1769 in France
Events from the year 1769 in France.
Incumbents
- Monarch: Louis XV
Events
- 16 March – Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo, following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships Boudeuse and Étoile, with the loss of only seven out of 330 men; among the members of the expedition is Jeanne Baré, the first woman known to have circumnavigated the globe.
- 8 May – Battle of Ponte Novu begins between royal French forces and the native Corsicans.
- 9 May – Battle of Ponte Novu ends, marking the end of the Corsican War and paving the way for French dominance over the island.
- 23 October – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates a steam-powered artillery tractor.
Culture
- The Concert des Amateurs is founded by François-Joseph Gossec in Paris at the Hôtel de Soubise.
Births
January to June
- 1 January – Marie-Louise Lachapelle, midwife
- 10 January – Michel Ney, Marshal of France
- 31 January – André-Jacques Garnerin, inventor of the frameless parachute
- 1 March – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, general
- 9 March – Adélaïde Binart, neoclassical painter
- 29 March – Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Marshal General of France and three times Prime Minister of France
- 10 April – Jean Lannes, general
- 13 April – Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, general
- 21 April – Alexandre-Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont, artillery general
- 25 April – Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer
July to December
- 29 July – Louis-Benoît Picard, playwright
- 15 August – Napoleon Bonaparte, military and political leader
- 23 August – Georges Cuvier, naturalist and zoologist
- 10 October – Augustin Alexandre Darthé, Revolutionary
- 28 December – Auguste Hilarion, comte de Kératry, poet, novelist, historian and politician
Full date unknown
- Barthelemy Lafon, Louisiana Creole architect, engineer, city planner, surveyor and smuggler
Deaths
- 5 April – Marc-Antoine Laugier, Jesuit priest and architectural theorist
- 1 August – Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche, astronomer
- 23 September – Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly, astronomer
- 3 November – Diane Adélaïde de Mailly, third of the five de Nesle sisters