French History This Month - December

• Events:
  • France wins first Davis Cup Tennis title in 59 years - 1.12.1991
    By defeating the US team in Lyon, France
  • First Neon Lights Ever - 3.12.1910
    At the Paris Motor Show
  • Napoléon abolishes the Inquisition in Spain - 4.12.1808
    
  • World's first motor show opens in Paris - 11.12.1894
    With 9 exhibitors
  • Napoléon divorces Josephine - 16.12.1809
    Because she had not produced an heir
  • The Battle of Dreux - 18.12.1562
    Fought between Huguenots and Catholics beginning the French Wars of Religion
  • De Gaulle becomes President - 21.12.1958
    Not for the first time
  • Alfred Dreyfus send to Devil's Island - 22.12.1894
    The officer falsely convicted of selling military secrets
  • Van Gogh cuts off part of his ear - 23.12.1888
    Following an argument with Paul Gauguin
  • Charlemagne crowned first Holy Roman Emperor - 25.12.800
    In Rome by Pope Leo III
  • Marie and Pierre Curie discover Radium - 26.12.1898
    
• Births:
  • Madame Tussaud - 1.12.1761 - Wax modeler
  • Georges Seurat - 2.12.1859 - Painter
  • Jean-Luc Godard - 3.12.1930 - Film director
  • Hector Berlioz - 11.12.1803 - Composer
  • Gustave Flaubert - 12.12.1821 - Novelist
  • Nostradamus - 13.12.1503 - Physician and astrologer
  • Gustave Eiffel - 15.12.1832 - Swedish Engineer, designer of the Eiffel Tower
  • Edith Piaf - 19.12.15 - Singer
  • Jean Genet - 19.12.1910 - Dramatist and essayist
  • Maurice Utrillo - 25.12.1883 - Painter
  • Gerard Depardieu - 27.12.1948 - Film actor
  • André Messanger - 30.12.1853 - Composer
  • Henri Matisse - 31.12.1869 - Painter
• Deaths:
  • Marquis de Sade - 2.12.1814 - Writer and philosopher
  • Pierre Auguste Renoir - 3.12.1919 - Painter
  • Alexandre Dumas père - 4.12.1870 - Novelist
  • Cardinal Richelieu - 4.12.1642 - Churchman and politician
  • Claude Monet - 4.12.1926 - Painter
  • Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin - 6.12.1779 - Painter
  • Madame du Barry - 6.12.1793 - Mistriss of King Louis XV
  • Ferdinand de Lesseps - 7.12.1894 - Engineer
  • Camille Saint-Saës - 16.12.1921 - Composer
  • Paul Tortelier - 18.12.1990 - Cellist
  • Samuel Becket - 22.12.1989 - Writer and dramatist, Irish expatriate in Paris
  • Charles Pathé - 26.12.1957 - Film pioneer
  • Hervé Guibert - 27.12.1992 - Novelist and photographer
  • Gustave Eiffel - 28.12.1923 - Swedish Engineer, designer of the Eiffel Tower
  • Maurice Ravel - 28.12.1937 - Composer
  • Jacques Louis David - 29.12.1825 - Painter
  • Gustave Courbet - 31.12.1877 - Painter