1868 in France

Decades:	1840s; 1850s; 1860s; 1870s; 1880s;
See also:	Other events of 1868; History of France • Timeline • Years

Events from the year 1868 in France.

Incumbents[]

Monarch – Napoleon III

Events[]

March - Geologist Louis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon, the first anatomically modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens), at Abri de Crô-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies in the Dordogne.
18 August - The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere by astronomer Jules Janssen during a total eclipse in Guntur, India, but assumed to be sodium^[1] (on 20 October English astronomer Norman Lockyer identifies it).
October - The French military mission to Japan (1867–68) is ordered to leave by Imperial decree.
Jules-Emile Planchon and colleagues propose Phylloxera as the cause of the Great French Wine Blight.^[2]
Jean-Martin Charcot describes and names multiple sclerosis.^[3]^[4]
Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents methods of color photography.^[5]
Ernest and Auguste Bollée first patent the Éolienne Bollée wind turbine.^[6]

Arts and literature[]

January - Émile Zola defends his first major novel, Thérèse Raquin (1867), against charges of pornography and corruption of morals.^[7]
Establishment of the Académie Julian, a major art school in Paris that admits women, by Rodolphe Julian.
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll's organ at Notre-Dame de Paris is dedicated.

Sport[]

The first documented bicycle race is generally held to be a 1,200 m race at the Parc de Saint-Cloud in Paris.^[8]

Births[]

January to June[]

17 January - Louis Couturat, logician, mathematician, philosopher, and linguist (died 1914)
27 January - Jenny Sacerdote, under birth name Jeanne Adèle Bernard, famous Parisian dressmaker (died 1962)
3 March - Émile Chartier, philosopher, journalist and pacifist (died 1951)
1 April - Edmond Rostand, poet and playwright (died 1918)
28 April - Émile Bernard, painter (died 1941)
6 May - Gaston Leroux, journalist, detective and novelist (died 1927)
18 June - Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (died 1916)

July to December[]

27 July - Eugène Apert, pediatrician (died 1940)
28 July - André Spire, poet, writer, and Zionist activist (died 1966)
6 August - Paul Claudel, poet, dramatist and diplomat (died 1955)
11 August - Théodore Eugène César Ruyssen, historian of philosophy and pacifist (died 1967)
24 October - Alexandra David-Néel, explorer (died 1969)
19 November - Gustave-Auguste Ferrié, radio pioneer and army general (died 1932)
25 December - Eugenie Besserer, actress (died 1934)

Deaths[]

13 January - Arthur-Marie Le Hir, Biblical scholar and Orientalist (born 1811)
22 January - Étienne Serres, physician and embryologist (born 1786)
8 February - Jacques Camou, general (born 1792)
11 February - Léon Foucault, physicist (born 1819)
22 April - Jean-François Jarjavay, anatomist and surgeon (born 1815)
24 April - Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Roman Catholic nun (born 1796)
6 May - Louis Marie de la Haye, Vicomte de Cormenin, jurist and political pamphleteer (born 1788)
14 June - Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet, physicist (born 1791)
22 August - Jean-François Barrière, historian (born 1786)
28 August - Antoine Clot, physician (born 1793)
24 December - Adolphe d'Archiac, geologist and paleontologist (born 1802)
December - Pierre Carmouche, playwright (born 1797)

References[]

^ Kochhar, R. K. (1991). "French astronomers in India during the 17th –19th centuries". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 101 (2): 95–100. Bibcode:1991JBAA..101...95K.
^ "The Great French Wine Blight". Wine Tidings. 96. July–August 1986. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
^ Enerson, Ole Daniel. "Jean-Martin Charcot". Whonamedit?. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
^ Charcot, J.-M. (1868). "Histologie de la sclerose en plaques". Gazette des Hopitaux. Paris. 41: 554–55.
^ Coe, Brian (1978). Colour Photography: the first hundred years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant. ISBN 0-904069-24-9.
^ No 79985.
^ Ferragus (1868-01-23). "La littérature putride". Le Figaro. Paris.
^ "Bicycle Racing in France : The Origins". Archived from the original on 2014-05-09. Retrieved May 6, 2013.

[1] Kochhar, R. K. (1991). "French astronomers in India during the 17th –19th centuries". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 101 (2): 95–100. Bibcode:1991JBAA..101...95K.

[2] "The Great French Wine Blight". Wine Tidings. 96. July–August 1986. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-01.

[3] Enerson, Ole Daniel. "Jean-Martin Charcot". Whonamedit?. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-11.

[4] Charcot, J.-M. (1868). "Histologie de la sclerose en plaques". Gazette des Hopitaux. Paris. 41: 554–55.

[5] Coe, Brian (1978). Colour Photography: the first hundred years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant. ISBN 0-904069-24-9.

[6] No 79985.

[7] Ferragus (1868-01-23). "La littérature putride". Le Figaro. Paris.

[8] "Bicycle Racing in France : The Origins". Archived from the original on 2014-05-09. Retrieved May 6, 2013.

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v t Years in France
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14th century	1368 1400
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19th century	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t 1868 in Europe
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