1914 in France

Events from the year 1914 in France.

Incumbents

Events

16 March – The wife of minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro because he threatened to publish Caillaux's love letters to her during his previous marriage; she is later acquitted by a jury.
26 April – French legislative election held.
10 May – French legislative election held.
31 July – Jean Jaurès assassinated by a French nationalist fanatic
3 August – Germany declares war on France.
9 August – Battle of Mulhouse begins, the opening attack of World War I by the French army against Germany.
19 August – Battle of Dornach (1914)
26 August – Allies withdraw from Le Cateau to Saint-Quentin, after Battle of Le Cateau.
29 August – French Fifth Army attack St. Quentin.
30 August – French Fifth Army retreat from St. Quentin.
2 September – The village of Moronvilliers is occupied by the Germans.
5 September
* London Agreement: No member of the Triple Entente may seek a separate peace with the Central Powers.
* The First Battle of the Marne begins: 50 km north-east of Paris, the French 6th Army under General Maunoury attacks German forces closing on the city. Over 2,000,000 fight in the Allied victory. A French and British counterattack at the Marne ends the German advance on Paris.
6–8 September – French Army troops are rushed from Paris to join the First Battle of the Marne using Renault Type AG taxicabs.
13 September – The conclusion of the Battle of Grand Couronné ends the Battle of the Frontiers, with the north-east segment of the Western Front stabilising.
25 September – Battle of Albert begins as part of the Race to the Sea.
27 September – First Battle of Artois begins.
28 September – The First Battle of the Aisne ends indecisively.
30 September – British Indian Army Expeditionary Force A arrives at Marseille for service on the Western Front.
1 October – Battle of Arras begins.
4 October – Lens is lost, as French Tenth Army fails to hold back the Germans.
5 October – Aerial combat of 5 October 1914
4 November – Britain and France declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
20 December – First Battle of Champagne begins.
December – Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, who writes under the nom de plume "Guillaume Apollinaire", enlists in the French Army to fight in World War I and becomes a French citizen after an August attempt at enlistment has been rejected.

Literature

Anatole France - La Révolte des anges
Raymond Roussel - ''Locus Solus''

Music

Gabriel Fauré - Barcarolle No. 11
Maurice Ravel - À la manière de Borodine / Chabrier
Erik Satie
* Sports et divertissements
* Peccadilles importunes
Igor Stravinsky - ''Le rossignol''

Sports

28 June – The 12th Tour de France begins.

Births

January to March

4 January – Jean-Pierre Vernant, historian and anthropologist
9 January – Lucien Bodard, reporter and writer on events in Asia
10 January – Pierre Cogan, cyclist
3 February – Michel Thomas, linguist, language teacher and decorated war veteran
17 February – René Vietto, cyclist
19 February – Jacques Dufilho, actor
28 February – Élie Bayol, motor racing driver
21 March – Paul Tortelier, cellist and composer

April to June

4 April – Marguerite Duras, writer and film director
17 April – Janine Micheau, lyric soprano opera singer
25 April – Claude Mauriac, author and journalist
26 April – Lilian Rolfe, heroine of World War II
27 April – Albert Soboul, historian
28 April – Michel Mohrt, editor, essayist, novelist and historian
8 May – Romain Gary, novelist, film director, World War II aviator and diplomat
14 May – Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont, militant communist, resistance fighter and politician
18 May
* Pierre Balmain, fashion designer
* Marcel Bernard, tennis player
16 June
* Louis Gabrillargues, soccer player
* Colette Maze, pianist
26 June – Antoine Argoud, twice attempted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle
30 June – Agnès-Marie Valois, French nun and nurse

July to September

5 July – Alain de Boissieu, Army chief-of-staff
5 July – Jean Tabaud, artist
21 July – Philippe Ariès, medievalist and historian
30 July – André Nocquet, aikido teacher
31 July – Louis de Funès, actor
19 August
*Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, politician and Prime Minister of France
*Raymond Marcellin, politician
20 August – Yann Goulet, sculptor, Breton nationalist and war-time collaborationist with Nazi Germany
30 August – Jean Bottéro, historian
13 September – Henri Curiel, political activist
23 September – Maurice Limat, science fiction author
24 September – Jean-Michel Guilcher, ethnologist

October to December

22 October – André Neher, Jewish scholar and philosopher
13 November – Henri Langlois, pioneer of film preservation and restoration
21 November – Henri Laborit, physician, writer and philosopher
4 December – Claude Renoir, cinematographer
5 December – Odette Joyeux, actress and writer
18 December – Aimé Teisseire, military officer

Deaths

18 January – Georges Picquart, army officer and Minister of War, exposed the truth in the Dreyfus Affair
30 January – Paul Déroulède, author and politician
13 February – Alphonse Bertillon, police officer and forensic scientist
25 March – Frédéric Mistral, poet, shared the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904
31 July – Jean Jaurès, socialist and pacifist
3 August – Louis Couturat, logician, mathematician, philosopher and linguist
4 August – Hubertine Auclert, feminist and campaigner for women's suffrage
4 August – Jules Lemaître, critic and dramatist
3 September – Albéric Magnard, composer
5 September – Charles Péguy, poet, essayist and editor
6 September – Alfred Mayssonnié, rugby union player
16 September – Louis Bach, Association football player
23 September – Gaston Lane, rugby union player
26 September – Alain-Fournier, novelist
2 October – Joé Anduran, rugby union player
25 December – Jean Alfred Fournier, dermatologist