1874 in France
Events from the year 1874 in France.
Incumbents
- President: Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
- President of the Council of Ministers: Albert, duc de Broglie, Ernest Courtot de Cissey
Events
- 23 January – Camille Saint-Saëns' composition Danse Macabre is premiered.
- 15 March – France and the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
- 25 April – Louis Leroy reviews the First Impressionist Exhibition, held in Paris, and coins the term with reference to Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise.
Literature
- Alphonse Daudet - Fromont jeune et Risler aîné
- Gustave Flaubert - La Tentation de Saint Antoine
- Victor Hugo - Quatrevingt-treize
- Jules Verne - L'Île mystérieuse
- Émile Zola - ''La Conquête de Plassans''
Music
Births
January to June
- 21 January – René-Louis Baire, mathematician
- 19 February – Rose Gelbert, golfer
- 22 March – Jean Cau, rower.
- 3 May – François Coty, perfume manufacturer
- 14 May – Polaire (Emilie Marie Bouchaud), singer and actress
July to December
- 29 July – Auguste Giroux, rugby union player
- 4 September – Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise, great-grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French
- 4 October – Joseph d'Arbaud, poet
- 25 October – Henri Bénard, physicist
- 2 November – Georges Andrique, painter
- 14 November – André-Gaston Prételat, general
- 5 December – Henriette Caillaux, socialite and assassin
- 6 December – Lucien Démanet, gymnast
- 24 December – Yves Le Febvre, writer and politician
Deaths
- 8 January – Abbé Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, writer, historian
- 9 February – Jules Michelet, historian
- 26 August – Julie-Victoire Daubié, journalist
- 12 September – François Guizot, Prime Minister
- 22 December – Louis Aubert-Roche, physician