1900 in France
Events from the year 1900 in France.
Incumbents
- President: Émile Loubet
- President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau
Events
- The first Guide Michelin is published for motorists in France.
- 2 February – First performance of Gustave Charpentier's opera, Louise.
- 31 March – The length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
- 1 April – Every French policeman is assigned to carry a gun.
- 14 April–12 November – Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, is staged in Paris.
- 21 April – Battle of Kousséri: French troops decisively defeat forces of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in Chad, achieving the objective of linking all French possessions in Western Africa.
- 27 June – Treaty of Paris is signed between the Spanish Empire and the French Empire by which Río Muni is relieved of all conflicting claims.
- 19 July – The first line of the Paris Métro is inaugurated.
- 21 November – Claude Monet's paintings shown at Gallery Durand-Ruel in Paris
Literature
- Colette - Claudine à l'école
- Marcel Proust - Jean Santeuil
- Octave Mirbeau - Le Journal d'une femme de chambre
- Jules Verne
- * Seconde Patrie
- * ''Le Testament d'un excentrique''
Music
- Gustave Charpentier - Louise
- Claude Debussy - Nocturnes
- Gabriel Fauré - Requiem
- Camille Saint-Saëns
- * La Nuit, Op. 114
- * La feu celeste
- Erik Satie - ''Verset laïque et somptueux''
Sport
- 14 May–28 October – Olympic Games held in Paris.
Births
January to March
- 3 January – Marcel Gobillot, cyclist and Olympic medallist
- 5 January – Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter
- 6 January – Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, journalist, politician and French Resistance member
- 7 January – Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, lover and later married to Samuel Beckett
- 8 January – François de Menthon, politician and professor of law
- 11 January – Benoît Fauré, cyclist
- 22 January – René Pellos, artist
- 24 January – René Guillot, author
- 4 February – Jacques Prévert, poet and screenwriter
- 11 February – Raymond Cambefort, one of the last three fully verified World War I veterans living in France
- 21 February – Madeleine Renaud, actress
- 6 March – Henri Jeanson, writer and journalist
- 8 March – Pierre David-Weill, investment banker
- 19 March – Frédéric Joliot-Curie, physicist and Nobel laureate
April to June
- 13 April – Pierre Molinier, painter and photographer
- 15 April – Pierre Nord, writer, spy and resistance member
- 20 April – Jacques Adnet, designer, architect and interior designer
- 27 April – Marcel Légaut, philosopher and mathematician
- 28 April
- * Maurice Thorez, communist politician
- * Jean Vaysse, rugby union player
- 17 May – Achille Souchard, cyclist
- 22 May – Yvonne de Gaulle, married to Charles de Gaulle
- 14 June – Roger Bourdin, baritone
- 22 June – Henriette Alimen, paleontologist and geologist
- 29 June – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer
July to December
- 4 July – Robert Desnos, surrealist poet
- 12 July – Marcel Paul, trade unionist and communist politician
- 17 July – Marcel Dalio, actor
- 19 July – Pierre Coquelin de Lisle, sport shooter and Olympic gold medallist
- 26 July – Jacques Février, pianist
- 11 August – Georges Limbour, writer
- 26 August – Georges Neveux, Ukrainian-born dramatist and poet
- 6 September – Marc Bernard, writer.
- 30 September – Pierre Yvert, philatelic editor
- 9 October – Henri Lauvaux, athlete and Olympic medallist
- 13 October – Ghislaine Marie Françoise Dommanget, actress and Princess of Monaco
- 21 October – Andrée Boisson, Olympic fencer
- November – Émile Gagnan, engineer and inventor
- 15 December – Hellé Nice, model, dancer and motor racing driver
- 23 December – Marie Bell, actress and stage director
Deaths
- 11 February – Émile Blanchard, zoologist and entomologist
- 19 March – Charles-Louis Hanon, piano pedagogue and composer
- 26 March – Victor Auguste, baron Duperré, colonial administrator
- 5 April – Joseph Louis François Bertrand, mathematician
- 15 April - Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux, writer
- 22 April – Amédée-François Lamy, military officer
- 18 May – Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, philosopher and archaeologist
- 16 June – François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, admiral
- 24 September – Louis Ratisbonne, writer and man of letters
- 13 October – Louis Adolphe Cochery, politician and journalist
- Full date unknown – Jules Adenis, dramatist and opera librettist