Events from the year 1890 in France.
Incumbents President: Marie François Sadi Carnot President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Tirard (until 17 March), Charles de Freycinet (starting 17 March)
Events 21 February – First Franco-Dahomean War begins. 1 March – Léon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest Constans as Minister of the Interior. 4 March – Battle of Cotonou, attack on French positions repulsed. 27 July – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh perhaps paints Tree Roots at Auvers-sur-Oise, then apparently shoots himself, dying two days later. 4 October – First Franco-Dahomean War ends in French victory. 9 October – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory. It flies uncontrolled approximately at a height of , the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power. Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts is founded. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes is president and co-founder.
Literature Anatole France - Thaïs Octave Mirbeau - Sébastien Roch Georges Ohnet L'Âme de Pierre Serge Panine Albert Robida - Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique Jules Verne - César Cascabel Émile Zola - La Bête humaine
Births January to June 19 January – Élise Rivet, nun and World War II heroine (died 1945) 1 February – Germaine Lubin, soprano (died 1979) 2 February – Jules Gros, Breton linguist (died 1992) 24 March – Robert Schurrer, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1972) 6 April – André-Louis Danjon, astronomer (died 1967) 21 April – Eugène Séguy, entomologist (died 1985) 29 April – Daisy Fellowes, society figure, writer and heiress (died 1962) 29 May – Robert Desoille, psychotherapist (died 1966) 12 June – Théophile Alajouanine, neurologist (died 1980)
July to December 4 July – Jacques Carlu, architect and designer (died 1976) 27 July – Jacques Forestier, rheumatologist (died 1978) 15 August – Jacques Ibert, composer (died 1962) 23 August – Marcelle Lalou, Tibetologist (died 1967) 25 September – Honoré Barthélemy, cyclist (died 1964) 22 November – Charles de Gaulle, general, statesman, President (died 1970) 29 November – Maurice Genevoix, author (died 1980) 2 December – Jean Médecin, lawyer and politician (died 1965) 20 December – Yvonne Arnaud, actress (died 1958 in the United Kingdom) 25 December – André Lesauvage, sailor and Olympic gold medallist (died 1971)
Full date unknown Henriette Sauret, feminist, author, pacifist, journalist (died 1976)
Deaths 25 January – Jean Gailhac, priest (born 1802) 13 July – Auguste Jean François Grenier, doctor and entomologist (born 1814) 29 July – Vincent van Gogh Dutch painter (born 1853) 18 August – Albert Dubois-Pillet, painter and army officer (born 1846) 19 October – Émile Léonard Mathieu, mathematician (born 1835) 11 November – Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, adventurer (born 1842) 19 December – Eugène Lami, painter and lithographer (born 1800)
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