French History This Month - May

• Events:
  • France and Spain agree to supply arms to American Colonies - 2.05.1776
  • Dual fought from two hot-air balloons over Paris - 3.05.1808
    A first.
  • Chanel No. 5 perfume is launched - 5.05.1921
  • The Channel Tunnel is opened - 6.05.1994
    The tunnel linking France and Britain
  • Tunisia becomes a French protectorate - 12.05.1881
  • The Dauphin marries Marie Antoinette - 16.05.1770
    Later he became Louis XVI
  • Napoléon declared Emperor - 16.05.1804
  • Matins of Bruges - 18.05.1302
    A French garrison was massacred when Flemish revolted against French occupation
  • Charles Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget airfield - 21.05.1927
    Just outside of Paris, ending the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight. Well I made it. he said.
  • Joan of Arc captured - 23.05.1430
    By Burgundian troops who handed her over to the English.
  • France proclaims Lebanon a republic - 23.05.1926
  • Napoléon crowned King of Italy - 26.05.1805
    In Milan Cathedral
  • France cedes former settlements in India to the Indian Union - 28.05.1956
  • The original Orient Express train leaves Paris for the last time - 28.05.1961
    It had connected Paris and Bucharest for 78 years.
  • British forces evacuated from Dunkirk - 29.05.1940
  • Joan of Arc burned at the stake in Rouen - 30.05.1431
• Births:
  • Maximilien François Robespierre - 6.05.1758
    Revolutionary leader
  • Paul Gauguin - 8.05.1903
    Painter
  • Salvador Dali - 11.05.1904
    Catalonian Expatriate painter
  • Joseph Nicolas Delisle - 12.05.1688
    Astronomer
  • Jules Massenet - 12.05.1842
    Composer
  • Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot - 13.05.1753
    Revolutionary leader
  • Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle - 16.05.1760
    French soldier who wrote Le Marseillaise
  • Erik Satie - 17.05.1866
    Composer
  • Charles Aznavour - 22.05.1924
    Singer
  • Philip III - 24.05.1245
    King of France
  • Jean-Paul Marat - 24.05.1743
    Revolutionary
  • Charles d'Orléans - 26.05.1391
    Poet
  • Edmond de Goncourt - 26.05.1822
    Novelist
  • Joseph Guillotin - 28.05.1738
    Physician and revolutionary
  • Léon Bourgeois - 29.05.1851
    Politician
• Deaths:
  • Charles, Duke of Bourbon - 5.05.1527
  • Napoléon Bonaparte - 5.05.1821
  • Jacques de Thou - 7.05.1617
    Historian and politician
  • Paul Doumer - 7.05.1932
    President, assassinated
  • Antoine Laurent Lavoisier - 8.05.1794
    Chemist, discoverer of Oxygen, guillotined
  • Gustave Flaubert - 8.05.1880
    Novelist
  • Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac - 9.05.1850
    Physicist and chemist
  • Jean Grolier - 14.05.1565
    Diplomat and bibliophile
  • Henry IV - 14.05.1610
    King of France, assassinated
  • Daniel Auber - 14.05.1871
    Composer
  • Héloise - 16.05.1164
    Abbess, pupil and secretly married to Peter Abélard
  • Peter the Lombard - 16.05.1164
    Bishop of Paris
  • Charles Perraut - 16.05.1703
    Writer of fairy tales
  • Charles de Talleyrand-Périgord - 17.05.1838
    Politician
  • Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais - 18.05.1799
    Playright
  • Augustin Thierry - 22.05.1856
    Historian
  • Gaspard Poussin - 25.05.1675
    Painter
  • François Boucher - 30.05.1770
    Painter
  • Voltaire - 30.05.1778
    Author, philosopher
  • Jean Cavalier - 31.05.1740
    Huguenot preacher and leader