360
France
Everything about France on 360n60: 14 history, 45 dates in history, 1 future, 1 people. Each told in 60 words.
History · 14
- History · 28 November 2023
Riyadh wins the right to host Expo 2030
On 28 November 2023, member states of the Bureau International des Expositions voted in Paris to award World Expo 2030 to Riyadh. The Saudi capital won 119 votes, far ahead of Busan and Rome. Expo 2030 Riyadh will run from October 2030 to March 2031, welcoming visitors from around the world.
- History · 12 December 2015
Nearly every nation agrees the Paris climate agreement
On 12 December 2015, at the COP21 climate conference near Paris, 196 parties agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to try to keep it to 1.5°C. Each country sets its own plan to cut emissions and updates it every five years. The agreement came into force in November 2016.
- History · 6 May 1994
The Channel Tunnel opens between Britain and France
On 6 May 1994, Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand opened the Channel Tunnel, linking Britain and France by rail under the sea. About 50 km long, with about 38 km under the seabed, it has the longest undersea section of any tunnel. Eurostar trains now link London and Paris in about two and a quarter hours.
- History · 20–21 May 1927
Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
On 20 and 21 May 1927, the American pilot Charles Lindbergh flew alone and non-stop from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis, a single-engine plane. The 5,800 km flight took 33 and a half hours. He won a $25,000 prize, and huge crowds greeted him. The flight inspired public enthusiasm for air travel.
- History · December 1898
Marie and Pierre Curie discover polonium and radium
In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered two new radioactive elements in Paris: polonium in July, named after Marie's homeland Poland, and radium in December. Marie Curie coined the word 'radioactivity'. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in 1903, and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences.
- History · 6–15 April 1896
The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens
In April 1896, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, revived by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin. About 240 athletes from 14 countries competed in 43 events. The Olympics have since grown into the world's largest sporting event, held every four years.
- History · 28 December 1895
The Lumière brothers hold the first public cinema show
On 28 December 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière showed ten short films to a paying audience in a basement room of the Grand Café in Paris. Their cinématographe both filmed and projected moving pictures. Each film lasted under a minute, showing scenes such as workers leaving a factory. It is often called the birth of cinema.
- History · 31 March 1889
The Eiffel Tower is completed in Paris
On 31 March 1889, the engineer Gustave Eiffel climbed to the top of his new iron tower in Paris and raised the French flag. Built for the World's Fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution, it stood about 300 m high, the tallest structure on Earth. Many artists called it ugly. It became the symbol of Paris.
- History · 6 July 1885
Pasteur's rabies vaccine saves a boy's life
On 6 July 1885, the French scientist Louis Pasteur began treating nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been badly bitten by a rabid dog, with an experimental vaccine. The boy survived, though rabies was almost always fatal. The success made Pasteur world-famous and led to the founding of the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1887.
- History · c. 1826–1827
Niépce takes the oldest surviving photograph from nature
Around 1826 or 1827, the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce captured the view from an upstairs window of his house in Burgundy on a metal plate coated with bitumen. The exposure took many hours, perhaps days. It is the oldest surviving camera photograph. His partner Louis Daguerre developed a faster process, announced to the world in 1839.
- History · 1816
Laennec invents the stethoscope
In 1816, the French doctor René Laennec rolled a sheet of paper into a tube to listen to a patient's heart, and heard it far more clearly. He built a wooden version and called it the stethoscope. His study of chest sounds helped doctors diagnose heart and lung diseases, and the stethoscope became the symbol of medicine.
- History · 15 July 1799
The Rosetta Stone is found
On 15 July 1799, French soldiers rebuilding a fort near Rashid, known to Europeans as Rosetta, in Egypt, found a stone carved with the same decree in three scripts: hieroglyphs, demotic and ancient Greek. Because scholars could read the Greek, it became the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing, which Jean-François Champollion achieved in 1822.
- History · 14 July 1789
The French Revolution begins
On 14 July 1789, crowds in Paris stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, in the opening days of the French Revolution. Within weeks, the National Assembly abolished feudal privileges and adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The revolution ended absolute monarchy in France and spread new ideas about rights across Europe.
- History · 21 November 1783
People fly for the first time, in a hot-air balloon
On 21 November 1783, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes rose over Paris in a hot-air balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers. They flew about nine kilometres in some 25 minutes, the first free flight carrying people. Ten days later, a hydrogen balloon also flew, and the age of flight had begun.
On this day · 45
- On this day · 28 November 2023
Riyadh wins the right to host Expo 2030
On 28 November 2023, member states of the Bureau International des Expositions voted in Paris to award World Expo 2030 to Riyadh. The Saudi capital won 119 votes in the first round, far ahead of Busan and Rome. Expo 2030 Riyadh is planned to open on 1 October 2030.
- On this day · 27 April 2005
The Airbus A380 makes its first flight
On 27 April 2005, the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its first flight from Toulouse in France. With two full decks, it can carry more than 800 passengers, though most airlines fit about 500 seats. It entered service with Singapore Airlines in 2007.
- On this day · 12 June 1979
A pedal-powered plane flies across the English Channel
On 12 June 1979, the cyclist Bryan Allen pedalled the Gossamer Albatross, a very light aircraft with a propeller driven by bicycle pedals, from England to France. The 36 km flight took almost three hours and won a prize for the first human-powered crossing of the Channel.
- On this day · 17 August 1978
A balloon crosses the Atlantic for the first time
On 17 August 1978, three Americans, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, landed near Paris in the helium balloon Double Eagle II, after six days in the air from Maine. It was the first successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon.
- On this day · 21 January 1976
Concorde begins passenger flights
On 21 January 1976, British Airways and Air France began the first supersonic passenger flights with Concorde, from London to Bahrain and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. Concorde flew at twice the speed of sound and crossed the Atlantic in about three and a half hours. It retired in 2003.
- On this day · 2 March 1969
Concorde makes its first flight
On 2 March 1969, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner Concorde took off for the first time, from Toulouse in France, for a 27-minute test flight. It later flew passengers at twice the speed of sound, crossing the Atlantic in about three and a half hours, until it retired in 2003.
- On this day · 9 May 1950
The Schuman Declaration proposes European cooperation
On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed that France and Germany pool their coal and steel industries, to make war between them 'materially impossible'. It led to the European Coal and Steel Community and later the European Union. The date is celebrated as Europe Day.
- On this day · 20 September 1946
The first Cannes Film Festival opens
On 20 September 1946, the first Cannes Film Festival opened on the French Riviera, after an earlier attempt in 1939 was cancelled by the outbreak of war. Films from 21 countries were shown. Cannes became one of the world's most famous film festivals, awarding the Palme d'Or.
- On this day · 6 June 1944
D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy
On 6 June 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, in the largest seaborne invasion in history, with about 156,000 troops on the first day. It opened a new front in western Europe, and within a year the Second World War in Europe was over.
- On this day · 13 December 1928
Gershwin's An American in Paris premieres
On 13 December 1928, George Gershwin's orchestral piece An American in Paris was first performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. Inspired by his visit to Paris, it even included real taxi horns. It later inspired an Oscar-winning film of the same name in 1951.
- On this day · 25 January 1924
The first Winter Olympics open in Chamonix
On 25 January 1924, a 'winter sports week' opened in Chamonix, in the French Alps, with about 250 athletes from 16 nations. It was later recognised as the first Winter Olympic Games. Events included skiing, skating, ice hockey and bobsleigh.
- On this day · 18 January 1919
The Paris Peace Conference opens
On 18 January 1919, leaders of the victorious powers met in Paris to settle the peace after the First World War. The conference produced the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties, redrew the map of Europe and created the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations.
- On this day · 28 June 1919
The Treaty of Versailles is signed
On 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, formally ending the First World War between Germany and the Allied powers. It also set up the League of Nations.
- On this day · 21 August 1911
The Mona Lisa is stolen
On 21 August 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who had worked at the museum. It was missing for more than two years before being recovered in Florence in 1913. The theft made it the world's most famous painting.
- On this day · 11 June 1910
Jacques Cousteau is born
On 11 June 1910, the French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau was born. He co-invented the Aqua-Lung, which let divers breathe underwater for long periods, and his films and television series showed millions of people the life of the oceans for the first time.
- On this day · 25 June 1910
Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is first performed
On 25 June 1910, The Firebird, a ballet with music by the young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, was first performed in Paris by the Ballets Russes. Its colourful, dramatic score made Stravinsky famous overnight, and he became one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
- On this day · 25 July 1909
Louis Blériot flies across the English Channel
On 25 July 1909, the French aviator Louis Blériot flew his monoplane from Calais to Dover, the first flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane. The 37-minute flight won him a newspaper prize and showed that aircraft could cross the sea.
- On this day · 13 November 1907
The first helicopter flight
On 13 November 1907, the French engineer Paul Cornu lifted off in a twin-rotor machine near Lisieux, rising a short distance off the ground for about 20 seconds. It is regarded as the first free flight of a helicopter carrying a person. Practical helicopters followed in the 1930s and 1940s.
- On this day · 4 May 1904
The United States takes over building the Panama Canal
On 4 May 1904, the United States took control of the unfinished Panama Canal project from a failed French company. After a decade of work, battling disease and landslides, the canal opened in 1914, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- On this day · 20 April 1902
Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium
On 20 April 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie succeeded in isolating radium chloride in their laboratory in Paris, after processing tonnes of ore. Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win in two sciences, physics and chemistry.
- On this day · 27 March 1899
Marconi sends a radio message across the English Channel
On 27 March 1899, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless message across the English Channel, from Wimereux in France to South Foreland in England, about 50 km. Less than three years later, he received a signal across the Atlantic.
- On this day · 29 April 1899
An electric car becomes the first to pass 100 km/h
On 29 April 1899, near Paris, the Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy reached 105.88 km/h in La Jamais Contente, a bullet-shaped electric car. It was the first road vehicle to go faster than 100 km/h, more than a century before today's electric cars.
- On this day · 26 December 1898
Marie and Pierre Curie announce radium
On 26 December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie, with Gustave Bémont, announced to the French Academy of Sciences the discovery of a new radioactive element, which they named radium. Their work founded the study of radioactivity and later led to new treatments for cancer.
- On this day · 6 April 1896
The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens
On 6 April 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece, inspired by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin. About 240 athletes from 14 nations took part in nine sports. The marathon was won by a Greek water carrier, Spyridon Louis.
- On this day · 13 February 1895
The Lumière brothers patent the cinématographe
On 13 February 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière patented the cinématographe in France, a light machine that could film, develop and project moving pictures. Later that year they used it for the first public, paid film show in Paris, often called the birth of cinema.
- On this day · 27 November 1895
Alfred Nobel signs the will that creates the Nobel Prizes
On 27 November 1895, in Paris, the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel signed his last will. He left most of his fortune to fund annual prizes for those who 'conferred the greatest benefit to humankind' in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The first prizes were awarded in 1901.
- On this day · 28 December 1895
The first public film screening
On 28 December 1895, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière showed short films to a paying audience at the Grand Café in Paris, using their Cinématographe. Around 30 people watched ten short films. The evening is often seen as the birth of cinema.
- On this day · 31 March 1889
The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated
On 31 March 1889, the engineer Gustave Eiffel climbed to the top of his new iron tower in Paris and raised the French flag. Built for the World's Fair, it was the tallest structure on Earth, at about 300 m. Many critics hated it at first. It is now the symbol of Paris.
- On this day · 28 October 1886
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated
On 28 October 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated on an island in New York Harbor. A gift from the people of France to the United States, it was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with an iron frame by Gustave Eiffel. It welcomed millions of immigrants arriving by ship.
- On this day · 6 July 1885
Louis Pasteur saves a boy with a rabies vaccine
On 6 July 1885, the French scientist Louis Pasteur began treating nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog, with an experimental vaccine. The boy survived. Rabies had been almost always fatal. The success made Pasteur famous and led to the Pasteur Institute.
- On this day · 3 March 1875
Bizet's opera Carmen is first performed
On 3 March 1875, Georges Bizet's opera Carmen opened at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Its first audiences were cool towards it, and Bizet died three months later. But its melodies, such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song, made it one of the most performed operas in the world.
- On this day · 18 August 1868
Helium is discovered in the Sun
On 18 August 1868, the French astronomer Jules Janssen, watching a solar eclipse in India, saw a bright yellow line in the Sun's light that matched no known element. The element was named helium, after the Greek word for Sun. It was found on Earth only in 1895.
- On this day · 17 May 1865
The International Telegraph Union is founded
On 17 May 1865, 20 European countries founded the International Telegraph Union in Paris, to agree common rules for sending telegrams across borders. Now the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, it coordinates radio frequencies and satellite orbits. The date is World Telecommunication Day.
- On this day · 24 September 1852
The first powered airship flight
On 24 September 1852, the French engineer Henri Giffard flew about 27 km from Paris to Élancourt in an airship driven by a small steam engine. It was the first powered and steerable flight. Airships later carried passengers across oceans.
- On this day · 2 April 1845
The first photograph of the Sun is taken
On 2 April 1845, the French physicists Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault took the first detailed photograph of the Sun, a daguerreotype exposed for a fraction of a second. Sunspots are visible on it. Today telescopes in space watch the Sun around the clock to forecast space weather.
- On this day · 19 August 1839
Photography is given to the world
On 19 August 1839, the French government announced the details of Louis Daguerre's photographic process, the daguerreotype, and gave it freely to the world. Within months, people everywhere were taking photographs. The date is celebrated as World Photography Day.
- On this day · 8 April 1820
The Venus de Milo statue is found
On 8 April 1820, a farmer on the Greek island of Milos found a marble statue buried in the ground, later known as the Venus de Milo. Carved more than 2,000 years ago, it was taken to Paris, where it became one of the most famous works in the Louvre museum.
- On this day · 18 June 1815
The Battle of Waterloo
On 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, British-led and Prussian armies defeated the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. His defeat ended more than two decades of war in Europe. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
- On this day · 2 December 1804
Napoleon is crowned Emperor of the French
On 2 December 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in Paris, placing the crown on his own head. His armies went on to dominate much of Europe until his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. His legal code still influences laws in many countries.
- On this day · 15 July 1799
The Rosetta Stone is found
On 15 July 1799, French soldiers rebuilding a fort near Rashid, known to Europeans as Rosetta, in Egypt, found a stone carved with the same text in three scripts, including Greek and hieroglyphs. It became the key that let the scholar Jean-François Champollion decipher ancient Egyptian writing in 1822.
- On this day · 22 October 1797
The first parachute jump from a balloon
On 22 October 1797, the Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin cut his basket loose from a hydrogen balloon about 1,000 m above Paris and floated down under a silk parachute. It swayed wildly, but he landed safely. It was the first parachute jump from such a height.
- On this day · 10 August 1793
The Louvre opens as a public museum
On 10 August 1793, the Louvre, a former royal palace in Paris, opened to the public as a museum, displaying hundreds of paintings. It is now the world's most visited museum, home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, with almost 10 million visitors in some years.
- On this day · 14 July 1789
The storming of the Bastille
On 14 July 1789, crowds in Paris stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, at the start of the French Revolution. The revolution ended the absolute monarchy in France and spread ideas of liberty and equality. The French celebrate 14 July as their national day.
- On this day · 4 June 1783
The Montgolfier brothers fly a hot-air balloon in public
On 4 June 1783, the French paper makers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier sent up an unmanned hot-air balloon made of cloth and paper in Annonay, France. It rose about 2,000 m. Later that year, people made the first balloon flights.
- On this day · 19 September 1783
A sheep, a duck and a rooster fly in a balloon
On 19 September 1783, the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck and a rooster aloft in a hot-air balloon at Versailles, in front of King Louis XVI. They flew for about eight minutes and landed safely, showing living creatures could survive in the air. People flew two months later.