1890 in France
Events from the year 1890 in France.
Incumbents
- President: Marie François Sadi Carnot
- President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Tirard, Charles de Freycinet
Events
- 21 February – First Franco-Dahomean War begins.
- 1 March – Léon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest Constans as Minister of the Interior.
- 4 March – Battle of Cotonou, attack on French positions repulsed.
- 27 July – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh perhaps paints Tree Roots at Auvers-sur-Oise, then apparently shoots himself, dying two days later.
- 4 October – First Franco-Dahomean War ends in French victory.
- 9 October – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory. It flies uncontrolled approximately at a height of, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.
- Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts is founded. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes is president and co-founder.
Literature
- Anatole France - Thaïs
- Octave Mirbeau - Sébastien Roch
- Georges Ohnet
- * L'Âme de Pierre
- * Serge Panine
- Albert Robida - Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique
- Jules Verne - César Cascabel
- Émile Zola - ''La Bête humaine''
Births
January to June
- 19 January – Élise Rivet, nun and World War II heroine
- 1 February – Germaine Lubin, soprano
- 2 February – Jules Gros, Breton linguist
- 24 March – Robert Schurrer, athlete and Olympic medallist
- 6 April – André-Louis Danjon, astronomer
- 21 April – Eugène Séguy, entomologist
- 29 April – Daisy Fellowes, society figure, writer and heiress
- 29 May – Robert Desoille, psychotherapist
- 12 June – Théophile Alajouanine, neurologist
July to December
- 4 July – Jacques Carlu, architect and designer
- 27 July – Jacques Forestier, rheumatologist
- 15 August – Jacques Ibert, composer
- 23 August – Marcelle Lalou, Tibetologist
- 25 September – Honoré Barthélemy, cyclist
- 22 November – Charles de Gaulle, general, statesman, President
- 29 November – Maurice Genevoix, author
- 2 December – Jean Médecin, lawyer and politician
- 20 December – Yvonne Arnaud, actress
- 25 December – André Lesauvage, sailor and Olympic gold medallist
Full date unknown
- Henriette Sauret, feminist, author, pacifist, journalist
Deaths
- 25 January – Jean Gailhac, priest
- 13 July – Auguste Jean François Grenier, doctor and entomologist
- 29 July – Vincent van Gogh Dutch painter
- 18 August – Albert Dubois-Pillet, painter and army officer
- 19 October – Émile Léonard Mathieu, mathematician
- 11 November – Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, adventurer
- 19 December – Eugène Lami, painter and lithographer