Learn about important dates in French and francophone history: famous birthdays, holidays and celebrations, and other milestones. If the above does not match today's date or you wish to choose a specific date, please click here

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Birthdays

1462 - King Louis XII of France

1550 - King Charles IX of France

1717 - Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier (French botanist)

1884 - Gaston Bachelard (French philosopher and poet)

1923 - Jacques Berthier (French liturgical composer)

1935 - Laurent Terzieff (French actor)

1955 - Isabelle Adjani (French actress)

1967 - Sylvie Fréchette (French Canadian swimmer)

1968 - Pascale Bussières (French Canadian actress)

Deaths

1162 - Eudes II (Duke of Burgundy)

1720 - Guillaume Amfrye, abbé de Chaulieu (French poet)

1794 - Philippe de Noailles, duc de Mouchy (French soldier)

1831 - Sophie Germain (French mathematician)

1920 - Adolphe-Basile Routhier (French Canadien lyricist, O Canada)

Holidays/Celebrations

Djibouti - Independence Day

Milestones/Events

1759 - General James Wolfe started siege of Québec

1894 - Jean Casimir-Perier was elected president of the Third Republic

1953 - Joseph Laniel became Prime Minister of France

1976 - Air France Flight 139 was hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda

1977 - France granted independence to Djibouti

1984 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau won the Albert Einstein Peace Prize

1988 - Gare de Lyon, France: 59 were killed and 55 injured when a runaway train hit a crowded, rush-hour train

Errors and Omissions

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