Events from the year 1916 in France.
Incumbents President: Raymond Poincaré President of the Council of Ministers: Aristide Briand
Events 29 January – Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time. 21 February – Battle of Verdun begins. 22 February – Battle of Bois des Caures ends. 27 April – Battle of Hulluch in World War I, 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division decimated in one of the most heavily concentrated gas attacks of the war. 16 May – Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire following the conclusion of World War I into French and British spheres of influence. 1 July – First day on the Somme. 14 July – Battle of Bazentin Ridge, start of the second phase of the Battle of the Somme. 15 September – Battle of Flers-Courcelette begins and lasts for a week, third and last large-scale offensive by the British Army during the Battle of the Somme. 25 September – Battle of Morval. 26 September – Battle of Thiepval Ridge begins, German fortress of Thiepval is captured by the British. 28 September – Battle of Thiepval Ridge ends successfully, with the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt. 13 November – Battle of the Ancre launches, the final act of the Battle of the Somme. 18 November – Battle of the Somme ends. 18 December – Battle of Verdun ends.
Births
January to June 11 January – Bernard Blier, actor (died 1989) 22 January – Henri Dutilleux, composer (died 2013) 14 February – Marcel Bigeard, military officer (died 2010) 16 February – Julien Darui, international soccer player (died 1987) 1 March – Lucienne Abraham, Trotskyist politician (died 1970) 20 March – Pierre Messmer, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister (died 2007) 4 April – Robert Charpentier, cyclist and Olympic gold medallist (died 1966) 9 April – Léonie Duquet, nun (killed by a death squad in Argentina 1977) 22 April – Yvette Lundy, resistance fighter (died 2019) 26 April – Paulette Coquatrix, costume designer (died 2018) 5 May – Andrée Clair, writer (died 1982) 6 May – Jacques-Laurent Bost, journalist (died 1990) 25 May – André Devigny, soldier and French Resistance member (died 1999) 30 May – Jacques Georges, soccer administrator (died 2004) 3 June – Denise Vernac, actress (died 1984) 10 June – André Mandouze, academic and journalist (died 2006) 16 June – Francis Cammaerts, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent (died 2006)
July to December 22 July – Marcel Cerdan, boxer (died 1949) 24 August – Léo Ferré, poet, composer, singer and musician (died 1993) 17 September – Francis Lefebure, physician (died 1988) 21 September – Françoise Giroud, journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician (died 2003) 18 October – Jean-Yves Couliou, painter (died 1995) 19 October – Jean Dausset, immunologist, shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 (died 2009) 26 October – François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995 (died 1996) 14 November – Roger Apéry, mathematician (died 1994)
Deaths 17 January – Marie Bracquemond, Impressionist painter (born 1840) 22 February – Émile Driant, nationalist writer, politician and army officer (born 1855; killed in action) 3 March - Jean Mounet-Sully, actor (born 1841) 4 March – Franz Marc, German painter and printmaker (born 1880) 21 March – Léon Labbé, surgeon and politician (born 1832) 12 May – Frank Cheadle, Australian rugby league footballer and World War I soldier (born 1885) 19 May – Georges Boillot, motor racing driver and World War I fighter pilot (born 1884) 25 May – Jane Dieulafoy, archaeologist and novelist (born 1851) 29 June – Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (born 1868) 6 July – Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker (born 1840) 8 July – Augustin Cochin, historian (born 1876) 28 August – Henri Harpignies, painter (born 1819) 26 September – Max Ritter von Mulzer, World War I German flying ace (born 1893) 13 December – Antonin Mercié, sculptor and painter (born 1845) 14 December – Frédéric Febvre, actor (born 1835)
See also List of French films of 1916
References