1882 in France

Incumbents

• President: Jules Grévy
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 30 January: Léon Gambetta
• * 30 January-7 August: Charles de Freycinet
• * starting 7 August: Charles Duclerc

Literature

• Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly - Une histoire sans nom
• Ludovic Halévy - L'abbé Constantin
• Joris-Karl Huysmans - À vau-l'eau
• Georges Ohnet - Le Maître de forges
• Jules Verne - L'École des Robinsons / ''Le Rayon vert''

Events

• 28 March – Republican Jules Ferry makes primary education in France free, non-clerical and obligatory.
• 6 May – North Sea Fisheries Convention is signed by United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and France to regulate the policy of the fisheries in the North Sea.

Births

January to March

• 13 January – Darius Paul Dassault, General
• 18 January – Lazare Lévy, pianist, composer and teacher
• 19 January – Pierre Allemane, international soccer player
• 5 February – Louis Wagner, motor racing driver
• 21 February – Jean Dupas, painter, designer, poster artist and decorator
• 26 February – Pierre Mac Orlan, novelist and songwriter
• 20 March – René Coty, politician, President of France

April to June

• 16 April – André Edouard Marty, artist
• 17 April – Émile Muselier, Admiral
• 10 May – Donatien Bouché, sailor and Olympic gold medallist
• 13 May – Georges Braque, painter and sculptor
• 25 May – Maurice Le Boucher, organist, composer, and pedagogue
• 13 June – Claude-Léon Mascaux, sculptor
• 22 June – Jacques Thubé, sailor and Olympic gold medallist
• 28 June – Jean-Julien Lemordant, artist and soldier

July to September

• 2 July – Princess Marie Bonaparte, psychoanalyst
• 8 August – François Piétri, politician, Minister and diplomat
• 10 August – Paul Marchandeau, politician and Minister
• 16 August – Désiré Mérchez, swimmer, water polo player and Olympic medallist
• 10 September – Jacques Gréber, architect
• 24 September – Max Décugis, tennis player

October to December

• 12 October – Émile Girardeau, engineer.
• 18 October – Lucien Petit-Breton, cyclist, winner of 1907 and 1908 Tour de France
• 25 October – André-Damien-Ferdinand Jullien, Cardinal
• 29 October – Jean Giraudoux, novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright
• 18 November – Jacques Maritain, Catholic philosopher
• 22 November – Charles Vildrac, playwright and poet
• 29 November – Henri Fabre, aviator and aircraft designer
• 7 December – Robert Debré, pediatrician
• 31 December – Eugène Le Moult, naturalist and entomologist

Full date unknown

• Louis Gernet, philologist and sociologist
• Robert Louzon, engineer, revolutionary syndicalist, anarchist and socialist
• Julien Peridier, electrical engineer and astronomer

Deaths

January to June

• 1 February – Antoine Bussy, chemist
• 12 February – Madame Céleste, actress
• 20 February – Louis Adolphe le Doulcet, comte de Pontécoulant, soldier and musicologist
• 8 April – Jules Etienne Joseph Quicherat, historian and archaeologist
• 1 May – Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Indianapolis
• 17 May – François Chabas, egyptologist
• 15 June – Ernest Courtot de Cissey, General
• 20 June – François-Auguste Biard, painter
• 25 June – François Jouffroy, sculptor

July to December

• 6 August – Antoine-Élisabeth-Cléophas Dareste de la Chavanne, historian
• 16 August – Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot, general
• 22 August – Louis-Auguste Desmarres, ophthalmologist
• 8 September – Joseph Liouville, mathematician
• 14 September – Georges Leclanché, electrical engineer
• 6 December – Louis Blanc, politician and historian
• 26 December – Henri Le Secq, painter and photographer
• 31 December – Léon Gambetta, statesman