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

1625 - François de Harlay de Champvallon (Archbishop of Paris)

1714 - Claude Joseph Vernet (French painter)

1866 - Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin (Belgian mathematician)

1910 - Pierre Schaeffer (French composer)

1926 - René Goscinny (creator of Astérix comic-strip)

1933 - Richard R Ernst (Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate)

1965 - Emmanuelle Béart (French actress)

1968 - Billy Mavreas (Greek-Canadian cartoonist)

Deaths

1704 - Roland Laporte (French Protestant leader)

1856 - Constant Prévost (French geologist)

1860 - André Marie Constant Duméril (French zoologist)

1941 - Paul Sabatier (French chemist)

1958 - Frédéric Joliot (French physicist)

1972 - Jules Romains (French writer)

2000 - Alain Fournier (French computer graphics researcher)

Milestones/Events

1893 - France introduced motor vehicle registration

1976 - Senegal: PAI-Rénovation became third legal political party in the country

Errors and Omissions

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