1759 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch - Louis XV

Events

• January – Journal des Dames published in France.
• 16 February - Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, ends the French Army's 2-month siege of the British Indian fort at Madras and retreats
• 4 March–20 November - Étienne de Silhouette serves as Controller-General and attempts major financial reforms
• 5 March - Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is proscribed by the Vatican and temporarily suppressed by the French government; the ban is lifted in September to allow publication of a revised version
• 13 April - Battle of Bergen in Hesse: French victory
• 4 July - Le Havre is bombarded by the British Royal Navy
• 25 July - British forces in North America capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé
• 26–27 July - Battle of Ticonderoga: At the southern end of Lake Champlain, French forces withdraw from Fort Carillon, which is taken by the British and renamed Fort Ticonderoga
• 1 August - Battle of Minden: French are defeated but withdraw in order
• 10 August - Bordeaux earthquake.
• 18 August - Battle of Lagos: The French fleet under Commodore Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran is defeated off the Portuguese coast
• 5 September & 28 October - Regulations issued for the production of printed cotton fabrics in the kingdom, permitting Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf to set up a manufactory in Jouy-en-Josas for the production of toile de Jouy
• 10 September - Battle of Pondicherry: Naval battle off the coast of India between the French under Admiral d'Aché and the British; although the military outcome is indecisive, the French fleet is badly damaged and sails home, never to return to the subcontinent
• 13 September - Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British forces led by James Wolfe defeat the French commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm, leading to the capitulation of Quebec City
• 20 November - Battle of Quiberon Bay: The French fleet under Marshal de Conflans is defeated by the British under Edward Hawke off the coast of Brittany in the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet and a planned French invasion of Britain is abandoned
• Halley's Comet returns; a team of three mathematicians, Alexis Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute, have – for the first time – predicted the date
• Madame du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements, and the government authorizes her to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial support

Arts and literature

• 15 January - Voltaire's satire Candide is published simultaneously in five countries

Births

• 29 January - Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc, botanist
• 9 February - Jacques Desjardin, military officer
• 22 February - Claude Lecourbe, military general
• 21 May - Joseph Fouché, statesman
• 19 July - Jacques Anselme Dorthès, physician, entomologist and naturalist
• 27 July - Pierre Charles Baquoy, historical painter and engraver
• 15 August - Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin, miniature painter
• 26 October - Georges Danton, Revolutionary leader
• 16 December - Charles Guillaume Alexandre Bourgeois, physicist and painter

Deaths

• 10 March - Antoine Magnol, physician and botanist
• 28 April - Marie Louise Trichet, Catholic religious
• 12 May - Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, sculptor
• 3 June - Didier Diderot, craftsman
• 27 June - Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, economist
• 24 July - Antoine Gaubil, Jesuit missionary in China
• 27 July - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, mathematician and philosopher
• 14 September - Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, military officer
• 16 September - Nicolas Antoine Boulanger, philosopher
• 18 October - Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, composer
• 6 December - Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, daughter of King Louis XV