1885 in France

Events from the year 1885 in France.

Incumbents

Events

28 February – Siege of Tuyên Quang ends, as French Foreign Legion is relieved after being besieged by forces of the Empire of China.
23 March – Battle of Bang Bo in Vietnam, significant battle of the Sino-French War and French defeat, leading to the Tonkin Affair, a major political crisis.
28 March – French abandon Lạng Sơn.
9 June – Sino-French War ends as treaty is signed.
14 October – Legislative Election held.
18 October – Legislative Election held.
November – First train crosses Garabit viaduct in the Massif Central.

Literature

Births

January to June

8 January – Charles Basle, American auto racer
22 January – Eugène Christophe, cyclist
28 January – Maurice Brocco, cyclist
1 February – Camille Chautemps, politician, three times Prime Minister of France
3 February – Camille Arambourg, paleontologist
6 March – Yvonne Gall, operatic soprano
16 March – Fernand Baldet, astronomer
23 March – Yves le Prieur, naval officer and inventor
6 April – Jules Goux, motor racing driver
5 June – Georges Mandel, politician and Resistance leader
15 June – Roland Dorgelès, novelist
27 June – Pierre Montet, Egyptologist

July to December

5 July – André Lhote, sculptor and painter
26 July – André Maurois, author and man of letters
26 August – Jules Romains, poet and writer
31 August – Lucien Chopard, entomologist
15 September – Marcel Allain, writer
11 October – François Mauriac, author, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
25 October – Xavier Lesage, horse rider, Olympic gold medallist
10 November – Lou Albert-Lasard, painter
23 December – Pierre Brissaud, illustrator, painter and engraver

Deaths

10 January – Amable Tastu, woman of letters.
16 January – Edmond François Valentin About, novelist, publicist and journalist
18 April – Marc Monnier, writer
3 May – Paul-Quentin Desains, physicist
18 May – Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville, painter
22 May – Victor Hugo, poet, playwright, novelist and statesman
June – Amédée Courbet, admiral
29 July – Henri Milne-Edwards, zoologist
17 December – Augustus Thébaud, Jesuit educator and publicist
24 December – Louis Prosper Gachard, man of letters