Learn about important dates in French and francophone history: famous birthdays, holidays and celebrations, and other milestones. If the above does not match today's date or you wish to choose a specific date, please click here

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Birthdays

823 - Charles II, aka Charles the Bald (Holy Roman Emperor and King of the West Franks)

1649 - Adrien Baillet (French scholar and critic)

1870 - Jules Bordet (Belgian immunologist and microbiologist)

1884 - Étienne Gilson (French philosopher and historian)

1912 - Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau (Québécois painter and writer)

1929 - Alan Civil (English French horn player)

1935 - Christo (Bulgarian artist)

1935 - Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (Morocco-born French artist)

Deaths

1760 - Antoine Court (French Huguenot minister)

Milestones/Events

1625 - King Charles I married the French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon

1774 - Québec Act expanded the territory of Québec and assured religious freedom

1777 - American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army

1798 - Mission San Luis Rey de Francia was founded

1944 - World War II: Germany launched a counter attack on Carentan, France

1995 - French president Jacques Chirac announced the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia

Errors and Omissions

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