1840 in France
Events from the year 1840 in France.
Incumbents
Events
- 20 January - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
- 1 March - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister.
- 30 September - The frigate Belle Poule arrives in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, returning the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena. He is buried in Les Invalides.
- Metric system again mandatory across France.
Arts and literature
- 11 February - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
Births
- 23 March -Louis-Émile Bertin, naval engineer
- 2 April - Émile Zola, novelist
- 22 April - Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker
- 13 May - Alphonse Daudet, novelist
- 20 October - Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, neurologist
- 12 November - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
- 14 November - Claude Monet, Impressionist painter
- 1 December - Marie Bracquemond, Impressionist painter
Deaths
- 13 February - Nicolas Joseph Maison, Marshal of France and Minister of War
- 27 February - John Tessier, French Sulpician priest
- 22 March - Étienne Bobillier, mathematician
- 25 April - Siméon Denis Poisson, mathematician and physicist
- 7 June - Népomucène Lemercier, poet and dramatist
- 20 June - Pierre-Joseph Redouté, painter and botanist
- 7 September - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, Marshal of France