Events from the year 1895 in France.

Incumbents President: Jean Casimir-Perier (until 15 January), Felix Faure (starting 16 January) President of the Council of Ministers: until 26 January: Charles Dupuy 26 January–1 November: Alexandre Ribot starting 1 November: Léon Bourgeois

Events

1 January – Alphonse Mucha's lithographed poster for the play Gismonda starring Sarah Bernhardt is posted in Paris. Bernhardt is so satisfied with its success that she gives Mucha a six-year contract. 5 January – The military degradation of Alfred Dreyfus takes place on the Champ de Mars, Paris. 17 January – Félix Faure is elected President of French Republic after the resignation of Jean Casimir-Perier. 17 January – Dreyfus is moved into a military reformatory on the island of Ré. 21 February – Dreyfus is put on board ship to be exiled. 15 March – Dreyfus is landed on Devil's Island off French Guiana. 22 March – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière make what is probably the first presentation of a projected celluloid film moving picture, the 46-second Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, to members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale in Paris. 3 July – Painter Paul Gauguin leaves France to settle permanently in Polynesia. 27 August – Swami Vivekananda is invited by the Paris Congress to deliver a speech on Psychic Prana. 1 October – French troops capture Antananarivo, Madagascar. November – Painter Paul Cézanne has his first solo exhibition, at the Paris gallery of Ambroise Vollard. 22 October – Montparnasse derailment: A railway locomotive runs through the exterior wall of the Gare Montparnasse terminus in Paris. 28 December – Auguste and Louis Lumière make what is probably the first commercial public screening of projected moving picture films to a paying audience, at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris.

Literature Joris-Karl Huysmans - En Route Jules Verne - L'Île à hélice

Sport 11 June – The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris automobile trial is held. 24 September–31 October – The Automobile Club de France sponsors the longest race to date, a event from Bordeaux to Agen and back. Because it is held in ten stages, it can be considered the first rally. The first three places are taken by a Panhard, a Panhard, and a three-wheeler De Dion-Bouton.

Births

January to March 29 January – Pierre Gaxotte, historian (died 1982) 11 February – Maurice Cottenet, soccer player (died 1972) 28 February – Marcel Pagnol, novelist, playwright and filmmaker (died 1974) 2 March – Marcel Carpentier, military officer (died 1977) 16 March – Ernest Labrousse, historian (died 1988) 20 March – Robert Benoist, motor racing driver and war hero (executed 1944) 30 March Père Marie-Benoît, friar who helps smuggle Jews to safety from Nazi-occupied Southern France (died 1990) Jean Giono, author (died 1970)

April to June 5 April – Fernand Mourlot, printer and publisher (died 1988) 3 May – Gabriel Chevallier, novelist (died 1969) 4 May – René Mayer, politician and Prime Minister of France (died 1972) 11 May – Jacques Brugnon, tennis player (died 1978) 9 June – Henri Diamant-Berger, screenwriter, film director and producer (died 1972) 12 June – Eugénie Brazier, cook (died 1977)

July to September 2 July – Gen Paul, painter and engraver (died 1975) 7 August – Alain Saint-Ogan, comics author and artist (died 1974) 20 August – Albert Gilles, copper craftsman (died 1979) 18 September – Jean Batmale, soccer player (died 1973)

October to December 9 October – René Lasserre, rugby union player (died 1965) 3 November – Pierre Richard-Willm, actor (died 1983) 5 November – Walter Gieseking, pianist and composer (died 1956) 20 November Pierre Cot, politician (died 1977) Germain Jousse, member of the French Resistance (died 1988) 25 November – Adrienne Bolland, test pilot and first woman to fly over the Andes (died 1975) 27 November – Pierre-Paul Grassé, zoologist (died 1985) 29 November – Edgard de Larminat, General (died 1962) 9 December – Marguerite Huré, stained glass artist (died 1967) 14 December – Paul Éluard, poet (died 1952)

Deaths

January to June 10 January – Benjamin Godard, violinist and composer (born 1849) 28 January – François Certain de Canrobert, Marshal of France (born 1809) 29 January – Charles Frédéric Girard, biologist (born 1822) 16 February – André Garin, missionary and parish priest (born 1822) 19 February – Auguste Vacquerie, journalist and man of letters (born 1819) 11 March – Louis-Florentin Calmeil, psychiatrist and medical historian (born 1798) 22 April – Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, artist, astronomer and amateur entomologist, introduced the gypsy moth into North America (born 1827) 11 May – Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie, professor of apologetics (born 1834) 22 May – Claude Marie Dubuis, second Roman Catholic bishop of Texas (born 1817) 28 May – Alexandre Martin, socialist statesman (born 1815)

July to December 19 July – Henri Ernest Baillon, botanist and physician (born 1827) 16 August – Mathieu Auguste Geffroy, historian (born 1820) 28 September – Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist (born 1822) 24 November – Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, philosopher, journalist and statesman (born 1805) 27 November – Alexandre Dumas, fils, writer, author and playwright (born 1824) 11 December – Jean-Baptiste Joseph Émile Montégut, critic (born 1825) 31 December – Père Jean Marie Delavay, missionary, explorer and botanist (born 1834)

See also List of French films before 1910

References