was the first ever photo of a
person.
(http://tinyurl.com/37jtw74)
1839 Jan 2, French photographic
pioneer Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre took the first photograph of
the moon. Soon after his first photograph of people was a shoeshine
scene on a Paris boulevard.
(HN, 1/2/99)(SFEC, 1/16/00, Z1 p.2)(ON, 4/00,
p.10)
1839 Jan 9, The Daguerreotype
photo process was announced at the French Academy of Science. Louis
Daguerre had the influential astronomer Dominique-Francois-Argo make
an announcement at the Academy of Sciences in Paris of the
daguerreotype, a photographic process using fumes of iodine to
sensitize a silver plate, vapor of mercury to bring out the image,
and common salt to fix the image. [See 1765-1833, Nicephore Niepce,
French lithographer, and 1816].
(http://www.articleworld.org/index.php/Louis_Daguerre)(http://tinyurl.com/arl5k5)(WSJ,
9/14/95, p.A-16)(ON, 10/08, p.9)
1839 Jan 19, Paul Cezanne
(d.1906), French painter, was born in Aix-en-Provence in southern
France. He was considered a founding figure in 20th century art. He
departed from the Impressionists in his desire to render perspective
through color. His work had a profound influence on the Cubists. A
catalogue of his work was made by John Rewald (1912-1994) and
published posthumously as: "The Paintings of Paul Cezanne: A
catalogue Raisonne." His work includes: "The Feast" (late 60s),
"Portrait of Achille Emperaire" (1869-70), "Self-Portrait" (c1875),
"Rocks at L’Estaque" (1879-82), "Flowerpots" (c1885), "Chestnut
Trees at Jas de Bouffan" (1885-86), "The Kitchen Table" (1888-90),
"Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Chair" (1893-95), "The Lac d’Annecy"
(1896), "Pyramid of Skulls" (1898-1900), "Garden at Le Lauves"
(c1906), "Large Bathers" (1906), "Mont Ste.-Victoire Seen from Les
Lauves." He is best remembered for his works Card Players and
L'Oeuvre.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)(DPCP
1984)(HN, 1/19/99)
1839 Aug 19, At a meeting of
the French Academy of Sciences in Paris a new photographic
process was unveiled by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre. He "was able
to capture images directly onto small, silvered plates; and in
England where William Henry Fox invented what he called "photogenic
drawing." This process produced a negative image on paper from which
positive images could be made... but it took more than an hour to
take a picture and the fuzzy prints were difficult to see. The
daguerreotype enabled the photographer to create a highly detailed
image. The process consisted of polishing a copper plate, using
iodine to sensitize it, and developing it over mercury after
exposing it to light in a camera. Daguerreotypes became so popular
in the United States that New York City boasted more than 70
daguerreotype studios by 1850.
(Smith., 5/95, p.72)(HNQ, 10/28/98)
1839 Oct 30, Alfred Sisley
(d.1899), impressionist artist, was born in Paris of English
parents. He studied in London and then in Paris in the studio of
Charles Gleyre. He painted landscapes almost exclusively. His work
included “A Turn in the Road” (1873).
(DPCP 1984)(HN, 10/30/00)
1839 Stendhal, Marie-Henri
Beyle, wrote his novel "Charterhouse of Parma" in 52 days. A 1st
edition from the library of Marie Louise, 2nd wife of Napoleon, sold
for $157,310 in 1999.
(WSJ, 1/2/96, p. A-7)(WSJ, 3/25/97, p.A16)
1839 Jeanne Jugan founded the
Little Sisters of the Poor to take care of the destitute elderly.
She supported her project by begging house to house.
(WSJ, 12/17/05, p.A6)
1839 France began to mass
produce women’s corsets about this time. See the discussion by
Marilyn Yalom in her 1997 book: "History of the Breast."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.3)
1839 Parisian tailors revolted
and destroyed the new sewing machines.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1839 The photoelectric effect
was 1st discovered by French physicist Alexandre Becquerel. He
observed that light could generate an electric current between 2
metal electrodes immersed in a conductive fluid.
(Econ, 3/10/07, TQ p.23)
1839-1899 Alfred Sisley, impressionist
artist, was born in Paris of English parents. He studied in London
and then in Paris in the studio of Charles Gleyre. He painted
landscapes almost exclusively. His work included "A Turn in the
Road" (1873).
(DPCP 1984)
1840 Feb 11, Gaetano
Donizetti's Opera "La Fille du Regiment," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1840 Mar 30, "Beau" Brummell
(b.1778), English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent,
died of syphilis in a French lunatic asylum for paupers. In 2006 Ian
Kelly authored the biography “Beau Brummel.”
(HN, 3/30/99)(WSJ, 5/7/06, p.P9)
1840 Apr 2, Emile Zola
(d.1902), French novelist, reporter (Nana) , was born. He tried to
wake the consciousness of the fin de siecle.
(HN, 4/2/98)(SFC, 12/29/00, p.C6)(V.D.-H.K.p.279)
1840 May 27, Nicolo Paganini
(57), Italian legendary violinist, died in Nice. The local bishop
refused to bury him in consecrated ground due to his scandal-ridden
past. His remains were transferred to Parma in 1876. His 1742
violin, "the Canon," was put to rest in a museum in Genoa and later
played annually by the winner of the Int'l. Paganini Competition. In
1980 John Sugden authored the biography "Nicolo Paganini: Supreme
Violinist or Devil’s Fiddler"
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.D5)(SFC, 11/12/98, p.E1)(SFC,
4/26/99, p.E2)(ON, 3/02, p.7)
1840 Jun 29, Lucien Bonaparte
(65), prince of Canino, Musignano, died.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1840 Nov 12, Auguste Rodin,
French sculptor who created "The Kiss," was born.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1840 Nov 14, Claude Monet
(d.1926), French Impressionist painter, best known for his late work
done at Giverney, northwest of Paris after 1890. He came up with the
idea of series pictures, which feature a single subject shown again
and again under varying conditions of light and weather. He studied
in Paris with Charles Gleyre, a Swiss academic painter, and there
met Frederic Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley.
Together they developed open-air painting which came to be known as
Impressionism.
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(HN, 11/14/98)
1840 Etienne Cabet (1788-1856),
Ivory Coast-born French philosopher and utopian socialist, authored
"Travel and Adventures of Lord William Carisdall in Icaria". In 1848
he led his followers to the United States of America.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Cabet)
1840 In Paris, France, there
were some 200 brothels.
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.47)
1840-1916 Odilon Redon, French painter and etcher.
(WUD, 1994, p.1203)
1841 Jan 14, Berthe Morisot
(d.1895) French impressionist painter, was born in Bourges.
(NMWA, 12/04, p.10)
1841 Jan 18, Alexis-Emmanuel
Chabrier, French composer (Louise), was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1841 Feb 25, Pierre Auguste
Renoir (d.1919), French painter, was born. He was an Impressionist
painter, father of Jean Renoir, and founder of the French
Impressionist movement. He was the son of a Paris tailor and began
his career as a porcelain painter in the Sevres china factory. His
paintings included "Luncheon of the Boating Party," "Self-portraits"
(1875 & 1899) and "Sleeping Girl With a Cat" (1880). [see 1894,
J. Renoir]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A9)(DPCP
1984)(HN, 2/25/99)
1841 Jun 28, The ballet
"Giselle," also called Les Wilis, was premiered in Paris. It was the
brain-child of Theophile Gautier, a leading voice of the Romantic
Age. It told of a dance-loving peasant girl who dies of a broken
heart when Albrecht, a philandering nobleman, betrays her.
(SFEM, 3/28/99, p.12)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A20)
1841 Sep 28, Georges
Clemenceau, premier of France during World War I, was born. He
served as premier from 1906-09 and 1917-1920.
(HN, 9/28/98)(MC, 9/28/01)
1841 Lord Elgin died in Paris
at age 75.
(ON, 11/99, p.4)
1842 Jan 7, Gioacchino
Rossini's "Stabat Mater" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1842 Mar 18, Stephane Mallarme
(d.1898), French essayist and symbolist poet, was born. "Every soul
is a melody which needs renewing."
(AP, 7/17/98)(HN, 3/18/01)
1842 Mar 23, Stendhal
[Marie-Henri Beyle], French author (b.1783), died at 59.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal)
1842 Mar 30, Elisabeth Viglee
Le Brun (b.1755), French artist, died in Paris. She had served as
the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_%C3%89lisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e_Le_Brun)(Econ,
2/20/15, p.76)
1842 May 12, Jules Massenet
Montaud (d.1912), French composer, was born. His work included
"Manon," "Thais" and "Le Cid."
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A24)
1842 May 15, Emanuel ADMJ Count
de las Cases (76), French historian (Napoleon), died.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1842 Jul 25, Dominique-Jean
Larrey (b.1766), a French surgeon in Napoleon's Grande Armée, died
in Lyon, France. He was an important innovator in battlefield
medicine and triage.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Jean_Larrey)
1842 France claimed the
Marquesas Islands.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1842 The French declared a
protectorate over the Wallis and Futuna Islands. They had been
discovered by the Dutch and the British in the 17th and 18th
centuries. In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a
French overseas territory.
(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wf.html)
1843 Jan 4, Gaetano Donizetti's
opera "Don Pasquale," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1843 Jul 2, Samuel Hahnemann
(b.1755), German physician and founder of homeopathy, died in Paris.
A renaissance for homeopathy started in the 1970s when it was
rediscovered by West Germany’s glitterati, including Veronica
Carstens, the wife of a former president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hahnemann)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.44)
1843 Sep 19, Gustave-Gaspard
Coriolis (b.1792), French engineer and mathematician, died. He
showed that the laws of motion could be used in a rotating frame of
reference if an extra force called the Coriolis acceleration is
added to the equations of motion.
(www.gap-system.org/~history/Mathematicians/Coriolis.html)
1843 Oct 30, A. G. Henri
Regnault, French water colors painter, was born.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1843-1848 The Chateau de Boursault was built by
the widow Clicquot. She contributed to the development of the
champagne-making process.
(Hem., 10/97, p.104)
1844 Feb 21, Charles-Marie
Widor, composer, professor (Paris Conservatory), was born in Lyons,
France.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1844 Apr 16, Anatole France
(d.1924), French novelist and essayist, was born. He won the Nobel
Prize in literature in 1921. His love for Madame de Caillavet, whose
salon helped make him famous, formed the backdrop for his novel "Le
Lys Rouge," (The Red Lily). "All the historical books which contain
no lies are extremely tedious."
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)(AP, 10/11/98)(HN, 4/16/01)
1844 May 21, Henri Rousseau
(d.1910), French painter (Dream), was born in Laval.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1844 Oct 23, Sarah Bernhardt,
French actress, was born. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/00)
1844 Bishop Dominique Lefevre,
a Catholic missionary and French citizen, engaged in a plot with
other priests to overthrow Thieu Tri, the emperor of Cochin
China (later Vietnam). Lefevre was imprisoned and condemned to
death.
(AH, 12/02, p.25)
1844-1833 Celestine Chaumette from the French
village of Chassignolles saved her personal letters. They were later
found and published by British writer Gillian Tindall as "Voices
from a French Village."
(SFC, 6/16/96, BR p.4)
1845 Apr 2, H.L. Fizeau and J.
Leon Foucault took the 1st photo of Sun.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1845 May 10, During a
celebrated round-the-world tour in 1844-46, the USS Constitution
dropped anchor in the bay outside of Tourane, Cochin China (later
part of Vietnam). While there, Bishop Dominique Lefevre, an
imprisoned French missionary, requested the assistance of the ship's
captain, "Mad Jack" Percival. The Americans attempted to negotiate
with the Cochin Chinese, to no avail. Frustrated, they set sail from
Cochin and continued on their course on May 26 without further word
about or from the missionary, who was eventually retrieved by his
own countrymen.
(HNQ, 10/18/02)(AH, 12/02, p.25)
1845 May 12, Gabriel Urbain
Faure, French composer, was born in Pamiers. His work included
"Requiem" and "Ballade."
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(MC, 5/12/02)
1845 Sep 8, A French column
surrendered at Sidi Brahim in the Algerian War.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1845 Oct 22, Sarah Bernhardt
(d.1923), legendary stage actress, was born in Paris. "Life begets
life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one
becomes rich." [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(AP, 2/20/00)(WUD, 1994 p.141)
1846 Jul 24, Louis Napoleon
(67), French king of the Netherlands (1806-10), died.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1846 Aug 16, Gioacchino Rossini
married Olympe Pelissier in Paris and stopped composing operas.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1846 Dec 6, Hector Berlioz'
opera "La Damnation de Faust" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 12/6/01)(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.D8)
1846 In Paris, France, the
Hotel Chopin was built inside the Passage Jouffroy, a covered
arcade.
(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.M5)
1847 Feb 3, Marie Duplessis
(b.1824), French courtesan, died. She was mistress to a number of
prominent and wealthy men, the inspiration for Marguerite Gautier,
and the main character of La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas
the younger, one of her lovers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Duplessis)
1847 Nov 26, Alfred de Musset's
"Un Caprice," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1847 Cartier jewelers opened in
Paris.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1848 Feb 24, King
Louis-Philippe abdicated and the 2nd French republic was declared.
[see Feb 26]
(MC, 2/24/02)
1848 Feb 26, The Second French
Republic was proclaimed. [see Feb 24]
(AP, 2/26/98)
1848 Apr 27, Slave trade was
abolished in the French colonies.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
1848 Apr 28, The last slaves in
French colonies were freed.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1848 Jun 7, Paul Gauguin,
French post-impressionist painter, was born in Paris. He abandoned
his family to focus on his work.
(AP, 6/7/97)(HN, 6/7/99)
1848 Jun 23, A bloody
insurrection of workers in Paris erupted to protest inflation,
unemployment and corruption. The insurrection was ruthlessly
suppressed by Gen. Cavaignac.
(HN, 6/23/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T9)(WSJ, 3/13/09,
p.A9)
1848 Jul 4,
Vicomte Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (b.1768), French writer and
statesman, 79, died in Paris.
(WUD, 1994, p.250)
1848 Jul 26, The French army
suppressed the Paris uprising.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1848 Nov 21, Alfred de Musset's
"Andre del Sarto," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1848 Dec 10, Napoleon III,
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), was elected
president of France. In 1852 he dismantled the Republic and replaced
it with the Second Empire of France, with himself as emperor.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.446)(WUD, 1994, p.950)
1848 Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
at age 16 failed the French naval exam and after 3 months at sea
became convinced that he would rather be a painter.
(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)
1848 The Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood was founded. A group of artists led by William Holman
Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti, fought
against corrupt academic art based on the work of the Renaissance.
(WSJ, 2/19/97, p.A15)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.82)
1848 France abolished slavery.
Victor Schoelcher was a major force in the abolition of slavery in
France.
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1848-1894 Gustave Caillebotte, French
impressionist painter, he was a Jewish lawyer turned painter with a
crisp, almost photographic style. He is best know for "Paris Street:
Rainy Day" done in 1877.
(WSJ, 2/23/95, p.A-10)
1849 Apr 6, Giacomo Meyerbeer's
opera "Le Prophete," premiered in Paris. [see Apr 16]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1849 Apr 16, Giacomo
Meyerbeer's Opera "Le Prophete," premiered in Paris. [see Apr 6]
(MC, 4/16/02)
1849 Apr 30, Giuseppe
Garibaldi, Italian republican patriot and guerrilla leader, repulsed
a French attack on Rome.
(HN, 4/30/98)(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1849 Jul 19, F.A. Alphonse
Aulard, French historian, was born.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1849 Aug 18, Benjamin Louis
Paul Godard, composer, was born in Paris.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1849 Sep 14, La Meuse, the
first ship to sail from France to California, arrived in San
Francisco with 41 all male passengers.
(SF, 8/29/15, p.C2)
1849 Oct 17, Frederic Chopin
(b.1810), Polish-born composer and pianist, died in Paris of
tuberculosis at the age of 39. The 1945 film "A Song to Remember"
was about Chopin." In 2010 Adam Zamoyski authored “Chopin: Prince of
the Romantics.”
(HN, 10/17/00)(SFC, 11/25/02, p.A15)(Econ,
2/6/10, p.91)
1849 Gustave Boulanger
(1824-1888), French artist, painted “Ulysses Recognized by
Eeurycleia.”
(WSJ, 12/28/05, p.D8)
1849 Alphonse Karr, French:
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.36)
1849 Victor Hugo addressed an
appeal for European unity to Germany, France and Russia.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.50)
1849 Joseph Naudet, director
France’s L’Enfer library, which started in the 1830s, described the
library as a hiding place to lock up books that were very bad. The
collection hid books and other documents from the public that were
deemed dangerous for public morality.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.E9)
1849 French brothers Adolphe
and Edouard-Jean Cointreau created a brand of liqueur called
Cointreau and soon founded their own distillery in Angers. The
liqueur was a secret blend of orange peels and pure sugar-beet
alcohol.
(SFC, 11/1/06, p.G2)
1849 French officer
Claude-Etienne Minie invented a bullet that changed the face of
warfare. The Minie ball was shot from a grooved bore, i.e. a rifle,
and expanded when shot to clean out the grooves of the bore.
(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W10)
1850 Aug 17, Jose Francisco de
San Martin (b.1778), Argentine-born South American revolutionary
hero, died in France. In 2009 John Lynch authored “San Martin:
Argentine Soldier, American Hero.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(Econ,
4/25/09, p.87)
1850 Aug 18, Honore de Balzac
(b.1799), French novelist, died at age 51.
(WUD, 1994, p.115)(MC, 8/18/02)
1850 Aug 26, Charles Richet,
French physiologist (anaphylaxis-Nobel 1913), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1850 Gustave Courbet
(1819-1877), French artist, painted "Burial at Ornans."
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.D8)
1850s The Petite Ceinture was a
rail line built to haul merchandise between the major train stations
of Paris. It was shut down in 1934 but opened again by the Germans
during WW II.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T9)
1851 Jan 6, Leon Foucault
(d.1868), French scientist, watched a pendulum swing and shift its
plane of motion. This he realized was due to the rotation of the
Earth. In 2003 Amir D. Aczel authored "Pendulum: Leon Foucault and
the Triumph of Science."
(WSJ, 8/28/03, p.D18)
1851 Mar 27,
Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent d'Indy, composer (Symphonie Cevenole),
was born in Paris.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1851 May 29, Leon Bourgeois,
French premier (1895-96, Nobel 1920), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1851 Oct 2, Ferdinand Foch,
French Allied commander in WW I, was born.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1851 Oct 19,
Marie-Therese-Charlotte (b.1778), daughter of Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette died in Austria of pneumonia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_France)
1851 Oct, The first of 17 ships
arrived in SF from France following a lottery by the government of
Louis Napoleon, which provided passage to some 3,000 for the gold
rush.
(SFCM, 4/30/06, p.4)
1851 Nov 2, Louis
Napoleon staged a coup and took power in France as Napoleon III of
the Second Empire.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(DoW, 1999, p182)
1851 Nov 13, The
London-to-Paris telegraph opened.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1851 Nov 16, In France
officials drew the winning numbers for the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots. Some 7 million tickets had been sold for one franc each to
finance the shipment of hand-picked French emigrants to California.
From October 1851 to January 1853 a lottery ship sailed every month
from Le Havre. 3,293 passengers of 4,016 arrived in San Francisco.
The rest disembarked en route.
(SFC, 9/5/15, p.C2)
1851 Dec 4, Pres. Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte forces crushed a coup d'etat in France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1851 Victor Hugo sought refuge
on the Channel island of Guernsey where he wrote "Les Miserables"
and other works.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1851 The Chateau
Pichon-Longueville was built in the Bordeaux region of France.
(USAT, 5/9/03, p.2D)
1851 Paul Julius Reuter, a
German-born immigrant, began transmitting stock-market quotes
between London and Paris over the new Dover-Calais submarine
telegraph cable.
(http://about.reuters.com/home/aboutus/history/informationandinnovation.aspx)
1852 Jan 6, Louis Braille (43)
died of tuberculosis in France. He had been blinded by an accident
during childhood and spent years developing a system to read by
touch. In 1997 Russell Freedman wrote "Out of Darkness: The Story of
Louis Braille."
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.10)(ON, 10/04, p.9)(
http://www.brailler.com/braillehx.htm)
1852 Feb 2, Alexandre Dumas
Jr.’s "Le Dame aux Camelias," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1852 Feb 28, The French ship
arrived in San Francisco from Le Havre with some 200 lottery
emigrants. They included criminals, political prisoners, honest
workers, common thugs and others considered undesirable. France had
organized a national lottery for a gold bar and used the proceeds to
ship people to California.
(SF, 8/29/15, p.C1)
1852 May 25, Louis Franchet
d'Espèrey [Desperate Frankey], French marshal (WWI), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1852 Sep 24, Henri Giffard, a
French engineer, flew over Paris in the 1st dirigible flight.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVgifford.htm)
1852 Dec 2, Louis Napoleon, the
little nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, established the Second Empire
in France (1852-1870) and called himself Napoleon III. He married
the Spanish beauty Eugenie and ran a semi-liberal autocracy for 18
years.
(WUD, 1994, p.950)(WSJ, 3/14/95, p.A16)(MC,
12/2/01)
1852 Eugene Delacroix painted
"Desdemona Cursed by Her Father."
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1852 Maria Vernet Worth, a
Parisian shop clerk, became the 1st professional model when her
husband found that he sold more dresses when she helped.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)
1852 France established its
penal colony at Devil’s Island, French Guiana. It was one of 3
islands called the Iles du Salut (Islands of Salvation). Some 70,000
convicts were sent there until 1946. The penal colony operated until
1951.
(SSFC, 12/15/02,
p.L5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana)
1852-1935 Paul Bourget, French author: "We had
better live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we
have lived."
(AP, 2/11/00)
1853 Jan 16, Andre Michelin,
French industrialist and tire manufacturer (Michelin), was born.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1853 Jan 19, Napoleon III
married Eugenie de Montijo.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1853 Apr 2, Lucie de la Tour du
Pin (83), born as Henriette-Lucie Dillon and former lady-in-waiting
to Marie Antoinette, died Paris. Her memoir, “Journal of a Woman of
Fifty Years,” was not published until 1906. In 2009 Caroline
Moorhead authored “Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin
and the French Revolution.”
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.91)(http://tinyurl.com/co3xor)
1853 May 11, Baron Nathaniel de
Rothschild of England purchased Chateau Mouton in Bordeaux, France,
for 1,125,000 gold francs.
(www.pageaday.com)
1853 Jul, Supported by Britain,
the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who occupied the
Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish
border. The Crimean War got under way in October. It was fought
mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the
British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support, from January
1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war aligned Anglican
England and Roman Catholic France with Islam’s sultan-caliphs
against the tsars, who saw themselves as the world’s last truly
Christian emperors.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)(Econ,
10/2/10, p.89)
1853 Oct, Henry Bessemer
(1813-1898), English mechanical engineer, invented a new type of
artillery shell. He presented it to the War Department for use in
the Crimean War, but they were not interested. He then offered it to
France’s Napoleon III, who agreed to test the shells. The larger
shells demanded a new type of cannon made of stronger metal, which
led to his experiments in making iron.
(ON, 9/06, p.4)
1853 Jun 29, Napoleon III met
with Georges-Eugene Haussmann to outline plans for the “strategic
beautification” of Paris and assigned him to modernize the city. For
the next 17 years Haussman, as prefect of the Seine, transformed
Paris. He is responsible for the tree lined grand boulevards, the
Bois de Boulogne, several railroad stations, the aqueducts, and a
tourist friendly sewer system. Haussmann employed one Parisian in
five and financed his projects using private capital raised with
bonds. The project forced some 200,000 residents from their homes.
He used surpluses in his operational budget to cover deficits in his
capital budgets. The debts paralyzed the city until the Gaullist
era.
(WSJ, 1/17/1995, p.A-16)(SFEC, 6/28/98,
p.T9)(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)(ON, 9/06, p.9)
1853 French wines were first
ranked at the order of Napoleon. The top grades were selected on the
basis of price, not taste.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1853 The island of New
Caledonia was made a French possession. It served as a penal colony
for four decades after 1864. Agitation for independence during the
1980s and early 1990s has dissipated.
(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nc.html)
1854 Mar 28, During the Crimean
War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.
(AP, 3/28/97)
1854 Apr 29, Henri Poincare
(d.1912), French mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, was born.
He investigated the idea of space and led to the notion that space
is too complex for mathematics. Rather space is an assumption, and
it can be described and controlled only so far as we assume it. In
other words there is no such thing as space. Instead, there are as
many spaces as there are people... for every person can assume an
indefinite number of different spaces.
(V.D.-H.K.p.272)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9)
1854 Aug 12, French adventurer
Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon (b.1817) was shot and killed by a
Mexican firing squad. He had led some 112 gold miners from
California’s Tuolumne County on an invasion of Mexico.
(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_de_Raousset-Boulbon)(SFC,
9/5/15, p.C2)
1854 Sep 14, Allied armies,
including those of Britain & France, landed in Crimea.
(MC, 9/14/01)
1854 Oct 20, Arthur Rimbaud
(d.1891), French poet (Illuminations), was born in Charlesville.
(WUD, 1994 p.1234)(HN, 10/20/00)(MC,
10/20/01)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.D3)
1854 Oct 25, During the Crimean
War, a brigade of British light infantry was destroyed by Russian
artillery as they charged down a narrow corridor in full view of the
Russians. The Crimean War is largely remembered for the Charge of
the Light Brigade, a hopeless but gallant British cavalry charge
against a heavily defended Russian force. The battle began when the
Russians attacked the British-French supply depot at Balaclava near
Chersonesos, some eight miles from Sevastopol, on the Black Sea
Crimean Peninsula. Taken by surprise, the British counterattacked
but failed to follow up. Through a staff error, Gen. Lord Cardigan's
Light Brigade of 673 horsemen was ordered to charge the Russian
position through a mile-long valley and prevent them from carrying
away some captured cannon. The Light Brigade advanced up the valley,
taking casualties all the way, and reached the guns. But once there,
they could not hold their position and were forced to retreat. Of
the 673 men who took part in the senseless charge, only 195 were
present at roll call that night. The Charge of the Light Brigade
ended the battle, but Balaclava remained in the hands of the
British-French Allies. The event was described in a poem by
Tennyson.
(SFC,12/190/97, p.F6)(AP, 10/25/97)(HNPD,
10/25/98)(HN, 10/25/98)
1854 Nov 5, The British and
French defeated the Russians at Inkerman, Crimea.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1854 Gustave Courbet painted
"The Meeting [Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!]." It depicted a meeting
with his patron, art collector Alfred Bruyas (1821-1877).
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.E1)
1854 Eugene Delacroix painted
"Arabs Stalking a Lion."
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1854 The Marriage Freres tea
shop at 30 Rue du Bourg-Tibourg was founded. It has a small 2nd
floor museum of tea implements from around the world.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1854 Eugene Delacroix painted
"The Riding Lesson."
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1854 Franz Xaver Winterhalter
painted a portrait of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.D8)
1854-1856 Eliphas Levi (1810-1875), French occult
author and ceremonial magician, published Dogme et Rituel de la
Haute Magie ("Dogma and Rituals of High Magic") as two volumes
(Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included an image he had
drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and "The Sabbatic
Goat", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a
torch on its head between its horns.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet)
1855 Jun 13, Verdi's opera "Les
Vepres Sicilenne" was produced (Paris).
(MC, 6/13/02)
1855 Jun 17, Heavy
French-British shelling of Sebastopol killed over 2000.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1855 Sep 9, Sevastopol, under
siege for nearly a year, fell to the Allies. France, England, the
Ottoman Empire and Sardinia (as Italy was then known) defeated the
Russians at Sevastopol in the decisive battle of the Crimean War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War)(SFC,
7/27/13, p.C2)
c1855 Alexandre Marie Colin painted a portrait of
Napoleon III.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.D8)
1855 Degas (21) painted a
portrait of his 1-year-old brother Rene de Gas.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.E1)
1855 Gustave Courbet, French
artist, painted "The Studio of the Painter."
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.D8)
1855 Camille Pissarro
(1830-1903), French impressionist, moved to France from his native
St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
(WSJ, 1/14/97, p.A16)(Hem., 1/97, p.124)(WUD,
1994, p.1097)
1855 Napoleon III ordered up a
list of the best wines of Bordeaux and ranked the best according to
quality and price. Those at the top became known as the first
growths and included Châteaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour,
and Margaux. Mouton Rothschild was elevated in 1973.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/04, p.W6)
1856 Jan 5, Pierre J. David
(67), [David d'Angers], French sculptor, died.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1856 Feb 17, Heinrich Heine
(58), German poet, died in Paris.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1856 Mar 30, Russia signed the
Treaty of Paris ending the Crimean War. It guaranteed the integrity
of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender southern
Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was
neutralized, and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all
nations. In 2010 Allen Lane authored “Crimea: The Last Crusade.”
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)
1856 Apr 24, Henri Philippe
Pétain, French Marshall, was born. He was known as the 'hero of
Verdun' but collaborated with the Nazis after the fall of France in
1940 and convicted of treason in 1945. Petain was executed in 1951.
(HN, 4/24/99)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.84)
1856 May 3, Adolphe Charles
Adam (52), French composer, critic (Giselle), died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1856 May 20, Henri E. Cross
(d.1910), French painter, was born. His real surname was Delacroix
but was changed in 1881.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1856 Oct 1, The first
installment of Gustav Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary (Emma Bovary)
appeared in the Revue de Paris after the publisher refused to print
a passage in which the character Emma has a tryst in the back seat
of a carriage. It was later considered as the first novel of a
liberated woman in modern literature. In 1998 Dacia Maraini
published "Searching for Emma." A TV version for Masterpiece Theater
was shown in 2000.
(HN, 10/1/00)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Par p.18)(WSJ,
2/4/00, p.W6)
1856 Francois Flameng (d.1923),
French painter, was born. He painted imagined scenes from the
domestic life of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(MT, Fall/03, p.13)
1856 Alexis de Tocqueville
(1805-1859), French writer, authored "The Old Regime and the French
Revolution."
(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.15)
1856 The ballet "Le Corsaire"
(The Corsair) was first performed in Paris to a score by Adolph
Adam. It was based on a work by Lord Byron.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.E1)
1856 The order of nuns known as
the "Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration" was founded in France. It
was named after a 13th century saint who jettisoned her family's
wealth for a life of poverty. The nuns spent their time praying on
behalf of others.
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.A1)
1856 Emperor Napoleon III
decided to quell an impending revolt in Algeria by sending a
magician, who would demonstrate the power of the Europeans to the
natives. He sent Jean-Eugene Robert Houdin (1805-1871). The 1998
novel "The Magician’s Wife" by Brian Moore is based on the historic
events. The magician is named Henri Lambert.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.5)
1856 The Countess de
Castiglione (Virginia Oldoini) became the mistress of Napoleon III.
She was chosen by her cousin Camillo Cavour, prime minister of
Sardinia under King Victor Emanuel, to win the emperor's support for
a war against the Austrians.
(WSJ, 12/27/00, p.A10)
1856 Theodore Chasseriau
(b.1819), Dominican-born artist, died in Paris. His paintings
included "The Toilette of Esther."
(WSJ, 11/26/02, p.D8)
1856 The Church of St. Anne in
Jerusalem's walled Old City was gifted by the Ottomans to French
Emperor Napoleon III.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)
1857 Feb 7, A French court
acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized
novel "Madame Bovary."
(AP, 2/7/08)
1857 Feb 12, Eugene Atget,
French photographer, was born. He took over 10,000 photographs
documenting Paris.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1857 Mar 3, Under pretexts,
Britain and France declared war on China.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1857 Nov 2, Joseph F.F.
Babinski, Polish-French neurologist (Babinski reflex), was born.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1857 Jean-Francois Millet
painted "The Gleaners."
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A26)
1857 In France the Napoleon III
theatre at Fontainebleau Palace south of Paris, built between 1853
and 1856 under the reign of Napoleon III, opened. It was used only a
dozen times, which helped preserve its gilded adornments, before
being abandoned in 1870 after the fall of Napoleon III. It reopened
in 2019 following 12 years of restoration work with the help of a 10
million euro donation from Abu Dhabi.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
1857 Paul Broca, a French
neurologist, discovered that particular regions of the brain are
specialized for particular functions. In 1861 he authored a
classical paper that detailed damage in the brain’s left temporal
lobe to loss of speech.
(WSJ, 10/11/02,
p.AB1)(http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Broca/perte-e.htm)
1857-1926 Emile Coue, French pharmacist. In 1920
[1910] he devised the mantra "Every day, in every way, I’m getting
better and better" to promote his theory of self-improvement through
auto-suggestion.
(NH, 7/98, p.20)(SFEC, 6/20/99, Z1 p.8)
1858 Jan 14, Emperor Napoleon
III and Empress Eugenie escaped unhurt after an Italian assassin
threw a bomb at their carriage as they traveled to the Paris Opera.
The hoop skirt was first worn by Empress Eugenie to conceal her
pregnancy.
(HN, 1/14/99)(SFEC, 7/23/00, Z1 p.2)(AP, 1/14/08)
1858 Feb 11, Bernadette
Soubirous (14), a French miller’s daughter, claimed for the first
time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
(AP, 2/11/97)(HN, 1/11/02)
1858 Mar 18, Rudolf Diesel,
German mechanical engineer, was born in Paris. He designed the
compression-ignition engine (1893).
(HN, 3/18/99)(AP, 3/18/08)
1858 Jul 13, Louis Martin and
Zelie Guerin married in Alencon, France, and for 10 months refrained
from sex in a “Josephite marriage.” Assured by a priest that raising
children was a sacred activity they went on to have 9 children, 5 of
whom joined religious order. Their youngest daughter became famous
as St. Theresa of Liseux, The Little Flower,” canonized in 1925.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.W11)
1858 Sep 15, Charles E Vicomte
de Foucauld (d.1916), French explorer and hermit, was born in
Strasbourg, France.
(www.manntaylor.com/foucauld.html)
1858 Oct 21, Jacques
Offenbach's opera "Orphee aux Enfers," premiered in Paris. The
Can-Can music was part of the opera. Dancers in Paris displayed
their tail feathers in a high kick routine called the "cancan." The
word was a diminutive form of "canard," the word for duck, whose
evenly displayed feathers were likened to those of the dancers.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, z1 p.7)(MC, 10/21/01)
1858 Dec, The French
government’s Council of State limited the ability of Paris to
condemn property. Land could be seized for roads but properties
along the projected roads could not be expropriated.
(ON, 9/06, p.10)
1858 Charles Frederick Worth,
an English tailor in Paris, began haute couture. He was hired by
Napoleon to create a suitable wardrobe for Princess Eugenie and
trigger a demand for French fashion.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
1859 Mar 19, The opera "Faust"
by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1859 Apr 4, Giacomo Meyerbeer's
Opera "Dinorah" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1859 Apr 16, Alexis de
Tocqueville (b.1805), French writer, died in Cannes. His collected
writings filled 17 volumes and included "Democracy in America"
(1835) and "The Old Regime and the French Revolution" (1856). In
2001 a new English translation by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba
Winthrop was published. In 2001 Sheldon S. Wolin authored
"Tocqueville Between Two Worlds." In 2006 Hugh Brogan authored
“Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of
Revolution – A Biography.”
(WSJ, 9/26/01,
p.A18)(www.tocqueville.org/chap1.htm)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.85)
1859 Apr 29, In the Italian
Campaign some 150,000 Piedmontese troops invaded Piedmontese
territory as the French army raced to support them and the Austrian
army mobilized to oppose them.
(HN, 4/29/00)
1859 Apr, In Paris, France,
about 20 unlicensed stockbrokers were arrested and had their papers
seized at the instigation of the market’s regulated brokers. the
unregulated brokers were freed within days under pressure from
clients.
(Econ, 5/11/13, SR p.9)
1859 May 3, France
declared war on Austria.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1859 May 9, Threatened by the
advancing French army, the Austrian army retreated across the River
Sesia in Italy.
(HN, 5/9/00)
1859 May 10, French emperor
Napoleon III left Paris to join his troops preparing to battle the
Austrian army in Northern Italy.
(HN, 5/10/02)
1859 May 15, Pierre Curie,
physicist (Nobel 1903), was born. He and his wife discovered
radium.
(HN, 5/15/99)(MC, 5/15/02)
1859 May 28, The French army
launched a flanking attack on the Austrian army in Northern France.
(HN, 5/28/00)
1859 Jun 2, French forces
crossed the Ticino River, the last natural barrier between
themselves and Milan with the Austrians in retreat.
(HN, 6/2/00)
1859 Jun 4, The French army
under Napoleon III took Magenta from the Austrian army after a
bloody battle in northern Italy.
(HN, 6/4/99)
1859 Jun 24, At the Battle of
Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the
French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under
Franz Joseph I in northern Italy. Some 6,000 men died in the battle
and thousands of wounded were effectively abandoned as witnessed by
Henri Dunant (31), a Swiss businessman seeking Napoleon for a land
development proposal. In 1862 Dunant published “A Memory of
Solferino” and began a campaign for a volunteer society to aid
wounded soldiers.
(HN, 6/24/99)(ON, 4/08, p.11)
1859 Jun 30, French acrobat
Blondin (born Jean Francois Gravelet) crossed Niagara Falls on a
tightrope as 5,000 spectators watched.
(AP, 6/30/97)(HN, 6/30/98)
1859 Jul 8, With the signing of
the truce at Villafranca Austria ceded Lombardy to France. France
also received Nice and Savoy.
(HN, 7/8/99)
1859 Aug 4, French priest John
Vianney (b.1789), known as the Cure of Ars, died. He had helped to
hide priests on the run during the French Revolution. In 1925 he was
canonized by Pope Pius XI, who in 1929 made him patron saint of
parish priests. In 2019 the Knights of Columbus fraternity sponsored
a US pilgrimage of his heart.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vianney)(AP,
4/6/19)
1859 Oct 9, Alfred Dreyfus,
French artillery officer who was falsely accused of giving French
military secrets to foreign powers, was born.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1859 Oct 18, Henri Bergson
(d.1941), French philosopher (Creative Evolution- Nobel 1927), was
born. He is said to have taught that man acts first and thinks later
as opposed to Descartes who said man thinks before he acts. He won
the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature. His dualistic philosophy held
that man's intellect enables him to appraise the world and his
intuition tells him something of the all-pervading life force, or
elan vital. He was a spokesman for "process philosophy." "Only those
ideas that are least truly ours can be adequately expressed in
words."
(AHD, 1971, p.125)(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC,
3/27/99, p.C2)(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)(AP, 10/18/99)(MC, 10/18/01)
1859 Nov 12, The first
flying-trapeze circus act was performed by Jules Leotard at the
Circus Napoleon in Paris. He designed the garment that bears his
name.
(HN, 11/12/00)(MC, 11/12/01)
1859 Dec 2, George Seurat
(d.1891), French artist, was born in Paris. He entered the Ecole des
Beaux Arts in 1875. His method of painting with bright colors
juxtaposed as tiny dots was called pointillism, often called
Neo-Impressionism.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.E4)(WUD, 1994, p.1306)(DPCP
1984)(HN, 12/2/98)
1859 Jean-Francois Millet
painted "The Angelus," and it became the most reproduced painting of
the 19th century.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.3)
1859 One of the first reports
relating tobacco to cancer was published in France.
(HNQ, 11/10/98)
1859 Gaston Plante, French
physicist, invented the first lead-acid rechargeable battery.
(Econ, 3/8/08, TQ p.23)(Econ, 3/7/09, TQ p.4)
1859 Leon Benouville (b.1821),
French painter, died. His paintings included “The Wrath of Achilles”
(1847).
(www.insecula.com/us/contact/A005594.html)
1860 Apr 6, Rene Lalique
(d.1945), French goldsmith, jeweler, glassmaker and artist, was
born. He helped mold the shape of 20th century art nouveau, art deco
and architectural ornamentation.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)(Hem., 6/98, p.134)(MC,
4/6/02)
1860 Jun 25, Gustave
Charpentier, French composer (Louise), was born.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1860 Oct 12, British and French
troops captured Beijing.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1860 Britain forswore most
import duties. Britain and France signed a free-trade treaty, which
drastically reduced the duty on French wines.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.74)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.132)
1860 Savoy was ceded to France.
(WUD, 1994, p.1272)
1860 The Parc Monceau in Paris
was taken over by the state to enable Baron Haussmann to complete
the Boulevard Malesherbes.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T12)
1860 France sent 5,000 troops
to Syria to stop the massacre of Maronite Christians at the hands of
the Druze, which the Ottoman authorities were neither willing nor
able to stop.
(SFC, 9/7/08, Books p.5)
1860 The 1st French gendarmes
arrived in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1860 Parisian inventor
Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville captured 10-second clip of a woman
singing "Au Clair de la Lune,” using a phonautograph, a device that
created visual recordings of sound waves.
(AP, 3/28/08)
1860 In France the Yonne
Department had almost 99,000 acres of grapevines for wine. Diseases
such as oidium and phylloxera destroyed the Chablis vines in the
late 19th century and the Carmenére grape was wiped out in France.
In 1994 the Carmenére grape was found to be thriving in Chile.
(SFC, 7/16/97, Z1 p.4)(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.A17)
1860-1910 Auguste Moreau, a bronze sculptor,
worked over this period. His art included the sculpture "Eglantine"
(wild rose), which depicted a woman draped in a vine of roses. It
was used as the design for a clock c1900. His bronzes were copied in
spelter, a soft white metal that’s mostly zinc.
(SFC, 2/18/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 3/11/98, Z1 p.5)
1861 Dec 8, Aristide Maillol,
French painter and sculptor (Seated Woman), was born.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1861 Dec, French, British and
Spanish troops landed at Veracruz, Mexico, seeking to force Benito
Juarez to resume his financial obligations.
(PCh, 1992, p.485)
1861 Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
impressionist painter, entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts and studied
with Charles Gleyre.
(DPCP 1984)
1861 Germain Sommeiller
(d.1871), French engineer, began work on the Mount Cenis Tunnel
(Frejus Tunnel) between France and Italy, using his newly developed
pneumatic drills. Work proceeded from opposite ends and connected on
Dec 26, 1870.
(ON, 2/03, p.8)
1861 Felix Nadar invented a
battery operated flash lamp and began exploring the sewers and
catacombs of Paris.
(Econ, 12/8/12, IL p.15)
1861 Protestant banker Edouard
Andre (d.1894) married Catholic painter Nelie Jacquemart and caused
a minor scandal.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T12)
1862 Feb 28, Karl Goldmark's
opera "The Queen of Sheba," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1862 Mar 28, Aristide Briand,
premier of France (1909-22), was born.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1862 May 1, Marcel Prevost,
French publisher, writer (Les demis-vierges), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1862 May 5, At the Battle of
Pueblo, a [2,000] 5,000 man Mexican force (cavalry), loyal to Benito
Juarez and under the leadership of Gen’l. Ignacio Zaragoza, defeated
6,000 French troops sent by Napoleon III. The event became
memorialized in the Cinco de Mayo annual festival. Napoleon intended
to march through to the US and help the Confederacy in the Civil
War.
(SCal, May 1995)(SFEM, 4/27/97, p.6)(AP, 5/5/97)
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T8)(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A13)
1862 Jun 24, U.S. intervention
saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1862 Jun 30, Gustave Flaubert
completed "Salammbo."
(MC, 6/30/02)
1862 Aug 22, Claude Debussy
(d.1918), composer (La Mer, Clair de Lune), was born in St.
Germain-en-Laye.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Oct 19, Auguste Lumiere,
French film pioneer, was born. He made the 1st film: "Workers
Leaving Lumiere Factory."
(MC, 10/19/01)
1862 Nov 24, M. Levy published
Gustave Flaubert’s "Salammbo."
(MC, 11/24/01)
1862 Dec 8, Georges Feydeau,
French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), was born.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1862 Claude Monet (22) began
studying painting with Charles Gleyre, a retired artist in Paris.
(ON, 9/06, p.6)
1862 Victor Hugo published "Les
Miserables." The novel covers events in France from 1815 to 1833. In
2004 Mario Vargas Llosa authored his book-length Spanish essay: “The
Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and ‘Les Miserables.’ The
English translation came out in 2007. From 1909 to 2017 some 65 film
versions were made of the novel, making it the most frequently
adopted novel of all time.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)(SFC, 6/30/07, p.E2)(Econ,
2/25/17, p.72)
1862 Empress Eugenie opened Le
Grand Hotel in Paris to celebrate French science and art.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.101)
1862 The French established
their first colonial base of Cochin-China, a region encompassing the
southern third of current Vietnam.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinchina)(Econ,
7/23/16, p.68)
1863 Jun 7, Mexico City was
captured by French troops.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1863 Jul, The European public
first learned of Angkor in Cambodia from the posthumously published
journal of French naturalist Henri Mouhot.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1863 Aug 13, Eugene Delacroix
(b.1798), French artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix)
1863 Sep 30, The George Bizet
(1838-1875) opera "Les Pecheurs de Perles" (Pearl Fishers) premiered
in Paris.
(www.operaphilly.com/03-04/bizet-bio.shtml)
1863 Jules Verne (1828-1905)
authored his novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” This was his first
published book.
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.D8)
1763 Voltaire authored his
"Treatise on Tolerance." In 2015 it began climbing the French best
seller list in the wake of attacks by French-born Islamic
extremists.
(AP, 1/28/15)
1863 The Paris Salon des
Refuses was a group show of artists rejected by the mavens of the
official salon. The hit and scandal of the show was Edouard Manet’s
"Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe" which depicted a happy foursome picnicking
in the woods with the two women undressed. One of the women was
Victorine Meurent, a professional model. Other refused artists
included Cezanne, Pissarro, and other impressionists.
(WSJ, 6/14/95, p.A-14)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.76)
1863 French forces captured
Puebla, Mexico.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)
1863 French Empress Eugenie,
the wife of Napoleon III, collected art for her Chinese museum at
Fontainbleau Castle.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A2)
1863 Pierre Lallemont, French
mechanic, created a bicycle driven by foot pedals attached to the
front wheel. In 1865 he moved to the US and applied for a patent,
which was granted in Nov. 1866.
(ON, 2/10, p.1)
1863 Frenchman Felicien de
Saulcy excavated an underground burial complex in one of the first
modern-era archaeological digs in the Holy Land. He mistakenly
identified the tomb as belonging to biblical kings. He took two
sarcophagi found inside the "Tomb of Kings," as well as human
remains, back to Paris despite protest by the local Jewish
community, where they were held in the Louvre's collection.
(AP, 11/8/19)
1863-1874 This decade in France was covered in the
2006 book “The Judgement of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That
Gave the World Impressionism,” by Ross King. He focused on the
period between two famous exhibitions, the scandalous Salon des
Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.M6)
1864 Mar 14, Rossini's "Petite
Messe Solennelle," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1864 Mar 19, Charles Gounod's
opera "Mireille" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1864 Apr 19, Naval Engagement
at Cherbourg, France: USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama. [see Jun 19]
(MC, 4/19/02)
1864 Jun 19, The CSS "Alabama"
was sunk by the USS "Kearsarge" off Cherbourg, France. The Alabama
had captured, sank or burned 68 ships in 22 months.
(DT, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)(HNQ, 11/28/00)
1864 Jul 31, Louis Hachette
(64), French publisher, died.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Sep 5, British, French
& Dutch fleets attacked Japan in Shimonoseki Straits.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1864 Nov 24, Henri
Toulouse-Lautrec (d.1901), French post-impressionist painter, was
born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_de_Toulouse-Lautrec)
1864 Gustave Moreau, French
painter, created his work "Oedipus and the Sphinx." His students
included Georges Rouault, Albert Marqyet, and Henri Matisse.
(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A20)
1864 Phylloxera was 1st noted
on grapevines in Roquemaure, France. It ravaged the vineyards there
for nearly 20 years. In 1872 it reached Austria and Portugal. In
1875 it appeared in Australia and in 1886 in South Africa. In 1987
George Ordish authored “The Great Wine Blight.” In 2004 Christy
Campbell authored “Phylloxera: How Wine was Saved for the World.” In
2011 George Gale authored “Dying on the Vine: How Phylloxera
Transformed Wine.”
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E3)(Econ, 7/23/11, p.81)
1864 A meteorite was found near
Orgueil, France, that was later believed to be a fragment of a
comet. It was later found to show traces of amino acids.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A8)
1864-1910 Jules Renard, French educator and
author: "Talent is like money; you don't have to have some to talk
about it."
(AP, 4/16/97)
1865 Jan 19, Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon (b.1809), French economist and a socialist, died. “Property
is theft.” He was the founder of Mutualist philosophy and was the
first person to declare himself an anarchist.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon)
1865 Apr 28, Giacomo
Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1865 May 17, The International
Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris. The International
Telecommunication Union later became a specialized agency of the
United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern
information and communication technologies. By 2019 ITU's global
membership included 193 Member States as well as some 900 companies,
universities, and international and regional organizations.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunication_Union)(PR
Newswire, 12/17/19)
1865 Oct 1, Paul Abraham Dukas,
composer (Sorcerer's Apprentice), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1865 Dec 23, France, Belgium,
Italy and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union (LMU). It was
a 19th century attempt to unify several European currencies into a
single currency that could be used in all the member states, at a
time when most national currencies were still made out of gold and
silver. Spain and Greece joined in 1868. It quickly weakened as
members pursued their own economic policies. It was disbanded in
1927.
(WSJ, 1/13/98,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Monetary_Union)
1865 Frederic Bazille painted
"Beach at Sainte-Adresse."
(WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A20)
1865 Monet painted "A Cart on
the Snowy Road at Honfleur."
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D6)
1865-1866 Edouard Manet painted "The Tragic Actor
(Rouviere as Hamlet)" about this time.
(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.D10)
1865 Emile Zola wrote a
diatribe against the annual French state-sponsored art show called
the Salon. He mocked the jurors who had rebuffed Edouard Manet
amongst others.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A13)
1865 Eduard Rene Lefebvre de
Laboulaye, a scholar, proposed a monument for America's centennial
and strengthen the democratic cause in France. The monument took
form as the Statue of Liberty.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1865 The St. Anne Prison was
built in Avignon, France, atop the ruins of a 13th century insane
asylum. The prison was closed in 2003 and in 2007 the government
offered to sell it for transformation to a luxury hotel.
(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A18)
1865-1867 Honore Daumier created his painting "The
Strong Man" during this period.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B1)
1866 May 17, Erik Alfred Leslie
Satie, French composer, was born.
(HN, 5/17/01)
1866 May 18, French Government
of De Putte resigned.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1866 Jul 29, Barbe-Nicole
Clicquot (b.1777), head of the Clicquot champagne business, died.
She was widowed at age 27 and transformed her husbands struggling
business into one of the great champagne houses of France. In 2008
Tilar J. Mazzeo authored “The Widow Clicquot.”
(WSJ, 11/5/08,
p.A21)(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbe-Nicole_Clicquot-Ponsardin)
1866 Nov 17, Ambroise Thomas'
opera "Mignon" was produced (Paris).
(MC, 11/17/01)
1866 Nov 20, Pierre Lallemont,
French mechanic, was granted a US patent for his velocipede, a
rotary crank bicycle.
(http://www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)(ON,
2/10, p.1)
1866 Gustave Courbet, French
artist, painted "The Waterspout" and “Origin of the World.”
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.D8)
1866 Edouard Manet painted
"Young Lady in 1866." The painting helped pave the way for
Impressionism.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.W2)
1866 Jean-Francois Millet
painted "Flight of Crows."
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A26)
1866 Monet created his painting
"Jar of Peaches."
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A16)
1866 Edouard Seguin
(1812-1880), French physician, authored “Idiocy and Its Treatment.”
He had established schools in France and the US for the
intellectually handicapped, which stressed the importance of
developing self-reliance and independence.
(ON, 3/07,
p.3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Seguin)
1866 French colonial officials
sent an expedition to explore the Mekong River and check its
commercial potential.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1866 French troops took away
hundreds of Korean manuscripts and set fire to 5,000 more when they
raided a royal library on an island off Korea's west coast. In 2011
the first batch of the looted Korean royal books were returned home.
(AP, 4/14/11)
1866-1954 Ernest Dimnet, French priest, lecturer
and author: "The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by
great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly
destructive little things."
(AP, 9/6/98)
1867 Jan 14,
Jean-August-Dominique Ingres, a French neo-classical painter, and
one of the major portrait painters of the 19th century, died.
(http://tinyurl.com/cheny)
1867
Apr 1, The International Exhibition, Exposition Universelle,
opened in Paris.
(OTD)(ON, 9/06, p.11)
1867 Apr 27, Charles Gounod's
Opera "Romeo et Juliette" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1867 Aug 31, [Pierre-]Charles
Baudelaire (46), French poet (Journaux Intimes), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1867 Oct 3, Pierre Bonnard
(d.1947), French painter and illustrator, was born. He wrote that he
wanted to “show what one sees when one enters a room all of a
sudden.” He married Marthe de Meligny in 1925 and during his life
painted some 384 images of her. In 1998 John Elderfield and
Sarah Whitfield published “Bonnard.”
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR
p.9)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_H_AseJpss)
1867 Nov 7, Marie Curie
(d.1934), Polish-born French scientist, was born in Warsaw as Marya
Salomee Sklodowska. Her discoveries included polonium, radium, which
she isolated from pitchblende, and the radioactivity of thorium. She
was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 with her husband, and
in chemistry in 1911. "You cannot hope to build a better world
without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work
for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general
responsibility for all humanity."
(AHD, 1971, p.323)(AP, 10/26/98)(HN, 11/7/98)
1867 Claude Monet painted "The
Beach at Sainte Adresse" and "Road by Saint-Simeon Farm Winter"
while living in Normandy.
(DPCP 1984)(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D6)(SFC, 6/17/06,
p.E10)
1867 The French opera comedy
"La Grande’ tante," was composed by Jules Massenet.
(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A24)
1867 The opera “The Fair Maid
of Perth” by Georges Bizet premiered in France.
(ON, 5/06, p.11)
1867 The facade of the new
Paris Opera House, built to the glory of Emperor Napoleon III, was
completed.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.E5)(ON, 9/06, p.11)
1867 Ernest Michaux, a Parisian
blacksmith, added pedals and brakes to an iron “velocipede,” a
2-wheeled machine that used wooded wheels and was nicknamed “the
boneshaker.”
(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1867-1868 Degas painted "Mlle. Fiocre in the
Ballet ‘La Source’."
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)
1868 Feb 11, Jean Bernard Leon
Foucault (b.1819), French physicist, died. He discovered the 1st
physical proof of Earth's rotation (1851) and invented the
gyroscope.
(WUD, 1994 p.560)(MC, 2/11/02)(WSJ, 8/28/03,
p.D18)
1868 Mar 9, Ambrois Thomas'
opera "Hamlet" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1868 Apr 1, Edmond Rostand,
French dramatist (Cyrano de Bergerac), was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1868 May 6, Gaston Leroux,
French novelist (The Phantom of the Opera), was born.
(HN, 5/6/01)
1868 May 29, Frederic baron
d'Erlanger, French composer, banker, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1868 Aug 10, American actress
Adah Isaacs Menken (b.1835) died in Paris. She was buried in the
Jewish section of the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
(SFC, 4/28/18, p.C2)
1868 Nov 13, Italian composer
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (b.1792) died in France. His work
included 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs,
and some instrumental and piano pieces. His opera "La Donna del
Lago" (1819) was based on the Walter Scott romance "The Lady of the
Lake."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioachino_Rossini)(WSJ, 7/29/97,
p.A12)(AP, 2/29/00)
1868 French painter Jean-Leon
Gerome completed his work “Bonaparte before the Sphinx.”
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.128)
1868 Jean-Francois Millet
painted "Path Lined With Trees Near Vichy."
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A26)
1868 Claude Monet painted "The
River." It shows the water of the Seine and was an early attempt by
the artist to depict shimmering light on water.
(DPCP 1984)
1868 The first known bicycle
race was held in Paris.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1868-1841 Emile Bernard, French poet. He founded
the Pont-Aven Group of Symbolists.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.34)
1868-1955 Paul Claudel, French author: "Why must
all the churches be closed at night? How often has the wanderer
groaned in front of those closed doors?"
(AP, 12/27/98)
1869 Mar 1, Alphonse MLP de
Lamartine (78), French poet (History of Girondins), died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1869 Mar 8, Louis Hector
Berlioz (b.1803), French composer (Symphony Fantastic), died. He was
later hailed as the most blazing musical innovator of the early 19th
century. In 1969 David Cairns translated his memoirs “The Memoirs of
Hector Berlioz.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Berlioz)(WSJ, 4/8/03,
p.D4)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1869 Apr 12, Henri-Desire
Landru (Bluebeard), French sex murderer, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1869 Apr, France’s Emp. Louis
Napoleon ordered the dissolution of the Public Works Fund.
(ON, 9/06, p.12)
1869 May 1, Folies Bergere
opened in Paris.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1869 Jul 15, Margarine was
patented by Hippolye Mega-Mouriss for use by French Navy.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1869 Oct 13, Charles-Augustin
Sainte-Beuve, French writer (Tableau Historique), died.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1869 Nov 17, The Suez Canal was
opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas. The 100
mile canal eliminated a 4000-mile trip around Africa. Empress
Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, together with Ferdinand de
Lesseps, chief architect of the canal, led the first file of ships
from on board the French imperial yacht Aigle. It was financed by
the Rothschild banking empire. In 2003 Zacharay Karabell authored
"Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal."
(I&WWI, p.1041)(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(AP,
11/17/97)(MC, 11/17/01)(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.D8)
1869 Nov 22, Andre Gide
(d.1951), French novelist and critic (Lafcadio's Adventures- Nobel
1947), was born. "There are very few monsters who warrant the fear
we have of them." "Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt
those who find it." “The color of truth is gray.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Gide)(AP, 10/31/97)(AP,
3/24/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)
1869 Dec 31, Henri Matisse
(d.1954), French artist best known for his paintings "Woman with a
Hat" and "The Red Studio," was born. His work included the "Dance
II," now at the Hermitage in Moscow. In 1998 Hilary Spurling
authored "The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, Vol. 1:
1869-1908."
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.9)(HN,
12/31/98)
1869 Claude Monet painted "The
Seine at Bougival, Evening."
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.D1)
1869 Renoir and Monet sat side
by side and painted views of the bathing house, La Grenouillleres
and its patrons.
(WSJ, 9/10/96, p.A16)(SFC, 10/30/96, p.E2)
1869 Camille Pissarro painted
"The Versailles Road at Louveciennes."
(SFEM, 1/31/99, p.18)
1869 In Paris the Bon Marche
department store, founded by Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut,
began displaying its wares for customers to inspect and introduced
price tags.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.18)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.15)
1869 Pierre and Ernest Michaux
built the first motorcycle. It was powered by a steam engine.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, Z1 p.7)
1869 Frenchman Eugene Meyer
invented wire wheels with individually adjusted spokes.
(www.everybicycletire.com/Encyclopedia/History.aspx)(ON, 2/10, p.2)
1869-1877 Elihu Washburne (1816-1887) served as
America’s minister to France and was influential in negotiating the
armistice for the Franco-Prussian War. During the 2 months of the
Paris Commune (1870) he arranged passports for Americans to escape
the siege.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.95)
