1877 in France

Incumbents

• President: Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 17 May: Jules Simon
• * 17 May-23 November: Albert, 4th duc de Broglie
• * 23 November-13 December: Gaëtan de Rochebouët
• * starting 13 December: Jules Armand Dufaure

Events

• 16 May – Constitutional crisis which ultimately seals the defeat of the royalist movement.
• 14 October – Legislative election held.
• 28 October – Legislative election held.
• 'Yablochkov candles' are first used commercially in the 'Marengo hall' of the department store Galeries du Louvre in Paris.

Literature

• Augustine Tuillerie - Le Tour de la France par deux enfants
• Jules Verne
• * Les Indes noires
• * Hector Servadac
• Émile Zola - ''L'Assommoir''

Births

January to March

• 29 January – Georges Catroux, military officer and diplomat
• 17 February – André Maginot, politician, advocate of the Maginot Line
• 19 February – Louis Aubert, composer
• 21 February – Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Catholic theologian
• 28 February – André Simon, wine merchant, gourmet and writer
• 21 March – Maurice Farman, motor racing driver, aviator, aircraft manufacturer and designer
• 29 March – Jules Boucherit, violinist and teacher

April to June

• 15 April – Jules Basdevant, law professor
• 26 May – Jean Schlumberger, writer and journalist
• 31 May – Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion, née Renaudot, astronomer
• 14 June – Jane Bathori, opera singer

July to December

• 4 July – Jacques Bacot, explorer and Tibetologist
• 5 July – Georges Saillard, actor
• 6 July – Arnaud Massy, golfer
• 8 July – René Navarre, actor
• 19 July – Cécile Brunschvicg, politician
• 18 November – Jules Isaac, historian
• 13 December – Edmond Locard, pioneer in forensic science

Deaths

• 31 March – Antoine Augustin Cournot, economist, philosopher and mathematician
• 9 April – Pierre Louis Alphée Cazenave, dermatologist
• 26 April – Louise Bertin, composer
• 28 June – Jacques-Maurice De Saint Palais, Archbishop of Indianapolis
• 3 September – Adolphe Thiers, politician, historian and Prime Minister of France
• 23 September – Urbain Le Verrier, mathematician
• 16 October – Théodore Barrière, dramatist
• 26 December
• * Aristide Boucicaut, creator of Le Bon Marché department stores
• * Jean-Jacques Meyer, steam locomotive engineer
• 31 December – Gustave Courbet, painter