Timeline France (E) 1921-1967
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1921 Jan 5, Wagner’s "Die Walkyrie" opened in Paris. This was the first German opera performed in Paris since the beginning of WWI.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1921 Mar 8, French troops occupied Dusseldorf.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1921 Mar 12, The Cairo Conference, called by Winston Churchill, convened to establish a unified British policy in the Middle East. Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. Colonial Sec. Winston Churchill wanted to keep an air corridor to Iraq, where the Royal Air Force was dropping poison gas on rebellious Arab tribes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Conference_%281921%29)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(Econ, 7/13/13, SR p.5)
1921 Jun, Pablo Picasso completed his painting “Nature Morte." In 2020 it was raffled off for charity from the collection of David Nahmad, who owned some 300 works by Picasso.
(AP, 3/10/20)
1921 Jul, Juan Miro (1893-1983), Spanish artist, began working on his painting titled “The Farm." He completed it 9 months later. Ernest Hemingway, one of his sparring partners in Paris, purchased the painting in 1925. In 1987 the Hemingway family donated the painting to the National Gallery of Art.
(WSJ, 12/13/08, p.W8)
1921 Oct 13, Yves Montand, French actor and singer (Z, Napoleon, Grand Prix), was born.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1921 Nov 5, Gyorgy Cziffra, Hungarian-French pianist, was born.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1921 Anatole France (d.1924), French satiric master, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books included “Thais" (1890), “Penguin Island" (1908) and “Revolt of the Angels" (1914).
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_France)
1921 France, following populations losses in World War I, created the “carte famille nombreuse," a discount card for families with 3 or more children.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.62)
1921 The Colombe d’Or (Golden Dove) north of Nice began life as a restaurant called "A Robinson" under Paul and Baptistine Roux. The restaurant changed its name and was converted to a hotel in 1931 with the sign "lodgings for men, horses, and painters."
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.T10)
c1921 The unknown soldier of France was buried beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.B8)
1921 The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine was first used against tuberculosis. It was developed by Albert Calmette, a French physician and bacteriologist, and his assistant and later colleague, Camille Guérin, a veterinarian. In 2020 trials were conducted to test its efficacy on COVID-19.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCG_vaccine)(https://tinyurl.com/scsfs5a)
1921 At the Cairo Conference, convened by Winston Churchill, Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal (Feisal) became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. In 2004 Christopher Catherwood authored “Churchill’s Folly," and account of the founding of Iraq.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(WSJ, 7/22/04, p.D10)
1921-1924 The number of Americans in Paris swelled from 6,000 to 30,000.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.9)
1922 Jan 22, Jean-Pierre Rampal (d.5/20/2000), flautist, was born in Marseilles France.
(Internet)
1922 Feb 2, James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was published in Paris with 1,000 copies.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.C12)(MC, 2/2/02)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. The US, UK, France, Italy & Japan signed the Washington naval arms limitation.
(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1922 Feb, Ernest Hemingway met poet Ezra Pound in a Paris bookstore. Pound was one of the founders of a school of poetry called Imagism.
(ON, 7/05, p.9)
1922 Jun 3, Alain Resnais, French film director, was born.
(HN, 6/3/01)
1922 Jul 7, Pierre Cardin, fashion designer (Unisex), was born in Paris, France.
(AP, 7/7/02)(MC, 7/7/02)
1922 Nov 18, Marcel Proust (b.1871), French author (Recherche du Temps Perdu), died at 51. His masterpiece was "Remembrance of Things Past." In 1998 it was turned into a comic book series. In 1998 Alain de Botton published the whimsical "How Proust Can Save Your Life." In 1999 Edmund White wrote the biography "Marcel Proust." The major biography by John Yves Taddie was scheduled to appear in English in 1999. In 2000 Roger Shattuck authored "Proust’s Way." William C. Carter authored "Marcel Proust: A Life."
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.3)(MC, 11/18/01)
1922 Dec 4, Gerard Philipe, actor (Caligula, Le Diable au Corps), was born in Cannes, France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1922 The novel “Rene Leys" by French author Victor Segalen (1878-1919), was published three years after the author’s death. The novel, writen in diary form, was about a Belgian teenager in old Peking who regales his employer with tales of the hidden intrigues and conspiracies taking palce in the imperial palace.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.86)
1922 In Pauillac Baron Philippe de Rothschild took over the Bordeaux region vineyard that had been initially purchased by his great-grandfather. He initiated bottling all production at the chateau and commissioned the architect, Charles Siclis, to build the famous "Grand Chai," as the centerpiece building.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1922-1924 Charles de Lasteyrie served as France’s finance minister.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C4)
1922-1926 The Mosquée de Paris was built in recognition of the suffering of the North African Muslims during WW I.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C6)
1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1923 Jan 4, Emile Coué (1857-1926), French pharmacist, arrived in NYC. Coue was a proponent of "auto-suggestion," and believed positive thinking could cure disease. He recommended chanting "every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."
(http://tinyurl.com/4ke2gvp)
1923 Jan 11, The French entered Essen in the Ruhr. They were there to extract Germany's resources as war payment. After France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr, Germany’s central bank, the Reichsbank, increased its money printing, unleashing hyperinflation.
(HN, 1/11/99)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.57)
1923 Jan 15, Lithuanians took Klaipeda back from French control.
(LC, 1998, p.8)(LHC, 1/15/03)
1923 Jan 19, The French announced the invention of a new gun with a range of 56 miles.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1923 Feb 4, French troops took Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement ending World War I.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1923 Mar 22, Marcel Marceau, French mime, was born. "I do not get my ideas from people on the street. If you look at faces on the street, what do you see? Nothing. Just boredom." He devised over 100 pantomimes, including The Creation of the World.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1923 Mar 26, Actress Sarah Bernhardt (b.1844), born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, died in Paris. In 2010 Robert Gottlieb authored “Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.105)
1923 Mar 31, French soldiers fired on workers at Krupp factory in Essen; 13 died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1923 Jun 13, The French set a trade barrier between the occupied Ruhr and the rest of Germany.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1923 Jun 20, France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1923 Nov 11, Eternal flame was lit for the tomb of unknown solder at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1923 Dec 27, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (b.1832), engineer (Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty), died in Paris.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Eiffel)
1923 Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Swiss-French architect and writer, authored “Vers une architecture" (Towards an Architecture) (1923).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier)
1923 Darius Milhaud premiered "La Creation du Monde" (the Creation of the World) with 19 members of the Orchestre du Theatre du Champs-Elyssees. Fernand Leger designed the décor and costumes. The jazz age ballet was created by Milhaud, Blaise Cendrars and Jean Borlin.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.32)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T8)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.90)
1923 Coco Chanel launched Chanel No. 5 perfume in Paris.
(WSJ, 10/13/03, p.B1)
1923 Harry MacElhone (d.1958) bought a bar in Paris at 5 rue Dannou behind the opera and named it Harry’s New York Bar. It later became a hangout for the "Lost Generation." His son, Andrew, (1923-1996) took over 1958. Andrew’s son Duncan (d.1998 at 44) took over in 1989. Cocktails such as the French 75 (named after a WW I artillery piece), the Bloody Mary and the Side Car were invented there.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A22)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)
1923 Andre Malreaux (d.1976), while doing archeological research in Cambodia, was arrested for dislodging 7 heads from a temple with a handsaw, a chisel and crowbar.
(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1923 Francois Flameng (b.1856), French painter, died. He painted imagined scenes from the domestic life of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(MT, Fall/03, p.13)
1923 Tamara Geva (d.1991), Russian ballet dancer, married George Balanchine, ballet choreographer. The couple traveled to East Prussia in 1924 with the Soviet State Dancers and then defected to Paris where they joined Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A23)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1924 Jan 25, The 1st Winter Olympic games opened in Chamonix, France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Winter_Olympics)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A19)
1924 Feb 4, The 1st Winter Olympic games closed at Chamonix, France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Winter_Olympics)
1924 Feb 20, Pierre Lacau, the French Director of Antiquities, was authorized by the Egyptian Cabinet to reopen the tomb of Tutankhamun and resume work. Howard Carter refuses its offer to continue his work under Egyptian control.
(www.king-tut.org.uk/curse-of-king-tut/howard-carter-timeline.htm)(NG, May 1985, p.598)(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A10)
1924 Mar 1, Emile Fradin (d.2010 at 103), French peasant, discovered an underground chamber containing ancient artifacts that were later dated anywhere from 300 BC to the 15th century. The field, called Duranthon, was later renamed the Champ des Morts (field of the Dead).
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.89)
1924 May 4, The summer Olympics opened in Paris. The French rugby team beat the Rumanians 61-3.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 May 18, At the Olympics in Paris the American rugby team beat the French 17-3. Only France, Rumania and America fielded rugby teams. Rugby was dismissed from the Olympics after rival fans rioted following the American upset victory.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A6)(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)
1924 May 29, Pierre-Paul Cambon French diplomat (Madrid/London), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1924 May, Gertrude Ederle won a gold medal the summer Olympics in Paris as a member of the US 400-meter relay team.
(ON, 2/10, p.4)
1924 Jul 27, The summer Olympics closed in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 Aug 14, Georges Pretre, conductor (NY Met), was born in Waziers, France.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1924 Sep 13, Maurice Jarre, composer (Dr. Zhivago-Acad Award 1966), was born in Lyons, France.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1924 Oct 12, Anatole France, French satiric master (Penguin Island, Revolt of the Angels, Thais), died at 80. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1924 Nov 4, Gabriel Faure (b.1845), French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher, died in Paris. He was the foremost French composer of his generation. His musical style influenced many 20th century composers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9)
1924 Roland Petit, French premier choreographer, was born.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C4)
1924 French writer Andre Breton authored the first “Surrealist Manifesto."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_Manifesto)
1924 French Count Etienne de Beaumont commissioned the ballet “Mercure" from painter Picasso, composer Eric Satie and choreographer Leonide Massine.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)(www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/satiecubism.html)
1924 In France the Ile St.-Louis made an unsuccessful attempt to secede from Paris and France and issued its own passports.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T8)
1924 French fashion designer Coco Chanel sold control of Chanel No. 5 to the Wertheimer family for a fortune.
(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.F5)
1924 E.M. Antoniadi of France described planet-wide dust storms on Mars.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1925 Jan 10, France-Saarland formed.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1925 Mar 26, Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor (Visage Nuptial), was born in Montbrison, France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1925 Apr, In Paris Hippolyte Jamet opened his hotel Le Bristol, named after the 4th Earl of Bristol in tribute to the Englishman’s taste for comfort.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A20)(www.hotel-bristol.com/20050614/US_10_faubourg.swf)
1925 May 17, French nun Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) was raised to sainthood by Pope Pius XI. In 1997 she made a doctor of the Church by John Paul II, a rare honor signifying that her writings and preachings are useful to Christians.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux)(AP, 10/18/15)
1925 Jun 16, France accepted a German proposal for a security pact.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1925 Jun 22, France and Spain agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in Morocco.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1925 Jul 1, Eric Satie (b.1866), French composer, died. Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Satie)(www.jazclass.aust.com/satie.htm#04)
1925 Dec 3, Jean-Luc Goddard, French film director, was born. In 2004 Colin MacCabe authored the biography "Goddard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy."
(HN, 12/3/98)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.M1)
1925 Pierre Bonnard painted "After the Meal."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.9)
1925 Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter, painted "Le Testament de Jacques Prevert," on the bedroom door of his roommate, the poet Prevert.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1925 The art-deco style was formally introduced by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann at the Paris Design Exposition. The expo was called Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes and introduced the profession of interior decorators. Le Corbusier designed the Pavilion de L’Esprit Nouveau.
(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.B18)(SFC, 4/18/98, p.C3)(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A16)
1925 Marcel Mauss, French anthropologist, published “Essai sur le Don" (The Gift), which argued that in small-scale societies gifts are “total social facts."
(NH, 11/1/04, p.28)
1925 The Great Syrian Revolt, aka the Great Druze Revolt, was aimed against the French occupation in place since 1918. It was put down by the French by 1927.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Syrian_Revolt)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.73)
1925 The Michelin Guide introduced its star system for hotels and restaurants.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1925-1939 Joseph Roth (1894-1939), an Austrian Jew, was assigned to Paris by a Frankfurt newspaper. After one year the job was given to a Nationalist. He stayed in Paris and wrote for emigre publications and railed against Germany and racism in his essays and novels. In 2004 his selected essays appeared in English as "Report From a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939."
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M4)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.74)
1926 Feb 11, Paul Bocuse, French chef (Legion of Honor), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1926 May 3, Napoleon V Bonaparte (63), French pretender to the throne, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1926 May 19, French air force bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1926 Jun 26, A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France was unveiled at St. Nazaire.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1926 Jul 2, Emile Coue (b.1857 as Émile Coué de Châtaigneraie ), French psychologist and pharmacist, died. He introduced a method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. Working as an apothecary at Troyes from 1882 to 1910, Coué discovered what later came to be known as the placebo effect. He became known for reassuring his clients by praising each remedy's efficiency and leaving a small positive notice with each given medication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cou%C3%A9)
1926 Aug 10, Marie-Claire Alain, French organist, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar] Monet (b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny, where he’d painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original proponents of Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted fervently until his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up observing nature on the Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying under Charles Gleyre, Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They broke with their teacher and his conventions of painting that included, among other traditions, the painting of outdoor landscapes in a studio. Although he began to experiment with "series" in the late 1870s, his trademark method only appeared in earnest in the 1890s. This involved a series of paintings of the same subject under different lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned the style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.E2)
1926 Matisse painted "Odalisque." He produced more than 50 harem nudes between 1919 and 1929, a period where he spent winters by the seaside in Nice.
(WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A21)
1926 Gertrude Stein wrote her libretto for "Four Saints in Three Acts" while in Paris. It was put to music by Virgil Thompson in 1927. The world premier was in 1934.
(SFC, 9/23/00, p.B1)
1926 Publicis, a Paris-based advertising firm, was founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.71)
1927 Feb 21, Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer, was born in Beauvais, France.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1927 May 8, French pilots Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli took off from Paris in their airplane named L’Oiseau Blanc (the White Bird), in an attempt to cross the Atlantic. Pilots and plane vanished during the flight.
(ON, 2/08, p.2)
1926 May 19, French air force bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1927 May 21, Charles Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy) landed in Le Bourget Field in Paris after a 33.5-hour nonstop, first solo flight from Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long Island. In 1953 Lindbergh authored his memoir “The Spirit of St. Louis."
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 10/20/99, p.C10)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 May 26, Jacques Bergerac, actor (Gigi, Les Girls, Thunder in Sun), was born in France.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1927 Aug 4, Eugène Atget (b.1857) French photographer, died. He was noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris. An inspiration for the surrealists and other artists, his work only gained wide attention after his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Atget)
1927 Sep 14, Isadora Duncan (born in San Francisco in 1878), modern dance pioneer, died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car. A 1968 film with Vanessa Redgrave portrayed her life.
(AP, 9/14/97)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)(SFC, 9/13/02, p.E2)
1927 Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter, had his 1st solo exhibit in Paris.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1927 Julien Benda (1867-1956), French writer, authored “La Trahison des Clercs," (Treason of the Clerks). The title of the English translation was The Betrayal of the Intellectuals. The book described the politicization of Western intellectuals, above all their willingness to abandon the disinterested search for truth.
(WSJ, 6/10/08, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Benda)
1927 The La Samaritaine department store in Paris was constructed. It replaced an earlier building built in 1905.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.)
1927 French law set the boundaries of the country’s Champagne region.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.B1)
1927 Eugene Atget (b.1857), French photographer, died.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.B3)
1927 Prince John Kropotkin, son of Russian Prince Alexei Kropotkin, was beaten to death on a Paris street. Soviet agents were suspected.
(SFC, 7/5/04, p.B4)
1927-1934 The Chicago Tribune published an edition in Paris. In 1987 Waverley Root authored “The Paris Edition."
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.W8)
1928 Jan 23, Jeanne Moreau, actress (Going Places, Jules & Jim), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1928 Jan 26, Roger Vadim, director (And God Created Women, Barbarella), was born in France.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1928 Feb 7, The United States signed an arbitration treaty with France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1928 Mar 21, VU, France’s first illustrated magazine, was launched and continued to May 29, 1940 running over 600 issues. Hungarian-born photographer Andre Kertesz worked there until he left for NYC in 1936.
(Econ, 11/27/10, p.93)(www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500543832.html)
1928 Apr 18, Jean-Francois Pailliard, conductor, was born in Vitry-le-Francois, France.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1928 Jun 20, Jean-Marie Le-Pen, leader of the National Front party in France, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1928 Aug 13, Fernand de La Tombelle (b.1854), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1928 Aug 27, The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1928 Oct 9, Marcel Pagnol's "Topaz," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1928 Oct 23, Francois V. Alphonse Aulard (b.1849), French historian, died.
(www.fact-index.com/f/fr/francois_victor_alphonse_aulard.html)
1928 Nov 22, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel made its debut in Paris.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1928 "The expression "false friends" (for similar words in two languages that have different meanings) originally comes from the French "faux amis", a term used for the first time in 1928 by Koessler and Derocquigny in their book "Les faux amis ou les trahisons du vocabulaire anglais" (Vuibert)..."
(http://www.santesson.com/engfalsk.htm)
1929 Feb 1, Weightlifter, Charles Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1929 Feb 23, Regine Crespin, operatic soprano, was born in Marseilles, France.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1929 Mar 9, Marcel Pagnol's "Marius," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77), Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1929 Nov 24, Georges Clemenceau (b.1841), French journalist and premier (1917-20), died. He is noted for the quote: “La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier à des militaires." (War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men).
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Clemenceau)
1929 Dec 18, Helene Delangle (1900-1984), French racing pioneer, became the fastest woman driver in the world, averaging 120.5 mph at Montlhery, France. In 2004 Miranda Seymour authored “The Bugatti Queen: In search of a Motor-Racing Legend."
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.81)
1929 Picasso painted "Large Nude in a Red Armchair."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)
1929 Jean Cocteau wrote his novel "Les Enfants Terribles" while in a sanatorium trying to shake his opium habit. He narrated the 1950 film version. In 1997 it was made into an opera by Philip Glass.
(WSJ, 11/26/96, p.A16)(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1929 The 1st int'l. festival of dance was held in Paris. Lucia Joyce (22), daughter of James Joyce, qualified as one of the 6 finalists. Her beau was Samuel Beckett. Lucia (d.1982) spent her last 30 years in a mental hospital in England. In 2003 Carol Loeb Shloss authored "Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake."
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M3)
1929 The French government of Leon Blum nationalized the defense industry, railways and the Bank of France in the wake of the stock market crash.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)
1930 Mar 5, Lorin Maazel, conductor (NBC Symphony Orch 1941), was born in Neuilly, France.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1930 Apr 30, The Soviet Union proposed military alliance with France and Great Britain.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1930 Jun 24, Claude Chabrol, French film director (The Cousins, Madame Bovary), was born.
(HN, 6/24/01)
1930 Jun 30, France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1930 Sep 2, The first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the US was completed as Captain Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, New York, aboard a Breguet biplane. The plane was known as "The Question Mark" because it bore a large question mark, instead of a name, on each side.
(AP, 9/2/08)
1930 Oct 1, Philippe Noiret, actor (Soleil, Les Milles, Il Postino), was born in Lille, France.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1930 Picasso painted "Seated Bather," a picture of his wife seated on the beach like a kind of sea monster.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)
1930 Jean Cocteau made his 1st film: The Blood of a Poet."
(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1930 The French publication L’Abomination Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1930s In 2000 William Wiser authored "The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s."
(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.19)
1931 Mar 27, Charlie Chaplin received France's distinguished Legion of Honor.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1931 Dec 2, Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent D'indy (80), French count and composer, died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1931 Pierre Bonnard painted his Self-Portrait, "The Boxer" and "Still Life in front of a Window."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1931 Picasso (1881-1973) transformed the features of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter into a series of monumental plaster heads, later cast in bronze), which simultaneously evoke male and female genitalia. He also painted "Woman with Yellow Hair" this year.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)
1931 Jean de Brunhoff (d.1937), French painter, published “Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant" (The Story of Babar, the Little elephant). He illustrated the Babar stories which were invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.W12)
1931 The French publication Le Cancer Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1932 Feb 6, Francois Truffaut, French film director, was born. His work included "The 400 Blows" and "Shoot the Piano Player."
(HN, 2/6/01)
1932 Feb 19, Jean-Pierre Ponnele, opera director (Carmina Burana), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1932 Mar 7, Aristide Briand (b.1862), 11-time premier of France (Nobel 1926), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Briand)
1932 Mar 12, Ivar Kreuger (b.1880), the so-called "Swedish Match King," committed suicide in Paris, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be worthless. The “Kreuger crash’ shook Wall Street and led to a 1933 Securities Act, which strengthened disclosure requirements for all companies selling stock. In 1961 Robert Shaplen authored “Kreuger, Genius and Swindler."
(AP, 3/12/99)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.115)
1932 Aug 18, Auguste Piccard and Max Cosijns reached 16,201m in a balloon.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1932 Sep 13, Paul Gorguloff, the murderer of French Pres. Doumer, was beheaded.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1932 Oct 29, The French liner Normandie was launched.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1932 Oct 30, Louis Malle, director (Atlantic City, Black Moon, Viva Maria), was born in France.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1932 Nov 28, France & USSR signed not-attack treaty.
(DT internet 11/28/97)
1932 Nov 29, Jacques Chirac was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1932 Picasso (1881-1973) painted "The Mirror." In 1989 it sold for $26.4 mil. and in 1995 for $20 mil. He also painted "Bather With a Beach Ball" later at New York’s MOMA. His work "The Dream" sold for $48.4 mil in 1997. His painting "Nu au fauteuil noir" (nude on a black armchair), a nude portrait of Maria-Theresa Walter, was auctioned for $45.1 million in 1999. His work "Compotier et Guitare" sold for $8.9 million in 2000. A painting titled “La Lecture," depicting his young lover Maria-Theresa Walter (17), sold in 2011 for $40.7 million.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 11/25/97, p.A20)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.B1)(WSJ, 11/10/99, p.A4)(WSJ, 5/12/00, p.W16)(SFC, 2/9/11, p.A2)
1932 In France the Basler Handelbank affair broke out. The president and vice-president of the commercial bank in Basle were arrested in Paris by the French police. In their trunks, the investigators found the list of 2,000 French clients who had confidentially deposited their holdings in Switzerland. They represented all of French high society: a few senators, a former minister, bishops, generals and manufacturers.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.62)(http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/banking/secrecy/handelsbank.html)
1932 Paul Ricard (1909-1997) mixed liquorice, aniseed and star aniseed to make the aperitif that he called Ricard pastis. His brand became a market leader and he became one of the country’s richest and most influential men. The Ricard firm later became Pernod Ricard.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)(Econ, 4/5/08, p.68)
1932 In Mali French colonial authorities planned a 2.47 million acre irrigation project to grow cotton and rice and to develop hydropower in the Mali desert. By 1982 only 6% of the region was developed. The World Bank took over in 1985 with some success in farming rice.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
1933 Feb 26, Sir James Goldsmith (d.7/18/97), later financier and corporate raider (Referendum Party), was born in Paris to a Catholic French mother and a German Jewish father who later moved to Britain and served as a Conservative member of parliament.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.B6)(SC, 2/26/02)
1933 Feb 27, Jean Genet's "Intermezzo," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1933 Jun 19, France granted Leon Trotsky political asylum.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1933 Dec 24, A Paris express train derailed and killed 160. Some 300 were injured.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1933 Dec, In France the financial scandal known as the Stavisky Affair triggered right-wing agitation that caused a major crisis for the government. In December 1933 the bonds issued by the credit organization of financier Alexandre Stavisky were found to be worthless and in January 1934 Stavisky was found dead. Although ruled a suicide, the French right wing claimed Stavisky had been killed to cover up the involvement of government officials in the scandal. [see Feb 6, 1934]
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1933 Stephane Grappelli, jazz violinist, and Django Reinhardt, Gypsy guitarist, began playing with bassist Louis Vola at the Hotel Claridges in Paris and went on to form formed the Hot Club Quintet.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)
1933 Rene Lacoste (b.1905), French tennis player, founded the Lacoste apparel company. He applied a crocodile insignia to polo shirts after his nickname, “Le Crocodile." His son Bernard Lacoste (1931-2006) succeeded as president in 1963.
(SFC, 3/23/06, p.B7)
1933 Eugene Marioton (b.1854/57), French sculptor, died. Some sources date his death to 1925. Some 400 bronzes are attributed to him, including one titled “Diogenes" (c.1885).
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.G2)(http://bullrichgaonawernicke.com/R64/pag64-escultura.htm)
1934 Feb 6, Anti-republican and Fascist forces seized upon the Stavisky scandal and instigated anti-government demonstrations, culminating in the February 6, 1934 riot in front of the Chamber of Deputies in which 15 were killed.
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1934 Jul 4, "Madame" Marie Curie-Sklodovska, Polish-born French chemist and Nobel Prize winner, died in Paris of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography." In 2004 Barbara Goldsmith authored “Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie."
(ON, 3/00, p.2)(http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=madameCurie)(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.E2)
1934 Sep 28, Brigitte Bardot, French film actress, sex kitten (And God Created Women), was born in Paris.
(HN, 9/28/00)(MC, 9/28/01)
1934 Oct 5, Jean Vigo (b.1905), French film director, died. His films included "A Propos de Nice " (1929), "Taris" (1931", "Zero for Conduct" (1933) and "L'Atalante" (1934). His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vigo)(SFC, 10/30/18, p.E1)
1934 Oct 9, In Marseilles, a Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary assassinated King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations brought the threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation was prevented by the League of Nations. 2 newsreel cameramen captured the assassination on film
(HN, 10/9/98)(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A8)
1934 Oct 23, Jean Piccard and Jeanette Ridlen attained a record balloon height of 17,341m.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1934 The film "Affaires Publique" was the first directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1934 Henri Pigozzi founded Simca (Societe Industrielle de Mecanique et Carrosserie Automobile), at Nanterre, France. Translated it means an industrial company that makes car mechanics and bodywork.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1934 Marie Curie, Nobel Prize winner, died of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography."
(ON, 3/00, p.2)
1934 French Equatorial Africa was transformed into a unified territory of France, but in 1946 it was re-divided into four separate overseas territories.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1935 Mar 29, French liner Normandie began its maiden voyage.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1935 Jun 3, The French liner Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days, 11 hours and 42 minutes.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1935 Jul 12, Alfred Dreyfus, French officer of Jewish background, died in Paris. His trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history. It is still known today as the Dreyfus Affair.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1935 Jul 25, Laurent Terzieff, actor (Pharaoh-Moses the Law Giver), was born in Paris, France.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1935 Nov 3, Left-wing groups in France formed the Socialist and Republican Union.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1935 Nov 8, Alain Delon, French actor (Honor Among Thieves, Return of Zorro), was born.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1935 Jacques Pepin was born in Bourg-en-Bresse to the proprietors of the restaurant called Le Pelican.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1935 Piet Mondrian made his abstract "Composition No. 3. White-Yellow." It was first painted in Paris and then repainted in New York City in 1942.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A17)
1935 France passed a set of laws known as Appellation d’Origine Controlee (controlled place of origin). The AOC laws were meant to protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin. They were not intended as an indicator of quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1935 Paul Signac (b.1863), French neo-impressionist pointillist painter, died. His work included "Portrait of Felix Feneon, Opus 217" (1890-1891).
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A24)
1936 Feb 12, In France more than 4.5 million workers came out on strike; 1 million took to the streets, shutting the country down.
(www.greenleft.org.au/node/33582)
1936 Feb 13, Leon Blum, shortly before becoming Prime Minister, was dragged from a car and almost beaten to death by the Camelots du Roi, a group of anti-Semites and royalists. The right-wing Action Française league was dissolved by the government following this incident, not long before the elections that brought Blum to power.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Mar 25, Britain, the U.S. and France signed a naval accord in London.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1936 May 3, The Popular Front in France achieved a majority of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which led to the formation of the first Popular Front ministry under Leon Blum.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1936 Jun 4, Leon Blum became the first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Sep 25-1936 Oct 13, The Tripartite Agreement between the US, the UK, and France established that the subscribing nations agree to buy and sell gold freely with each other in exchange for their own currency.
(www.reserveasset.gold.org/monetary_history/key_documents/after/)
1936 Aug 2, French aviator Louis Bleriot (b.1872) died. He made the first crossing of the English Channel from Calais to the grounds of Dover Castle in 1909.
(ON, 6/07, p.9)
1936 Nov 5, French writer Andre Gide criticized the Soviet regime.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1936 The first comprehensive catalogue of Cezanne’s work was published in Paris by Italian scholar Lionello Venturi.
(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)
1936 France underwent a round of nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in 1945-46 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1936 French PM Leon Blum (1872-1950) introduced the 2-week paid holiday for all French workers. In the early 1980s this was extended to 5 weeks.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.59)
1936-1937 Leon Blum, a socialist intellectual, was the head of the Popular Front government. The 1999 book "Burden of Responsibility" by Tony Judt included an analysis of Blum.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1937 Sep 2, Pierre de Coubertin (b.1863), French Baron and the major force behind the revival of the modern Olympics, died.
(ON, 8/07, p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin)
1937 Dec 28, French composer Maurice Ravel (b.1875) died in Paris.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel)
1937 Henri Matisse created his painting “L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue." In 2007 it was auctioned by Christie’s in NYC for a record $33.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1937 George Bernanos, French writer, authored “The Diary of a Country Priest."
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.P8)
1937 Bronislava Nijinska created her legendary "Chopin Concerto Ballet" for the Paris Int’l. Expo.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.E5)
1937 The French film "Yoshiwara" was set in Japan and directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1937 The Eiffel Tower was embroidered with 10,000 meters of pink, blue and green neon to celebrate an int’l. exposition.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1937 French schools were instructed to exclude religious symbols.
(WPR, 3/04, p.9)
1937 Jean de Brunhoff (37), French painter, died of tuberculosis. He illustrated the Babar stories invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)
1938 Feb 27, Britain and France recognized the Franco government in Spain.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1938 Apr 9, In Tunisia French troops cracked down on nationalist-inspired rioting in Tunis. 122 Tunisians were killed by French troops. Tunisians remembered this as Martyr’s Day.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/07/local/me-17142)
1938 Jun 19, The Italian soccer team performed the fascist salute in Colombes Stadium, Paris, before the start of the World Cup soccer final match against Hungary. Italy defended its World Cup title, beating Hungary 4-2. It would keep the Jules Rimet Trophy for another 12 years as the world descended into war.
(AP, 5/16/18)
1938 Jul 4, France-Turkish friendship treaty.
(Maggio, 98)
1938 July 6, Delegates from thirty-two countries met for 9 days at the French resort of Evian to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austrian. The German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]." The French foreign ministry, the Quai d’Orsay, sabotaged the Evian conference on European refugees, the only diplomatic effort to alleviate the fate of “stateless" German and Austrian Jews.
(http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/evian/evian.html)(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1938 Sep 29, British, French, German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority. The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a detailed political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe, culminating in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises."
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP, 9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1938 Nov 7, Ernst vom Rath (29), a German diplomat in Paris, was shot and mortally wounded by a 17-year-old Polish Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan, who had fled from Germany to France. Rath died after two days and news of his death triggered Nazi reprisals.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_vom_Rath)
1938 Dec 6, France and Germany signed a treaty of friendship.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1938 Dec 17, Italy declared the 1935 pact with France invalid, because ratification's had not been exchanged. France denied the argument.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1938 Dec 28, France ordered the doubling of forces in Somaliland; two warships were sent.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1938 Man Ray created an imaginary portrait of the Marquis de Sade.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.3)
1938 Julien Gracq (1910-2007), French writer, published "Au chateau d'Argol" (The Castle of Argol). It was favorably reviewed by the Surrealist leader Andre Breton, who became a friend and a strong influence.
(AP, 12/23/07)
1938 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, shot his first masterpiece, "Hotel du Nord." His style became known as "poetic realism."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1938 Georges Melies, pioneering filmmaker, died at age 77. His work included some 498 movies of which only about 50 survive. In 1975 Paul Hammond authored "Marvelous Melies."
(ON, 1/00, p.9)
1939 Jan 21, Picasso painted two pictures, both titled "Reclining Woman with Book." In one Marie-Theresa Walter is pictured in a smooth S-curve, in the other Dora Maar (born as Theodora Markovitch d.1997 at 89) is broken into jagged forms. Maar was a painter and photographer and struggled to develop her own ambitions, but failed and spent much of her life as a recluse.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A24)
1939 Jan 27, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1939 Feb 6, Spanish government fled to France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1939 Feb 10, Japanese occupied the island of Hainan in French Indochina.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1939 May 20, Regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Marseilles, France.
(AP, 5/20/97)(MC, 5/20/02)
1939 May 27, Joseph Roth, Austrian-born Jewish writer, died in Paris. His books included “Radetzkymarsch" (The Radetzky March) (1932), a novel of the Habsburg empire from 1859-1916 and “The Auto-da-Fe of the Mind."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jroth.htm)
1939 Jun 17, Eugene Weldman became the last person guillotined in France.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1939 Jul 21, Ambroise Vollard (b.1866), French art patron, author and publisher, died in a car crash. He wrote biographies on Cézanne, Degas, and Renoir. Many of his works, including pantings by Derain, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse, ended up in the hands of Erich Slomovic, a young Croatian Jew who had come to Paris in the mid-1930s and befriended the aging dealer. Slomovic was killed by the nazis in 1942. The art remained locked up in a Paris bank vault until it was found in 1979. In 2010 it was put up for auction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambroise_Vollard)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2dbmtbc)
1939 Aug 25, Britain and France signed a treaty with Poland promising military assistance should the Germans invade.
(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1939 Sep 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Germany ignored Great Britain's ultimatum to stop the invasion of Poland, Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, NZ, South Africa & Canada.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1939 Sep 7, In response to the German invasion of Poland a week earlier, France invaded its neighbor Germany. In Operation Saar, French forces marched into the Cadenbronn and Wendt Forest near Saarrucken. The French met little or no opposition as they drove five miles into Germany. The sluggish advance was hindered by low troop morale and lack of support. The Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland from the east on September 17 prompted the French withdrawal to the Maginot Line in anticipation of a German counterattack. The only French offensive of WWII lasted 14 days.
(HNQ, 7/9/99)
1939 Sep 30, The French Army was called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.
(HN, 9/30/99)
1939 Pierre Bonnard painted "The Garden."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1939 Nathalie Sarraute published her book of 24 sketches called "Tropisms."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1939 The French film "Rules of the Game" was directed by Jean Renoir. It was later considered the greatest movie ever made.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.D4)
1939 Heinrich Hoffman (b.1875), Paris glass artist, died.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.G4)
1939-1945 Of the 330,000 Jews in France at the start of the war, about 76,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps and only 2,500 survived.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A8)
1940 Mar 25, The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1940 Apr 15, French and British troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1940 May 12, The Nazi blitz conquest of France began with the crossing at the Meuse River.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1940 May 14, British and French forces began a general retreat from Belgium, heading southwest toward France.
(ON, 12/12, p.1)
1940 May 14, German breakthrough at Sedan, France.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 15, German armor division moved into Northern France.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1940 May 17, Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium, and began the invasion of France. [see May 12]
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1940 May 20, British Admiral Bertram H. Ramsay met with his staff beneath Dover Castle to draw up a formal plan for the evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk. The plan was called “Operation Dynamo."
(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 21, Nazis surrounded the British Army at Dunkirk. British and French forces staged a counterattack near Arras, but failed to clear a path to Le Havre.
(HN, 5/21/98)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 21, British tank forces attacked General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1940 May 22, Premier Winston Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1940 May 24, German tanks reached Atrecht, France.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1940 May 25, German troops conquered Boulogne and captured Calais.
(SC, 5/25/02)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 26, Operation Dynamo was launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France. The German Luftwaffe launched a bombing campaign on the harbor of Dunkirk. The new British Spitfire fighters helped provide air cover. The operation continued to June 4.
(ON, 3/07, p.2)(AP, 5/26/97)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 28, During the evacuation at Dunkirk a Germany torpedo boat sank the HMS Wakeful sending over 700 men to their deaths. A Germany submarine hit the destroyer HMS Grafton killing 35 army officers. Other British destroyers mistook the British drifter Comfort for an enemy torpedo boat and killed all but 5 men aboard. The Queen of the Channel was hit by Germany bombs. Most of the 950 soldiers on board were transferred to a rescue ship before the ferry went down.
(ON, 8/12, p.3)
1940 May 29, Germans captured Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1940 May 29, The German air force launched massive attacks on the harbor at Dunkirk. A British destroyer and 6 of the biggest merchant ships in the harbor were sunk.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 May 26, The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, during World War II began.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1940 May 31, British General Bernard Montgomery left Dunkirk. The French government allowed French soldiers to be picked up at Dunkirk.
(MC, 5/31/02)(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 May 31, Winston Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1940 Jun 1, German air attacks at Dunkirk sank 31 vessels and damaged 11. The HMS Worcester limped back to Dover with 340 dead and 400 wounded. By midnight 64,429 men were landed safely in England.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 Jun 2, Britain’s Operation Dynamo save 26,256 men from Dunkirk.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 Jun 3, The German Luftwaffe hit Paris with 1,100 bombs.
(HN, 6/3/98)
1940 Jun 4, The Allied military evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1940 Jun 4, German forces entered Paris.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1940 Jun 5, The Battle of France began during World War II. Germany attacked French forces along the Somme line.
(HN, 6/5/99)(AP, 6/5/07)
1940 Jun 10, Italy declared war on France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1940 Jun 13, Paris was evacuated before the German advance on the city.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1940 Jun 15, The French fortress of Verdun was captured by Germans.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1940 Jun 16, French Chief of State, Henri Petain, asked for an armistice with Germany. [see Jun 17]
(HN, 6/16/98)
1940 Jun 17, France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II. PM Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Lebrun that he appoint Marshal Philippe Petain (1856-1951) in his place. The French parliament gave dictatorial powers to Petain (1856-1951). In 2000 Ernest R. May authored "Strange Victory," an account of the French defeat.
(AP, 6/17/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_P%C3%A9tain)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.61)
1940 Jun 17, Gen. Charles de Gaulle flew to London.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Jun 18, Charles de Gaulle, future president of France, broadcast to his nation from London, urging it to rally to him and fight Hitler's invading army.
(AP, 6/18/99)
1940 Jun 19, German 7th Armor division under gen-maj Rommel occupied Cherbourg.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1940 Jun 21, Wolfgang Doblin, German-French mathematician, died. He committed suicide in Housseras (a small village near to Epinal), at the moment when German troops came in sight of the place. His work to describe the random movement of particles was later found to contain an important building block of the Black-Scholes equation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Doeblin)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.82)
1940 Jun 22, During World War II, Adolf Hitler gained a stunning victory as France was forced to sign an armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris. France and Germany signed an armistice at Compiegne, on terms dictated by the Nazis. Alsace again became part of Germany.
(AP, 6/22/97)(HN, 6/22/98)(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1940 Jun 24, France signed an armistice with Italy after the axis country attacked a portion of southern France during Germany's blitzkrieg.
(AP, 6/24/97)(HN, 6/24/99)
1940 Jun 25, Adolf Hitler viewed the Eiffel tower and tomb of Napoleon in Paris.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1940 Jun, The Germans began to loot the artwork of Paris and more than 70,000 residences were plundered. A lot of artwork was sold to the Emil Buhrle Foundation in Switzerland, the largest buyer of confiscated French art. The story is told by Hector Feliciano in his 1997 book: "The Lost Museum." The best book on the fate of European art in WW II was reported to be "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn Nicholas.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.7)
1940 Jul 3, British Royal Navy sank a French fleet in North Africa, ten days after France had signed an armistice with Nazi Germany.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 5, During World War II, Britain and Marshal Henri Petain's Vichy government in France broke diplomatic relations.
(AP, 7/5/97)(HN, 7/5/98)
1940 Aug 2, Clermont-Ferrand sentenced Gen. Charles de Gaulle to death. [see Aug 4]
(MC, 8/2/02)
1940 Aug 4, The Paris Soir reported that Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been condemned to death in absentia for treason by a Vichy military court.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug, Jacques Robert (d.1998 at 83) joined the French Resistance. He set up the Resistance group named Phratrie in 1942. In 1943 he was arrested in Nice, but escaped to London. He parachuted back to France to lead guerrilla operations in 1944 during the Normandy invasion.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)
1940 Sep 3, In France more than 700,000 books were seized from bookshops and destroyed. The "Otto lists," or liste Otto, were comprised of books banned by the German occupying authorities in Vichy France. By September, 1940, 1,060 titles were on the list. The list aimed to ban anti-German, antifascist, pro-Marxists books, works by Jewish authors and British and American books.
(HNQ, 8/16/98)
1940 Sep 12, The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, were discovered in the Dordogne region. 4 teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux France discover 17,000-year-old drawings now known as Lascaux Cave Paintings. The paintings consisting mostly of animal representations (horses), are among the finest examples of art from the Paleolithic period.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T4)(HN, 9/12/00)(MC, 9/12/01)
1940 Autumn, Maurice Schumann (d.1998 at 86), "the voice of France," began wartime broadcasting "The French Speak to the French" from London as the official spokesman for Gen’l. de Gaulle.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A24)
1940 Oct 3, In France the Vichy government passed a law that placed great restrictions on French Jews.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/3/01)
1940 Oct 24, Hitler met Marshal Petain.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1940 The French film "From Mayerling to Serajevo" starred John Cabot Lodge as Archduke Ferdinand and Edwige Feuillere as Czech Countess Sophie Chotek. It was directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1940 In France Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954), a Portuguese diplomat posted in Bordeaux, issued 30,000 visas to Jews and 20,000 to other refugees against the instructions of his government. Dictator Antonio Salazar responded by removing him from the diplomatic corps, denying him a pension and blacking out his actions from official state records.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.B5)
1940 American journalist Varian Fry headed to the southern French city of Marseille with just $3,000 and a list of about 200 people to try to save. In the end, he shepherded to safety about 2,000 people via the American-sponsored Emergency Rescue Committee, including artists Marc Chagall, Andre Breton and Max Ernst. Justus Rosenberg (19) delivered messages to refugees and searched for possible routes for safe passage. Rosenberg later served with the French Resistance and the US Army.
(AFP, 3/31/17)
1940 Vichy authorities appointed Prof. Bernard Fay (1893-1978) as head of France’s Bibliotheque Nationale. In 1941 Fay was responsible for the imprisonment of some 6,000 Freemasons and for more than 500 of them being sent to their deaths during the German occupation. In 1946 Fay was tried and convicted for collaboration and sentenced to life in prison. In 1951 Gertrude Stein helped to finance his escape from a prison hospital. He fled to Switzerland and lived there until he was granted pardon in 1958.
(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/fay_b/fay_b.html)
1940 Francois Lehideux (d.1998 at 95), the minister of industrial production, agreed that Renault would furnish parts to the German army, repair tanks and provide technical assistance in the war effort. He was arrested and jailed after liberation, but was freed in 1946. He went on to head Ford of France until 1953.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1940 Following the fall of France Claude Peri commandeered the merchant ship Le Rhin and placed it at the disposal of British naval intelligence. Peri got his mistress, Madeleine Bayard, the job of cipher officer on the ship. It was renamed the HMS Fidelity and got torpedoed in 1942. In 2005 Edward Marriot authored “Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of Love War and Espionage."
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.69)
1940-1941 In France the Emergency Rescue Committee, led by New York writer Varian Fry, saved some 2,000 cultural elite. The group operated out of the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille. In 2006 Rosemary Sullivan authored “Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille.
(SSFC, 12/3/06, p.M3)
1940-1944 Germany occupied France. In 1998 Ian Ousby published "Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944." In 2009 Frederic Spotts authored “The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation." In 2009 Charles glass authored “American in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944." In 2010 Alan Riding authored “And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied France."
(SFEC, 8/16/98, Par p.8)(WSJ, 1/3/09, p.W6)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.84)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.96)
1941 Jan 28, French General Charles DeGaulle's Free French forces sacked south Libya oasis.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1941 Feb 6, Maximilien Luce (b.1858), French anarchist and Neo-Impressionist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Luce)
1941 Feb 26, Vichy-France made religious education in school mandatory.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Mar 10, Vichy France threatened to use its navy if Britain would not allow food to reach France.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 3, Andre Michelin (88), French tire manufacturer, died. In 2004 Herbert Lottman authored "The Michelin Men: Driving an Empire," the story of Andre and Edouard Michelin.
(MC, 4/3/02)(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1941 Apr 12, Vichy-France's head of government Admiral Dalan consulted with Hitler.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1941 Apr 12, Alain Le Ray (1910-2006), a leader in the French Resistance, become the first to escape from the infamous Colditz prison in Germany. Le Ray had been captured in June 1940. The Nazis had touted the jail as escape proof, and his exploits were recounted in the 1976 book "Premiere a Colditz" ("First in Colditz").
(AP, 6/8/07)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/cold_01.html)
1941 Apr 14, The 1st massive German raid in Paris rounded up 3,600 Jews. [see May 14]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1941 Apr 19, Michel Roux, chef de cuisine, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1941 May 3, Pierre Seel (17) was arrested in Alsace-Lorraine by the German Gestapo and tortured for 10 days for his homosexuality. In 1994 he authored the memoir “I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual."
(SFC, 12/2/05, p.B5)
1941 May 14, French Admiral Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, broadcast to the citizens that only within the confines of the Third Reich can France thrive.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 Jul 14, Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, allowing them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.
(HN, 7/14/99)
1941 Jul 21, France accepted Japan's demand for military control of Indochina.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1941 Jul, Artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella Rosenfeld departed France for America. On the same day that he left Vichy police deported some 1,200 other Jewish refugees to forced labor in north Africa.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.102)
1941 Aug 12, French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announced full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the 11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 29, Henri Louis (40), French officer, resistance fighter, was executed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1941 Sep, Jean "Max" Moulin was smuggled to London to meet Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistance, and the other exiled French leaders. In January 1942 the SOE parachuted him back into France, to set up an organized Resistance movement.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1941 Oct 2, 6 Paris synagogues were bombed by Gestapo. [see Oct 3]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1941 Oct 3, Nazi's blew up 6 synagogues in Paris. [see Oct 2]
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 22, Guy Moquet (17) was executed by a German firing squad, one of dozens of communists condemned by an official in France's collaborationist Vichy regime in reprisal for the murder of a German officer.
(AP, 10/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_M%C3%B4quet)
1941 Nov 26, Free French General Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. Shortly after taking up this post, Catroux recognized the independence of Syria and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria-Lebanon_campaign)
1941 Dec 12, German occupying army searched house to house in Paris looking for Jews.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1941 Dec 25, Free French occupied the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1942 Feb 9, The former French cruise ship Normandie, launched in 1935, burned in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. It was once regarded as most elegant ocean liner ever built. In 1947 it was cut up for scrap. In 2007 John Maxtone-Graham authored “Normandie."
(AP, 2/10/97)(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W13)
1942 Feb 27, British Commandos raided a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast. The warrior spies of the Abwehr, Germany's intelligence agency, were the Brandenburg commandos.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1942 Feb 27, The 1st transport of French Jews left to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1942 Mar 3, The RAF raided the industrial suburbs of Paris.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1942 Mar 11, 1st deportation train left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1942 Mar 27-28, Allies raided the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1942 Mar 28, During World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire. British Bomber Command launched an attack on the German city of Lubeck.
(AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)
1942 Apr 20, Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, established a policy of "true reconciliation with Germany."
(HN, 4/20/99)
1942 Jun 8, In Paris on the first day Helene Berr was forced to wear the yellow star to distinguish Jews: "My God, I didn't know this would be so hard. I was very brave all day. I held my head high and looked people so straight in the eyes they turned away. But it's hard ... This morning, I went out with Mother. Two kids in the street pointed at us saying 'Hey? You see? Jewish.'"
(AP, 1/9/08)
1942 Jun 18, Eric Nessler of France stayed aloft in a glider for 38h 21m.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1942 Jul 16, The first large-scale roundups of Jews began under protests by only a half-dozen Catholic church leaders. French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews over 2 days in Paris, many of whom were first holed up in harsh conditions at Paris' Vel d'Hiv, or the Winter Velodrome stadium. The roundup of foreign-born Jews was based on a list compiled by Paris police. Some 125,000 Jews had been recorded in a roll based on a census the Nazis demanded in 1941. In 1942 the Vichy police handed over some 40,000 Jews to the Germans.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.49)(AP, 7/22/12)(AFP, 9/19/18)
1942 Jul, Maurice Papon (1910-2007), French civil servant, in his first report to German occupiers, noted that he had “dejudaised" 204 businesses, while 493 others were “in the process of dejudaisation."
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 11, During World War II, Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared that "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."
(AP, 8/11/99)
1942 Aug 17, U.S. Eighth Air Force bombers attacked Rouen, France.
(AP, 8/17/02)
1942 Aug 19, About 5,000 Canadian and 2,000 British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France. Over 3,600 men perished in this battle. The information gathered from this landing was considered valuable for planning the successful Allied landings in Northern Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, France. Brit. Col. Pat Porteous (d.2000) received a Victoria Cross for his valor in the attack which was aimed at gaining experience for the later D-Day invasion.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/98)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A22)(MC, 8/19/02)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug, Irene Nemirovsky (39), French-Jewish author, died at Auschwitz. She had recently authored "Suite Francaise" while waiting in rural France for what she knew was her imminent arrest and deportation. It is a powerful account of the effect on ordinary people of the military collapse of June 1940, the panicked flight from Paris and the arrival of the German army. It was finally published in France in 2004 and Nemirovsky was awarded a top French literary award. In 2006 Jonathan Weiss authored “Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life and Works."
(AFP, 11/8/04)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.M1)(SSFC, 5/16/10, p.F5)
1942 Sep 5, British & US bombed Le Havre & Bremen.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1942 Sep 20, In France a shipment of 1,000 French and foreign Jews, including 163 children, was arranged by Vichy administrator Michel Junot. They were sent to Drancy, north of Paris, and then to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A14)
1942 Sep 21, Nazis executed 116 hostages in Paris.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1942 Nov 5, Nazis raided on Greek Jews in Paris.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1942 Nov 8, Vichy-France dropped diplomatic relations with US.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1942 Nov 9, Transport #44 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1942 Nov 10, Admiral Jean Darlan ordered French forces in North Africa to cease resistance to the Anglo-American forces. Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was assassinated in Algiers in 1942.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1942 Nov 11, 745 French Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1942 Nov 11, French warrant officer Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) escaped from German captivity, made his way to Senegal, in what was then French West Africa, and was commissioned into Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces.
(AP, 6/18/10)
1942 Nov 11, Germany completed its occupation of France.
(AP, 11/11/04)
1942 Nov 27, During World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1942 Nov, Virginia Hall, an American spy working for the British Special Operations Executive in France, escaped to Spain. In 2005 Judith Pearson authored a biography of Hall titled “The Wolves at the Door."
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A11)
1942 Dec 18, Hitler met with Mussolini and Pierre Laval.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1942 Dec 24, Jean LXF Darlan, French admiral and leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was murdered by Gaullists in Algiers.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1942 Henri Matisse created his painting “Danseuse dans le fauteuil." It sold for $22 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2007.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1942 Jean Anouilh wrote his play "Antigone." It was staged in Paris in 1944 during the German occupation.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.C6)(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1942 Albert Camus (1913-1960), Algeria-born French writer, authored "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus." He established himself as a spokesman for a philosophy of the absurd along with Jean-Paul Sartre.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.P14)
1942 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, made "Night Visitors" (Les Visiteurs du Soir).
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1942 The French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews in Paris including some 4,000 children. In 2010 the film “La Rafle" portrayed these events through the eyes of Jo Weisman (11), who later escaped from an internment camp near Orleans.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.60)
1942 In France the Nazis banned English language films. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was the last English-language film shown.
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)
1942-1944 Maurice Papon served as the Vichy police supervisor in Bordeaux [the deputy prefect in Gironde]. He was later charged with the arrest and deportation of 1,690 French Jews. Under the Vichy regime some 75,000 (76,000) were deported to Nazi death camps. Rene Bousquet was the national Vichy police chief.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1943 Jan 8, The British handed Madagascar over to the Free French.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1943 Jan 13, General Leclerc's Free French forces merged with the British under Montgomery in Libya.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1943 Jan 14, Roosevelt, Churchill, and de Gaulle met at Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the direction of the war. The Casablanca Conference, a pivotal 10-day meeting during WWII between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill, determined unconditional surrender would be the only basis of negotiations with the Axis. Roosevelt and Churchill also pledged maximum aid to the Soviet Union and China in the war. French generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud played minor roles and were not part of the military planning.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference)(AP, 1/14/98)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Apr 23, Herve Villechaize, actor, (Fantasy Island), was born in France.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1943 May 27, French resistance members under Jean Moulin met secretly in Paris.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1943 Jun 5, German occupiers arrested Louvain University's chancellor.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1943 Jun 21, Jean "Max" Moulin, French resistance fighter, was betrayed by fellow Frenchmen and captured in a massive anti-resistance dragnet. Raymond Aubrac (1914-2012) was captured along with Jean Moulin, when police raided a Resistance meeting spot, a doctor's office, near the southeastern city of Lyon. Lucie Aubrac helped orchestrate her husband's escape from a Lyon prison following his arrest.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)(AFP, 4/11/12)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b. Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1943 Jul 23, In France Marcel Langer (b.1903), Polish-born Jew, was guillotined after being sentenced to death by a Vichy court. He was a member of the International Brigades and the Toulouse resistance.
(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Langer_%281903-1943%29)
1943 Aug 9, Chaim Soutine (b.1893), Jewish expressionist painter, died in Paris of a perforated ulcer.
(WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine)
1943 Aug 25, Lt. Andre Devigny (d.1999 at 82) escaped from a German prison in Lyon. He was sentenced to be executed on Aug 28 for assassinating the head of the Fascist Italian secret police. He was captured the next day and escaped again by diving into the Rhone River. In 1957 Robert Bresson made the film "A Man Escaped" based on his story.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E2)
1943 Aug 26, The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1943 Aug 30, Jean Claude Killy, France, skier (Olympic-3 golds-1968), was born.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1943 Sep 6, The "Black Ghost," a B-17 bomber, was shot down over occupied France. Its crew survived 13 missions, but anti-aircraft flak and the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf fighters claimed the airplane. All 10 crew members survived the war.
(AP, 8/13/05)
1943 Sep 21, Bishara al-Khuri (1890-1964) was elected the first president of modern-day Lebanon. Lebanon did not become fully independent from French rule until 1946. Khuri had previously been Secretary-General of Mount Lebanon (a political predecessor to modern Lebanon administered by the French) as well as its Prime Minister on several separate occasions. The French held elections to fulfill their earlier promises of Lebanese independence. The new government promptly passed legislation to remove French influences in the constitution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechara_El_Khoury)
1943 Sep, Pearl Cornioley (1916-2008), a British agent, parachuted into France as a secret agent to help arm and organize the Resistance. In 1995 she wrote an autobiography and in 2006 Royal Air Force officers presented her with her parachute wings in a ceremony at her Paris retirement home.
(AP, 3/8/08)
1943 Oct 19, Camille Claudel (b.1864), assistant, model and mistress to sculptor Auguste Rodin, died in France.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Camille_Claudel)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.75)
1943 Oct 22, Catherine Deneuve, [Dorleac], actress (Repulsion, Hunger), was born in Paris.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1943 Oct 24, Anti-Nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender, Calais, began transmitting.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1943 Nov 22, The French mandate over Lebanon ended after 23 years of colonial rule. This became marked a Lebanon’s Independence Day.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Independence_Day)
1943 "The Little Prince" by Antoine de St. Exupery (d.1944) was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1943 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his best play "The Flies." It was based on an ancient myth. “Being and Nothingness," his most famous philosophical treatise, was also published this year.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1943 Working with a script by Jean Cocteau, Jean Delannoy (1908-2008) revisited the Tristan and Isolde legend in "L'Eternel Retour" (Eternal Return).
(AP, 6/19/08)
1943 The French film “Le Corbeau" was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1943 Sabina Zlatin (1907-1996) opened a home in Izieu to help Jewish children threatened by Nazi capture. She managed to smuggle about a 100 children to freedom before being ruthlessly shutdown. [see 4/6/44.]
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)
1943 Germaine Tillion (1907-2008) was sent to the Nazi camp for women and children in Ravensbruck, Germany, for her work with France's underground Resistance network. Later she was the recipient of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, one of France's highest distinctions.
(Reuters, 4/20/08)
1943 Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan used a modified gas feeder valve as an oxygen regulator for the "aqua lung."
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1944 Feb 4, Jean Anouilh's "Antigone," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1944 Mar 20, Pierre Pucheu (b.1899), French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy government, was executed following his arrest a year earlier in Casablanca. He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Pucheu)
1944 Mar 27, One-thousand Jews left Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1944 Mar, In the Alps town of Voiron 17 Jewish children were seized, sent to Drancy and then to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)
1944 Apr 4, De Gaulle formed a new regime in exile with communists.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1944 Apr 5, 140 Lancasters bombed airplane manufacturer in Toulouse.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1944 Apr 6, German trucks rolled up to the safehouse of Sabina Zlatin in Izieu-Ain, France, and 44 children and 7 teachers including Mr. Zlatin were arrested. The raid was ordered by Klaus Barbie, head of the German police in Lyons.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)(MC, 4/6/02)
1944 Apr 13, Transport No. 71 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1944 Apr 30, The 8th and 9th US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly sorties into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the Allied Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)
1944 Apr, Nancy Wake (1912-2011), a New Zealand-born Australian, parachuted back into France before D-Day, tasked with helping distribute weapons to Resistance fighters. She became known as the "The White Mouse" for her ability to evade the Germans. She and her husband had helped Allied servicemen and Jewish refugees escape into Spain before she took her partner's advice and fled to England in 1943.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
1944 May, In Paris the play "No Exit" by Jean-Paul Sartre was first produced. It depicts the dawning realization by 3 people that they are in hell and are each other’s punishment.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1944 Jun 5, Allied forces faked an invasion at Pas de Calais on the French coast with 500 dummies and explosives mimicking paratroopers setting their parachutes ablaze. The deception, 186 miles from Normandy, was named "Bodyguard" with Gen. George Patton in charge of the First United State Army Group, a made-up unit.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.113)
1944 Jun 6, On D-Day Brig. General Norman "Dutch" Cota was the first American General to step foot on Omaha Beach. Cota, assistant commander of the 29th Infantry Division, heroically spurred his men to cross the beach under withering German fire. He went on to lead his infantrymen across France to the Siegfried Line and in the battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
(HNQ, 4/15/99)
1944 Jun 6, Cherokee tribal members communicated via radios in their native language on the Normandy beaches. Some 6,603 Americans were killed along the coast of France during the D-day invasion. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died during the invasion. "D-Day" by Stephen Ambrose was published in 1994.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A6)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A22)(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A1)
1944 Jun 6, Danny Brotheridge, British lieutenant, became the 1st to die during D-Day. Over the next 10 weeks of fighting 300,000 men, women and children died in Normandy. In 2009 Antony Beevor authored “D-Day: The Battle for Normandy."
(SSFC, 6/6/04, D7)(http://tinyurl.com/lvhqs7)(Econ, 5/30/09, p.84)
1944 Jun 6, The code name for the beach used by the Canadians for the D-day invasion of Normandy was Juno.
(HNQ, 8/13/98)
1944 Jun 6, By the end of D-Day 156,000 Allied soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches with losses of 2,500 men. By the end of the day, the Allies had established a tenuous beachhead that would lead to an offensive that pinned Adolf Hitler's Third Reich between two pincers--the Western Allies and the already advancing Soviets--accelerating the end of World War II. A million Allied troops, under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved onto five Normandy beachheads in three weeks. Operations “Neptune" and “Overlord" put forces on the beaches and supplies aimed at the liberation of Europe and the conquest of Germany. Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied American, British, and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. In addition, US and British airborne forces landed behind the German lines and US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe de Hoc. More than 6,000 trucks of the Red Ball Express kept gasoline and other vital supplies rolling in as American troops and tanks pushed the Germans back toward their homeland.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)(HN, 6/6/98)(HNPD, 6/6/99)(ON, 2/08, p.12)
1944 Jun 8, The 1st SS-Panzer Korps counter attack was at Normandy.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1944 Jun 10, The U.S. VII and V corps, advancing from Normandy’s Utah and Omaha beaches, respectively, linked-up and began moving inland.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1944 Jun 10, German troops of the armored SS Division "Das Reich", as they headed toward Normandy to combat D-Day invasion forces, slaughtered 642 men, women and children in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France, and then set the town on fire. In 1983 a court in East Berlin convicted Heinz Barth (1921-2007), a former SS officer, and sentenced him to life in prison. In addition to involvement in the massacre, East German judges also found that Barth volunteered to participate in an execution of 92 Czech civilians in 1942. In 1997 his sentence was commuted to probation.
(AP, 8/14/07)(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A5)
1944 Jun 11, Germans launched an assault on the village of Graignes, France, where some 170 paratroopers had been involved in one of the worst misdrops of any airborne unit on D-Day. The American soldiers were forced to retreat. Maimed paratroopers left behind were split into two groups, some were marched down the road and executed, others were thrown into the marshes and bayoneted. Graignes was liberated from the Germans on July 12, 1944.
(Reuters, 5/23/19)
1944 Jun 17, French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1944 Jun 18, The U.S. First Army broker through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cut off the German held port of Cherbourg.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1944 Jun 22, US Pilot William Kalan and his 9-man crew bailed out of their B-24 Liberator during a mission over Nazi-occupied France. Kalan avoided capture and went on to work with the French underground to harass German troops. In 2009 Kalan (91) was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his covert service.
(SFC, 12/30/09, p.C3)
1944 Jun 25, British assault at Caen, Normandy.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1944 Jun 27, During World War II, American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.
(AP, 6/27/97)(HN, 6/27/98)
1944 Jul 3, The U.S. First Army opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1944 Jul 7, Bomber Command dropped 2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 10, French railway workers called a strike in Paris.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Jul 12, US government recognized the authority of General De Gaulle.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1944 Jul 14, In France some 100,000 people took to the streets in a mass demonstration.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Jul 17, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was wounded when an Allied fighter strafes his staff car in France.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1944 Jul 18, U.S. troops capture Saint-Lo, France, ending the battle of the hedgerows.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1944 Jul 20, A heavy storm hampered a British offensive at Caen.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 25, Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1944 Jul 30, US 30th division reached the suburbs of St. Lo, Normandy.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1944 Jul 31, A large number of children were deported to Auschwitz from France by Alois Brunner, deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1944 Jul 31, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (44), author of "The Little Prince," died in a plane crash during reconnaissance off Marseilles. In 1949 Nelly de Vogue, his longtime mistress, authored the 1st Exupery biography. In 2001 a memoir by his widow, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery (d.1979) titled "The Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired the Little Prince," was published. Saint-Exupery's plane was found in 2004.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A15)(SSFC, 8/5/01, DB p.63)(SFC, 4/8/04, p.A2)
1944 Jul, In the wake of fighting at Vercors, 300 Nazi troops moved into the Catholic village of Prelenfrey and demanded the names of Jews hiding in the area. The soldiers at gunpoint interrogated 32 local men, but no information was revealed.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T8)
1944 Aug 2, The US 383rd Squadron assigned to Honnington, England, executed an air raid on a German ammunition train at Remy, France. Lt. Houston Lee Braley Jr. was killed in his downed P-51.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A1,18)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1944 Aug 15, American, British and French forces landed on the southern coast of France, between Toulon and Cannes, in Operation Dragoon.
(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/98)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 17, The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, met with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1944 Aug 19, In an effort to prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGaulle began attacking German forces all around the city.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1944 Aug 19, US 90th and Polish 1st Division occupied Chambois, Normandy.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Aug 19, In France Marcel Pinte (6), code name Quinquin, was killed when a sensitive Sten automatic pistol dropped from a parachute of arms and munitions into a field let off a spray of gunfire when the arms were being distributed. He had served as a veritable liaison agent crossing enemy lines to pass messages if needed.
(AP, 11/11/20)
1944 Aug 20, Gen. de Gaulle returned to France.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, United States and British forces closed the pincers on the German 7th Army in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 21-1947 Jun 3, Albert Camus edited the clandestine newspaper Combat. In 2006 his WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat."
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)
1944 Aug 22, Hitler ordered Paris to be destroyed.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 22, In Bordeaux, France, Heinz Stahlschmidt (d.2010 at 92), a junior officer in the German navy, defied his superiors plans to blow up Bordeaux's port by blowing up a munitions depot, rendering some 4,000 fuses useless and saving the port. Heinz Stahlschmidt became a French citizen in 1947 under the name of Henri Salmide and a Knight of the French Legion d’Honneur in September 2000.
(http://tinyurl.com/yesjr4g)(AP, 2/26/10)
1944 Aug 22, Last transport of French Jews departed to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 23, German SS engineers began placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Adolf Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Allied troops captured Marseilles, France.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, General George Leclerc's troops advanced towards Paris.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 24, Allied forces captured Bordeaux. Spanish forces entered Paris.
(www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm)(SFC, 8/16/19, p.A4)
1944 Aug 25, Paris, occupied since June 1940, was liberated from German occupation by Free French Forces under General Jacques LeClerc and his 2nd Tank division. Although ordered by Adolf Hitler to leave Paris a smoldering ruin, Paris' military governor Major General Dietrich von Cholitz lied to his superiors and left the city's landmarks intact. Retreating German troops massacred 124 of Maille's 500 residents then razed the town, possibly in retaliation for Resistance action in the region.
(AP, 8/25/97)(HNPD, 8/25/98)(HN, 8/25/98)(AP, 7/16/08)
1944 Aug 25, US 12th Army Corp. reached Troyes.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1944 Aug 25, In France 11 US planes were shot down when a squadron was overwhelmed in a dogfight with 80 German fighters. 5 pilots survived and eluded capture. 2 pilots were captured. The remains of 3 missing were later recovered. In 2008 the remains of Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Ray Packard were identified and returned home.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.B8)
1944 Aug 26, US 12th Army Corps crossed the river Seine East of Paris.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1944 Aug 28, German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrendered to the Allies.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1944 Aug 29, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1944 Aug 31, The French provisional government moved from Algiers to Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1944 Aug, In the weeks following the liberation of France some 20,000 women, accused of relations with the enemy, had their heads shaven.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Sep 1, In Meximeux, France, Lt. Col. Michael Davison (1917-2006) led a 2-day defense against an attack by retreating German forces. In 1974 Meximeux named its town square “Place de General Davison."
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.B4)
1944 Sep 3, The U.S. Seventh Army captured Lyons, France. French troops liberate Lyon.
(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1944 Sep 5, Germany launched its first V-2 missile at Paris, France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1944 Sep 21, U.S. troops of the 7th Army, invading Southern France, crossed the Meuse River.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1944 Sep 22, The Allies reoccupied Boulogne.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1944 Sep 27, Aristide Maillol, French sculptor and graphic artist, died in car crash at 82.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1944 Sep 30, Calais was reoccupied by Allies.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1944 Oct 5, Joseph B "Aristide" Maillol, French sculptor and graphic artist, died.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1944 Oct 19, The US Army 442nd Regiment, composed of Japanese-Americans, fought their way into Bruyeres, France. It included the 100th Battalion of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.E5)
1944 Oct 25, In eastern France near Bruyeres Sgt. Clyde Lee Choate (d.2001 at 81) destroyed a German Mark IV tank with 2 bazooka shots while under heavy fire. Choate was later awarded the Medal of Honor and served in the Illinois Legislature (1947-1967). Choate gave credit for the medal to his 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A21)
1944 Nov 1, Gen. Patton greeted the 761st Tank Battalion, an all black unit, near Nancy, France. They had no day off until linking Russian allies on May 5, 1945.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.B4)
1944 Nov, The allies attacked Fort Jeanne d’Arc at Metz, France. Robert E. Gajdusek was wounded and captured and later wrote his memoir in 1998: "Resurrection, A War Journey."
(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.7)
1944 Dec 16, US Army Lt. Charles P. Murray Jr. (1921-2011) single-handedly overcame a force of some 200 Germans in northeastern France. He killed at least 20 enemy soldiers and with his platoon captured 10 others before a grenade severely injured his leg. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts.
(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A7)
1944 Dec 19, The French newspaper Le Monde began publishing. Charles de Gaulle called for the launch of Le Monde to replace Le Temps, which had become tainted by collaboration with German invaders.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde)
1944 Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), French actress, librettist, novelist and critic, authored her novel “Gigi," about a young girl being groomed as a courtesan.
(SFC, 4/12/16, p.E2)
1944 Robert Bresson’s film "Les Dames du Bois" de Boulogne featured Maria Casares (1922-1996).
1944 The Normandie-Niemen Fighter Regiment, a Fighter unit of the French Air Force formed in 1942 as Groupe de Chasse Normandie 3, was redesignated as a Regiment (without and with "Niemen" designation the same year). The unit served on the Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War II with the 1st Air Army. The regiment is notable for being one of only three units from Western Allied countries to see combat on the Eastern Front during World War II, and Normandie-Niemen was the only Western Allied unit to fight with the Soviet forces until the end of the war in Europe. Its battle honors included such names such as Bryansk, Orel 1943, Ielnia, Smolensk 1943, Orsha 1944, Berezina 1944, Niemen 1944, Chernyakhovsk 1945, Königsberg (later renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviets), Baltiysk 1945, and Pillau. In 1944 Joseph Stalin awarded the regiment the name Nieman, (thus becoming Normandie-Niemen) in recognition of its participation in the battles to liberate the river of the same name.
(https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Normandie-Niemen)
1944 A Germany general sent French fashion designer Coco Chanel to Madrid to initiate talks through the British Embassy in a plan code-named “Operation Modelhut." A travel companion denounced her as an enemy agent and the British ignored her.
(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.F5)
1944-1946 Gen’l. de Gaulle took over leadership of the government after leading the French Resistance. He quit after 2 years for having too little power.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1944-1956 The French intellectuals of this period were later discussed in the 1992 book "Past Perfect" by Tony Judt.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 8, US Tech. Sgt. Russell Dunham (1920-2009) assaulted 3 German machine gun placements, killed 9 German soldiers and took 2 as prisoners near Kaysersberg, France. His bravery earned him the US Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 4/10/09, p.B5)
1945 Jan 31, Private Eddie Slovik (b.1920) became the only US soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, as he was shot by an American firing squad near the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France. In 1954 William Bradford authored “The Execution of Private Slovik." In 1987 Slovik’s body was exhumed and returned to Detroit, Mi., his hometown.
(AP, 1/31/04)(SSFC, 7/8/12, DB p.42)
1945 Feb 5, American and French troops destroyed German forces in the Colmar Pocket in France.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1945 Feb 6, The French government executed Robert Brasillach, writer and Nazi propagandist. He had been arrested in January, was tried for treason and convicted. In 2000 Alice Kaplan authored "The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Brasillach)
1945 Feb 7, US 76th and 5th Infantry divisions began crossing Sauer.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1945 Mar 15, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (b.1893), a well-known French collaborationist and fascist writer, committed suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Drieu_La_Rochelle)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.84)
1945 Mar, Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, premiered "The Children of Paradise" (Les Enfants du Paradis). The 3 1/2 hr. film starred Jean-Louis Barrault and Arletty and centered on the life of 19th century mime Jean-Baptiste Debureau. The epic film classic was a singular evocation of show biz in the time of Balzac. Maria Casares (1922-1996) achieved stardom for her 1943 role in "Les Enfants du Paradis."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)(WSJ, 10/20/95, p. A-12)(SFC, 11/25/96, p.B2)
1945 Apr 26, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. In 2001 Adam Nossiter authored "The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory and the Second World War." The Algeria Hotel had been headquarters for the Vichy government’s anti-Jewish agency. Nossiter included accounts of the hangings at Tulle and the massacre of 642 people in Oradour. In 204 Robert O. Paxton authored “Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order."
(AP, 4/26/98)(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.85)
1945 Apr 30, US troops attacked at the Elbe.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 May 7, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II. After five years, World War II in Europe ended when Colonel General Alfred Jodl, the last chief of staff of the German Army, signed the unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters at Rheims, France. Journalist Edward Kennedy (1905-1963) made the news public and was suspended for defying political and military censors.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(SFC, 8/21/12, p.A6)
1945 May 8, Germany surrendered and Victory in Europe was achieved by the allies. Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrenders to Marshal Zhukov. The day is commemorated as V-E Day. President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe. In 2004 Max Hastings authored “Armageddon," an account of the last days of WW II.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/8/97)(WSJ, 11/16/04, p.D10)
1945 May 8, Algerian demonstrators in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag, banned by the French occupiers. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on the French, killing about two dozen of them. This led to an uprising in which Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France put the number at about 15,000 to 20,000. No one is quite sure.
(AP, 5/9/05)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England & France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1945 Jul 20, Paul Valery (b.1871), French poet (Le cimetiere Marin, Mon Faust), died at age 73. He was buried in his home town of Sete.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1945 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, went on trial, charged with treason. He was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted; Petain died in prison on this date in 1951.
(AP, 7/23/08)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1945 Aug 22, Conflict in Vietnam began when a group of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina, in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/22/00)
1945 Oct 15, The former Vichy French Premier Pierre Laval was executed by a firing squad for his wartime collaboration with the Germans.
(AP, 10/15/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1945 Oct 21, Women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1945 Nov 13, Charles de Gaulle was elected president of France.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1945 Dec 13, France and Britain agreed to quit Syria and Lebanon.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1945 Dec 19, Jean Giraudoux' "La Folle de Chaillot," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1945 Dec 26, The CFA franc was created along with the CFP franc, the currency used in the French overseas collectivities. The reason for their creation was the weakness of the French franc immediately after World War II. When France ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement in December 1945, the French franc was devalued in order to set a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. New currencies were created in the French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation, thereby facilitating exports to France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFA_franc)
1945 Pierre Bonnard painted his "Large Landscape, South of France (Le Cannet)."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
c1945 The US Army published "112 Gripes about the French," as a prejudice-busting primer for American troops occupying France following WWII. It was re-published in 2003.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A2)
1945 The magazine Point de Vue was founded as a general-interest publication. By the 1960s its coverage was directed to royalty.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)
1945 France set up the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, a post-graduate civil service college, to turn out a meritocratic elite equipped to run an administered economy battered by war.
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1945 Rene Jules Lalique, French jewelry designer, died.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A26)
1945-1946 Picasso painted his purposely unfinished "Charnel House."
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.E8)(www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso45.html)
1945-1946 France underwent another round of nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in 1936 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1946 Jan 20, Charles De Gaulle, head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, resigned.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle)
1946 Jan, Charles De Gaulle adopted the "Monnet Plan" (1946–1950). It was in effect the first five-year plan for modernization and equipment, a plan for national economic reconstruction which drew heavily on earlier French plans to make France the largest steel producer in Europe.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monnet_Plan)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.41)
1946 Mar 6, France recognized Vietnam statehood within the Indo-Chinese federation.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1946 Apr 12, Syria gained independence from France.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1946 Apr 17, The last French troops left Syria.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1946 May 11, The first packages from the relief agency CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot (b.1897), a French doctor, was beheaded for offering Jews an escape to Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies, many by incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his home, but he was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980 Thomas Maeder authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot." In 2011 David King chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City of Light."
(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)(Reuters, 11/10/11)
1946 Jun 25, Ho Chi Minh traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1946 Jul 5, The bikini bathing suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Model Micheline Bernardini wore the skimpy two-piece outfit. Its name correlated with the July 1 American atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll. Réard wanted his design to have a similar explosive affect. According to New York Times columnist William Safire, the swimsuit caused more debate, concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D17)(TMC, 1994, p.1946)(AP, 7/5/97)(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(HNQ, 4/6/02)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein (72), US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France. Her work included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room Floor" and “The Biography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933). She once said of Oakland, Ca.: "There is no there there." Painter Francis Rose carved the headstone on her grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. A biography of Stein by Linda Wagner-Martin was published in 1996 titled "Favored Strangers." In 2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1946 Sep 20, The first Cannes Film Festival was held. Michele Morgan (1920-2016), born as Simone Renee Roussel, won the best actress award for her role in “Pastoral Symphony" directed by Jean Delannoy.
(http://tinyurl.com/jhhbsd2)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.C10)
1946 Sep, Britain, France and the United States set up the Tripartite Gold Commission to oversee the return of some $4 billion in gold plundered by the Nazis from European treasuries. The commission closed in 1998.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1946 Oct 23, A Vatican document advised French church authorities on how to handle information requests from Jewish officials, asking them not to put anything in writing: “Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that cannot ensure their Christian education." The document surfaced in 2004.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A12)
1946 Nov 15, The 17th Paris Air Show opened at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since 1938.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire in Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Dec 15, Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace talks.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1946 Dec 19, War broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French. The French retook Hoa Binh with a drop by airborne forces. They abandoned it in October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial Route 4.
(AP, 12/19/06)(http://maoist.wikia.com/wiki/Vo_Nguyen_Giap)(www.historynet.com/the-hoa-binh-campaign.htm)
1946 Dec 20, Viet Minh and French forces fought fiercely in the Annamite section of Hanoi.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1946 Dec 24, The 4th French republic was established.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1946 Dec 28, The French declared martial law in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1946 Pablo Picasso began designing pottery in Vallauris, France. The area had been a pottery center since Roman times.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.G4)
1946 The French film "Beauty and the Beast" with Jean Marais (d.1998 at 84) was directed by Jean Cocteau (d.1963).
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)
1946 The French film “Gates of the Night" starred Yves Montand. It was directed by Marcel Carne and written by Jacques Prevert.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1946 The French film “Panic" starred Michel Simon.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1946 The Jean Delannoy film "La Symphonie Pastorale," adapted from a Gide novel, won Cannes' top prize. The film told the story of a blind orphan who falls in love with a married pastor.
(AP, 6/19/08)
1946 France outlawed brothels.
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.47)
1946 The Lido nightclub opened on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(SFC, 11/22/02, p.D9)
1946 France allowed Haj Amin al-Husseini, the former mufti of Jerusalem, to escape to Egypt. He had resided in Nazi Germany and hidden in Paris to avoid answering for various war crimes.
(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1946 French Guiana was designated as an overseas department of France giving it the same political status as the mainland.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
1946 The French retook Hoa Binh in Vietnam with a drop by airborne forces. They had abandoned it in October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial Route 4.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1946 Dahomey (later Benin) became an Overseas Territory of France.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
1946 France granted Malians French citizenship and limited self-rule.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1947 Jan 9, French General Leclerc broke off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1947 Jan 19, The French opened a drive on Hue, Indochina.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1947 Feb 28, Britain and France signed a 50-year pact to curb Germany.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1947 Mar 4, France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1947 Mar 5, Communist leader Maurice Thorez declared support for the French sovereignty over Vietnam.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1947 Mar 29, Madagascar rebelled against French colonial rule. Repression followed and an estimated 100,000 Malagasy were killed. This became known as Martyr’s Day, first celebrated in 1967.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.H3)
1947 Apr 16, The French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, devastating Texas City, Texas. It was America's worst harbor explosion. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The final death toll was 576, and more than 3,000 Texas City residents were left homeless. Property damage ran into the millions.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-4)(AP, 4/16/97)(HNPD, 4/17/00)
1947 Oct 7, French troops in Indochina launched Operation Lea, to capture Viet Minh positions near the Chinese border.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1947 Nov 26, France expelled 19 Soviet citizens, charging intervention in internal affairs.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1947 Nov 28, French Gen. Jacques-Philippe Leclerc (b.1902), WW II hero (liberator of Paris), died. His North American B-25 Mitchell, Tailly II, carrying Leclerc and his staff, crashed near Colomb-Béchar in French Algeria, killing everyone on board.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Leclerc_de_Hauteclocque)
1947 Francois Gravier, French geographer, authored "Paris and the French Desert." Here he denounces the extreme concentration of France in Paris, and the monopoly of that city over French resources.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Gravier)
1947 Raymond Queneau (d.1976), Parisian surrealist, published "Exercises in Style."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1947 The French film "Jour de Fete" by Jacques Tati was shot on experimental color stock.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.41)
1947 The film "Song of Scheherazade" starred Jean-Pierre Aumont
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1947 Charles de Gaulle’s party "Rally for the French People" was founded.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1947 Pierre Bonnard (b.1867), French painter, died. In a 1935 notebook he wrote: "Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, express your pleasure strongly."
(WUD, 1994 p.169)(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1947 Haiti completed loan payments incurred in 1825 to pay reparations to France following its 1804 revolution.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.47)
1948 Mar 4, Antonin Artaud (51), French poet, actor (Napoleon), died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great Britain and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1948 Jun 26, The Berlin Airlift began in earnest as the United States, Britain and France started ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin, after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes. The Soviets had been harassing the French, British and American authorities in Berlin for weeks, trying to force them from the city. Finally, when all surface routes to the city were blockaded, it became clear that an airlift through the Allied sectors was the only way to re-supply the 2 million West Berliners. In spite of the enormous human and financial cost, “Operation Vittles" supplied food, fuel and hope to beleaguered citizens until the Soviet barricades were finally lifted on May 12, 1949. In 2010 Richard Reeves authored “Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift, June 1948-May 1949."
(AP, 6/26/98)(HN, 6/26/99)(http://tinyurl.com/gqhi)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.63)
1948 July 12, The Marshall Plan Conference convened in Paris. It was attended by 16 European nations and established the Committee for European Economic Cooperation.
(HNQ, 9/28/99)
1948 Oct 5, The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (IUCN) was founded in France. It is composed of biologists who maintain a list of threatened species and is considered the world's largest and most significant environmental conservation organization.
(http://tinyurl.com/yyrn6o6e)
1948 Dec 15, The French brought the first nuclear reactor into service.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1948 Dec 27, Gerard Depardieu, actor (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Danton, Green Card), was born in France.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1948 Nathalie Sarraute published her first novel, "Portrait of a Man Unknown."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1948 Julia Child enrolled in the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1948 Maurice Papon was the top French official in Corsica and authorized American planes loaded with weapons bound for Israel to land on the island.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A10)
1948 Longchamp, a French leather-goods company, began operations.
(Econ, 2/10/07, SR p.12)
1948 The cave at Lascaux was opened to the public.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.
(www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949 Apr 19, Paloma Picasso, [Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1949 May 6, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck (b.1862), Belgian philosopher, playwright (Grand Fairie) and essayist, died in Nice, France. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.861)(MC, 5/6/02)
1949 Oct 29, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (b.~1866), a Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, died in France. His books included “Meetings with Remarkable Men," the 2nd volume of his “All and Everything" trilogy. He taught that the vast majority of humanity lives their entire lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it was possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurdjieff)
1949 Dec 10, 150,000 French troops massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1949 Dec 30, France transferred sovereignty to Vietnam (Indo-China).
(EWH, 1968, p.1171)
1949 The French film “Troubled Waters" starred Ginette Leclerc.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1949 Anatole Dauman (d.1998 at 73) of Poland founded Argos Films.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1949 French priest Abbe Pierre (1912-2007) started taking in homeless at a house in Neuilly-Plaisance, a suburb of Paris. His project came to be called Emmaus and by 2006 grew include 350 communities in 40 countries, including 110 in France.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)
1949 France banned children’s books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a “favorable light," on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.81)
1949 The Statute of Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg, France, to promote democracy and human rights in Europe. The organization numbered 45 nations in 2004 but had little real power.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A14)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.50)
1950 Jan 1, Ho Chi Minh began an offensive against French troops in Indo China.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1950 Jan 29, The French National Assembly approved legislation granting autonomy to Bao Dai's State of Vietnam.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html)
1950 Jan 31, Paris protested the Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1950 Feb 28, The French Assembly in Paris decided to limit the sale of Coca-Cola.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1950 May 9, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed to place French and German production of coal and steel under one common High Authority. This organization would be open to participation of Western European countries. His statement became known as the Schuman declaration.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.74)
1950 Jun 3, French expedition reached the top of Himalayan peak of Annapurna in Nepal. Maurice Herzog (1919-2012) became the first man to climb the 8,000-meter peak despite losing all his fingers and toes to frostbite. He later went on to scale the heights of French politics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna)(AP, 12/15/12)
1950 Sep 9, There were massive arrests of communists in France.
(www.todayinhistory.com/s75-9-09-event-results.html)
1950 Nov 4, The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome. 5 protocols were added later. Alleged violations were handled by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
(www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)
1950 Dec 17, French named Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1950 Dec 31, Charles Koechlin (b.1867), French composer, teacher and writer on music, died in France. He visited the USA four times to lecture and teach in 1918-19, 1928, 1929 and 1937. On the second and third visits he taught at the University of California, Berkeley.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin)
1950 The French film “The Cheat" starred Bernard Blier and Simone Signoret.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1950 The French film "Diary of a Country Priest" was directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1950 The French film "Les Enfants Terribles" was narrated by Jean Cocteau and based on his 1929 novel.
(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1950 Gilbert Trigano (d.2000 at 80) and Gerard Blitz, a Belgium water polo champion, founded the 1st Club Med on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A21)
1950 French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed the pooling of French and German coal and steel production. This became the embryo of the future European Union.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.27)
1950 A French law forbidding pretenders to the throne was rescinded. Royalists wanted to see Henri, count of Paris, crowned as King Henry VI of France.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.C5)(SFC, 7/15/03, p.A19)
1950s Reporter Stanley Karnow published his book "Paris in the Fifties" in 1997.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.E5)
c1950s In France Guy Debord and the Situationists staged disruptive events and practiced "detournement," or cut-up art.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.E1)
1951 Jan 16, French forces repulsed a Viet Minh offensive near Hanoi.
(http://experts.about.com/e/f/fi/First_Indochina_War.htm)
1951 Feb 19, Andre Paul-Guillaume Gide (b.1869), French novelist and critic, died. Andre Gide’s novels included "The Immoralist," "Straight Is the Gate," "Lafcadio's Adventures," "Corydon," "The Counterfeiters" and his explicit memoir "If It Die…" (1926). In 1999 Alan Sheridan published the biography "André Gide: A Life in the Present." Gide won the Nobel Prize in 1947. "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."
(AP, 10/31/97)(AP, 3/24/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 6/13/99, BR p.4)(MC, 11/22/01)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 23, Wages in France increased 11%.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1951 Apr 18, Jean Monnet, French civil servant, and Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, helped found the European Union with agreements between 6 countries on the pooling of coal and steel resources. Ministers from Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and France put their names on the Treaty of Paris, the founding document of what in four decades would become the European Union.
(Econ, 9/25/04, Survey p.3)(Econ, 6/18/16, p.45)
1951 Jun 9, After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam’s General Giap ordered Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
(HN 6/9/98)
1951 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri Petain (b.1856), who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, was shot by firing squad. In 2005 Charles Williams authored “Petain."
(AP, 7/23/00)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.84)
1951 Sep 11, Florence Chadwick (1918-1995), American endurance swimmer, swam English Channel from England to France in 16 hours & 22 minutes [see Aug 6, 1926]. This made her the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, and set a record for the England-France journey. All told, she swam the English Channel four times and the Catalina Channel three times.
(www.answers.com/topic/florence-chadwick)
1951 Sep 26, Prof. Youngblood demonstrated an artificial heart in Paris.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1951 Nov 1, The Algerian National Liberation Front began guerrilla warfare against the French.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1951 Nov 14, French paratroopers captured Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1951 Albert Camus (1913-1960), Algeria-born French novelist, wrote "The Rebel." The book asserted a revolt against absurd nonsense and against commitments indifferent to the suffering that revolutionary steamrollers caused.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1951 The film "Journal d'un Cure de Campagne" (Diary of a Country Priest) was directed by Robert Bresson. It was based on a 1937 book by Georges Bernanos.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1952 Jan 7, French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi.
(HN, 1/7/00)
1952 Jan 12, The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Bihn, Vietnam.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1952 Feb 19, There was a French offensive at Hanoi.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1952 Feb 22, French forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1952 Feb 24, The French evacuated Hoa Binh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1952 Feb 25, French colonial forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1952 Mar 25, The U.S., Britain, and France rejected the Soviet proposal for an armed, reunified, neutral Germany.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1952 Aug 14, Alfred Sauvy (1898-1990), a French economist, first used the term “Third World," in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur. He used it to describe the importance of underdeveloped countries. He was paraphrasing a remark by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General in 1789, who said the third estate is everything, has nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sauvy)(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1952 Oct 29, French forces launched Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lorraine)
1952 Dec 8, French troops shot on demonstrators at Casablanca, Morocco, and 50 people were killed.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1952 Roger Frison-Roche (d.1999 at 93), mountaineer, explorer and writer, published his novel "The Big Crevice" and "The Lost Trail of the Sahara," which was later translated into English by Paul Bowles.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C5)
1952 Francois Mauriac (b.1885), novelist, won the Nobel Prize in literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.886)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1952 The film "Le Plaisir" was directed by Max Ophuls and was based on 3 stories by Guy de Maupassant.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1952 The French film “The Truth About Marriage" starred Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1952 French Dr. Alain Bombard (1924-2005) crossed the Atlantic in 65 days in a dinghy to prove that shipwrecked sailors could survive off the sea's bounty.
(AP, 7/20/05)
1953 Feb 9, The French destroyed six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1953 Feb 25, General de Gaulle condemned the European Defense Community.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1953 Mar 23, Raoul Dufy, French fauve painter, died.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(MC, 3/23/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered increased aid in Vietnam to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Apr 2, Jean Epstein (56), French director (Vive la Vie), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1953 Apr 28, French troops evacuated northern Laos.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1953 May 16, Django Reinhardt (b.1910), Gypsy jazz guitarist, died in France. In 2004 Michael Dregni authored “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W12)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1953 Aug 22, France closed the penal colony on Devil's Island.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1953 Sep 30, Auguste and Jacques Piccard dove with their bathosphere to a record 3150 m.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1953 Oct 22, Laos gained full independence from France. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/22/01)
1953 Oct 23, France granted sovereignty to Laos. [see Oct 22]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1953 Nov 30, French parachutists under Col. De Castries attacked Dien Bien Phu. The French expeditionary force was under the direction of Gen. Henri Navarre. In 2004 martin windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam."
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1953 Simone de Bouvier (Beauvoir) published a British edition of "America Day by Day," a journal of her travels in America from 1947. Her trip also began a relationship with Nelson Algren. In 1999 the book "A Transatlantic Love Affair" Letters to Nelson Algren" was published.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.4)
1953 Alain Robbe-Grillet authored "Les Gommes" (The Erasers), a novel about a detective investigating an apparent murder who ends up killing the victim. It was seen in France as the debut of the "new novel."
(AP, 2/18/08)
1953 Nathalie Sarraute published her 2nd novel, "Martereau."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1953 Thomas Guinzburg, Donald Hall, Harold Humes, Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014) and George Plimpton founded the Paris Review. William Styron (1925-2006) helped establish the Paris Review. Matthiessen later admitted that he was a CIA recruit and used his work with the Review as a cover.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A2)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.95)(SSFC, 4/6/14, p.A18)
1953 The film "Mister Ripois" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Rene Clement.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1953 France established the National Secular Action Committee (CNAL) to support public education.
(WPR, 3/04, p.7)
1954 Feb 1, Abbe Pierre (1912-2007) told French listeners on Radio Luxembourg that a woman had frozen to death on the boulevard Sebastopol, clutching an eviction notice issued the day before. His appeal sparked an enormous response.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)y
1954 Mar 13, Viet Minh General Giap opened an assault on French forces at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. In 2010 Ted Morgan (aka Sanche Armand Gabriel de Gramont) authored “Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War."
(HN, 3/14/98)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.80)
1954 Apr 21, USAF flew a French battalion to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain and France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 May 7, The Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces and the US began to get involved. French Gen. Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) and some 12,000 defenders were captured. Vietnamese insurgents expelled the French but the country was divided into a communist north and a pro-US south. In the 8 years of the French Indochina War some 52,000 French soldiers were killed. Vietnam was soon partitioned between a regime in Hanoi led by Ho Chi Minh and an anti-communist regime in Saigon under Ngo Dinh Diem. Howard Simpson later wrote: "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot." In 2004 Martin Windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam."
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC, 2/22/96, p.B3)(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.86)(AP, 6/18/10)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1954 Jun 18, Pierre Mendes-France (1907-1982) became Premier of France. His political signature was a glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that French people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too early an age. When Mendes-France would appear in public, there invariably was a glass of milk on the lectern, which he made a point of sipping some time during the presentation
(http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/2007/06/this-day-june-18-in-jewish-history.html)
1954 Jun 28, French troops began to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin Province.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1954 Jul 20, An armistice for Indo-China was signed and Vietnam separated into North & South. [see Jul 21]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1954 Jul 21, France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists at Geneva. The French signed an armistice, the Geneva Accords, with the Viet Minh that ended the war but divided Vietnam into two countries. This led to almost a million anti-Communists in the north to flee to the south.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1954 Jul 23, The Indochina settlement was approved by France's National Assembly.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1954 Aug 3, Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (b.1873), French actress, librettist, novelist (Claudine) and critic, died. Her novels included "Le Ble en herbe" (The Ripening Seed) and "Julie de Carneilhan (1941). In 1999 Judith Thurman authored "Secrets of the Flesh," a biography of Colette.
(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A24)(SC, 8/3/02)
1954 Aug, The French National Assembly rejected the European Defense Community with a vote of 319 to 264.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.47)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty. SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1954 Sep 8, Andre Derain (b.1880), French painter, died. He and Henri Matisse co-founded the Fauvist movement, marked by vivid, unnatural colors.
(SFC, 9/15/12, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Derain)
1954 Oct 22, West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country had no standing army. [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A8)
1954 Oct 23, In Paris, an agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1954 Oct 31, The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) against the French began. Algerian Muslims of the Front de Libération National (FLN), began open warfare against French rule in Algeria. [see Nov 1]
(DoW, 1999, p.10)
1954 Nov 1, Algerian nationalists began their successful eight-year rebellion against French rule. [see Oct 31] Hocine Ait-Ahmed (1926-2015) was one of the nine so-called "sons of Toussaint" who launched the uprising. He was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death but later freed, and left for exile in Lausanne in 1966.
(AP, 11/1/06)(AFP, 1/1/16)
1954 Nov 3, Henri E.B. Matisse (b.1869), French painter and sculptor (Dance II), died. In 1998 Hilary Spurling published "The Unknown Matisse," a work that covered the years 1869-1908. An end volume was planned. In 1999 John Russell published "Matisse: Father and Son" and John O'Brian published "Ruthless Hedonism: The American Reception of Matisse." In 2005 Hilary Spurling authored “Matisse the Master: A Life of Henry Matisse, Volume Two.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 8/8/99, BR p.6)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.79)
1954 Nov 24, France sent 20,000 soldiers to Algeria.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1954 In France the Little Sisters of Marie, Mother of the Redeemer, was founded in Toulouse by Marie Nault (1901-1999), a woman who, according to legend, stopped her formal education at age 11 to work on the family farm but possessed such spirituality that she developed the stigmata — the bleeding wounds that imitate those of Christ on the cross. In 2018 nearly all the nuns in the tiny religious order threatened to renounce their vows rather than accept the Holy See's decision to remove their superior.
(AP, 12/8/18)
1954 The French National Assembly rejected the European Defense Community.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.53)
1954 A French military court sentenced Alois Brunner to death in absentia for war crimes. He had sent 23,000 French Jews to death camps. Brunner fled from Germany to Syria.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1954 Jacques Courtin (1921-2007) opened his first beauty salon, the Institut Clarins, on Paris’ Rue Tronchet. His beauty lines were among the first to tap into natural ingredients. Clarins went public in 1984.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A6)
1954 Marc Gregoire, a French engineer, bonded aluminum with polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) and created the 1st nonstick pan.
(AARP, 5-6/04)
1954-1962 During the Algerian war of independence French generals approved torture and the disappearance of the 3,000 suspected guerrillas. About a million people were killed during this period. In 1977 Alistair Horne of Britain authored "A Savage War of Peace." In 2000 former Gen. Paul Aussaresse testified on French military behavior and the approval of Gen. Jacques Massu. In 2001 a mass grave of 290 people was found at the site of the former headquarters of the French army. In 2001 former Gen. Aussaresses authored "Special Services: Algeria: 1955-1957." In 2002 Aussaresses was convicted of "trying to justify war" and was fined $6,500.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B9)(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A12)(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.41)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu (73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 Jun 11, In Le Mans, France, a Mercedes-Benz racer crashed killing its driver and some 81 spectators. Pierre Levegh’s car hit the bank by the grandstand and immediately exploded. Parts of the wreckage were blown into the enclosure, killing scores of mostly-French spectators. Levegh was speeding down the straightaway in front of the pits when he clipped an Austin-Healey driven by British driver Lance Macklin.
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)(http://tinyurl.com/69g9e)
1955 Jun 27, Isabelle Adjani, actress (Story of Adele H, Driver, Ishtar), was born in Paris.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1955 Oct 5, French carmaker Citroen launched the futuristic DS 19. In French "DS" is pronounced as "Déesse" (goddess).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_DS)
1955 Nov 5, Maurice Utrillo (71), French painter (Cathedral St-Denis), died.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1955 Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist, authored “Tristes Tropiques," a memoir of his travels to Brazil in search of Amazon tribes untouched by civilization.
(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W10)
1955 Alain Robbe-Grillet won France's Critics Prize with "Le Voyeur" (The Voyeur), about the world seen through the eyes of a sadistic killer.
(AP, 2/18/08)
1955 Jean-Pierre Melville directed his classic noir thriller "Bob le Flambeur."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1955 The French film “The Light Across the Street" starred Brigitte Bardot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 The French film “The Lovers of Lisbon" starred Francoise Arnoul and Daniel Gelin.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 The French noir film "Rififi" starred Marie Sabouret and Jean Servais. It was directed by Jules Dassin.
(SFEC, 11/5/00, DB p.58)
1955 The French film “The Wicked Go to Hell" starred Marina Vlady.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 France enacted a law permitting law-enforcement chiefs known as “prefects" to place communities under curfew “wherever necessary."
(WSJ, 11/8/05, p.A1)
1955 Fernand Leger (b.1881), French painter, died.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1955 Adrien Marquet, Vichy’s 1st Interior Minister, died.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)
1956 Feb 1, Guy Mollet (12905-1975) became prime minister of France and continued to June 13, 1957.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Mollet)
1956 Feb 6, French PM Guy Mollet was pelted with rotten tomatoes at a demonstration in Algiers. The French refer to this memorable event as "la journée des tomates."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Mollet)
1956 Feb 18, Gustave Charpentier (95), French opera composer (Louise), died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris. Spain retained Ceuta and Melilla after Morocco becomes independent.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(BBC, 6/5/21)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos landed in Algeria.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Apr 11, French government sent 200,000 reservists to Algeria.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1956 May 10, French government sent 50,000 reservists to Algeria. [see Apr 11]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba. He launched a campaign advocating birth control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to 2.08.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)
1956 May 27, The French staged a raid in Algiers.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1956 Jun 22, The battle for Algiers began as three buildings in Casbah were blown up. France under PM Guy Mollet resolved to put down the Arab uprising and put 400,000 soldiers in Algiers.
(HN, 6/22/98)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Jul 5, France raised the tobacco tax 20% to support war in Algeria.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1956 Jul 20, France recognized Tunisia's independence. [see Mar 20]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1956 Jul 29, Jacques Cousteau's Calypso anchored in at a record 7,500 m under water.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1956 Aug 29, French government sent troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1956 Sep 26, Lucien Febvre, French historian (Un Destin, Martin Luther), died at 78.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1956 Sep 30, In Algiers a blast at the Milk Bar cafe together with another device set off nearby, killed three people and wounded 60, including children. Several people lost limbs sliced off by flying glass. Zohra Drif (20) set one device as a reprisal for a big French bombing that killed dozens in the Casbah weeks earlier. Captured soon afterwards, she was sentenced to death and spent five years in French prisons.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Oct 14, British and French officials met as Israel was about to attack Egypt. Anthony Nutting (d.1999 at 79), a deputy foreign secretary, learned that Prime Minister Anthony Eden had agreed with the French that once fighting began, they would send in paratroopers under the guise to separate the fighting factions, but would actually support Israel, seize the canal and undermine Nasser. Nutting resigned when British planes took to the air Oct 31.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A25)(AP, 2/26/99)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a Moroccan plane and arrested Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Oct 27, A Franco-German agreement was signed to transfer the Saar Basin to West Germany. France, Germany and Luxembourg agreed to canalize the Moselle River, connecting the steel industry with the Ruhr Valley. The Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to rejoin Germany. This took place on Jan 1, 1957.
(EWH, 1968, p.1182)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. These became the first “blue hat" UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Dec 3, England & France pulled troops out of Egypt.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1956 Dec 22, The evacuation of the Suez Canal was completed by Britain and France.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(MC, 12/22/01)
1956 Alain Bosquet (d.1998 at 78) edited the first complete French anthology of American poets.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1956 Nathalie Sarraute published her novel, "The Age of Suspicion." It was a collection of essays about her approach to literature, "the first manifestation of the Nouveau Roman School."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1956 The film "A Man Escaped" was directed by Robert Bresson. It won the 1957 best director award at Cannes.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1956 Roger Vadim directed "And God Created Woman" (Et… Dieu Crea la Femme) with Brigitte Bardot.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)
1956 The French film "The Red Balloon" was produced. It won an Academy Award.
(WSJ, 11/1/02, p.A1)
1956 French PM Guy Mollet discussed the possibility of a union with Britain’s PM Sir Anthony Eden. Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable toward a French proposal to join the Commonwealth.
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.A2)
1956 In France the populist Poujadistes, led by bookseller Pierre Poujade, won 52 seats. His party stood for the rights of the “little man" but soon fizzled out under “{bickering and ideological incoherence."
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.55)
1956 The Paris Club of 19 industrialized countries began work to alleviate the financial obligations of over-indebted countries.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A18)
1956 Gen. Jacques Massu (d.2002 at 94) took command of the French 10th Parachute Division, the elite force tasked with maintaining order in Algeria.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)
1956 French engineer Marc Gregoire devised a way to coat aluminum with teflon.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1956-1959 France laid minefields on the Challe and Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders of Algeria. In 2007 France gave Algeria maps of these minefields. Some 11 million mines were laid along the borders to prevent infiltration into Algeria from Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army (ALN). From 1962-2009 over 8 million Algeria destroyed over 8 million of the mines.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
1957 Jan, France began sending troops to Algeria to crush the rebel movement in what came to be called "The Battle for Algiers."
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
1957 Mar 16, Constantin Brancusi (b.1876), Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00, p.A28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C5%9Fi)
1957 Mar 23, Algerian independence fighter Ali Boumendjel (b.1919) was tortured and killed by French soldiers. In 2021 French President Emmanuel Macron met with four grandchildren of Boumendjel to inform them of the truth.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Boumendjel)(AP, 3/3/21)
1957 Apr 4, Heitor Villa-Lobos' 10th Symphony, premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1957 May 12, Erich von Stroheim (b.1885), Austrian-US actor and director, died in Paris. His films included "Grand Illusion," "The Merry Widow," and "Greed." In 2000 Arthur Lennig published the biography "Stroheim."
(WSJ, 2/23/00, p.A20)(MC, 5/12/02)
1957 Jun 16, There was a French offensive in Algeria.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1957 Oct 24, Christian Dior (52), French fashion magnate and inventor of the postwar "New Look," died in Italy. He was succeeded by his favorite assistant, Yves Saint Laurent.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E7)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.D3)(MC, 10/24/01)
1957 "The Bald Singer" began running at the La Huchette theater in Paris. It was still being performed in 1996.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T9)
1957 The French film “Three Days to Live" starred Leno Ventura and Jeanne Moreau.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1957 The Clemenceau, a French aircraft carrier, first set sail. It was taken out of service in 1997. In 2006 dismantling efforts faced problems. French officials said there are 45 tons of asbestos on the ship, but environmentalists put that number at up to 1,000 tons.
(AP, 2/15/06)
1957 Constantin Brancusi, Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00, p.A28)
1957 Max Ophuls (b.1902), German born film director, died in France. He made films in Germany, France, Netherlands and the US.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1957-1963 Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso lived in Paris. In 2000 Barry Miles authored "The Beat Hotel," an account of their years at the 9 Rue Git-leCoert managed by Madame Rachou.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, BR p.5)
1958 Feb 13, Georges Rouault (86), French painter (Christ aux outrages), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1958 May 13, French troops took control of Algiers as French settlers rioted against the French army.
(HN, 5/13/98)(MC, 5/13/02)
1958 Jun 1, Charles de Gaulle became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the Fourth Republic and the beginning of the Fifth Republic. France, on the verge of civil war over Algeria, called De Gaulle out of retirement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)(AP, 6/1/08)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.44)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1958 Jun 6, Premier Charles de Gaulle said Algeria will always be French.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1958 Aug 14, Frederic Joliot-Curie, French nuclear physicist (Nobel 1936), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Oct 23, De Gaulle offered Algerian defiance "peace of the brave."
(MC, 10/23/01)
1958 Oct 26, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 passenger service jetliner from New York’s Idlewild Airport (later JFK) to Paris; the trip took eight hours and 41 minutes. 111 passengers flew aboard the Clipper America and a ticket cost $489.60. The plane was christened a week earlier by Mamie Eisenhower. The first New York - London transatlantic jet passenger service was inaugurated by BOAC. [see Oct 4]
(AP, 10/26/97)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W6)(HN, 10/26/98)
1958 Nov 28, The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1958 Dec 21, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), having come out of retirement, was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. De Gaulle selected Maurice Couve de Murville (d.1999 at 92) as his foreign minister.
(AP, 12/21/98)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(Econ, 10/04/08, p.56)
1958 Dec, Julen Madariaga helped found ETA. EKIN (engage), a Basque nationalist group, transformed into Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (E.T.A., Basque Homeland and Freedom). ETA was the only armed group that emerged in the Spanish state during Francoism. ETA aimed to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France. Over the next 60 years 853 people were killed before ETA announced its dissolution in 2018.
(www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/westeurope/sources/birtheta.html)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.62)(AP, 10/18/20)
1958 The French film "Le Beau Serge" starred Gerard Blain (d.2000) and was directed by Claude Chabrol.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1958 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, made "The Cheaters" (Les Tricheurs) with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1958 The French film “Night Heat" starred Mylene Demongeot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1958 France exited from Morocco.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)
1958 Maurice Papon was named the police chief of Paris.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1958 Jean Dausset (1916-2009), French immunologist, discovered the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue system allowed doctors to verify compatibility between donor and receiver for an organ transplant.
(AP, 6/24/09)
1958 One in 5 French workers was engaged in farming. By 2004 this shrunk to just over 3%.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.51)
1958 In France Ifop, a polling group, began measuring presidential popularity.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.50)
1959 Jan 8, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1959 Apr 12, France Observator reported torture practice by French army in Algeria.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1959 Apr 28, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1959 May 29, Charles de Gaulle formed a French Government.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1959 Raymond Queneau (d.1976), Parisian surrealist, published "Zazie dans le Metro." It was made into a film by Louis Malle.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1959 Nathalie Sarraute published her novel, "The Planetarium."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1959 Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny introduced their comic characters Asterix and Obelix in the magazine Pilote. A book followed in 1961. Comic books in France are known as bandes dessinees (BD).
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.72)
1959 Jacques Brel (1929-1978), French singer and composer, recorded “Ne Me Quitte Pas" (If you go away).
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk7_HY9svAw)
1959 The film "Cousins" starred Gerard Blain and was directed by Claude Chabrol. The music was by Paul Misraki.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C2)(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1959 The French film "The 400 Blows" (Les Quatre Cents Coups) with Jean-Pierre Leaud was the first feature film by Francois Truffaut (1932-1984). Truffaut won the best director award at this year’s Cannes film festival.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut)(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W4)
1959 The film "Pickpocket" was directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1959 The French film “The Sign of Leo" was directed by Eric Rohmer (1920-2010). This was Rohmer’s first feature film.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
1959 Charels de Gaulle commissioned a report on how to “remove the obstacles to economic expansion."
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.80)
1959 French railroad officials introduced the Eurailpass. It allowed North American tourists in Europe to travel through 13 countries on one pass.
(SFC, 8/11/05, p.B7)
1959 With French support the French Sudan and Senegal formed the Federation of Mali.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the play “Caligula" and a collection of journalistic pieces for the clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the biography “Albert Camus." In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a biography: “Albert Camus." In 2006 Camus’ WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat." In 2010 Virgil Tanase authored “Albert Camus."
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1960 Feb 13, Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert, during the Algerian War (1954-62). 16 subsequent explosions of nuclear weapons in Algeria were seen as a display of French strength and development.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)(AP, 2/13/08)(BBC, 4/27/21)
1960 Apr 1, France exploded a 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert. Gerboise Blanche (“white gerboa") was a surface shot fired in a seven meter deep pit, which accounted for the strange, Christmas tree-like shape of the fireball. General Ailleret once again personally initiated the firing of the device.
(www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=112)
1960 Apr 27, France’s Gen. Charles de Gaulle flew into San Francisco and was welcomed by a 21-gun salute and some 250,000 people along his downtown motorcade.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, DB p.54)
1960 Apr 27, Togo, a UN Trust territory under French administration, gained independence. Sylvanus Olympio became the 1st chief of state.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 May 18, Jean Genet’s "Le Balcon" premiered in Paris France.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1960 Jun 26, The Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) gained independence from France.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A10)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Jul 1, French and Italian Somaliland gained independence and united with the Somali Republic.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.44)
1960 Jul, French Gen. Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/foxtrot/france1960.htm)
1960 Aug 1, Dahomey, just west of Nigeria, became independent from France. It was renamed Benin with the capital at Porto Novo.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 Aug 5, Upper Volta, formerly part of French West Africa, became independent under Maurice Yameogo. In 1984 it was renamed Burkina Faso.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 4th ed., p.1233)
1960 Aug 7, Ivory Coast became independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny (b.1905) began to rule Ivory Coast as prime minister. Houphouet-Boigny led the country until his death in 1993. Encouragement of investment and stability made it one of region's most prosperous.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A12)(AP, 9/24/02)
1960 Aug 11, Chad became independent from France, but remained within the French community. Francois Tombalbaye became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Aug 15, Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declared Independence from France.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1960 Aug 17, Gabon became independence from France. Leon M'Ba, head of the Gabon Democratic Block, became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 Sep 5, Senegal became independent from France. Leopold Sedar Senghor (d.2001 at 95), poet and politician, was elected president of Senegal, Africa.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(HN, 9/5/98)(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A34)
1960 Sep 22, Mali became an independent republic. Pres. Modibo Keita was elected the first president and introduced a one-party dictatorship.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Nov 28, Richard N. Wright (52), US author (Native son), died in Paris France.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1960 Dec 27, France exploded a 3rd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert, code-named Gerboise Rouge (“red gerboa").
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1960 French critic Pierre Restany and artists including Raymond Hains (1926-2005), Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Villegle and others, founded the Nouveau Realistes. Their emergence came to be seen as the beginning of French Pop Art.
(SFC, 11/15/05, p.B5)
1960 Alexis Saint-Leger (1887-1975), Guadeloupe-born French poet and diplomat, won the Nobel Prize for literature. He wrote under the pseudonym Saint John Perse.
(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Leger,+Alexis+Saint-Leger)
1960 The magazine Hara-Kiri was founded as a monthly French version of Mad.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.76)
1960 Raymond Queneau, French author, inspired the formation of Oulipo: the Ouvroir de Litterature Potentiale (the workshop for potential or hypothetical literature). In 1999 the "Oulipo Compendium," edited by Harry Matthews and Alastair Brotchie, was published.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, BR p.8)
1960 Pres. de Gaulle granted independence to all its colonies in Africa.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1960 In France Jacques Foccart (1913-1997) was named secretary-general for African affairs. He held the office until 1974.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Foccart)
1961 Mar 7, Max Hymans (60), WW II resistance fighter, head of Air France, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1961 Apr 21, The French army revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French paratroopers' revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Jun 17, Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev (d.1993) defected from the Soviet Union at the Paris Le Bourget airport while traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet. In 1998 Diane Solway covered this event in her biography: "Nureyev."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A17)(AP, 6/17/08)
1961 Jul 1, Louis-Ferdinand Celine (b.1894), French physician, author, anti-Semite, died. His books included “Journey to the End of Night" (1932).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lfceline.htm)(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.P8)
1961 Jul, A French law guaranteed populations in France's overseas territories free exercise of their religion and respect for their beliefs and customs as long as they are not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat and killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue. Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris. On Oct 17, 2011, Algeria's post office issued a new stamp to commemorate the massacre.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)(AFP, 10/17/11)
1961 Andre Malreaux, minister of cultural affairs under Pres. de Gaulle, initiated the clean-up of Paris.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)
1961 In France the Boisset Family Estates was founded in Burgundy. By 2012 the company controlled over 20 wineries in the US, Canada and Europe.
(SSFC, 3/11/12, p.N3)
1962 Jan, In Paris a series of bombings began and continued thru February by hardline soldiers opposed to Algeria’s independence, the Organization of the Secret Army (OAS).
(Econ, 2/18/12, ILp.15)
1962 Feb 5, French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1962 Feb 5, Jacques Ibert (71), French composer (Escales), died.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1962 Mar 18, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce, which took effect the next day.
(HN, 3/18/98)(AP, 3/18/08)
1962 Mar 19, Relative calm returned to Algeria after cease-fire, ending 7 years of warfare between French and Algerian Nationalists.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1962 May 23, OAS leader general Raoul Salan was sentenced to life in prison. French general Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria (July, 1960) and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://tinyurl.com/d8qm2)
1962 Mar 25, French OAS-leader ex-general Jouhaud was arrested.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1962 Apr, Jean-Claude Forest (d.1998) created the 41st century Barbarella sci-fi comic character for V Magazine. It was censored in France and barred from advertising or sale to minors until the early 1970s.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
1962 Jun 6, Yves Klein (b.1928), French artist, died of a heart attack.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein)
1962 Jul 1, Some 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots in the referendum on independence. The vote was nearly unanimous. De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3. The Provisional Executive, however, proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 3, French Pres. Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country following the July 1 elections. De Gaulle evacuated Algeria and a million settlers flooded into France.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 14, Borehole for Mont Blanc-tunnel, between France and Italy, was finished. [see Aug 14]
(MC, 7/14/02)
1962 Aug 14, French and Italian workers broke through at the Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel. [see Jul 14]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1962 Aug 22, There was a failed assassination on president De Gaulle.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1962 Nov 29, Great Britain and France agreed on a joint venture to build the super sonic Concorde jet.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A26)(MC, 11/29/01)
1962 Eugen Ionesco, French absurdist playwright, wrote his play “Exit the King."
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.86)
1962 The film "The Iron Mask" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Decoin.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1962 The film "The Seven Deadly Sins" (Les Sept Peches Capitaux) starred Jean-Pierre Aumont. It was directed by Roger Vadim.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1962 The French film “The Seventh Juror" starred Bernard Blier.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1962 The film "Un Singe en Hiver" (A Monkey in Winter) starred Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. It was directed by Henri Verneuil (d.2002).
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A19)
1962 A museum was added to the Chateau Mouton Rothschild. It housed a priceless collection of artwork related to wine.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1962 French Pres. Charles de Gaulle introduced the directly elected presidency in order to take power away from political parties.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.47)
1962 In France Paul Louis Halley (1934-2003) opened his first supermarket under the Promodes name. Following major acquisitions in 1988, 1996 and 1997 Promodes merged with rival Carrefour (1999) and took its name.
{France, Retail}
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.B2)
1963 Jan 14, President of France Charles de Gaulle announced the French veto on Britain's application to join the European Common Market, the forerunner of the European Union. De Gaulle said the British government lacked 'commitment' to European integration.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml)
1963 Jan 22, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty," aka of the Elysee friendship treaty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations)(AP, 1/22/18)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Jun 21, France announced it would withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1963 Jul 12, Charles de Gaulle pronounced that "Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque (81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1963 Oct 11, Jean Cocteau, French author (La Voie Humaine), surrealist poet, artist and film director, died at 73. His lover Lean Marais later published a biography of Cocteau called "L’Inconcevable Jean Cocteau." In 2003 Claude Arnaud authored the biography "Jean Cocteau."
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1963 Oct 11, Edith Piaf (b.1915), French singer (No, I don't regret anything), died of cancer. In 2007 the biopic film “La Vie en Rose," with Marion Cotillard as Piaf, was produced. In 2011 Carolyn Burke authored “No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf)(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.G5)
1963 The Singing Nun made a hit with "Dominique." The song praised the 13th century crusade against the Cathars.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1963 The film "Songs in the Basement" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Verneuil.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1963 France erected giant concrete buildings to house a growing working class and North African immigrants. These included the “Cite des 4,000" in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.A1)
1963 French residents of Monaco became liable for French taxes.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)
1963 French retailer Carrefour SA invented hypermarkets, huge emporiums that combined the wares of supermarkets and department stores.
(WSJ, 11/30/06, p.A1)
1963 A glorified food blender was a product of the French restaurant supply giant Robot-Coupe. In 1973 Carl Sontheimer (d.1998 at 83) introduced his redesigned Cuisinart at a show in Chicago.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1963 Chrysler became the majority holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 The paleolithic site of Lascaux, by the village of Montignac, France, was closed to the public by Andre Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, due to environmental damage caused by large numbers of tourists.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.489)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1964 Feb 6, Paris and London agreed to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1964 Jun 15, The last French troops left Algeria.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1964 Jul 1, Pierre Monteux (89), French-US conductor (Concert Bldg Orch), died.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1964 Sep 16-1964 Oct 20, French Pres. Charles de Gaulle visited South America with stops in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brasil. He was the 1st head of state from outside Latin America to visit Paraguay.
(http://gaullisme.free.fr/GEChronologie.htm)(Econ, 10/1/05, p.36)
1964 Eleanor Clark authored “The Oysters of Locmariaquer," a history of French oysters and oystermen.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.W4)
1964 Jean Fautrier (b.1898), French modernist, died. He was considered a precursor to the American Abstract Expressionists.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.D8)
1964 The French Democratic Confederation of Labor (Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, CFDT) was founded when a majority of the members of the Christian trade union Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC) decided they preferred to be part of a secular union. The minority kept the name CFTC.
(http://tinyurl.com/y94wu78d)
1965 Jul 16, Mount Blanc Road tunnel between France & Italy opened.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1965 Aug 27, Le Corbusier (b.1887), Swiss-French architect and writer, died. He was born as Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. His book included books include “Vers une architecture" (Towards a New Architecture) (1923), “The City of Tomorrow" (1925), and “When the Cathedrals Were White" (1937).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lecorbu.htm)
1965 Sep 9, Francois Mitterrand was nominated for French presidency.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Sep 9, French President Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in protest of U.S. domination in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Oct 29, Mehdi Ben Barka (b.1920), a leading opposition figure to Morocco’s King Hassan II (d.1999), disappeared in front of the famous Left Bank Lipp Cafe. His body has never been found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ben_Barka)(AP, 10/11/09)
1965 Nov 26, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1965 Dec 19, French president De Gaulle was re-elected. Mitterrand got 45% of the vote.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1965 The French film "Repulsion" with Catherine Deneuve was directed by Roman Polanski. It was a tale of female madness and paranoia.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C3)
1965 IBM established a large manufacturing plant in Montpellier.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R23)
1965-1998 Mary Blume served in Paris as a writer for the Int'l. Harold Tribune and in 1999 authored "A French Affair: The Paris Beat 1965-1998."
(SFEC, 12/5/99, BR p.1)
1966 Jan 11, Albert Giacometti (64), Swiss-French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Jan 24, The Kangchenjunga, a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai (Bombay) to New York, crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc, France, as it descended towards a scheduled stopover in Geneva, Switzerland. All 117 people on board died.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle said he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command. French military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1966 May 27, 6 French fighters crashed above Spain.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1966 May, The US launched 2 sorties of U-2 spy planes off the USS Ranger to monitor the French nuclear test site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. These were the only aircraft-carrier-based launches of the U-2 spy planes. The information was made public in 2006.
(AP, 3/21/06)
1966 Nov 18, Jean Peugeot, French auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1967 Feb 7, Henry Morgenthau (74), US minister of Finance, died.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1967 Feb 15, France launched its Diademe-D satellite into Earth orbit. This followed the launch of Diademe-C on Feb 8. These satellites were magnetically stabilized which limited their trackability in the southern hemisphere.
(http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/di1c_general.html)
1967 Mar 7, Alice B. Toklas (b.1877), the life partner of writer Gertrude Stein, died In Paris, France. Her work included “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" (1954). In 2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B._Toklas)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1967 Mar 29, France launched the Redoubtable, its first nuclear submarine. It did not enter operational service until 1972, when it began its first patrol on 28 January.
(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/France/FranceOrigin.html)
1967 Apr, Henry Hill (d.2012) completed his first major robbery when he and Thomas DeSimone, who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas" (1990), famously robbed Air France of a shipment of $420,000. Hill became an FBI informant following a 1980 arrest on a narcotics-trafficking charge, and testimony he delivered led to 50 arrests. Hill’s life story was documented in the book "Wiseguy" (1986) by Nicholas Pileggi.
(ABCNews, 6/12/12)
1967 Apr, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was imprisoned in Bolivia shortly before the capture of Che Guevara [see Nov 17].
(www.tamilnation.org/ideology/debray.htm)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom re-applied to join the European Community. It was followed by Ireland and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle was still reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1967 May 11, French President Charles de Gaulle for a second time said he will veto Britain's application to join the Common Market. One reason he gave was the incompatibility of its farming policies.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_4187000/4187714.stm)(Econ, 11/24/12, p.62)
1967 May 11, David Galula (b.1919), Tunisia-born French military officer and scholar, died in France. He was influential in developing theories of counterinsurgency. He wrote his experiences in two books, later published by the RAND Corporation: “Pacification in Algeria" (1963), and “Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W9)
1967 Jul 13, Tommy Simpson, British cyclist, died as he competed in the Tour de France. Traces of amphetamine and cognac were found in his blood.
(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.B1)
1967 Jul 24, French President Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal, Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1967 Sep 27, Felix Yusupov (b.1887), Russian aristocrat, died in Paris. He is best known for participating in the 1916 assassination of Grigori Rasputin. In 1927 Yusupov published his memoir detailing the killing of Rasputin.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Yusupov)(Econ, 12/24/16, p.115)
1967 Sep, The British, French and German governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to start development of the 300 seat Airbus A300 in order to compete with American companies. Airbus Industrie was formally set up in 1970.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/airbus)
1967 Nov 17, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia. Debray (b.1940) was jailed in Bolivia shortly before Che Guevara was captured and was convicted of having been part of Guevara's guerrilla group. He was released in 1970 after an international campaign for his release which included Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, General De Gaulle and Pope Paul VI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Debray)
1967 Nov 27, Charles DeGaulle vetoed Britain’s entry into the Common Market again.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1967 Dec 11, The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, was unveiled in Toulouse, France.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1967 The French film noir "Le Samourai" with Alain Delan was directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. He had just recently completed 2 other gangster films: "Le Doulos" and "Le Deuxieme Souffle."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1967 The French film "Young Girls of Rochefort" was directed by Jacques Demy.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.D4)
1967 Charles Munch, conductor, formed the Orchestre de Paris.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A17)
Return to home
1921 Jan 5, Wagner’s "Die Walkyrie" opened in Paris. This was the first German opera performed in Paris since the beginning of WWI.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1921 Mar 8, French troops occupied Dusseldorf.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1921 Mar 12, The Cairo Conference, called by Winston Churchill, convened to establish a unified British policy in the Middle East. Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. Colonial Sec. Winston Churchill wanted to keep an air corridor to Iraq, where the Royal Air Force was dropping poison gas on rebellious Arab tribes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Conference_%281921%29)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(Econ, 7/13/13, SR p.5)
1921 Jun, Pablo Picasso completed his painting “Nature Morte." In 2020 it was raffled off for charity from the collection of David Nahmad, who owned some 300 works by Picasso.
(AP, 3/10/20)
1921 Jul, Juan Miro (1893-1983), Spanish artist, began working on his painting titled “The Farm." He completed it 9 months later. Ernest Hemingway, one of his sparring partners in Paris, purchased the painting in 1925. In 1987 the Hemingway family donated the painting to the National Gallery of Art.
(WSJ, 12/13/08, p.W8)
1921 Oct 13, Yves Montand, French actor and singer (Z, Napoleon, Grand Prix), was born.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1921 Nov 5, Gyorgy Cziffra, Hungarian-French pianist, was born.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1921 Anatole France (d.1924), French satiric master, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books included “Thais" (1890), “Penguin Island" (1908) and “Revolt of the Angels" (1914).
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_France)
1921 France, following populations losses in World War I, created the “carte famille nombreuse," a discount card for families with 3 or more children.
(Econ, 4/19/08, p.62)
1921 The Colombe d’Or (Golden Dove) north of Nice began life as a restaurant called "A Robinson" under Paul and Baptistine Roux. The restaurant changed its name and was converted to a hotel in 1931 with the sign "lodgings for men, horses, and painters."
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.T10)
c1921 The unknown soldier of France was buried beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.B8)
1921 The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine was first used against tuberculosis. It was developed by Albert Calmette, a French physician and bacteriologist, and his assistant and later colleague, Camille Guérin, a veterinarian. In 2020 trials were conducted to test its efficacy on COVID-19.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCG_vaccine)(https://tinyurl.com/scsfs5a)
1921 At the Cairo Conference, convened by Winston Churchill, Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal (Feisal) became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. In 2004 Christopher Catherwood authored “Churchill’s Folly," and account of the founding of Iraq.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(WSJ, 7/22/04, p.D10)
1921-1924 The number of Americans in Paris swelled from 6,000 to 30,000.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.9)
1922 Jan 22, Jean-Pierre Rampal (d.5/20/2000), flautist, was born in Marseilles France.
(Internet)
1922 Feb 2, James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was published in Paris with 1,000 copies.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.C12)(MC, 2/2/02)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. The US, UK, France, Italy & Japan signed the Washington naval arms limitation.
(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1922 Feb, Ernest Hemingway met poet Ezra Pound in a Paris bookstore. Pound was one of the founders of a school of poetry called Imagism.
(ON, 7/05, p.9)
1922 Jun 3, Alain Resnais, French film director, was born.
(HN, 6/3/01)
1922 Jul 7, Pierre Cardin, fashion designer (Unisex), was born in Paris, France.
(AP, 7/7/02)(MC, 7/7/02)
1922 Nov 18, Marcel Proust (b.1871), French author (Recherche du Temps Perdu), died at 51. His masterpiece was "Remembrance of Things Past." In 1998 it was turned into a comic book series. In 1998 Alain de Botton published the whimsical "How Proust Can Save Your Life." In 1999 Edmund White wrote the biography "Marcel Proust." The major biography by John Yves Taddie was scheduled to appear in English in 1999. In 2000 Roger Shattuck authored "Proust’s Way." William C. Carter authored "Marcel Proust: A Life."
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.3)(MC, 11/18/01)
1922 Dec 4, Gerard Philipe, actor (Caligula, Le Diable au Corps), was born in Cannes, France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1922 The novel “Rene Leys" by French author Victor Segalen (1878-1919), was published three years after the author’s death. The novel, writen in diary form, was about a Belgian teenager in old Peking who regales his employer with tales of the hidden intrigues and conspiracies taking palce in the imperial palace.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.86)
1922 In Pauillac Baron Philippe de Rothschild took over the Bordeaux region vineyard that had been initially purchased by his great-grandfather. He initiated bottling all production at the chateau and commissioned the architect, Charles Siclis, to build the famous "Grand Chai," as the centerpiece building.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1922-1924 Charles de Lasteyrie served as France’s finance minister.
(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.C4)
1922-1926 The Mosquée de Paris was built in recognition of the suffering of the North African Muslims during WW I.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C6)
1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1923 Jan 4, Emile Coué (1857-1926), French pharmacist, arrived in NYC. Coue was a proponent of "auto-suggestion," and believed positive thinking could cure disease. He recommended chanting "every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."
(http://tinyurl.com/4ke2gvp)
1923 Jan 11, The French entered Essen in the Ruhr. They were there to extract Germany's resources as war payment. After France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr, Germany’s central bank, the Reichsbank, increased its money printing, unleashing hyperinflation.
(HN, 1/11/99)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.57)
1923 Jan 15, Lithuanians took Klaipeda back from French control.
(LC, 1998, p.8)(LHC, 1/15/03)
1923 Jan 19, The French announced the invention of a new gun with a range of 56 miles.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1923 Feb 4, French troops took Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement ending World War I.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1923 Mar 22, Marcel Marceau, French mime, was born. "I do not get my ideas from people on the street. If you look at faces on the street, what do you see? Nothing. Just boredom." He devised over 100 pantomimes, including The Creation of the World.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1923 Mar 26, Actress Sarah Bernhardt (b.1844), born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, died in Paris. In 2010 Robert Gottlieb authored “Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.105)
1923 Mar 31, French soldiers fired on workers at Krupp factory in Essen; 13 died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1923 Jun 13, The French set a trade barrier between the occupied Ruhr and the rest of Germany.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1923 Jun 20, France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1923 Nov 11, Eternal flame was lit for the tomb of unknown solder at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1923 Dec 27, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (b.1832), engineer (Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty), died in Paris.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Eiffel)
1923 Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Swiss-French architect and writer, authored “Vers une architecture" (Towards an Architecture) (1923).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier)
1923 Darius Milhaud premiered "La Creation du Monde" (the Creation of the World) with 19 members of the Orchestre du Theatre du Champs-Elyssees. Fernand Leger designed the décor and costumes. The jazz age ballet was created by Milhaud, Blaise Cendrars and Jean Borlin.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.32)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T8)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.90)
1923 Coco Chanel launched Chanel No. 5 perfume in Paris.
(WSJ, 10/13/03, p.B1)
1923 Harry MacElhone (d.1958) bought a bar in Paris at 5 rue Dannou behind the opera and named it Harry’s New York Bar. It later became a hangout for the "Lost Generation." His son, Andrew, (1923-1996) took over 1958. Andrew’s son Duncan (d.1998 at 44) took over in 1989. Cocktails such as the French 75 (named after a WW I artillery piece), the Bloody Mary and the Side Car were invented there.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A22)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)
1923 Andre Malreaux (d.1976), while doing archeological research in Cambodia, was arrested for dislodging 7 heads from a temple with a handsaw, a chisel and crowbar.
(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1923 Francois Flameng (b.1856), French painter, died. He painted imagined scenes from the domestic life of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(MT, Fall/03, p.13)
1923 Tamara Geva (d.1991), Russian ballet dancer, married George Balanchine, ballet choreographer. The couple traveled to East Prussia in 1924 with the Soviet State Dancers and then defected to Paris where they joined Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A23)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1924 Jan 25, The 1st Winter Olympic games opened in Chamonix, France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Winter_Olympics)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A19)
1924 Feb 4, The 1st Winter Olympic games closed at Chamonix, France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Winter_Olympics)
1924 Feb 20, Pierre Lacau, the French Director of Antiquities, was authorized by the Egyptian Cabinet to reopen the tomb of Tutankhamun and resume work. Howard Carter refuses its offer to continue his work under Egyptian control.
(www.king-tut.org.uk/curse-of-king-tut/howard-carter-timeline.htm)(NG, May 1985, p.598)(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A10)
1924 Mar 1, Emile Fradin (d.2010 at 103), French peasant, discovered an underground chamber containing ancient artifacts that were later dated anywhere from 300 BC to the 15th century. The field, called Duranthon, was later renamed the Champ des Morts (field of the Dead).
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.89)
1924 May 4, The summer Olympics opened in Paris. The French rugby team beat the Rumanians 61-3.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 May 18, At the Olympics in Paris the American rugby team beat the French 17-3. Only France, Rumania and America fielded rugby teams. Rugby was dismissed from the Olympics after rival fans rioted following the American upset victory.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A6)(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)
1924 May 29, Pierre-Paul Cambon French diplomat (Madrid/London), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1924 May, Gertrude Ederle won a gold medal the summer Olympics in Paris as a member of the US 400-meter relay team.
(ON, 2/10, p.4)
1924 Jul 27, The summer Olympics closed in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 Aug 14, Georges Pretre, conductor (NY Met), was born in Waziers, France.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1924 Sep 13, Maurice Jarre, composer (Dr. Zhivago-Acad Award 1966), was born in Lyons, France.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1924 Oct 12, Anatole France, French satiric master (Penguin Island, Revolt of the Angels, Thais), died at 80. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1924 Nov 4, Gabriel Faure (b.1845), French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher, died in Paris. He was the foremost French composer of his generation. His musical style influenced many 20th century composers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9)
1924 Roland Petit, French premier choreographer, was born.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C4)
1924 French writer Andre Breton authored the first “Surrealist Manifesto."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_Manifesto)
1924 French Count Etienne de Beaumont commissioned the ballet “Mercure" from painter Picasso, composer Eric Satie and choreographer Leonide Massine.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)(www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/satiecubism.html)
1924 In France the Ile St.-Louis made an unsuccessful attempt to secede from Paris and France and issued its own passports.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T8)
1924 French fashion designer Coco Chanel sold control of Chanel No. 5 to the Wertheimer family for a fortune.
(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.F5)
1924 E.M. Antoniadi of France described planet-wide dust storms on Mars.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1925 Jan 10, France-Saarland formed.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1925 Mar 26, Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor (Visage Nuptial), was born in Montbrison, France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1925 Apr, In Paris Hippolyte Jamet opened his hotel Le Bristol, named after the 4th Earl of Bristol in tribute to the Englishman’s taste for comfort.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A20)(www.hotel-bristol.com/20050614/US_10_faubourg.swf)
1925 May 17, French nun Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) was raised to sainthood by Pope Pius XI. In 1997 she made a doctor of the Church by John Paul II, a rare honor signifying that her writings and preachings are useful to Christians.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux)(AP, 10/18/15)
1925 Jun 16, France accepted a German proposal for a security pact.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1925 Jun 22, France and Spain agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in Morocco.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1925 Jul 1, Eric Satie (b.1866), French composer, died. Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Satie)(www.jazclass.aust.com/satie.htm#04)
1925 Dec 3, Jean-Luc Goddard, French film director, was born. In 2004 Colin MacCabe authored the biography "Goddard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy."
(HN, 12/3/98)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.M1)
1925 Pierre Bonnard painted "After the Meal."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.9)
1925 Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter, painted "Le Testament de Jacques Prevert," on the bedroom door of his roommate, the poet Prevert.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1925 The art-deco style was formally introduced by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann at the Paris Design Exposition. The expo was called Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes and introduced the profession of interior decorators. Le Corbusier designed the Pavilion de L’Esprit Nouveau.
(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.B18)(SFC, 4/18/98, p.C3)(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A16)
1925 Marcel Mauss, French anthropologist, published “Essai sur le Don" (The Gift), which argued that in small-scale societies gifts are “total social facts."
(NH, 11/1/04, p.28)
1925 The Great Syrian Revolt, aka the Great Druze Revolt, was aimed against the French occupation in place since 1918. It was put down by the French by 1927.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Syrian_Revolt)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.73)
1925 The Michelin Guide introduced its star system for hotels and restaurants.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1925-1939 Joseph Roth (1894-1939), an Austrian Jew, was assigned to Paris by a Frankfurt newspaper. After one year the job was given to a Nationalist. He stayed in Paris and wrote for emigre publications and railed against Germany and racism in his essays and novels. In 2004 his selected essays appeared in English as "Report From a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939."
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M4)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.74)
1926 Feb 11, Paul Bocuse, French chef (Legion of Honor), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1926 May 3, Napoleon V Bonaparte (63), French pretender to the throne, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1926 May 19, French air force bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1926 Jun 26, A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France was unveiled at St. Nazaire.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1926 Jul 2, Emile Coue (b.1857 as Émile Coué de Châtaigneraie ), French psychologist and pharmacist, died. He introduced a method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. Working as an apothecary at Troyes from 1882 to 1910, Coué discovered what later came to be known as the placebo effect. He became known for reassuring his clients by praising each remedy's efficiency and leaving a small positive notice with each given medication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cou%C3%A9)
1926 Aug 10, Marie-Claire Alain, French organist, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar] Monet (b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny, where he’d painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original proponents of Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted fervently until his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up observing nature on the Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying under Charles Gleyre, Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They broke with their teacher and his conventions of painting that included, among other traditions, the painting of outdoor landscapes in a studio. Although he began to experiment with "series" in the late 1870s, his trademark method only appeared in earnest in the 1890s. This involved a series of paintings of the same subject under different lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned the style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.E2)
1926 Matisse painted "Odalisque." He produced more than 50 harem nudes between 1919 and 1929, a period where he spent winters by the seaside in Nice.
(WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A21)
1926 Gertrude Stein wrote her libretto for "Four Saints in Three Acts" while in Paris. It was put to music by Virgil Thompson in 1927. The world premier was in 1934.
(SFC, 9/23/00, p.B1)
1926 Publicis, a Paris-based advertising firm, was founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.71)
1927 Feb 21, Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer, was born in Beauvais, France.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1927 May 8, French pilots Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli took off from Paris in their airplane named L’Oiseau Blanc (the White Bird), in an attempt to cross the Atlantic. Pilots and plane vanished during the flight.
(ON, 2/08, p.2)
1926 May 19, French air force bombed Damascus, Syria. The French launched a major military campaign in Syria to suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against them was defeated and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of Lebanon. When the insurgents gained a foothold in Damascus, the French bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1927 May 21, Charles Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy) landed in Le Bourget Field in Paris after a 33.5-hour nonstop, first solo flight from Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long Island. In 1953 Lindbergh authored his memoir “The Spirit of St. Louis."
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 10/20/99, p.C10)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 May 26, Jacques Bergerac, actor (Gigi, Les Girls, Thunder in Sun), was born in France.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1927 Aug 4, Eugène Atget (b.1857) French photographer, died. He was noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris. An inspiration for the surrealists and other artists, his work only gained wide attention after his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Atget)
1927 Sep 14, Isadora Duncan (born in San Francisco in 1878), modern dance pioneer, died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car. A 1968 film with Vanessa Redgrave portrayed her life.
(AP, 9/14/97)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)(SFC, 9/13/02, p.E2)
1927 Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter, had his 1st solo exhibit in Paris.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1927 Julien Benda (1867-1956), French writer, authored “La Trahison des Clercs," (Treason of the Clerks). The title of the English translation was The Betrayal of the Intellectuals. The book described the politicization of Western intellectuals, above all their willingness to abandon the disinterested search for truth.
(WSJ, 6/10/08, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Benda)
1927 The La Samaritaine department store in Paris was constructed. It replaced an earlier building built in 1905.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.)
1927 French law set the boundaries of the country’s Champagne region.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.B1)
1927 Eugene Atget (b.1857), French photographer, died.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.B3)
1927 Prince John Kropotkin, son of Russian Prince Alexei Kropotkin, was beaten to death on a Paris street. Soviet agents were suspected.
(SFC, 7/5/04, p.B4)
1927-1934 The Chicago Tribune published an edition in Paris. In 1987 Waverley Root authored “The Paris Edition."
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.W8)
1928 Jan 23, Jeanne Moreau, actress (Going Places, Jules & Jim), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1928 Jan 26, Roger Vadim, director (And God Created Women, Barbarella), was born in France.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1928 Feb 7, The United States signed an arbitration treaty with France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1928 Mar 21, VU, France’s first illustrated magazine, was launched and continued to May 29, 1940 running over 600 issues. Hungarian-born photographer Andre Kertesz worked there until he left for NYC in 1936.
(Econ, 11/27/10, p.93)(www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500543832.html)
1928 Apr 18, Jean-Francois Pailliard, conductor, was born in Vitry-le-Francois, France.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1928 Jun 20, Jean-Marie Le-Pen, leader of the National Front party in France, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1928 Aug 13, Fernand de La Tombelle (b.1854), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1928 Aug 27, The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1928 Oct 9, Marcel Pagnol's "Topaz," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1928 Oct 23, Francois V. Alphonse Aulard (b.1849), French historian, died.
(www.fact-index.com/f/fr/francois_victor_alphonse_aulard.html)
1928 Nov 22, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel made its debut in Paris.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1928 "The expression "false friends" (for similar words in two languages that have different meanings) originally comes from the French "faux amis", a term used for the first time in 1928 by Koessler and Derocquigny in their book "Les faux amis ou les trahisons du vocabulaire anglais" (Vuibert)..."
(http://www.santesson.com/engfalsk.htm)
1929 Feb 1, Weightlifter, Charles Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1929 Feb 23, Regine Crespin, operatic soprano, was born in Marseilles, France.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1929 Mar 9, Marcel Pagnol's "Marius," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77), Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1929 Nov 24, Georges Clemenceau (b.1841), French journalist and premier (1917-20), died. He is noted for the quote: “La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier à des militaires." (War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men).
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Clemenceau)
1929 Dec 18, Helene Delangle (1900-1984), French racing pioneer, became the fastest woman driver in the world, averaging 120.5 mph at Montlhery, France. In 2004 Miranda Seymour authored “The Bugatti Queen: In search of a Motor-Racing Legend."
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.81)
1929 Picasso painted "Large Nude in a Red Armchair."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)
1929 Jean Cocteau wrote his novel "Les Enfants Terribles" while in a sanatorium trying to shake his opium habit. He narrated the 1950 film version. In 1997 it was made into an opera by Philip Glass.
(WSJ, 11/26/96, p.A16)(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1929 The 1st int'l. festival of dance was held in Paris. Lucia Joyce (22), daughter of James Joyce, qualified as one of the 6 finalists. Her beau was Samuel Beckett. Lucia (d.1982) spent her last 30 years in a mental hospital in England. In 2003 Carol Loeb Shloss authored "Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake."
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M3)
1929 The French government of Leon Blum nationalized the defense industry, railways and the Bank of France in the wake of the stock market crash.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.71)
1930 Mar 5, Lorin Maazel, conductor (NBC Symphony Orch 1941), was born in Neuilly, France.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1930 Apr 30, The Soviet Union proposed military alliance with France and Great Britain.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1930 Jun 24, Claude Chabrol, French film director (The Cousins, Madame Bovary), was born.
(HN, 6/24/01)
1930 Jun 30, France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1930 Sep 2, The first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the US was completed as Captain Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, New York, aboard a Breguet biplane. The plane was known as "The Question Mark" because it bore a large question mark, instead of a name, on each side.
(AP, 9/2/08)
1930 Oct 1, Philippe Noiret, actor (Soleil, Les Milles, Il Postino), was born in Lille, France.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1930 Picasso painted "Seated Bather," a picture of his wife seated on the beach like a kind of sea monster.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)
1930 Jean Cocteau made his 1st film: The Blood of a Poet."
(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1930 The French publication L’Abomination Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1930s In 2000 William Wiser authored "The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s."
(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.19)
1931 Mar 27, Charlie Chaplin received France's distinguished Legion of Honor.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1931 Dec 2, Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent D'indy (80), French count and composer, died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1931 Pierre Bonnard painted his Self-Portrait, "The Boxer" and "Still Life in front of a Window."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1931 Picasso (1881-1973) transformed the features of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter into a series of monumental plaster heads, later cast in bronze), which simultaneously evoke male and female genitalia. He also painted "Woman with Yellow Hair" this year.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)
1931 Jean de Brunhoff (d.1937), French painter, published “Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant" (The Story of Babar, the Little elephant). He illustrated the Babar stories which were invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.W12)
1931 The French publication Le Cancer Americaine railed against the inhumanity of American life.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.75)
1932 Feb 6, Francois Truffaut, French film director, was born. His work included "The 400 Blows" and "Shoot the Piano Player."
(HN, 2/6/01)
1932 Feb 19, Jean-Pierre Ponnele, opera director (Carmina Burana), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1932 Mar 7, Aristide Briand (b.1862), 11-time premier of France (Nobel 1926), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Briand)
1932 Mar 12, Ivar Kreuger (b.1880), the so-called "Swedish Match King," committed suicide in Paris, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be worthless. The “Kreuger crash’ shook Wall Street and led to a 1933 Securities Act, which strengthened disclosure requirements for all companies selling stock. In 1961 Robert Shaplen authored “Kreuger, Genius and Swindler."
(AP, 3/12/99)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.115)
1932 Aug 18, Auguste Piccard and Max Cosijns reached 16,201m in a balloon.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1932 Sep 13, Paul Gorguloff, the murderer of French Pres. Doumer, was beheaded.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1932 Oct 29, The French liner Normandie was launched.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1932 Oct 30, Louis Malle, director (Atlantic City, Black Moon, Viva Maria), was born in France.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1932 Nov 28, France & USSR signed not-attack treaty.
(DT internet 11/28/97)
1932 Nov 29, Jacques Chirac was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1932 Picasso (1881-1973) painted "The Mirror." In 1989 it sold for $26.4 mil. and in 1995 for $20 mil. He also painted "Bather With a Beach Ball" later at New York’s MOMA. His work "The Dream" sold for $48.4 mil in 1997. His painting "Nu au fauteuil noir" (nude on a black armchair), a nude portrait of Maria-Theresa Walter, was auctioned for $45.1 million in 1999. His work "Compotier et Guitare" sold for $8.9 million in 2000. A painting titled “La Lecture," depicting his young lover Maria-Theresa Walter (17), sold in 2011 for $40.7 million.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 11/25/97, p.A20)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.B1)(WSJ, 11/10/99, p.A4)(WSJ, 5/12/00, p.W16)(SFC, 2/9/11, p.A2)
1932 In France the Basler Handelbank affair broke out. The president and vice-president of the commercial bank in Basle were arrested in Paris by the French police. In their trunks, the investigators found the list of 2,000 French clients who had confidentially deposited their holdings in Switzerland. They represented all of French high society: a few senators, a former minister, bishops, generals and manufacturers.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.62)(http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/banking/secrecy/handelsbank.html)
1932 Paul Ricard (1909-1997) mixed liquorice, aniseed and star aniseed to make the aperitif that he called Ricard pastis. His brand became a market leader and he became one of the country’s richest and most influential men. The Ricard firm later became Pernod Ricard.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)(Econ, 4/5/08, p.68)
1932 In Mali French colonial authorities planned a 2.47 million acre irrigation project to grow cotton and rice and to develop hydropower in the Mali desert. By 1982 only 6% of the region was developed. The World Bank took over in 1985 with some success in farming rice.
(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
1933 Feb 26, Sir James Goldsmith (d.7/18/97), later financier and corporate raider (Referendum Party), was born in Paris to a Catholic French mother and a German Jewish father who later moved to Britain and served as a Conservative member of parliament.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.B6)(SC, 2/26/02)
1933 Feb 27, Jean Genet's "Intermezzo," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1933 Jun 19, France granted Leon Trotsky political asylum.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1933 Dec 24, A Paris express train derailed and killed 160. Some 300 were injured.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1933 Dec, In France the financial scandal known as the Stavisky Affair triggered right-wing agitation that caused a major crisis for the government. In December 1933 the bonds issued by the credit organization of financier Alexandre Stavisky were found to be worthless and in January 1934 Stavisky was found dead. Although ruled a suicide, the French right wing claimed Stavisky had been killed to cover up the involvement of government officials in the scandal. [see Feb 6, 1934]
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1933 Stephane Grappelli, jazz violinist, and Django Reinhardt, Gypsy guitarist, began playing with bassist Louis Vola at the Hotel Claridges in Paris and went on to form formed the Hot Club Quintet.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)
1933 Rene Lacoste (b.1905), French tennis player, founded the Lacoste apparel company. He applied a crocodile insignia to polo shirts after his nickname, “Le Crocodile." His son Bernard Lacoste (1931-2006) succeeded as president in 1963.
(SFC, 3/23/06, p.B7)
1933 Eugene Marioton (b.1854/57), French sculptor, died. Some sources date his death to 1925. Some 400 bronzes are attributed to him, including one titled “Diogenes" (c.1885).
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.G2)(http://bullrichgaonawernicke.com/R64/pag64-escultura.htm)
1934 Feb 6, Anti-republican and Fascist forces seized upon the Stavisky scandal and instigated anti-government demonstrations, culminating in the February 6, 1934 riot in front of the Chamber of Deputies in which 15 were killed.
(HNQ, 4/20/99)
1934 Jul 4, "Madame" Marie Curie-Sklodovska, Polish-born French chemist and Nobel Prize winner, died in Paris of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography." In 2004 Barbara Goldsmith authored “Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie."
(ON, 3/00, p.2)(http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=madameCurie)(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.E2)
1934 Sep 28, Brigitte Bardot, French film actress, sex kitten (And God Created Women), was born in Paris.
(HN, 9/28/00)(MC, 9/28/01)
1934 Oct 5, Jean Vigo (b.1905), French film director, died. His films included "A Propos de Nice " (1929), "Taris" (1931", "Zero for Conduct" (1933) and "L'Atalante" (1934). His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vigo)(SFC, 10/30/18, p.E1)
1934 Oct 9, In Marseilles, a Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary assassinated King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations brought the threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation was prevented by the League of Nations. 2 newsreel cameramen captured the assassination on film
(HN, 10/9/98)(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A8)
1934 Oct 23, Jean Piccard and Jeanette Ridlen attained a record balloon height of 17,341m.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1934 The film "Affaires Publique" was the first directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1934 Henri Pigozzi founded Simca (Societe Industrielle de Mecanique et Carrosserie Automobile), at Nanterre, France. Translated it means an industrial company that makes car mechanics and bodywork.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1934 Marie Curie, Nobel Prize winner, died of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation. In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography."
(ON, 3/00, p.2)
1934 French Equatorial Africa was transformed into a unified territory of France, but in 1946 it was re-divided into four separate overseas territories.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1935 Mar 29, French liner Normandie began its maiden voyage.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1935 Jun 3, The French liner Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days, 11 hours and 42 minutes.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1935 Jul 12, Alfred Dreyfus, French officer of Jewish background, died in Paris. His trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history. It is still known today as the Dreyfus Affair.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1935 Jul 25, Laurent Terzieff, actor (Pharaoh-Moses the Law Giver), was born in Paris, France.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1935 Nov 3, Left-wing groups in France formed the Socialist and Republican Union.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1935 Nov 8, Alain Delon, French actor (Honor Among Thieves, Return of Zorro), was born.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1935 Jacques Pepin was born in Bourg-en-Bresse to the proprietors of the restaurant called Le Pelican.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1935 Piet Mondrian made his abstract "Composition No. 3. White-Yellow." It was first painted in Paris and then repainted in New York City in 1942.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A17)
1935 France passed a set of laws known as Appellation d’Origine Controlee (controlled place of origin). The AOC laws were meant to protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin. They were not intended as an indicator of quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1935 Paul Signac (b.1863), French neo-impressionist pointillist painter, died. His work included "Portrait of Felix Feneon, Opus 217" (1890-1891).
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A24)
1936 Feb 12, In France more than 4.5 million workers came out on strike; 1 million took to the streets, shutting the country down.
(www.greenleft.org.au/node/33582)
1936 Feb 13, Leon Blum, shortly before becoming Prime Minister, was dragged from a car and almost beaten to death by the Camelots du Roi, a group of anti-Semites and royalists. The right-wing Action Française league was dissolved by the government following this incident, not long before the elections that brought Blum to power.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Mar 25, Britain, the U.S. and France signed a naval accord in London.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1936 May 3, The Popular Front in France achieved a majority of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which led to the formation of the first Popular Front ministry under Leon Blum.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1936 Jun 4, Leon Blum became the first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1936 Sep 25-1936 Oct 13, The Tripartite Agreement between the US, the UK, and France established that the subscribing nations agree to buy and sell gold freely with each other in exchange for their own currency.
(www.reserveasset.gold.org/monetary_history/key_documents/after/)
1936 Aug 2, French aviator Louis Bleriot (b.1872) died. He made the first crossing of the English Channel from Calais to the grounds of Dover Castle in 1909.
(ON, 6/07, p.9)
1936 Nov 5, French writer Andre Gide criticized the Soviet regime.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1936 The first comprehensive catalogue of Cezanne’s work was published in Paris by Italian scholar Lionello Venturi.
(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)
1936 France underwent a round of nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in 1945-46 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1936 French PM Leon Blum (1872-1950) introduced the 2-week paid holiday for all French workers. In the early 1980s this was extended to 5 weeks.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.59)
1936-1937 Leon Blum, a socialist intellectual, was the head of the Popular Front government. The 1999 book "Burden of Responsibility" by Tony Judt included an analysis of Blum.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1937 Sep 2, Pierre de Coubertin (b.1863), French Baron and the major force behind the revival of the modern Olympics, died.
(ON, 8/07, p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin)
1937 Dec 28, French composer Maurice Ravel (b.1875) died in Paris.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel)
1937 Henri Matisse created his painting “L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue." In 2007 it was auctioned by Christie’s in NYC for a record $33.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1937 George Bernanos, French writer, authored “The Diary of a Country Priest."
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.P8)
1937 Bronislava Nijinska created her legendary "Chopin Concerto Ballet" for the Paris Int’l. Expo.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.E5)
1937 The French film "Yoshiwara" was set in Japan and directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1937 The Eiffel Tower was embroidered with 10,000 meters of pink, blue and green neon to celebrate an int’l. exposition.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1937 French schools were instructed to exclude religious symbols.
(WPR, 3/04, p.9)
1937 Jean de Brunhoff (37), French painter, died of tuberculosis. He illustrated the Babar stories invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)
1938 Feb 27, Britain and France recognized the Franco government in Spain.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1938 Apr 9, In Tunisia French troops cracked down on nationalist-inspired rioting in Tunis. 122 Tunisians were killed by French troops. Tunisians remembered this as Martyr’s Day.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/07/local/me-17142)
1938 Jun 19, The Italian soccer team performed the fascist salute in Colombes Stadium, Paris, before the start of the World Cup soccer final match against Hungary. Italy defended its World Cup title, beating Hungary 4-2. It would keep the Jules Rimet Trophy for another 12 years as the world descended into war.
(AP, 5/16/18)
1938 Jul 4, France-Turkish friendship treaty.
(Maggio, 98)
1938 July 6, Delegates from thirty-two countries met for 9 days at the French resort of Evian to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austrian. The German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]." The French foreign ministry, the Quai d’Orsay, sabotaged the Evian conference on European refugees, the only diplomatic effort to alleviate the fate of “stateless" German and Austrian Jews.
(http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/evian/evian.html)(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1938 Sep 29, British, French, German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority. The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a detailed political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe, culminating in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises."
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP, 9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1938 Nov 7, Ernst vom Rath (29), a German diplomat in Paris, was shot and mortally wounded by a 17-year-old Polish Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan, who had fled from Germany to France. Rath died after two days and news of his death triggered Nazi reprisals.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_vom_Rath)
1938 Dec 6, France and Germany signed a treaty of friendship.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1938 Dec 17, Italy declared the 1935 pact with France invalid, because ratification's had not been exchanged. France denied the argument.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1938 Dec 28, France ordered the doubling of forces in Somaliland; two warships were sent.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1938 Man Ray created an imaginary portrait of the Marquis de Sade.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.3)
1938 Julien Gracq (1910-2007), French writer, published "Au chateau d'Argol" (The Castle of Argol). It was favorably reviewed by the Surrealist leader Andre Breton, who became a friend and a strong influence.
(AP, 12/23/07)
1938 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, shot his first masterpiece, "Hotel du Nord." His style became known as "poetic realism."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1938 Georges Melies, pioneering filmmaker, died at age 77. His work included some 498 movies of which only about 50 survive. In 1975 Paul Hammond authored "Marvelous Melies."
(ON, 1/00, p.9)
1939 Jan 21, Picasso painted two pictures, both titled "Reclining Woman with Book." In one Marie-Theresa Walter is pictured in a smooth S-curve, in the other Dora Maar (born as Theodora Markovitch d.1997 at 89) is broken into jagged forms. Maar was a painter and photographer and struggled to develop her own ambitions, but failed and spent much of her life as a recluse.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A24)
1939 Jan 27, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1939 Feb 6, Spanish government fled to France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1939 Feb 10, Japanese occupied the island of Hainan in French Indochina.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1939 May 20, Regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Marseilles, France.
(AP, 5/20/97)(MC, 5/20/02)
1939 May 27, Joseph Roth, Austrian-born Jewish writer, died in Paris. His books included “Radetzkymarsch" (The Radetzky March) (1932), a novel of the Habsburg empire from 1859-1916 and “The Auto-da-Fe of the Mind."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jroth.htm)
1939 Jun 17, Eugene Weldman became the last person guillotined in France.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1939 Jul 21, Ambroise Vollard (b.1866), French art patron, author and publisher, died in a car crash. He wrote biographies on Cézanne, Degas, and Renoir. Many of his works, including pantings by Derain, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse, ended up in the hands of Erich Slomovic, a young Croatian Jew who had come to Paris in the mid-1930s and befriended the aging dealer. Slomovic was killed by the nazis in 1942. The art remained locked up in a Paris bank vault until it was found in 1979. In 2010 it was put up for auction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambroise_Vollard)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2dbmtbc)
1939 Aug 25, Britain and France signed a treaty with Poland promising military assistance should the Germans invade.
(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1939 Sep 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Germany ignored Great Britain's ultimatum to stop the invasion of Poland, Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, NZ, South Africa & Canada.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1939 Sep 7, In response to the German invasion of Poland a week earlier, France invaded its neighbor Germany. In Operation Saar, French forces marched into the Cadenbronn and Wendt Forest near Saarrucken. The French met little or no opposition as they drove five miles into Germany. The sluggish advance was hindered by low troop morale and lack of support. The Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland from the east on September 17 prompted the French withdrawal to the Maginot Line in anticipation of a German counterattack. The only French offensive of WWII lasted 14 days.
(HNQ, 7/9/99)
1939 Sep 30, The French Army was called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.
(HN, 9/30/99)
1939 Pierre Bonnard painted "The Garden."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1939 Nathalie Sarraute published her book of 24 sketches called "Tropisms."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1939 The French film "Rules of the Game" was directed by Jean Renoir. It was later considered the greatest movie ever made.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.D4)
1939 Heinrich Hoffman (b.1875), Paris glass artist, died.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.G4)
1939-1945 Of the 330,000 Jews in France at the start of the war, about 76,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps and only 2,500 survived.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A8)
1940 Mar 25, The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1940 Apr 15, French and British troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1940 May 12, The Nazi blitz conquest of France began with the crossing at the Meuse River.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1940 May 14, British and French forces began a general retreat from Belgium, heading southwest toward France.
(ON, 12/12, p.1)
1940 May 14, German breakthrough at Sedan, France.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 15, German armor division moved into Northern France.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1940 May 17, Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium, and began the invasion of France. [see May 12]
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1940 May 20, British Admiral Bertram H. Ramsay met with his staff beneath Dover Castle to draw up a formal plan for the evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk. The plan was called “Operation Dynamo."
(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 21, Nazis surrounded the British Army at Dunkirk. British and French forces staged a counterattack near Arras, but failed to clear a path to Le Havre.
(HN, 5/21/98)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 21, British tank forces attacked General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1940 May 22, Premier Winston Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1940 May 24, German tanks reached Atrecht, France.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1940 May 25, German troops conquered Boulogne and captured Calais.
(SC, 5/25/02)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 26, Operation Dynamo was launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France. The German Luftwaffe launched a bombing campaign on the harbor of Dunkirk. The new British Spitfire fighters helped provide air cover. The operation continued to June 4.
(ON, 3/07, p.2)(AP, 5/26/97)(ON, 8/12, p.2)
1940 May 28, During the evacuation at Dunkirk a Germany torpedo boat sank the HMS Wakeful sending over 700 men to their deaths. A Germany submarine hit the destroyer HMS Grafton killing 35 army officers. Other British destroyers mistook the British drifter Comfort for an enemy torpedo boat and killed all but 5 men aboard. The Queen of the Channel was hit by Germany bombs. Most of the 950 soldiers on board were transferred to a rescue ship before the ferry went down.
(ON, 8/12, p.3)
1940 May 29, Germans captured Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1940 May 29, The German air force launched massive attacks on the harbor at Dunkirk. A British destroyer and 6 of the biggest merchant ships in the harbor were sunk.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 May 26, The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, during World War II began.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1940 May 31, British General Bernard Montgomery left Dunkirk. The French government allowed French soldiers to be picked up at Dunkirk.
(MC, 5/31/02)(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 May 31, Winston Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1940 Jun 1, German air attacks at Dunkirk sank 31 vessels and damaged 11. The HMS Worcester limped back to Dover with 340 dead and 400 wounded. By midnight 64,429 men were landed safely in England.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 Jun 2, Britain’s Operation Dynamo save 26,256 men from Dunkirk.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1940 Jun 3, The German Luftwaffe hit Paris with 1,100 bombs.
(HN, 6/3/98)
1940 Jun 4, The Allied military evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1940 Jun 4, German forces entered Paris.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1940 Jun 5, The Battle of France began during World War II. Germany attacked French forces along the Somme line.
(HN, 6/5/99)(AP, 6/5/07)
1940 Jun 10, Italy declared war on France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1940 Jun 13, Paris was evacuated before the German advance on the city.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1940 Jun 15, The French fortress of Verdun was captured by Germans.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1940 Jun 16, French Chief of State, Henri Petain, asked for an armistice with Germany. [see Jun 17]
(HN, 6/16/98)
1940 Jun 17, France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II. PM Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Lebrun that he appoint Marshal Philippe Petain (1856-1951) in his place. The French parliament gave dictatorial powers to Petain (1856-1951). In 2000 Ernest R. May authored "Strange Victory," an account of the French defeat.
(AP, 6/17/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_P%C3%A9tain)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.61)
1940 Jun 17, Gen. Charles de Gaulle flew to London.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Jun 18, Charles de Gaulle, future president of France, broadcast to his nation from London, urging it to rally to him and fight Hitler's invading army.
(AP, 6/18/99)
1940 Jun 19, German 7th Armor division under gen-maj Rommel occupied Cherbourg.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1940 Jun 21, Wolfgang Doblin, German-French mathematician, died. He committed suicide in Housseras (a small village near to Epinal), at the moment when German troops came in sight of the place. His work to describe the random movement of particles was later found to contain an important building block of the Black-Scholes equation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Doeblin)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.82)
1940 Jun 22, During World War II, Adolf Hitler gained a stunning victory as France was forced to sign an armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris. France and Germany signed an armistice at Compiegne, on terms dictated by the Nazis. Alsace again became part of Germany.
(AP, 6/22/97)(HN, 6/22/98)(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1940 Jun 24, France signed an armistice with Italy after the axis country attacked a portion of southern France during Germany's blitzkrieg.
(AP, 6/24/97)(HN, 6/24/99)
1940 Jun 25, Adolf Hitler viewed the Eiffel tower and tomb of Napoleon in Paris.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1940 Jun, The Germans began to loot the artwork of Paris and more than 70,000 residences were plundered. A lot of artwork was sold to the Emil Buhrle Foundation in Switzerland, the largest buyer of confiscated French art. The story is told by Hector Feliciano in his 1997 book: "The Lost Museum." The best book on the fate of European art in WW II was reported to be "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn Nicholas.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.7)
1940 Jul 3, British Royal Navy sank a French fleet in North Africa, ten days after France had signed an armistice with Nazi Germany.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 5, During World War II, Britain and Marshal Henri Petain's Vichy government in France broke diplomatic relations.
(AP, 7/5/97)(HN, 7/5/98)
1940 Aug 2, Clermont-Ferrand sentenced Gen. Charles de Gaulle to death. [see Aug 4]
(MC, 8/2/02)
1940 Aug 4, The Paris Soir reported that Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been condemned to death in absentia for treason by a Vichy military court.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug, Jacques Robert (d.1998 at 83) joined the French Resistance. He set up the Resistance group named Phratrie in 1942. In 1943 he was arrested in Nice, but escaped to London. He parachuted back to France to lead guerrilla operations in 1944 during the Normandy invasion.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)
1940 Sep 3, In France more than 700,000 books were seized from bookshops and destroyed. The "Otto lists," or liste Otto, were comprised of books banned by the German occupying authorities in Vichy France. By September, 1940, 1,060 titles were on the list. The list aimed to ban anti-German, antifascist, pro-Marxists books, works by Jewish authors and British and American books.
(HNQ, 8/16/98)
1940 Sep 12, The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, were discovered in the Dordogne region. 4 teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux France discover 17,000-year-old drawings now known as Lascaux Cave Paintings. The paintings consisting mostly of animal representations (horses), are among the finest examples of art from the Paleolithic period.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T4)(HN, 9/12/00)(MC, 9/12/01)
1940 Autumn, Maurice Schumann (d.1998 at 86), "the voice of France," began wartime broadcasting "The French Speak to the French" from London as the official spokesman for Gen’l. de Gaulle.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A24)
1940 Oct 3, In France the Vichy government passed a law that placed great restrictions on French Jews.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/3/01)
1940 Oct 24, Hitler met Marshal Petain.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1940 The French film "From Mayerling to Serajevo" starred John Cabot Lodge as Archduke Ferdinand and Edwige Feuillere as Czech Countess Sophie Chotek. It was directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1940 In France Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954), a Portuguese diplomat posted in Bordeaux, issued 30,000 visas to Jews and 20,000 to other refugees against the instructions of his government. Dictator Antonio Salazar responded by removing him from the diplomatic corps, denying him a pension and blacking out his actions from official state records.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.B5)
1940 American journalist Varian Fry headed to the southern French city of Marseille with just $3,000 and a list of about 200 people to try to save. In the end, he shepherded to safety about 2,000 people via the American-sponsored Emergency Rescue Committee, including artists Marc Chagall, Andre Breton and Max Ernst. Justus Rosenberg (19) delivered messages to refugees and searched for possible routes for safe passage. Rosenberg later served with the French Resistance and the US Army.
(AFP, 3/31/17)
1940 Vichy authorities appointed Prof. Bernard Fay (1893-1978) as head of France’s Bibliotheque Nationale. In 1941 Fay was responsible for the imprisonment of some 6,000 Freemasons and for more than 500 of them being sent to their deaths during the German occupation. In 1946 Fay was tried and convicted for collaboration and sentenced to life in prison. In 1951 Gertrude Stein helped to finance his escape from a prison hospital. He fled to Switzerland and lived there until he was granted pardon in 1958.
(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/fay_b/fay_b.html)
1940 Francois Lehideux (d.1998 at 95), the minister of industrial production, agreed that Renault would furnish parts to the German army, repair tanks and provide technical assistance in the war effort. He was arrested and jailed after liberation, but was freed in 1946. He went on to head Ford of France until 1953.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1940 Following the fall of France Claude Peri commandeered the merchant ship Le Rhin and placed it at the disposal of British naval intelligence. Peri got his mistress, Madeleine Bayard, the job of cipher officer on the ship. It was renamed the HMS Fidelity and got torpedoed in 1942. In 2005 Edward Marriot authored “Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of Love War and Espionage."
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.69)
1940-1941 In France the Emergency Rescue Committee, led by New York writer Varian Fry, saved some 2,000 cultural elite. The group operated out of the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille. In 2006 Rosemary Sullivan authored “Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille.
(SSFC, 12/3/06, p.M3)
1940-1944 Germany occupied France. In 1998 Ian Ousby published "Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944." In 2009 Frederic Spotts authored “The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation." In 2009 Charles glass authored “American in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944." In 2010 Alan Riding authored “And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied France."
(SFEC, 8/16/98, Par p.8)(WSJ, 1/3/09, p.W6)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.84)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.96)
1941 Jan 28, French General Charles DeGaulle's Free French forces sacked south Libya oasis.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1941 Feb 6, Maximilien Luce (b.1858), French anarchist and Neo-Impressionist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Luce)
1941 Feb 26, Vichy-France made religious education in school mandatory.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Mar 10, Vichy France threatened to use its navy if Britain would not allow food to reach France.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 3, Andre Michelin (88), French tire manufacturer, died. In 2004 Herbert Lottman authored "The Michelin Men: Driving an Empire," the story of Andre and Edouard Michelin.
(MC, 4/3/02)(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1941 Apr 12, Vichy-France's head of government Admiral Dalan consulted with Hitler.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1941 Apr 12, Alain Le Ray (1910-2006), a leader in the French Resistance, become the first to escape from the infamous Colditz prison in Germany. Le Ray had been captured in June 1940. The Nazis had touted the jail as escape proof, and his exploits were recounted in the 1976 book "Premiere a Colditz" ("First in Colditz").
(AP, 6/8/07)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/cold_01.html)
1941 Apr 14, The 1st massive German raid in Paris rounded up 3,600 Jews. [see May 14]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1941 Apr 19, Michel Roux, chef de cuisine, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1941 May 3, Pierre Seel (17) was arrested in Alsace-Lorraine by the German Gestapo and tortured for 10 days for his homosexuality. In 1994 he authored the memoir “I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual."
(SFC, 12/2/05, p.B5)
1941 May 14, French Admiral Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, broadcast to the citizens that only within the confines of the Third Reich can France thrive.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 Jul 14, Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, allowing them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.
(HN, 7/14/99)
1941 Jul 21, France accepted Japan's demand for military control of Indochina.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1941 Jul, Artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella Rosenfeld departed France for America. On the same day that he left Vichy police deported some 1,200 other Jewish refugees to forced labor in north Africa.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.102)
1941 Aug 12, French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announced full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the 11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 29, Henri Louis (40), French officer, resistance fighter, was executed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1941 Sep, Jean "Max" Moulin was smuggled to London to meet Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistance, and the other exiled French leaders. In January 1942 the SOE parachuted him back into France, to set up an organized Resistance movement.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1941 Oct 2, 6 Paris synagogues were bombed by Gestapo. [see Oct 3]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1941 Oct 3, Nazi's blew up 6 synagogues in Paris. [see Oct 2]
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 22, Guy Moquet (17) was executed by a German firing squad, one of dozens of communists condemned by an official in France's collaborationist Vichy regime in reprisal for the murder of a German officer.
(AP, 10/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_M%C3%B4quet)
1941 Nov 26, Free French General Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. Shortly after taking up this post, Catroux recognized the independence of Syria and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria-Lebanon_campaign)
1941 Dec 12, German occupying army searched house to house in Paris looking for Jews.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1941 Dec 25, Free French occupied the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1942 Feb 9, The former French cruise ship Normandie, launched in 1935, burned in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. It was once regarded as most elegant ocean liner ever built. In 1947 it was cut up for scrap. In 2007 John Maxtone-Graham authored “Normandie."
(AP, 2/10/97)(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W13)
1942 Feb 27, British Commandos raided a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast. The warrior spies of the Abwehr, Germany's intelligence agency, were the Brandenburg commandos.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1942 Feb 27, The 1st transport of French Jews left to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1942 Mar 3, The RAF raided the industrial suburbs of Paris.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1942 Mar 11, 1st deportation train left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1942 Mar 27-28, Allies raided the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1942 Mar 28, During World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire. British Bomber Command launched an attack on the German city of Lubeck.
(AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)
1942 Apr 20, Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, established a policy of "true reconciliation with Germany."
(HN, 4/20/99)
1942 Jun 8, In Paris on the first day Helene Berr was forced to wear the yellow star to distinguish Jews: "My God, I didn't know this would be so hard. I was very brave all day. I held my head high and looked people so straight in the eyes they turned away. But it's hard ... This morning, I went out with Mother. Two kids in the street pointed at us saying 'Hey? You see? Jewish.'"
(AP, 1/9/08)
1942 Jun 18, Eric Nessler of France stayed aloft in a glider for 38h 21m.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1942 Jul 16, The first large-scale roundups of Jews began under protests by only a half-dozen Catholic church leaders. French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews over 2 days in Paris, many of whom were first holed up in harsh conditions at Paris' Vel d'Hiv, or the Winter Velodrome stadium. The roundup of foreign-born Jews was based on a list compiled by Paris police. Some 125,000 Jews had been recorded in a roll based on a census the Nazis demanded in 1941. In 1942 the Vichy police handed over some 40,000 Jews to the Germans.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.49)(AP, 7/22/12)(AFP, 9/19/18)
1942 Jul, Maurice Papon (1910-2007), French civil servant, in his first report to German occupiers, noted that he had “dejudaised" 204 businesses, while 493 others were “in the process of dejudaisation."
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 11, During World War II, Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared that "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."
(AP, 8/11/99)
1942 Aug 17, U.S. Eighth Air Force bombers attacked Rouen, France.
(AP, 8/17/02)
1942 Aug 19, About 5,000 Canadian and 2,000 British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France. Over 3,600 men perished in this battle. The information gathered from this landing was considered valuable for planning the successful Allied landings in Northern Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, France. Brit. Col. Pat Porteous (d.2000) received a Victoria Cross for his valor in the attack which was aimed at gaining experience for the later D-Day invasion.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/98)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A22)(MC, 8/19/02)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug, Irene Nemirovsky (39), French-Jewish author, died at Auschwitz. She had recently authored "Suite Francaise" while waiting in rural France for what she knew was her imminent arrest and deportation. It is a powerful account of the effect on ordinary people of the military collapse of June 1940, the panicked flight from Paris and the arrival of the German army. It was finally published in France in 2004 and Nemirovsky was awarded a top French literary award. In 2006 Jonathan Weiss authored “Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life and Works."
(AFP, 11/8/04)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.M1)(SSFC, 5/16/10, p.F5)
1942 Sep 5, British & US bombed Le Havre & Bremen.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1942 Sep 20, In France a shipment of 1,000 French and foreign Jews, including 163 children, was arranged by Vichy administrator Michel Junot. They were sent to Drancy, north of Paris, and then to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A14)
1942 Sep 21, Nazis executed 116 hostages in Paris.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1942 Nov 5, Nazis raided on Greek Jews in Paris.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1942 Nov 8, Vichy-France dropped diplomatic relations with US.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1942 Nov 9, Transport #44 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1942 Nov 10, Admiral Jean Darlan ordered French forces in North Africa to cease resistance to the Anglo-American forces. Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was assassinated in Algiers in 1942.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1942 Nov 11, 745 French Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1942 Nov 11, French warrant officer Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) escaped from German captivity, made his way to Senegal, in what was then French West Africa, and was commissioned into Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces.
(AP, 6/18/10)
1942 Nov 11, Germany completed its occupation of France.
(AP, 11/11/04)
1942 Nov 27, During World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1942 Nov, Virginia Hall, an American spy working for the British Special Operations Executive in France, escaped to Spain. In 2005 Judith Pearson authored a biography of Hall titled “The Wolves at the Door."
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A11)
1942 Dec 18, Hitler met with Mussolini and Pierre Laval.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1942 Dec 24, Jean LXF Darlan, French admiral and leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was murdered by Gaullists in Algiers.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1942 Henri Matisse created his painting “Danseuse dans le fauteuil." It sold for $22 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2007.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
1942 Jean Anouilh wrote his play "Antigone." It was staged in Paris in 1944 during the German occupation.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.C6)(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1942 Albert Camus (1913-1960), Algeria-born French writer, authored "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus." He established himself as a spokesman for a philosophy of the absurd along with Jean-Paul Sartre.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.P14)
1942 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, made "Night Visitors" (Les Visiteurs du Soir).
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1942 The French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews in Paris including some 4,000 children. In 2010 the film “La Rafle" portrayed these events through the eyes of Jo Weisman (11), who later escaped from an internment camp near Orleans.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.60)
1942 In France the Nazis banned English language films. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was the last English-language film shown.
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)
1942-1944 Maurice Papon served as the Vichy police supervisor in Bordeaux [the deputy prefect in Gironde]. He was later charged with the arrest and deportation of 1,690 French Jews. Under the Vichy regime some 75,000 (76,000) were deported to Nazi death camps. Rene Bousquet was the national Vichy police chief.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/1/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1943 Jan 8, The British handed Madagascar over to the Free French.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1943 Jan 13, General Leclerc's Free French forces merged with the British under Montgomery in Libya.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1943 Jan 14, Roosevelt, Churchill, and de Gaulle met at Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the direction of the war. The Casablanca Conference, a pivotal 10-day meeting during WWII between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill, determined unconditional surrender would be the only basis of negotiations with the Axis. Roosevelt and Churchill also pledged maximum aid to the Soviet Union and China in the war. French generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud played minor roles and were not part of the military planning.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference)(AP, 1/14/98)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Apr 23, Herve Villechaize, actor, (Fantasy Island), was born in France.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1943 May 27, French resistance members under Jean Moulin met secretly in Paris.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1943 Jun 5, German occupiers arrested Louvain University's chancellor.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1943 Jun 21, Jean "Max" Moulin, French resistance fighter, was betrayed by fellow Frenchmen and captured in a massive anti-resistance dragnet. Raymond Aubrac (1914-2012) was captured along with Jean Moulin, when police raided a Resistance meeting spot, a doctor's office, near the southeastern city of Lyon. Lucie Aubrac helped orchestrate her husband's escape from a Lyon prison following his arrest.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)(AFP, 4/11/12)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b. Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1943 Jul 23, In France Marcel Langer (b.1903), Polish-born Jew, was guillotined after being sentenced to death by a Vichy court. He was a member of the International Brigades and the Toulouse resistance.
(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Langer_%281903-1943%29)
1943 Aug 9, Chaim Soutine (b.1893), Jewish expressionist painter, died in Paris of a perforated ulcer.
(WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine)
1943 Aug 25, Lt. Andre Devigny (d.1999 at 82) escaped from a German prison in Lyon. He was sentenced to be executed on Aug 28 for assassinating the head of the Fascist Italian secret police. He was captured the next day and escaped again by diving into the Rhone River. In 1957 Robert Bresson made the film "A Man Escaped" based on his story.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E2)
1943 Aug 26, The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1943 Aug 30, Jean Claude Killy, France, skier (Olympic-3 golds-1968), was born.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1943 Sep 6, The "Black Ghost," a B-17 bomber, was shot down over occupied France. Its crew survived 13 missions, but anti-aircraft flak and the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf fighters claimed the airplane. All 10 crew members survived the war.
(AP, 8/13/05)
1943 Sep 21, Bishara al-Khuri (1890-1964) was elected the first president of modern-day Lebanon. Lebanon did not become fully independent from French rule until 1946. Khuri had previously been Secretary-General of Mount Lebanon (a political predecessor to modern Lebanon administered by the French) as well as its Prime Minister on several separate occasions. The French held elections to fulfill their earlier promises of Lebanese independence. The new government promptly passed legislation to remove French influences in the constitution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechara_El_Khoury)
1943 Sep, Pearl Cornioley (1916-2008), a British agent, parachuted into France as a secret agent to help arm and organize the Resistance. In 1995 she wrote an autobiography and in 2006 Royal Air Force officers presented her with her parachute wings in a ceremony at her Paris retirement home.
(AP, 3/8/08)
1943 Oct 19, Camille Claudel (b.1864), assistant, model and mistress to sculptor Auguste Rodin, died in France.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Camille_Claudel)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.75)
1943 Oct 22, Catherine Deneuve, [Dorleac], actress (Repulsion, Hunger), was born in Paris.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1943 Oct 24, Anti-Nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender, Calais, began transmitting.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1943 Nov 22, The French mandate over Lebanon ended after 23 years of colonial rule. This became marked a Lebanon’s Independence Day.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Independence_Day)
1943 "The Little Prince" by Antoine de St. Exupery (d.1944) was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1943 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his best play "The Flies." It was based on an ancient myth. “Being and Nothingness," his most famous philosophical treatise, was also published this year.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1943 Working with a script by Jean Cocteau, Jean Delannoy (1908-2008) revisited the Tristan and Isolde legend in "L'Eternel Retour" (Eternal Return).
(AP, 6/19/08)
1943 The French film “Le Corbeau" was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1943 Sabina Zlatin (1907-1996) opened a home in Izieu to help Jewish children threatened by Nazi capture. She managed to smuggle about a 100 children to freedom before being ruthlessly shutdown. [see 4/6/44.]
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)
1943 Germaine Tillion (1907-2008) was sent to the Nazi camp for women and children in Ravensbruck, Germany, for her work with France's underground Resistance network. Later she was the recipient of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, one of France's highest distinctions.
(Reuters, 4/20/08)
1943 Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan used a modified gas feeder valve as an oxygen regulator for the "aqua lung."
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1944 Feb 4, Jean Anouilh's "Antigone," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1944 Mar 20, Pierre Pucheu (b.1899), French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy government, was executed following his arrest a year earlier in Casablanca. He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Pucheu)
1944 Mar 27, One-thousand Jews left Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1944 Mar, In the Alps town of Voiron 17 Jewish children were seized, sent to Drancy and then to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)
1944 Apr 4, De Gaulle formed a new regime in exile with communists.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1944 Apr 5, 140 Lancasters bombed airplane manufacturer in Toulouse.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1944 Apr 6, German trucks rolled up to the safehouse of Sabina Zlatin in Izieu-Ain, France, and 44 children and 7 teachers including Mr. Zlatin were arrested. The raid was ordered by Klaus Barbie, head of the German police in Lyons.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)(MC, 4/6/02)
1944 Apr 13, Transport No. 71 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1944 Apr 30, The 8th and 9th US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly sorties into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the Allied Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)
1944 Apr, Nancy Wake (1912-2011), a New Zealand-born Australian, parachuted back into France before D-Day, tasked with helping distribute weapons to Resistance fighters. She became known as the "The White Mouse" for her ability to evade the Germans. She and her husband had helped Allied servicemen and Jewish refugees escape into Spain before she took her partner's advice and fled to England in 1943.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
1944 May, In Paris the play "No Exit" by Jean-Paul Sartre was first produced. It depicts the dawning realization by 3 people that they are in hell and are each other’s punishment.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A13)
1944 Jun 5, Allied forces faked an invasion at Pas de Calais on the French coast with 500 dummies and explosives mimicking paratroopers setting their parachutes ablaze. The deception, 186 miles from Normandy, was named "Bodyguard" with Gen. George Patton in charge of the First United State Army Group, a made-up unit.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.113)
1944 Jun 6, On D-Day Brig. General Norman "Dutch" Cota was the first American General to step foot on Omaha Beach. Cota, assistant commander of the 29th Infantry Division, heroically spurred his men to cross the beach under withering German fire. He went on to lead his infantrymen across France to the Siegfried Line and in the battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
(HNQ, 4/15/99)
1944 Jun 6, Cherokee tribal members communicated via radios in their native language on the Normandy beaches. Some 6,603 Americans were killed along the coast of France during the D-day invasion. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died during the invasion. "D-Day" by Stephen Ambrose was published in 1994.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A6)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A22)(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A1)
1944 Jun 6, Danny Brotheridge, British lieutenant, became the 1st to die during D-Day. Over the next 10 weeks of fighting 300,000 men, women and children died in Normandy. In 2009 Antony Beevor authored “D-Day: The Battle for Normandy."
(SSFC, 6/6/04, D7)(http://tinyurl.com/lvhqs7)(Econ, 5/30/09, p.84)
1944 Jun 6, The code name for the beach used by the Canadians for the D-day invasion of Normandy was Juno.
(HNQ, 8/13/98)
1944 Jun 6, By the end of D-Day 156,000 Allied soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches with losses of 2,500 men. By the end of the day, the Allies had established a tenuous beachhead that would lead to an offensive that pinned Adolf Hitler's Third Reich between two pincers--the Western Allies and the already advancing Soviets--accelerating the end of World War II. A million Allied troops, under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved onto five Normandy beachheads in three weeks. Operations “Neptune" and “Overlord" put forces on the beaches and supplies aimed at the liberation of Europe and the conquest of Germany. Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied American, British, and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. In addition, US and British airborne forces landed behind the German lines and US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe de Hoc. More than 6,000 trucks of the Red Ball Express kept gasoline and other vital supplies rolling in as American troops and tanks pushed the Germans back toward their homeland.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)(HN, 6/6/98)(HNPD, 6/6/99)(ON, 2/08, p.12)
1944 Jun 8, The 1st SS-Panzer Korps counter attack was at Normandy.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1944 Jun 10, The U.S. VII and V corps, advancing from Normandy’s Utah and Omaha beaches, respectively, linked-up and began moving inland.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1944 Jun 10, German troops of the armored SS Division "Das Reich", as they headed toward Normandy to combat D-Day invasion forces, slaughtered 642 men, women and children in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France, and then set the town on fire. In 1983 a court in East Berlin convicted Heinz Barth (1921-2007), a former SS officer, and sentenced him to life in prison. In addition to involvement in the massacre, East German judges also found that Barth volunteered to participate in an execution of 92 Czech civilians in 1942. In 1997 his sentence was commuted to probation.
(AP, 8/14/07)(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A5)
1944 Jun 11, Germans launched an assault on the village of Graignes, France, where some 170 paratroopers had been involved in one of the worst misdrops of any airborne unit on D-Day. The American soldiers were forced to retreat. Maimed paratroopers left behind were split into two groups, some were marched down the road and executed, others were thrown into the marshes and bayoneted. Graignes was liberated from the Germans on July 12, 1944.
(Reuters, 5/23/19)
1944 Jun 17, French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1944 Jun 18, The U.S. First Army broker through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cut off the German held port of Cherbourg.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1944 Jun 22, US Pilot William Kalan and his 9-man crew bailed out of their B-24 Liberator during a mission over Nazi-occupied France. Kalan avoided capture and went on to work with the French underground to harass German troops. In 2009 Kalan (91) was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his covert service.
(SFC, 12/30/09, p.C3)
1944 Jun 25, British assault at Caen, Normandy.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1944 Jun 27, During World War II, American forces completed their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.
(AP, 6/27/97)(HN, 6/27/98)
1944 Jul 3, The U.S. First Army opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1944 Jul 7, Bomber Command dropped 2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 10, French railway workers called a strike in Paris.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Jul 12, US government recognized the authority of General De Gaulle.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1944 Jul 14, In France some 100,000 people took to the streets in a mass demonstration.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Jul 17, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was wounded when an Allied fighter strafes his staff car in France.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1944 Jul 18, U.S. troops capture Saint-Lo, France, ending the battle of the hedgerows.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1944 Jul 20, A heavy storm hampered a British offensive at Caen.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 25, Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1944 Jul 30, US 30th division reached the suburbs of St. Lo, Normandy.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1944 Jul 31, A large number of children were deported to Auschwitz from France by Alois Brunner, deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1944 Jul 31, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (44), author of "The Little Prince," died in a plane crash during reconnaissance off Marseilles. In 1949 Nelly de Vogue, his longtime mistress, authored the 1st Exupery biography. In 2001 a memoir by his widow, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery (d.1979) titled "The Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired the Little Prince," was published. Saint-Exupery's plane was found in 2004.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A15)(SSFC, 8/5/01, DB p.63)(SFC, 4/8/04, p.A2)
1944 Jul, In the wake of fighting at Vercors, 300 Nazi troops moved into the Catholic village of Prelenfrey and demanded the names of Jews hiding in the area. The soldiers at gunpoint interrogated 32 local men, but no information was revealed.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T8)
1944 Aug 2, The US 383rd Squadron assigned to Honnington, England, executed an air raid on a German ammunition train at Remy, France. Lt. Houston Lee Braley Jr. was killed in his downed P-51.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A1,18)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1944 Aug 15, American, British and French forces landed on the southern coast of France, between Toulon and Cannes, in Operation Dragoon.
(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/98)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 17, The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, met with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1944 Aug 19, In an effort to prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGaulle began attacking German forces all around the city.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1944 Aug 19, US 90th and Polish 1st Division occupied Chambois, Normandy.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Aug 19, In France Marcel Pinte (6), code name Quinquin, was killed when a sensitive Sten automatic pistol dropped from a parachute of arms and munitions into a field let off a spray of gunfire when the arms were being distributed. He had served as a veritable liaison agent crossing enemy lines to pass messages if needed.
(AP, 11/11/20)
1944 Aug 20, Gen. de Gaulle returned to France.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, United States and British forces closed the pincers on the German 7th Army in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 21-1947 Jun 3, Albert Camus edited the clandestine newspaper Combat. In 2006 his WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat."
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)
1944 Aug 22, Hitler ordered Paris to be destroyed.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 22, In Bordeaux, France, Heinz Stahlschmidt (d.2010 at 92), a junior officer in the German navy, defied his superiors plans to blow up Bordeaux's port by blowing up a munitions depot, rendering some 4,000 fuses useless and saving the port. Heinz Stahlschmidt became a French citizen in 1947 under the name of Henri Salmide and a Knight of the French Legion d’Honneur in September 2000.
(http://tinyurl.com/yesjr4g)(AP, 2/26/10)
1944 Aug 22, Last transport of French Jews departed to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Aug 23, German SS engineers began placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Adolf Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Allied troops captured Marseilles, France.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, General George Leclerc's troops advanced towards Paris.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 24, Allied forces captured Bordeaux. Spanish forces entered Paris.
(www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm)(SFC, 8/16/19, p.A4)
1944 Aug 25, Paris, occupied since June 1940, was liberated from German occupation by Free French Forces under General Jacques LeClerc and his 2nd Tank division. Although ordered by Adolf Hitler to leave Paris a smoldering ruin, Paris' military governor Major General Dietrich von Cholitz lied to his superiors and left the city's landmarks intact. Retreating German troops massacred 124 of Maille's 500 residents then razed the town, possibly in retaliation for Resistance action in the region.
(AP, 8/25/97)(HNPD, 8/25/98)(HN, 8/25/98)(AP, 7/16/08)
1944 Aug 25, US 12th Army Corp. reached Troyes.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1944 Aug 25, In France 11 US planes were shot down when a squadron was overwhelmed in a dogfight with 80 German fighters. 5 pilots survived and eluded capture. 2 pilots were captured. The remains of 3 missing were later recovered. In 2008 the remains of Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Ray Packard were identified and returned home.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.B8)
1944 Aug 26, US 12th Army Corps crossed the river Seine East of Paris.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1944 Aug 28, German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrendered to the Allies.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1944 Aug 29, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1944 Aug 31, The French provisional government moved from Algiers to Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1944 Aug, In the weeks following the liberation of France some 20,000 women, accused of relations with the enemy, had their heads shaven.
(Econ, 9/21/13, IL p.22)
1944 Sep 1, In Meximeux, France, Lt. Col. Michael Davison (1917-2006) led a 2-day defense against an attack by retreating German forces. In 1974 Meximeux named its town square “Place de General Davison."
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.B4)
1944 Sep 3, The U.S. Seventh Army captured Lyons, France. French troops liberate Lyon.
(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1944 Sep 5, Germany launched its first V-2 missile at Paris, France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1944 Sep 21, U.S. troops of the 7th Army, invading Southern France, crossed the Meuse River.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1944 Sep 22, The Allies reoccupied Boulogne.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1944 Sep 27, Aristide Maillol, French sculptor and graphic artist, died in car crash at 82.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1944 Sep 30, Calais was reoccupied by Allies.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1944 Oct 5, Joseph B "Aristide" Maillol, French sculptor and graphic artist, died.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1944 Oct 19, The US Army 442nd Regiment, composed of Japanese-Americans, fought their way into Bruyeres, France. It included the 100th Battalion of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.E5)
1944 Oct 25, In eastern France near Bruyeres Sgt. Clyde Lee Choate (d.2001 at 81) destroyed a German Mark IV tank with 2 bazooka shots while under heavy fire. Choate was later awarded the Medal of Honor and served in the Illinois Legislature (1947-1967). Choate gave credit for the medal to his 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A21)
1944 Nov 1, Gen. Patton greeted the 761st Tank Battalion, an all black unit, near Nancy, France. They had no day off until linking Russian allies on May 5, 1945.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.B4)
1944 Nov, The allies attacked Fort Jeanne d’Arc at Metz, France. Robert E. Gajdusek was wounded and captured and later wrote his memoir in 1998: "Resurrection, A War Journey."
(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.7)
1944 Dec 16, US Army Lt. Charles P. Murray Jr. (1921-2011) single-handedly overcame a force of some 200 Germans in northeastern France. He killed at least 20 enemy soldiers and with his platoon captured 10 others before a grenade severely injured his leg. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts.
(SFC, 8/17/11, p.A7)
1944 Dec 19, The French newspaper Le Monde began publishing. Charles de Gaulle called for the launch of Le Monde to replace Le Temps, which had become tainted by collaboration with German invaders.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde)
1944 Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), French actress, librettist, novelist and critic, authored her novel “Gigi," about a young girl being groomed as a courtesan.
(SFC, 4/12/16, p.E2)
1944 Robert Bresson’s film "Les Dames du Bois" de Boulogne featured Maria Casares (1922-1996).
1944 The Normandie-Niemen Fighter Regiment, a Fighter unit of the French Air Force formed in 1942 as Groupe de Chasse Normandie 3, was redesignated as a Regiment (without and with "Niemen" designation the same year). The unit served on the Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War II with the 1st Air Army. The regiment is notable for being one of only three units from Western Allied countries to see combat on the Eastern Front during World War II, and Normandie-Niemen was the only Western Allied unit to fight with the Soviet forces until the end of the war in Europe. Its battle honors included such names such as Bryansk, Orel 1943, Ielnia, Smolensk 1943, Orsha 1944, Berezina 1944, Niemen 1944, Chernyakhovsk 1945, Königsberg (later renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviets), Baltiysk 1945, and Pillau. In 1944 Joseph Stalin awarded the regiment the name Nieman, (thus becoming Normandie-Niemen) in recognition of its participation in the battles to liberate the river of the same name.
(https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Normandie-Niemen)
1944 A Germany general sent French fashion designer Coco Chanel to Madrid to initiate talks through the British Embassy in a plan code-named “Operation Modelhut." A travel companion denounced her as an enemy agent and the British ignored her.
(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.F5)
1944-1946 Gen’l. de Gaulle took over leadership of the government after leading the French Resistance. He quit after 2 years for having too little power.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1944-1956 The French intellectuals of this period were later discussed in the 1992 book "Past Perfect" by Tony Judt.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A16)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 8, US Tech. Sgt. Russell Dunham (1920-2009) assaulted 3 German machine gun placements, killed 9 German soldiers and took 2 as prisoners near Kaysersberg, France. His bravery earned him the US Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 4/10/09, p.B5)
1945 Jan 31, Private Eddie Slovik (b.1920) became the only US soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, as he was shot by an American firing squad near the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France. In 1954 William Bradford authored “The Execution of Private Slovik." In 1987 Slovik’s body was exhumed and returned to Detroit, Mi., his hometown.
(AP, 1/31/04)(SSFC, 7/8/12, DB p.42)
1945 Feb 5, American and French troops destroyed German forces in the Colmar Pocket in France.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1945 Feb 6, The French government executed Robert Brasillach, writer and Nazi propagandist. He had been arrested in January, was tried for treason and convicted. In 2000 Alice Kaplan authored "The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Brasillach)
1945 Feb 7, US 76th and 5th Infantry divisions began crossing Sauer.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1945 Mar 15, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (b.1893), a well-known French collaborationist and fascist writer, committed suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Drieu_La_Rochelle)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.84)
1945 Mar, Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, premiered "The Children of Paradise" (Les Enfants du Paradis). The 3 1/2 hr. film starred Jean-Louis Barrault and Arletty and centered on the life of 19th century mime Jean-Baptiste Debureau. The epic film classic was a singular evocation of show biz in the time of Balzac. Maria Casares (1922-1996) achieved stardom for her 1943 role in "Les Enfants du Paradis."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)(WSJ, 10/20/95, p. A-12)(SFC, 11/25/96, p.B2)
1945 Apr 26, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. In 2001 Adam Nossiter authored "The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory and the Second World War." The Algeria Hotel had been headquarters for the Vichy government’s anti-Jewish agency. Nossiter included accounts of the hangings at Tulle and the massacre of 642 people in Oradour. In 204 Robert O. Paxton authored “Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order."
(AP, 4/26/98)(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.85)
1945 Apr 30, US troops attacked at the Elbe.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 May 7, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II. After five years, World War II in Europe ended when Colonel General Alfred Jodl, the last chief of staff of the German Army, signed the unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters at Rheims, France. Journalist Edward Kennedy (1905-1963) made the news public and was suspended for defying political and military censors.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(SFC, 8/21/12, p.A6)
1945 May 8, Germany surrendered and Victory in Europe was achieved by the allies. Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrenders to Marshal Zhukov. The day is commemorated as V-E Day. President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe. In 2004 Max Hastings authored “Armageddon," an account of the last days of WW II.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/8/97)(WSJ, 11/16/04, p.D10)
1945 May 8, Algerian demonstrators in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag, banned by the French occupiers. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on the French, killing about two dozen of them. This led to an uprising in which Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France put the number at about 15,000 to 20,000. No one is quite sure.
(AP, 5/9/05)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England & France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1945 Jul 20, Paul Valery (b.1871), French poet (Le cimetiere Marin, Mon Faust), died at age 73. He was buried in his home town of Sete.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1945 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, went on trial, charged with treason. He was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted; Petain died in prison on this date in 1951.
(AP, 7/23/08)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1945 Aug 22, Conflict in Vietnam began when a group of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina, in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/22/00)
1945 Oct 15, The former Vichy French Premier Pierre Laval was executed by a firing squad for his wartime collaboration with the Germans.
(AP, 10/15/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1945 Oct 21, Women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1945 Nov 13, Charles de Gaulle was elected president of France.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1945 Dec 13, France and Britain agreed to quit Syria and Lebanon.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1945 Dec 19, Jean Giraudoux' "La Folle de Chaillot," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1945 Dec 26, The CFA franc was created along with the CFP franc, the currency used in the French overseas collectivities. The reason for their creation was the weakness of the French franc immediately after World War II. When France ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement in December 1945, the French franc was devalued in order to set a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. New currencies were created in the French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation, thereby facilitating exports to France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFA_franc)
1945 Pierre Bonnard painted his "Large Landscape, South of France (Le Cannet)."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
c1945 The US Army published "112 Gripes about the French," as a prejudice-busting primer for American troops occupying France following WWII. It was re-published in 2003.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A2)
1945 The magazine Point de Vue was founded as a general-interest publication. By the 1960s its coverage was directed to royalty.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)
1945 France set up the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, a post-graduate civil service college, to turn out a meritocratic elite equipped to run an administered economy battered by war.
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1945 Rene Jules Lalique, French jewelry designer, died.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A26)
1945-1946 Picasso painted his purposely unfinished "Charnel House."
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.E8)(www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso45.html)
1945-1946 France underwent another round of nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in 1936 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
1946 Jan 20, Charles De Gaulle, head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, resigned.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle)
1946 Jan, Charles De Gaulle adopted the "Monnet Plan" (1946–1950). It was in effect the first five-year plan for modernization and equipment, a plan for national economic reconstruction which drew heavily on earlier French plans to make France the largest steel producer in Europe.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monnet_Plan)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.41)
1946 Mar 6, France recognized Vietnam statehood within the Indo-Chinese federation.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1946 Apr 12, Syria gained independence from France.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1946 Apr 17, The last French troops left Syria.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1946 May 11, The first packages from the relief agency CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot (b.1897), a French doctor, was beheaded for offering Jews an escape to Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies, many by incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his home, but he was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980 Thomas Maeder authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot." In 2011 David King chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City of Light."
(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)(Reuters, 11/10/11)
1946 Jun 25, Ho Chi Minh traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1946 Jul 5, The bikini bathing suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Model Micheline Bernardini wore the skimpy two-piece outfit. Its name correlated with the July 1 American atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll. Réard wanted his design to have a similar explosive affect. According to New York Times columnist William Safire, the swimsuit caused more debate, concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D17)(TMC, 1994, p.1946)(AP, 7/5/97)(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(HNQ, 4/6/02)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein (72), US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France. Her work included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room Floor" and “The Biography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933). She once said of Oakland, Ca.: "There is no there there." Painter Francis Rose carved the headstone on her grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. A biography of Stein by Linda Wagner-Martin was published in 1996 titled "Favored Strangers." In 2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1946 Sep 20, The first Cannes Film Festival was held. Michele Morgan (1920-2016), born as Simone Renee Roussel, won the best actress award for her role in “Pastoral Symphony" directed by Jean Delannoy.
(http://tinyurl.com/jhhbsd2)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.C10)
1946 Sep, Britain, France and the United States set up the Tripartite Gold Commission to oversee the return of some $4 billion in gold plundered by the Nazis from European treasuries. The commission closed in 1998.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1946 Oct 23, A Vatican document advised French church authorities on how to handle information requests from Jewish officials, asking them not to put anything in writing: “Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that cannot ensure their Christian education." The document surfaced in 2004.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A12)
1946 Nov 15, The 17th Paris Air Show opened at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since 1938.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire in Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Dec 15, Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace talks.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1946 Dec 19, War broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French. The French retook Hoa Binh with a drop by airborne forces. They abandoned it in October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial Route 4.
(AP, 12/19/06)(http://maoist.wikia.com/wiki/Vo_Nguyen_Giap)(www.historynet.com/the-hoa-binh-campaign.htm)
1946 Dec 20, Viet Minh and French forces fought fiercely in the Annamite section of Hanoi.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1946 Dec 24, The 4th French republic was established.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1946 Dec 28, The French declared martial law in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1946 Pablo Picasso began designing pottery in Vallauris, France. The area had been a pottery center since Roman times.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.G4)
1946 The French film "Beauty and the Beast" with Jean Marais (d.1998 at 84) was directed by Jean Cocteau (d.1963).
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)
1946 The French film “Gates of the Night" starred Yves Montand. It was directed by Marcel Carne and written by Jacques Prevert.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1946 The French film “Panic" starred Michel Simon.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1946 The Jean Delannoy film "La Symphonie Pastorale," adapted from a Gide novel, won Cannes' top prize. The film told the story of a blind orphan who falls in love with a married pastor.
(AP, 6/19/08)
1946 France outlawed brothels.
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.47)
1946 The Lido nightclub opened on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(SFC, 11/22/02, p.D9)
1946 France allowed Haj Amin al-Husseini, the former mufti of Jerusalem, to escape to Egypt. He had resided in Nazi Germany and hidden in Paris to avoid answering for various war crimes.
(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1946 French Guiana was designated as an overseas department of France giving it the same political status as the mainland.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
1946 The French retook Hoa Binh in Vietnam with a drop by airborne forces. They had abandoned it in October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial Route 4.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1946 Dahomey (later Benin) became an Overseas Territory of France.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
1946 France granted Malians French citizenship and limited self-rule.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1947 Jan 9, French General Leclerc broke off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1947 Jan 19, The French opened a drive on Hue, Indochina.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1947 Feb 28, Britain and France signed a 50-year pact to curb Germany.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1947 Mar 4, France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1947 Mar 5, Communist leader Maurice Thorez declared support for the French sovereignty over Vietnam.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1947 Mar 29, Madagascar rebelled against French colonial rule. Repression followed and an estimated 100,000 Malagasy were killed. This became known as Martyr’s Day, first celebrated in 1967.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.H3)
1947 Apr 16, The French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, devastating Texas City, Texas. It was America's worst harbor explosion. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The final death toll was 576, and more than 3,000 Texas City residents were left homeless. Property damage ran into the millions.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-4)(AP, 4/16/97)(HNPD, 4/17/00)
1947 Oct 7, French troops in Indochina launched Operation Lea, to capture Viet Minh positions near the Chinese border.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1947 Nov 26, France expelled 19 Soviet citizens, charging intervention in internal affairs.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1947 Nov 28, French Gen. Jacques-Philippe Leclerc (b.1902), WW II hero (liberator of Paris), died. His North American B-25 Mitchell, Tailly II, carrying Leclerc and his staff, crashed near Colomb-Béchar in French Algeria, killing everyone on board.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Leclerc_de_Hauteclocque)
1947 Francois Gravier, French geographer, authored "Paris and the French Desert." Here he denounces the extreme concentration of France in Paris, and the monopoly of that city over French resources.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Gravier)
1947 Raymond Queneau (d.1976), Parisian surrealist, published "Exercises in Style."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1947 The French film "Jour de Fete" by Jacques Tati was shot on experimental color stock.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.41)
1947 The film "Song of Scheherazade" starred Jean-Pierre Aumont
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1947 Charles de Gaulle’s party "Rally for the French People" was founded.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1947 Pierre Bonnard (b.1867), French painter, died. In a 1935 notebook he wrote: "Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, express your pleasure strongly."
(WUD, 1994 p.169)(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1947 Haiti completed loan payments incurred in 1825 to pay reparations to France following its 1804 revolution.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.47)
1948 Mar 4, Antonin Artaud (51), French poet, actor (Napoleon), died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great Britain and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1948 Jun 26, The Berlin Airlift began in earnest as the United States, Britain and France started ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin, after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes. The Soviets had been harassing the French, British and American authorities in Berlin for weeks, trying to force them from the city. Finally, when all surface routes to the city were blockaded, it became clear that an airlift through the Allied sectors was the only way to re-supply the 2 million West Berliners. In spite of the enormous human and financial cost, “Operation Vittles" supplied food, fuel and hope to beleaguered citizens until the Soviet barricades were finally lifted on May 12, 1949. In 2010 Richard Reeves authored “Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift, June 1948-May 1949."
(AP, 6/26/98)(HN, 6/26/99)(http://tinyurl.com/gqhi)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.63)
1948 July 12, The Marshall Plan Conference convened in Paris. It was attended by 16 European nations and established the Committee for European Economic Cooperation.
(HNQ, 9/28/99)
1948 Oct 5, The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (IUCN) was founded in France. It is composed of biologists who maintain a list of threatened species and is considered the world's largest and most significant environmental conservation organization.
(http://tinyurl.com/yyrn6o6e)
1948 Dec 15, The French brought the first nuclear reactor into service.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1948 Dec 27, Gerard Depardieu, actor (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Danton, Green Card), was born in France.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1948 Nathalie Sarraute published her first novel, "Portrait of a Man Unknown."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1948 Julia Child enrolled in the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris.
(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)
1948 Maurice Papon was the top French official in Corsica and authorized American planes loaded with weapons bound for Israel to land on the island.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A10)
1948 Longchamp, a French leather-goods company, began operations.
(Econ, 2/10/07, SR p.12)
1948 The cave at Lascaux was opened to the public.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.
(www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949 Apr 19, Paloma Picasso, [Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1949 May 6, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck (b.1862), Belgian philosopher, playwright (Grand Fairie) and essayist, died in Nice, France. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.861)(MC, 5/6/02)
1949 Oct 29, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (b.~1866), a Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, died in France. His books included “Meetings with Remarkable Men," the 2nd volume of his “All and Everything" trilogy. He taught that the vast majority of humanity lives their entire lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it was possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurdjieff)
1949 Dec 10, 150,000 French troops massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1949 Dec 30, France transferred sovereignty to Vietnam (Indo-China).
(EWH, 1968, p.1171)
1949 The French film “Troubled Waters" starred Ginette Leclerc.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1949 Anatole Dauman (d.1998 at 73) of Poland founded Argos Films.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1949 French priest Abbe Pierre (1912-2007) started taking in homeless at a house in Neuilly-Plaisance, a suburb of Paris. His project came to be called Emmaus and by 2006 grew include 350 communities in 40 countries, including 110 in France.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)
1949 France banned children’s books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a “favorable light," on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.81)
1949 The Statute of Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg, France, to promote democracy and human rights in Europe. The organization numbered 45 nations in 2004 but had little real power.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A14)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.50)
1950 Jan 1, Ho Chi Minh began an offensive against French troops in Indo China.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1950 Jan 29, The French National Assembly approved legislation granting autonomy to Bao Dai's State of Vietnam.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html)
1950 Jan 31, Paris protested the Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1950 Feb 28, The French Assembly in Paris decided to limit the sale of Coca-Cola.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1950 May 9, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed to place French and German production of coal and steel under one common High Authority. This organization would be open to participation of Western European countries. His statement became known as the Schuman declaration.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.74)
1950 Jun 3, French expedition reached the top of Himalayan peak of Annapurna in Nepal. Maurice Herzog (1919-2012) became the first man to climb the 8,000-meter peak despite losing all his fingers and toes to frostbite. He later went on to scale the heights of French politics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna)(AP, 12/15/12)
1950 Sep 9, There were massive arrests of communists in France.
(www.todayinhistory.com/s75-9-09-event-results.html)
1950 Nov 4, The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome. 5 protocols were added later. Alleged violations were handled by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
(www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)
1950 Dec 17, French named Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1950 Dec 31, Charles Koechlin (b.1867), French composer, teacher and writer on music, died in France. He visited the USA four times to lecture and teach in 1918-19, 1928, 1929 and 1937. On the second and third visits he taught at the University of California, Berkeley.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin)
1950 The French film “The Cheat" starred Bernard Blier and Simone Signoret.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1950 The French film "Diary of a Country Priest" was directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1950 The French film "Les Enfants Terribles" was narrated by Jean Cocteau and based on his 1929 novel.
(SFC, 10/12/97, DB p.40)
1950 Gilbert Trigano (d.2000 at 80) and Gerard Blitz, a Belgium water polo champion, founded the 1st Club Med on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A21)
1950 French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed the pooling of French and German coal and steel production. This became the embryo of the future European Union.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.27)
1950 A French law forbidding pretenders to the throne was rescinded. Royalists wanted to see Henri, count of Paris, crowned as King Henry VI of France.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.C5)(SFC, 7/15/03, p.A19)
1950s Reporter Stanley Karnow published his book "Paris in the Fifties" in 1997.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.E5)
c1950s In France Guy Debord and the Situationists staged disruptive events and practiced "detournement," or cut-up art.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.E1)
1951 Jan 16, French forces repulsed a Viet Minh offensive near Hanoi.
(http://experts.about.com/e/f/fi/First_Indochina_War.htm)
1951 Feb 19, Andre Paul-Guillaume Gide (b.1869), French novelist and critic, died. Andre Gide’s novels included "The Immoralist," "Straight Is the Gate," "Lafcadio's Adventures," "Corydon," "The Counterfeiters" and his explicit memoir "If It Die…" (1926). In 1999 Alan Sheridan published the biography "André Gide: A Life in the Present." Gide won the Nobel Prize in 1947. "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."
(AP, 10/31/97)(AP, 3/24/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 6/13/99, BR p.4)(MC, 11/22/01)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 23, Wages in France increased 11%.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1951 Apr 18, Jean Monnet, French civil servant, and Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, helped found the European Union with agreements between 6 countries on the pooling of coal and steel resources. Ministers from Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and France put their names on the Treaty of Paris, the founding document of what in four decades would become the European Union.
(Econ, 9/25/04, Survey p.3)(Econ, 6/18/16, p.45)
1951 Jun 9, After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam’s General Giap ordered Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
(HN 6/9/98)
1951 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri Petain (b.1856), who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, was shot by firing squad. In 2005 Charles Williams authored “Petain."
(AP, 7/23/00)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.84)
1951 Sep 11, Florence Chadwick (1918-1995), American endurance swimmer, swam English Channel from England to France in 16 hours & 22 minutes [see Aug 6, 1926]. This made her the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, and set a record for the England-France journey. All told, she swam the English Channel four times and the Catalina Channel three times.
(www.answers.com/topic/florence-chadwick)
1951 Sep 26, Prof. Youngblood demonstrated an artificial heart in Paris.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1951 Nov 1, The Algerian National Liberation Front began guerrilla warfare against the French.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1951 Nov 14, French paratroopers captured Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1951 Albert Camus (1913-1960), Algeria-born French novelist, wrote "The Rebel." The book asserted a revolt against absurd nonsense and against commitments indifferent to the suffering that revolutionary steamrollers caused.
(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1951 The film "Journal d'un Cure de Campagne" (Diary of a Country Priest) was directed by Robert Bresson. It was based on a 1937 book by Georges Bernanos.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1952 Jan 7, French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi.
(HN, 1/7/00)
1952 Jan 12, The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Bihn, Vietnam.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1952 Feb 19, There was a French offensive at Hanoi.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1952 Feb 22, French forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1952 Feb 24, The French evacuated Hoa Binh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1952 Feb 25, French colonial forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1952 Mar 25, The U.S., Britain, and France rejected the Soviet proposal for an armed, reunified, neutral Germany.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1952 Aug 14, Alfred Sauvy (1898-1990), a French economist, first used the term “Third World," in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur. He used it to describe the importance of underdeveloped countries. He was paraphrasing a remark by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General in 1789, who said the third estate is everything, has nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sauvy)(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1952 Oct 29, French forces launched Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lorraine)
1952 Dec 8, French troops shot on demonstrators at Casablanca, Morocco, and 50 people were killed.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1952 Roger Frison-Roche (d.1999 at 93), mountaineer, explorer and writer, published his novel "The Big Crevice" and "The Lost Trail of the Sahara," which was later translated into English by Paul Bowles.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C5)
1952 Francois Mauriac (b.1885), novelist, won the Nobel Prize in literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.886)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1952 The film "Le Plaisir" was directed by Max Ophuls and was based on 3 stories by Guy de Maupassant.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1952 The French film “The Truth About Marriage" starred Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1952 French Dr. Alain Bombard (1924-2005) crossed the Atlantic in 65 days in a dinghy to prove that shipwrecked sailors could survive off the sea's bounty.
(AP, 7/20/05)
1953 Feb 9, The French destroyed six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1953 Feb 25, General de Gaulle condemned the European Defense Community.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1953 Mar 23, Raoul Dufy, French fauve painter, died.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(MC, 3/23/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered increased aid in Vietnam to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Apr 2, Jean Epstein (56), French director (Vive la Vie), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1953 Apr 28, French troops evacuated northern Laos.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1953 May 16, Django Reinhardt (b.1910), Gypsy jazz guitarist, died in France. In 2004 Michael Dregni authored “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W12)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1953 Aug 22, France closed the penal colony on Devil's Island.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1953 Sep 30, Auguste and Jacques Piccard dove with their bathosphere to a record 3150 m.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1953 Oct 22, Laos gained full independence from France. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/22/01)
1953 Oct 23, France granted sovereignty to Laos. [see Oct 22]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1953 Nov 30, French parachutists under Col. De Castries attacked Dien Bien Phu. The French expeditionary force was under the direction of Gen. Henri Navarre. In 2004 martin windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam."
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1953 Simone de Bouvier (Beauvoir) published a British edition of "America Day by Day," a journal of her travels in America from 1947. Her trip also began a relationship with Nelson Algren. In 1999 the book "A Transatlantic Love Affair" Letters to Nelson Algren" was published.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.4)
1953 Alain Robbe-Grillet authored "Les Gommes" (The Erasers), a novel about a detective investigating an apparent murder who ends up killing the victim. It was seen in France as the debut of the "new novel."
(AP, 2/18/08)
1953 Nathalie Sarraute published her 2nd novel, "Martereau."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1953 Thomas Guinzburg, Donald Hall, Harold Humes, Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014) and George Plimpton founded the Paris Review. William Styron (1925-2006) helped establish the Paris Review. Matthiessen later admitted that he was a CIA recruit and used his work with the Review as a cover.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A2)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.95)(SSFC, 4/6/14, p.A18)
1953 The film "Mister Ripois" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Rene Clement.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1953 France established the National Secular Action Committee (CNAL) to support public education.
(WPR, 3/04, p.7)
1954 Feb 1, Abbe Pierre (1912-2007) told French listeners on Radio Luxembourg that a woman had frozen to death on the boulevard Sebastopol, clutching an eviction notice issued the day before. His appeal sparked an enormous response.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)y
1954 Mar 13, Viet Minh General Giap opened an assault on French forces at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. In 2010 Ted Morgan (aka Sanche Armand Gabriel de Gramont) authored “Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War."
(HN, 3/14/98)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.80)
1954 Apr 21, USAF flew a French battalion to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain and France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 May 7, The Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces and the US began to get involved. French Gen. Marcel Bigeard (1916-2010) and some 12,000 defenders were captured. Vietnamese insurgents expelled the French but the country was divided into a communist north and a pro-US south. In the 8 years of the French Indochina War some 52,000 French soldiers were killed. Vietnam was soon partitioned between a regime in Hanoi led by Ho Chi Minh and an anti-communist regime in Saigon under Ngo Dinh Diem. Howard Simpson later wrote: "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot." In 2004 Martin Windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam."
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC, 2/22/96, p.B3)(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.86)(AP, 6/18/10)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1954 Jun 18, Pierre Mendes-France (1907-1982) became Premier of France. His political signature was a glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that French people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too early an age. When Mendes-France would appear in public, there invariably was a glass of milk on the lectern, which he made a point of sipping some time during the presentation
(http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/2007/06/this-day-june-18-in-jewish-history.html)
1954 Jun 28, French troops began to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin Province.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1954 Jul 20, An armistice for Indo-China was signed and Vietnam separated into North & South. [see Jul 21]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1954 Jul 21, France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists at Geneva. The French signed an armistice, the Geneva Accords, with the Viet Minh that ended the war but divided Vietnam into two countries. This led to almost a million anti-Communists in the north to flee to the south.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1954 Jul 23, The Indochina settlement was approved by France's National Assembly.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1954 Aug 3, Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (b.1873), French actress, librettist, novelist (Claudine) and critic, died. Her novels included "Le Ble en herbe" (The Ripening Seed) and "Julie de Carneilhan (1941). In 1999 Judith Thurman authored "Secrets of the Flesh," a biography of Colette.
(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A24)(SC, 8/3/02)
1954 Aug, The French National Assembly rejected the European Defense Community with a vote of 319 to 264.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.47)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty. SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1954 Sep 8, Andre Derain (b.1880), French painter, died. He and Henri Matisse co-founded the Fauvist movement, marked by vivid, unnatural colors.
(SFC, 9/15/12, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Derain)
1954 Oct 22, West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country had no standing army. [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A8)
1954 Oct 23, In Paris, an agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1954 Oct 31, The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) against the French began. Algerian Muslims of the Front de Libération National (FLN), began open warfare against French rule in Algeria. [see Nov 1]
(DoW, 1999, p.10)
1954 Nov 1, Algerian nationalists began their successful eight-year rebellion against French rule. [see Oct 31] Hocine Ait-Ahmed (1926-2015) was one of the nine so-called "sons of Toussaint" who launched the uprising. He was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death but later freed, and left for exile in Lausanne in 1966.
(AP, 11/1/06)(AFP, 1/1/16)
1954 Nov 3, Henri E.B. Matisse (b.1869), French painter and sculptor (Dance II), died. In 1998 Hilary Spurling published "The Unknown Matisse," a work that covered the years 1869-1908. An end volume was planned. In 1999 John Russell published "Matisse: Father and Son" and John O'Brian published "Ruthless Hedonism: The American Reception of Matisse." In 2005 Hilary Spurling authored “Matisse the Master: A Life of Henry Matisse, Volume Two.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 8/8/99, BR p.6)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.79)
1954 Nov 24, France sent 20,000 soldiers to Algeria.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1954 In France the Little Sisters of Marie, Mother of the Redeemer, was founded in Toulouse by Marie Nault (1901-1999), a woman who, according to legend, stopped her formal education at age 11 to work on the family farm but possessed such spirituality that she developed the stigmata — the bleeding wounds that imitate those of Christ on the cross. In 2018 nearly all the nuns in the tiny religious order threatened to renounce their vows rather than accept the Holy See's decision to remove their superior.
(AP, 12/8/18)
1954 The French National Assembly rejected the European Defense Community.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.53)
1954 A French military court sentenced Alois Brunner to death in absentia for war crimes. He had sent 23,000 French Jews to death camps. Brunner fled from Germany to Syria.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1954 Jacques Courtin (1921-2007) opened his first beauty salon, the Institut Clarins, on Paris’ Rue Tronchet. His beauty lines were among the first to tap into natural ingredients. Clarins went public in 1984.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A6)
1954 Marc Gregoire, a French engineer, bonded aluminum with polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) and created the 1st nonstick pan.
(AARP, 5-6/04)
1954-1962 During the Algerian war of independence French generals approved torture and the disappearance of the 3,000 suspected guerrillas. About a million people were killed during this period. In 1977 Alistair Horne of Britain authored "A Savage War of Peace." In 2000 former Gen. Paul Aussaresse testified on French military behavior and the approval of Gen. Jacques Massu. In 2001 a mass grave of 290 people was found at the site of the former headquarters of the French army. In 2001 former Gen. Aussaresses authored "Special Services: Algeria: 1955-1957." In 2002 Aussaresses was convicted of "trying to justify war" and was fined $6,500.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B9)(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A12)(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.41)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu (73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 Jun 11, In Le Mans, France, a Mercedes-Benz racer crashed killing its driver and some 81 spectators. Pierre Levegh’s car hit the bank by the grandstand and immediately exploded. Parts of the wreckage were blown into the enclosure, killing scores of mostly-French spectators. Levegh was speeding down the straightaway in front of the pits when he clipped an Austin-Healey driven by British driver Lance Macklin.
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)(http://tinyurl.com/69g9e)
1955 Jun 27, Isabelle Adjani, actress (Story of Adele H, Driver, Ishtar), was born in Paris.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1955 Oct 5, French carmaker Citroen launched the futuristic DS 19. In French "DS" is pronounced as "Déesse" (goddess).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_DS)
1955 Nov 5, Maurice Utrillo (71), French painter (Cathedral St-Denis), died.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1955 Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist, authored “Tristes Tropiques," a memoir of his travels to Brazil in search of Amazon tribes untouched by civilization.
(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W10)
1955 Alain Robbe-Grillet won France's Critics Prize with "Le Voyeur" (The Voyeur), about the world seen through the eyes of a sadistic killer.
(AP, 2/18/08)
1955 Jean-Pierre Melville directed his classic noir thriller "Bob le Flambeur."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1955 The French film “The Light Across the Street" starred Brigitte Bardot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 The French film “The Lovers of Lisbon" starred Francoise Arnoul and Daniel Gelin.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 The French noir film "Rififi" starred Marie Sabouret and Jean Servais. It was directed by Jules Dassin.
(SFEC, 11/5/00, DB p.58)
1955 The French film “The Wicked Go to Hell" starred Marina Vlady.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1955 France enacted a law permitting law-enforcement chiefs known as “prefects" to place communities under curfew “wherever necessary."
(WSJ, 11/8/05, p.A1)
1955 Fernand Leger (b.1881), French painter, died.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1955 Adrien Marquet, Vichy’s 1st Interior Minister, died.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)
1956 Feb 1, Guy Mollet (12905-1975) became prime minister of France and continued to June 13, 1957.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Mollet)
1956 Feb 6, French PM Guy Mollet was pelted with rotten tomatoes at a demonstration in Algiers. The French refer to this memorable event as "la journée des tomates."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Mollet)
1956 Feb 18, Gustave Charpentier (95), French opera composer (Louise), died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris. Spain retained Ceuta and Melilla after Morocco becomes independent.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(BBC, 6/5/21)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos landed in Algeria.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Apr 11, French government sent 200,000 reservists to Algeria.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1956 May 10, French government sent 50,000 reservists to Algeria. [see Apr 11]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba. He launched a campaign advocating birth control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to 2.08.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)
1956 May 27, The French staged a raid in Algiers.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1956 Jun 22, The battle for Algiers began as three buildings in Casbah were blown up. France under PM Guy Mollet resolved to put down the Arab uprising and put 400,000 soldiers in Algiers.
(HN, 6/22/98)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Jul 5, France raised the tobacco tax 20% to support war in Algeria.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1956 Jul 20, France recognized Tunisia's independence. [see Mar 20]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1956 Jul 29, Jacques Cousteau's Calypso anchored in at a record 7,500 m under water.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1956 Aug 29, French government sent troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1956 Sep 26, Lucien Febvre, French historian (Un Destin, Martin Luther), died at 78.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1956 Sep 30, In Algiers a blast at the Milk Bar cafe together with another device set off nearby, killed three people and wounded 60, including children. Several people lost limbs sliced off by flying glass. Zohra Drif (20) set one device as a reprisal for a big French bombing that killed dozens in the Casbah weeks earlier. Captured soon afterwards, she was sentenced to death and spent five years in French prisons.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Oct 14, British and French officials met as Israel was about to attack Egypt. Anthony Nutting (d.1999 at 79), a deputy foreign secretary, learned that Prime Minister Anthony Eden had agreed with the French that once fighting began, they would send in paratroopers under the guise to separate the fighting factions, but would actually support Israel, seize the canal and undermine Nasser. Nutting resigned when British planes took to the air Oct 31.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A25)(AP, 2/26/99)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a Moroccan plane and arrested Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Oct 27, A Franco-German agreement was signed to transfer the Saar Basin to West Germany. France, Germany and Luxembourg agreed to canalize the Moselle River, connecting the steel industry with the Ruhr Valley. The Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to rejoin Germany. This took place on Jan 1, 1957.
(EWH, 1968, p.1182)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. These became the first “blue hat" UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Dec 3, England & France pulled troops out of Egypt.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1956 Dec 22, The evacuation of the Suez Canal was completed by Britain and France.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(MC, 12/22/01)
1956 Alain Bosquet (d.1998 at 78) edited the first complete French anthology of American poets.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1956 Nathalie Sarraute published her novel, "The Age of Suspicion." It was a collection of essays about her approach to literature, "the first manifestation of the Nouveau Roman School."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1956 The film "A Man Escaped" was directed by Robert Bresson. It won the 1957 best director award at Cannes.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1956 Roger Vadim directed "And God Created Woman" (Et… Dieu Crea la Femme) with Brigitte Bardot.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)
1956 The French film "The Red Balloon" was produced. It won an Academy Award.
(WSJ, 11/1/02, p.A1)
1956 French PM Guy Mollet discussed the possibility of a union with Britain’s PM Sir Anthony Eden. Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable toward a French proposal to join the Commonwealth.
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.A2)
1956 In France the populist Poujadistes, led by bookseller Pierre Poujade, won 52 seats. His party stood for the rights of the “little man" but soon fizzled out under “{bickering and ideological incoherence."
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.55)
1956 The Paris Club of 19 industrialized countries began work to alleviate the financial obligations of over-indebted countries.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A18)
1956 Gen. Jacques Massu (d.2002 at 94) took command of the French 10th Parachute Division, the elite force tasked with maintaining order in Algeria.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)
1956 French engineer Marc Gregoire devised a way to coat aluminum with teflon.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1956-1959 France laid minefields on the Challe and Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders of Algeria. In 2007 France gave Algeria maps of these minefields. Some 11 million mines were laid along the borders to prevent infiltration into Algeria from Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army (ALN). From 1962-2009 over 8 million Algeria destroyed over 8 million of the mines.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
1957 Jan, France began sending troops to Algeria to crush the rebel movement in what came to be called "The Battle for Algiers."
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
1957 Mar 16, Constantin Brancusi (b.1876), Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00, p.A28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C5%9Fi)
1957 Mar 23, Algerian independence fighter Ali Boumendjel (b.1919) was tortured and killed by French soldiers. In 2021 French President Emmanuel Macron met with four grandchildren of Boumendjel to inform them of the truth.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Boumendjel)(AP, 3/3/21)
1957 Apr 4, Heitor Villa-Lobos' 10th Symphony, premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1957 May 12, Erich von Stroheim (b.1885), Austrian-US actor and director, died in Paris. His films included "Grand Illusion," "The Merry Widow," and "Greed." In 2000 Arthur Lennig published the biography "Stroheim."
(WSJ, 2/23/00, p.A20)(MC, 5/12/02)
1957 Jun 16, There was a French offensive in Algeria.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1957 Oct 24, Christian Dior (52), French fashion magnate and inventor of the postwar "New Look," died in Italy. He was succeeded by his favorite assistant, Yves Saint Laurent.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E7)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.D3)(MC, 10/24/01)
1957 "The Bald Singer" began running at the La Huchette theater in Paris. It was still being performed in 1996.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T9)
1957 The French film “Three Days to Live" starred Leno Ventura and Jeanne Moreau.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1957 The Clemenceau, a French aircraft carrier, first set sail. It was taken out of service in 1997. In 2006 dismantling efforts faced problems. French officials said there are 45 tons of asbestos on the ship, but environmentalists put that number at up to 1,000 tons.
(AP, 2/15/06)
1957 Constantin Brancusi, Romanian-born French sculptor, died. He willed his studio and work to France.
(WSJ, 3/30/00, p.A28)
1957 Max Ophuls (b.1902), German born film director, died in France. He made films in Germany, France, Netherlands and the US.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1957-1963 Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso lived in Paris. In 2000 Barry Miles authored "The Beat Hotel," an account of their years at the 9 Rue Git-leCoert managed by Madame Rachou.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, BR p.5)
1958 Feb 13, Georges Rouault (86), French painter (Christ aux outrages), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1958 May 13, French troops took control of Algiers as French settlers rioted against the French army.
(HN, 5/13/98)(MC, 5/13/02)
1958 Jun 1, Charles de Gaulle became premier of France, marking the beginning of the end of the Fourth Republic and the beginning of the Fifth Republic. France, on the verge of civil war over Algeria, called De Gaulle out of retirement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1958)(AP, 6/1/08)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.44)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1958 Jun 6, Premier Charles de Gaulle said Algeria will always be French.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1958 Aug 14, Frederic Joliot-Curie, French nuclear physicist (Nobel 1936), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Oct 23, De Gaulle offered Algerian defiance "peace of the brave."
(MC, 10/23/01)
1958 Oct 26, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 passenger service jetliner from New York’s Idlewild Airport (later JFK) to Paris; the trip took eight hours and 41 minutes. 111 passengers flew aboard the Clipper America and a ticket cost $489.60. The plane was christened a week earlier by Mamie Eisenhower. The first New York - London transatlantic jet passenger service was inaugurated by BOAC. [see Oct 4]
(AP, 10/26/97)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W6)(HN, 10/26/98)
1958 Nov 28, The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1958 Dec 21, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), having come out of retirement, was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. De Gaulle selected Maurice Couve de Murville (d.1999 at 92) as his foreign minister.
(AP, 12/21/98)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(Econ, 10/04/08, p.56)
1958 Dec, Julen Madariaga helped found ETA. EKIN (engage), a Basque nationalist group, transformed into Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (E.T.A., Basque Homeland and Freedom). ETA was the only armed group that emerged in the Spanish state during Francoism. ETA aimed to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France. Over the next 60 years 853 people were killed before ETA announced its dissolution in 2018.
(www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/westeurope/sources/birtheta.html)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.62)(AP, 10/18/20)
1958 The French film "Le Beau Serge" starred Gerard Blain (d.2000) and was directed by Claude Chabrol.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1958 Marcel Carne (1906-1990), French film director, made "The Cheaters" (Les Tricheurs) with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)
1958 The French film “Night Heat" starred Mylene Demongeot.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1958 France exited from Morocco.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)
1958 Maurice Papon was named the police chief of Paris.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)
1958 Jean Dausset (1916-2009), French immunologist, discovered the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue system allowed doctors to verify compatibility between donor and receiver for an organ transplant.
(AP, 6/24/09)
1958 One in 5 French workers was engaged in farming. By 2004 this shrunk to just over 3%.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.51)
1958 In France Ifop, a polling group, began measuring presidential popularity.
(Econ, 11/30/13, p.50)
1959 Jan 8, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1959 Apr 12, France Observator reported torture practice by French army in Algeria.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1959 Apr 28, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1959 May 29, Charles de Gaulle formed a French Government.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1959 Raymond Queneau (d.1976), Parisian surrealist, published "Zazie dans le Metro." It was made into a film by Louis Malle.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.4)
1959 Nathalie Sarraute published her novel, "The Planetarium."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A25)
1959 Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny introduced their comic characters Asterix and Obelix in the magazine Pilote. A book followed in 1961. Comic books in France are known as bandes dessinees (BD).
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.72)
1959 Jacques Brel (1929-1978), French singer and composer, recorded “Ne Me Quitte Pas" (If you go away).
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk7_HY9svAw)
1959 The film "Cousins" starred Gerard Blain and was directed by Claude Chabrol. The music was by Paul Misraki.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C2)(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1959 The French film "The 400 Blows" (Les Quatre Cents Coups) with Jean-Pierre Leaud was the first feature film by Francois Truffaut (1932-1984). Truffaut won the best director award at this year’s Cannes film festival.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut)(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W4)
1959 The film "Pickpocket" was directed by Robert Bresson.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A27)
1959 The French film “The Sign of Leo" was directed by Eric Rohmer (1920-2010). This was Rohmer’s first feature film.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
1959 Charels de Gaulle commissioned a report on how to “remove the obstacles to economic expansion."
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.80)
1959 French railroad officials introduced the Eurailpass. It allowed North American tourists in Europe to travel through 13 countries on one pass.
(SFC, 8/11/05, p.B7)
1959 With French support the French Sudan and Senegal formed the Federation of Mali.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the play “Caligula" and a collection of journalistic pieces for the clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the biography “Albert Camus." In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a biography: “Albert Camus." In 2006 Camus’ WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat." In 2010 Virgil Tanase authored “Albert Camus."
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1960 Feb 13, Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert, during the Algerian War (1954-62). 16 subsequent explosions of nuclear weapons in Algeria were seen as a display of French strength and development.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)(AP, 2/13/08)(BBC, 4/27/21)
1960 Apr 1, France exploded a 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert. Gerboise Blanche (“white gerboa") was a surface shot fired in a seven meter deep pit, which accounted for the strange, Christmas tree-like shape of the fireball. General Ailleret once again personally initiated the firing of the device.
(www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=112)
1960 Apr 27, France’s Gen. Charles de Gaulle flew into San Francisco and was welcomed by a 21-gun salute and some 250,000 people along his downtown motorcade.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, DB p.54)
1960 Apr 27, Togo, a UN Trust territory under French administration, gained independence. Sylvanus Olympio became the 1st chief of state.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 May 18, Jean Genet’s "Le Balcon" premiered in Paris France.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1960 Jun 26, The Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) gained independence from France.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A10)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Jul 1, French and Italian Somaliland gained independence and united with the Somali Republic.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.44)
1960 Jul, French Gen. Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/foxtrot/france1960.htm)
1960 Aug 1, Dahomey, just west of Nigeria, became independent from France. It was renamed Benin with the capital at Porto Novo.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 Aug 5, Upper Volta, formerly part of French West Africa, became independent under Maurice Yameogo. In 1984 it was renamed Burkina Faso.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 4th ed., p.1233)
1960 Aug 7, Ivory Coast became independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny (b.1905) began to rule Ivory Coast as prime minister. Houphouet-Boigny led the country until his death in 1993. Encouragement of investment and stability made it one of region's most prosperous.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A12)(AP, 9/24/02)
1960 Aug 11, Chad became independent from France, but remained within the French community. Francois Tombalbaye became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Aug 15, Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declared Independence from France.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1960 Aug 17, Gabon became independence from France. Leon M'Ba, head of the Gabon Democratic Block, became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Aug 3, Niger gained independence from France. Hamani Diori was president.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)(SC, 8/3/02)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1170)
1960 Sep 5, Senegal became independent from France. Leopold Sedar Senghor (d.2001 at 95), poet and politician, was elected president of Senegal, Africa.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(HN, 9/5/98)(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A34)
1960 Sep 22, Mali became an independent republic. Pres. Modibo Keita was elected the first president and introduced a one-party dictatorship.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1960 Nov 28, Richard N. Wright (52), US author (Native son), died in Paris France.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1960 Dec 27, France exploded a 3rd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert, code-named Gerboise Rouge (“red gerboa").
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1960 French critic Pierre Restany and artists including Raymond Hains (1926-2005), Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Villegle and others, founded the Nouveau Realistes. Their emergence came to be seen as the beginning of French Pop Art.
(SFC, 11/15/05, p.B5)
1960 Alexis Saint-Leger (1887-1975), Guadeloupe-born French poet and diplomat, won the Nobel Prize for literature. He wrote under the pseudonym Saint John Perse.
(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Leger,+Alexis+Saint-Leger)
1960 The magazine Hara-Kiri was founded as a monthly French version of Mad.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.76)
1960 Raymond Queneau, French author, inspired the formation of Oulipo: the Ouvroir de Litterature Potentiale (the workshop for potential or hypothetical literature). In 1999 the "Oulipo Compendium," edited by Harry Matthews and Alastair Brotchie, was published.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, BR p.8)
1960 Pres. de Gaulle granted independence to all its colonies in Africa.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1960 In France Jacques Foccart (1913-1997) was named secretary-general for African affairs. He held the office until 1974.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Foccart)
1961 Mar 7, Max Hymans (60), WW II resistance fighter, head of Air France, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1961 Apr 21, The French army revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French paratroopers' revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Jun 17, Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev (d.1993) defected from the Soviet Union at the Paris Le Bourget airport while traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet. In 1998 Diane Solway covered this event in her biography: "Nureyev."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A17)(AP, 6/17/08)
1961 Jul 1, Louis-Ferdinand Celine (b.1894), French physician, author, anti-Semite, died. His books included “Journey to the End of Night" (1932).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lfceline.htm)(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.P8)
1961 Jul, A French law guaranteed populations in France's overseas territories free exercise of their religion and respect for their beliefs and customs as long as they are not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat and killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue. Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris. On Oct 17, 2011, Algeria's post office issued a new stamp to commemorate the massacre.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)(AFP, 10/17/11)
1961 Andre Malreaux, minister of cultural affairs under Pres. de Gaulle, initiated the clean-up of Paris.
(SFC, 6/16/96, T-5)
1961 In France the Boisset Family Estates was founded in Burgundy. By 2012 the company controlled over 20 wineries in the US, Canada and Europe.
(SSFC, 3/11/12, p.N3)
1962 Jan, In Paris a series of bombings began and continued thru February by hardline soldiers opposed to Algeria’s independence, the Organization of the Secret Army (OAS).
(Econ, 2/18/12, ILp.15)
1962 Feb 5, French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1962 Feb 5, Jacques Ibert (71), French composer (Escales), died.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1962 Mar 18, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce, which took effect the next day.
(HN, 3/18/98)(AP, 3/18/08)
1962 Mar 19, Relative calm returned to Algeria after cease-fire, ending 7 years of warfare between French and Algerian Nationalists.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1962 May 23, OAS leader general Raoul Salan was sentenced to life in prison. French general Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria (July, 1960) and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://tinyurl.com/d8qm2)
1962 Mar 25, French OAS-leader ex-general Jouhaud was arrested.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1962 Apr, Jean-Claude Forest (d.1998) created the 41st century Barbarella sci-fi comic character for V Magazine. It was censored in France and barred from advertising or sale to minors until the early 1970s.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
1962 Jun 6, Yves Klein (b.1928), French artist, died of a heart attack.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein)
1962 Jul 1, Some 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots in the referendum on independence. The vote was nearly unanimous. De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3. The Provisional Executive, however, proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 3, French Pres. Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country following the July 1 elections. De Gaulle evacuated Algeria and a million settlers flooded into France.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 14, Borehole for Mont Blanc-tunnel, between France and Italy, was finished. [see Aug 14]
(MC, 7/14/02)
1962 Aug 14, French and Italian workers broke through at the Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel. [see Jul 14]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1962 Aug 22, There was a failed assassination on president De Gaulle.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1962 Nov 29, Great Britain and France agreed on a joint venture to build the super sonic Concorde jet.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A26)(MC, 11/29/01)
1962 Eugen Ionesco, French absurdist playwright, wrote his play “Exit the King."
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.86)
1962 The film "The Iron Mask" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Decoin.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1962 The film "The Seven Deadly Sins" (Les Sept Peches Capitaux) starred Jean-Pierre Aumont. It was directed by Roger Vadim.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.C2)
1962 The French film “The Seventh Juror" starred Bernard Blier.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.E4)
1962 The film "Un Singe en Hiver" (A Monkey in Winter) starred Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. It was directed by Henri Verneuil (d.2002).
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A19)
1962 A museum was added to the Chateau Mouton Rothschild. It housed a priceless collection of artwork related to wine.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1962 French Pres. Charles de Gaulle introduced the directly elected presidency in order to take power away from political parties.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.47)
1962 In France Paul Louis Halley (1934-2003) opened his first supermarket under the Promodes name. Following major acquisitions in 1988, 1996 and 1997 Promodes merged with rival Carrefour (1999) and took its name.
{France, Retail}
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.B2)
1963 Jan 14, President of France Charles de Gaulle announced the French veto on Britain's application to join the European Common Market, the forerunner of the European Union. De Gaulle said the British government lacked 'commitment' to European integration.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml)
1963 Jan 22, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty," aka of the Elysee friendship treaty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations)(AP, 1/22/18)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Jun 21, France announced it would withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1963 Jul 12, Charles de Gaulle pronounced that "Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque (81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1963 Oct 11, Jean Cocteau, French author (La Voie Humaine), surrealist poet, artist and film director, died at 73. His lover Lean Marais later published a biography of Cocteau called "L’Inconcevable Jean Cocteau." In 2003 Claude Arnaud authored the biography "Jean Cocteau."
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1963 Oct 11, Edith Piaf (b.1915), French singer (No, I don't regret anything), died of cancer. In 2007 the biopic film “La Vie en Rose," with Marion Cotillard as Piaf, was produced. In 2011 Carolyn Burke authored “No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf)(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.G5)
1963 The Singing Nun made a hit with "Dominique." The song praised the 13th century crusade against the Cathars.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1963 The film "Songs in the Basement" starred Germaine Montero and was directed by Henri Verneuil.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.C2)
1963 France erected giant concrete buildings to house a growing working class and North African immigrants. These included the “Cite des 4,000" in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.A1)
1963 French residents of Monaco became liable for French taxes.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)
1963 French retailer Carrefour SA invented hypermarkets, huge emporiums that combined the wares of supermarkets and department stores.
(WSJ, 11/30/06, p.A1)
1963 A glorified food blender was a product of the French restaurant supply giant Robot-Coupe. In 1973 Carl Sontheimer (d.1998 at 83) introduced his redesigned Cuisinart at a show in Chicago.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1963 Chrysler became the majority holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 The paleolithic site of Lascaux, by the village of Montignac, France, was closed to the public by Andre Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, due to environmental damage caused by large numbers of tourists.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.489)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T5)
1964 Feb 6, Paris and London agreed to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1964 Jun 15, The last French troops left Algeria.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1964 Jul 1, Pierre Monteux (89), French-US conductor (Concert Bldg Orch), died.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1964 Sep 16-1964 Oct 20, French Pres. Charles de Gaulle visited South America with stops in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brasil. He was the 1st head of state from outside Latin America to visit Paraguay.
(http://gaullisme.free.fr/GEChronologie.htm)(Econ, 10/1/05, p.36)
1964 Eleanor Clark authored “The Oysters of Locmariaquer," a history of French oysters and oystermen.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.W4)
1964 Jean Fautrier (b.1898), French modernist, died. He was considered a precursor to the American Abstract Expressionists.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.D8)
1964 The French Democratic Confederation of Labor (Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, CFDT) was founded when a majority of the members of the Christian trade union Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC) decided they preferred to be part of a secular union. The minority kept the name CFTC.
(http://tinyurl.com/y94wu78d)
1965 Jul 16, Mount Blanc Road tunnel between France & Italy opened.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1965 Aug 27, Le Corbusier (b.1887), Swiss-French architect and writer, died. He was born as Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. His book included books include “Vers une architecture" (Towards a New Architecture) (1923), “The City of Tomorrow" (1925), and “When the Cathedrals Were White" (1937).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lecorbu.htm)
1965 Sep 9, Francois Mitterrand was nominated for French presidency.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Sep 9, French President Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in protest of U.S. domination in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1965 Oct 29, Mehdi Ben Barka (b.1920), a leading opposition figure to Morocco’s King Hassan II (d.1999), disappeared in front of the famous Left Bank Lipp Cafe. His body has never been found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ben_Barka)(AP, 10/11/09)
1965 Nov 26, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1965 Dec 19, French president De Gaulle was re-elected. Mitterrand got 45% of the vote.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1965 The French film "Repulsion" with Catherine Deneuve was directed by Roman Polanski. It was a tale of female madness and paranoia.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C3)
1965 IBM established a large manufacturing plant in Montpellier.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R23)
1965-1998 Mary Blume served in Paris as a writer for the Int'l. Harold Tribune and in 1999 authored "A French Affair: The Paris Beat 1965-1998."
(SFEC, 12/5/99, BR p.1)
1966 Jan 11, Albert Giacometti (64), Swiss-French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Jan 24, The Kangchenjunga, a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai (Bombay) to New York, crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc, France, as it descended towards a scheduled stopover in Geneva, Switzerland. All 117 people on board died.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle said he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command. French military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1966 May 27, 6 French fighters crashed above Spain.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1966 May, The US launched 2 sorties of U-2 spy planes off the USS Ranger to monitor the French nuclear test site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. These were the only aircraft-carrier-based launches of the U-2 spy planes. The information was made public in 2006.
(AP, 3/21/06)
1966 Nov 18, Jean Peugeot, French auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1967 Feb 7, Henry Morgenthau (74), US minister of Finance, died.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1967 Feb 15, France launched its Diademe-D satellite into Earth orbit. This followed the launch of Diademe-C on Feb 8. These satellites were magnetically stabilized which limited their trackability in the southern hemisphere.
(http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/di1c_general.html)
1967 Mar 7, Alice B. Toklas (b.1877), the life partner of writer Gertrude Stein, died In Paris, France. Her work included “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" (1954). In 2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B._Toklas)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1967 Mar 29, France launched the Redoubtable, its first nuclear submarine. It did not enter operational service until 1972, when it began its first patrol on 28 January.
(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/France/FranceOrigin.html)
1967 Apr, Henry Hill (d.2012) completed his first major robbery when he and Thomas DeSimone, who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas" (1990), famously robbed Air France of a shipment of $420,000. Hill became an FBI informant following a 1980 arrest on a narcotics-trafficking charge, and testimony he delivered led to 50 arrests. Hill’s life story was documented in the book "Wiseguy" (1986) by Nicholas Pileggi.
(ABCNews, 6/12/12)
1967 Apr, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was imprisoned in Bolivia shortly before the capture of Che Guevara [see Nov 17].
(www.tamilnation.org/ideology/debray.htm)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom re-applied to join the European Community. It was followed by Ireland and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle was still reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1967 May 11, French President Charles de Gaulle for a second time said he will veto Britain's application to join the Common Market. One reason he gave was the incompatibility of its farming policies.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_4187000/4187714.stm)(Econ, 11/24/12, p.62)
1967 May 11, David Galula (b.1919), Tunisia-born French military officer and scholar, died in France. He was influential in developing theories of counterinsurgency. He wrote his experiences in two books, later published by the RAND Corporation: “Pacification in Algeria" (1963), and “Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W9)
1967 Jul 13, Tommy Simpson, British cyclist, died as he competed in the Tour de France. Traces of amphetamine and cognac were found in his blood.
(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.B1)
1967 Jul 24, French President Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal, Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1967 Sep 27, Felix Yusupov (b.1887), Russian aristocrat, died in Paris. He is best known for participating in the 1916 assassination of Grigori Rasputin. In 1927 Yusupov published his memoir detailing the killing of Rasputin.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Yusupov)(Econ, 12/24/16, p.115)
1967 Sep, The British, French and German governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to start development of the 300 seat Airbus A300 in order to compete with American companies. Airbus Industrie was formally set up in 1970.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/airbus)
1967 Nov 17, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia. Debray (b.1940) was jailed in Bolivia shortly before Che Guevara was captured and was convicted of having been part of Guevara's guerrilla group. He was released in 1970 after an international campaign for his release which included Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, General De Gaulle and Pope Paul VI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Debray)
1967 Nov 27, Charles DeGaulle vetoed Britain’s entry into the Common Market again.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1967 Dec 11, The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, was unveiled in Toulouse, France.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1967 The French film noir "Le Samourai" with Alain Delan was directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. He had just recently completed 2 other gangster films: "Le Doulos" and "Le Deuxieme Souffle."
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.D3)
1967 The French film "Young Girls of Rochefort" was directed by Jacques Demy.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.D4)
1967 Charles Munch, conductor, formed the Orchestre de Paris.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A17)
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