1870 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch - Napoleon III

  Events

• February - Denis Vrain-Lucas is sentenced to 2 years in prison for multiple forgery, in Paris.
• 20 April - Constitutional referendum reaffirms the status of the Second French Empire.
• 14 July - Ems Dispatch published, serving as a casus belli for war between France and Prussia.
• 15 July - French army mobilizes.
• 16 July - Corps législatif votes to declare war on Prussia.
• 19 July - France declares war on Prussia: opening of the Franco-Prussian War.
• 4 August - Battle of Wissembourg: Prussian forces overwhelm the French garrison at Wissembourg.
• 6 August
• *Battle of Spicheren, near Saarbrücken: Prussian victory.
• *Battle of Wörth: decisive Prussian victory.
• 14 August - Battle of Borny-Colombey: Prussian victory; French retreat upon Metz.
• 15 August - Siege of Strasbourg begins.
• 16 August - Battle of Mars-la-Tour: Prussian victory.
• 18 August - Battle of Gravelotte: Prussian victory.
• 30 August - Battle of Beaumont: Prussian victory.
• 31 August - Battle of Noiseville: Prussian victory.
• 1–2 September - Battle of Sedan: decisive Prussian victory. Napoleon III surrenders himself and the entire Army of Châlons and declares the Second Empire dissolved.
• 3 September - Siege of Metz begins with French forces besieged.
• 4 September - Third Republic declared in Paris. Government of National Defense established. Empress Eugenie flees to England with her son.
• 19 September - Siege of Paris begins.
• 27–30 September - Battle of Le Bourget, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
• 28 September - Siege of Strasbourg ends with French surrender.
• 30 September - Battle of Chevilly, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
• 8 October - Leon Michel Gambetta escapes besieged Paris in a hot-air balloon.
• 18 October - Battle of Bellevue, near Metz: Prussian victory.
• 23 October - Siege of Metz ends with French surrender.
• 3 November - Siege of Belfort begins with French troops besieged.
• 9 November - Battle of Coulmiers: French victory over Bavarian forces.
• 11 November - French retake Orléans.
• 27 November - Battle of Amiens: Prussian victory.
• 28 November - Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande: Prussian victory.
• 29 November - Battle of Villiers, largest of the French sorties from besieged Paris, begins.
• 2 December - Battle of Loigny-Poupry, Prussian victory.
• 3 December - Battle of Villiers ends with Prussian victory.
• 3–4 December - Second Battle of Orléans: Prussians recapture Orléans.
• 23–24 December - Battle of Hallue results in stalemate.

  Arts and literature

• February - Sculptor Aimé Millet is appointed professor at the École des Arts décoratifs.
• 25 May - Léo Delibes' ballet Coppélia debuts at the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris.
• 28 June - Claude Monet marries his mistress and model Camille Doncieux in Paris; Gustave Courbet is a witness.

  Births

• 25 January - Henry Bordeaux, writer and lawyer
• 28 April - Frédéric Justin Collet, pathologist and otolaryngologist
• 20 June - Georges Dufrénoy, post-impressionist painter
• 27 July - Hilaire Belloc, French-born English man of letters
• 24 September - Georges Claude, engineer, chemist and inventor
• 30 September - Jean Baptiste Perrin, physicist and Nobel laureate
• 8 October - Louis Vierne, organist and composer
• 10 December - Mary Bonaparte, eldest daughter of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte of Canino

  Deaths

January to June

• 19 January - Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, spree killer, executed
• 1 February - Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, Marshal of France
• 19 February - Nathaniel de Rothschild, founder of the wine-making branch of the Rothschild family
• 20 June - Jules de Goncourt, writer

  July to December

• 15 August - Ardant du Picq, Colonel and military theorist
• 2 September - Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, general and statesman
• 23 September - Prosper Mérimée, dramatist, historian and archaeologist
• 25 October - Etienne-Michel Faillon, Roman Catholic historian
• 28 October - Jean-Pierre Falret, psychiatrist
• 29 October - Jules Baroche, statesman and Minister
• 24 November - Comte de Lautréamont, poet
• 28 November - Frédéric Bazille, painter, killed in action
• 5 December - Alexandre Dumas, père, writer
• 26 December - Marie Dominique Bouix, Jesuit canon lawyer

  Full date unknown

• Jacques-François Ochard, painter