1879 in France
Events from the year 1879 in France.
Incumbents
- President: Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta Jules Grévy
- President of the Council of Ministers:
- * until 4 February: Jules Armand Dufaure
- * 4 February-28 December: William Waddington.
- * starting 28 December: Charles de Freycinet
Events
- April – Postman Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal at Hauterives.
- 1 June – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, great-nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bonapartist Pretender to the throne, dies in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
- 17 July – Freycinet Plan enacted to extend rail and other transportation systems.
- "La Marseillaise" is restored as the French national anthem.
Literature
- Joris-Karl Huysmans - Les Sœurs Vatard
- Pierre Loti - Aziyadé
- Albert Robida - Voyages très extraordinaires de Saturnin Farandoul
- Jules Verne
- * Les Cinq Cents Millions de la Bégum
- * ''Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine''
Music
Births
- 22 January – Francis Picabia, painter and poet
- 4 February – Jacques Copeau, journalist, actor, playwright, director, teacher
- 23 March – René Jeannel, entomologist
- 20 April – Paul Poiret, fashion designer
- 5 June – René Pottier, cyclist, winner of 1906 Tour de France
- 9 June – Joseph Avenol, 2nd Secretary General of the League of Nations
- 1 July – Léon Jouhaux, trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951
- 13 July – Eugène Freyssinet, structural and civil engineer
- 11 September – Louis Coatalen, automobile engineer and racing driver
- 23 September – Charles Camoin, painter
- 21 October – Joseph Canteloube, composer
- 17 December – Jean-Marie Charles Abrial, Admiral and Minister
- 31 December – Joseph Darnand, Bishop
Deaths
- 10 February – Honoré Daumier, printmaker, caricaturist, painter and sculptor
- 25 February – Jean-Baptiste Glaire, Roman Catholic priest and Hebrew and Biblical scholar
- 2 March – Jules Bastide, publicist
- 30 March – Thomas Couture, painter and teacher
- 16 April - Bernadette Soubirous, nun and visionary of Lourdes apparitions
- 20 May – Pierre-Jules Mêne, sculptor
- 29 May – Pierre Adolphe Piorry, physician
- 1 June – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo
- 26 August – Charles Marie Edouard Chassaignac, physician
- 6 September – Amédée de Noé, caricaturist and lithographer
- 17 September – Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect and theorist
- 12 November – Jean-Charles Chenu, physician and naturalist
- 18 November
- * Michel Chevalier, engineer, statesman and economist
- * André Giroux, photographer and painter
- 19 November – Jean-Joseph Gaume, Roman Catholic theologian and author
- 29 December – Jean Étienne Bercé, entomologist