France timeline
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Constitution of the Year VIII
The Constitution of the Year VIII was a national constitution of France, adopted December 24, 1799 (during the Year VIII of the French... Read more
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L'ouverture Promulgates the Haitian Constitution of 1801
The great hero of the Haitian Revolution and a man considered one of the great revolutionaries and generals in his own time throughout America and... Read more
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After Initially Fighting with France Against the Rebellion, Dessalines and Pétion Switch Sides and Fight for Haiti's Freedom
For a few months the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery (because... Read more
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The United States Senate Ratifies The Louisiana Purchase Treaty
On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The agreement, which provided for the... Read more
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Louisiana Is Transferred From Spanish Control To French Control
The city of New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River through its location; other locations for ports had been tried and had not succeeded. New... Read more
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France Turns New Orleans Over To United States
France turned New Orleans over on December 20, 1803 at The Cabildo. On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis to transfer... Read more
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Jean Jacques Dessalines Declares Haiti's Independence with Himself as Emperor
On January 1, 1804 Dessalines then declared independence, reclaiming the indigenous Taíno name of Haiti ("Land of Mountains") for the new nation.... Read more
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A Formal Ceremony Transfers The Louisiana Territory From France To The United States
Effective on October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans (most of which became the state of Louisiana) and... Read more
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Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy,... Read more
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Assassination of Jean Jacques Dessalines
In January 1804, Dessalines, preferring Napoleon’s style rather than the more liberal yet vulnerable type of political government of the French... Read more
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Méduse Disaster
In 1816, the French naval ship The Medusa set out to repossess the colony of Senegal. Commanded by an incompetent captain, she ran aground off the... Read more
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Louis Pasteur Is Born
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole in the Jura region of France, into the family of a poor tanner. Louis grew up in the town of... Read more
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Jean-Pierre Boyer Agrees to Payment of Crippling Financial Indemnities to France in Exchange for Haiti's Recognition as an Independent Country
Boyer was anxious to remove the threat of France and opened negotiations. An agreement was reached on July 11, 1825, when (with fourteen French... Read more
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First Photograph Ever Taken
Long before the first public announcements of photographic processes in 1839, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a scientifically-minded gentleman living on... Read more
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Versailles Rail Accident
The Versailles rail disaster is the first railway accident in France and one of the first in the world. The Versailles rail accident, occurred on... Read more
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Angers Bridge Collapse
In 1850, in the midst of a thunderstorm, part of the Batallion of the 11th light infantry regiment totalling 500 men was crossing the suspension... Read more
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First Cinco De Mayo
Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza successfully defended the town of Puebla on May 5, 1862, temporarily halting France's efforts to... Read more
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USS Kearsarge Sinks CSS Alabama
Alabama and Kearsarge were warships of the Confederate States Navy and United States Navy, respectively, which fought off the port of Cherbourg,... Read more
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Discovery of Helium
Helium is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It is inert, not reacting with any element, including itself, and so tiny that it is used to find... Read more
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Statue Of Liberty Arrives In New York
Construction of the statue began in 1875 in France, and was completed in June 1884. A design patent, for the statue was issued, by the United... Read more
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Statue of Liberty Dedicated
The Statue of Liberty National Monument officially celebrated her 100th birthday on October 28, 1986. The people of France gave the Statue to the... Read more
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Eiffel Tower Opens
The Eiffel Tower is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the... Read more
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Gare Montparnasse Station Derailment and Train Wreck
Gare Montparnasse became famous for a derailment on 22 October 1895 of the Granville-Paris Express that overran the buffer stop. The engine... Read more
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René François Armand Prudhomme is Awarded the First Nobel Prize for Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901 was awarded to Sully Prudhomme "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty... Read more
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Signing of the Entente Cordiale
The Entente Cordiale was the culmination of the policy of Théophile Delcassé, France’s foreign minister from 1898, who believed that a... Read more