1916 in France

Events

• 29 January - Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
• 21 February - Battle of Verdun begins.
• 27 April - Battle of Hulluch in World War I, 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division decimated in one of the most heavily-concentrated gas attacks of the war.
• 16 May - Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire following the conclusion of World War I into French and British spheres of influence.
• 1 July - First day on the Somme.
• 14 July - Battle of Bazentin Ridge, start of the second phase of the Battle of the Somme.
• 15 September - Battle of Flers-Courcelette begins and lasts for a week, third and last large-scale offensive by the British Army during the Battle of the Somme.
• 25 September - Battle of Morval.
• 26 September - Battle of Thiepval Ridge begins, German fortress of Thiepval is captured by the British.
• 28 September - Battle of Thiepval Ridge ends successfully, with the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt.
• 13 November - Battle of the Ancre launches, the final act of the Battle of the Somme.
• 18 November - Battle of the Somme ends.
• 18 December - Battle of Verdun ends.

Sport

Births

January to June

• 11 January - Bernard Blier, actor (d.1989).
• 22 January - Henri Dutilleux, composer.
• 14 February - Marcel Bigeard, military officer.
• 16 February - Julien Darui, international soccer player (d.1987).
• 20 March - Pierre Messmer, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister (d.2007).
• 4 April - Robert Charpentier, cyclist and Olympic gold medallist (d.1966).
• 25 May - André Devigny, soldier and French Resistance member (d.1999).
• 30 May - Jacques Georges, soccer administrator (d.2004).
• 3 June - Denise Vernac, actress (d.1984).
• 10 June - André Mandouze, academic and journalist (d.2006).
• 16 June - Francis Cammaerts, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent (d.2006).

July to December

• 22 July - Marcel Cerdan, boxer (d.1949).
• 24 August - Léo Ferré, poet, composer, singer and musician (d.1993).
• 17 September - Francis Lefebure, physician (d.1988).
• 21 September - Françoise Giroud, journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician (d.2003).
• 19 October - Jean Dausset, immunologist, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980.
• 26 October - François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995 (d.1996).
• 14 November - Roger Apéry, mathematician (d.1994).

Full date unknown

• Lucienne Abraham, Trotskyist politician (d.1970).
• Jacques-Laurent Bost, journalist (d.1990).
• Andrée Clair, writer (d.1982).
• Jean-Yves Couliou, painter (d.1995).
• Léonie Duquet, nun, killed by a death squad in Argentina (d.1977).

Deaths

• 21 March - Léon Labbé, surgeon and politician (b.1832).
• 19 May - Georges Boillot, motor racing driver and World War I fighter pilot (b.1884).
• 29 June - Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (b.1868).
• 28 August - Henri Harpignies, painter (b.1819).
• 6 July - Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker (b.1840).
• 13 December - Antonin Mercié, sculptor and painter (b.1845).

Full date unknown

• Marie Bracquemond, artist (b.1841).
• Frédéric Febvre, actor (b.1835).

References