1855 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch - Napoleon III

Events

• 1 March – Compagnie Générale des Omnibus established to secure a monopoly over horse-buses in Paris.
• 16 April – Emperor Napoleon III, with Empress Eugénie, begins a 6-day state visit to Britain.
• 18 April – The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, requested by Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle, first appears.
• 15 May–15 November – Exposition Universelle officially opens in Paris.
• 16 June – Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest formed by amalgamation.
• 16 August – Battle of Chernaya River: Russian troops are defeated by French and Sardinian forces in the Crimean War.
• 18 August – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, with Prince Albert, begins a 10-day state visit to Paris, the first visit of a reigning British monarch to France since 1413. While there, she visits the Exposition Universelle.
• 7 September – Battle of Malakoff, French victory over Russian forces, part of the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War.
• 11 September – Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) ends in Franco-British victory.
• 17 October – Battle of Kinburn - Combined French and British forces subdue Russian shore forts. The successful use of French floating batteries makes this the first use of modern ironclad warships in action.
• 17 December – London General Omnibus Company established in Paris as the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus de Londres; in the following year it will absorb a substantial proportion of horse-bus operators in London.
• Undated – Réunion des Organismes d'Assurance Mutuelle association is founded.

Births

• 20 January – Ernest Chausson, composer
• 15 February – Jean-Joseph Carriès, sculptor, ceramist, and miniaturist
• 18 February – Jean Jules Jusserand, author and diplomat
• 16 March – Achille Maffre de Baugé, poet
• 27 April – Caroline Rémy de Guebhard, socialist, journalist and feminist
• 27 September – Paul Émile Appell, mathematician
• 5 November – Léon Teisserenc de Bort, meteorologist
• 10 November – Alexandre Darracq, automobile manufacturer

Deaths

• 15 January – Henri Braconnot, chemist and pharmacist
• 26 January – Gérard de Nerval, poet, essayist and translator
• 3 March
• *Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, lawyer and Prime Minister
• *Antoine-Geneviève-Héraclius-Agénor de Gramont, aristocrat
• 18 April – Jean-Baptiste Isabey, painter
• 26 May – Jean Isidore Harispe, Marshal of France
• 10 June – Jacques-Jean Barre, engraver
• 22 July – Raymond Gayrard, sculptor
• 23 October – François André Michaux, botanist
• 25 November – Pierre-Justin-Marie Macquart, entomologist
• 2 December – Frédéric Berat, poet and songwriter

The arts

• 15 May–15 November – The Exposition Universelle includes a retrospective of the paintings of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Gustave Courbet, having had several paintings rejected for the Exposition, exhibits in a temporary "Pavillon du Réalisme" adjacent.
• 13 June – Verdi's opera Les vêpres siciliennes is premiered in Paris.
• 5 July – Jacques Offenbach inaugurates performances of operettas as director of his own Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens.
• October – Victor Hugo moves to Hauteville House, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, accompanied by his mistress, Juliette Drouet.
• Jean-François Millet produces the engraving "Study of a Woman Churning Butter".