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

1938 - Hervé de Charette (French politician)

1945 - Patrick Modiano (French writer)

1948 - Jean Reno (Morocco-born French actor)

1956 - Réal Cloutier (Canadian ice hockey player)

Deaths

1652 - Charles Amédée de Savoie-Nemours, 6th Duc de Nemours (French soldier)

1683 - Maria Theresa of Spain (queen of Louis XIV of France)

1996 - Claudette Colbert (French-American actress)

Holidays/Celebrations

Vanuatu - Independence Day

Milestones/Events

1608 - At Ticonderoga (today: Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs, setting the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next hundred years

2004 - Belgium: Gas explosion killed 16 people

Errors and Omissions

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