1915 in France

Incumbents

• President: Raymond Poincaré
• President of the Council of Ministers: René Viviani, Aristide Briand

Events

• 19 January – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
• 27 January – French military casualties begin arriving at the Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois, established earlier in the month by British volunteers.
• 2 April – Croix de guerre instituted as a military decoration.
• 18 April – Roland Garros lands his aircraft behind enemy lines and is taken prisoner.
• 9 May – Second Battle of Artois starts.
• 15 May – Second Battle of Artois ends in stalemate.
• July – Adrian helmet first issued to the French Army.
• 10 September – Satirical weekly newspaper Le Canard enchaîné first published.
• 15 September – Third Battle of Artois begins.
• 25 September
• *Battle of Loos begins, a major British offensive on the Western Front; first British use of poison gas during World War I.
• *Second Battle of Champagne begins.
• 28 September – Battle of Loos ends with British retreat.
• 16 October – France declares war on Bulgaria.
• 4 November – Third Battle of Artois ends.
• 6 November – Second Battle of Champagne ends.

Births

January to March

• 13 January – Antoine Guillaumont, archaeologist and Syriac scholar
• 14 January – André Frossard, journalist and essayist
• 31 January – Henri Dobert, mechanical or electrician worker, World War II resistant
• 18 February – Marcel Landowski, composer, biographer and arts administrator
• 1 March – Gustave Choquet, mathematician
• 7 March – Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister
• 24 March – Eugène Martin, motor racing driver

April to June

• 2 April – Jean Sauvagnargues, politician and Minister
• 3 April – Paul Touvier, convicted of crime against humanity for collaborationism in Vichy France
• 20 April – Émile Muller, politician
• 6 May – Achille Zavatta, clown and circus operator
• 12 May – Frère Roger, founder of the Taizé community
• 21 June – Jean Bastien, soccer player

July to December

• 31 July – Henri Decaë, cinematographer
• 19 August – Alphonse Antoine, cyclist
• 22 October – Jules Bigot, soccer player and manager
• 22 October – Jean Despeaux, boxer, Olympic gold-medallist
• 9 November – André François, cartoonist
• 12 November – Roland Barthes, literary critic and philosopher
• 17 November – Michel Arnaud, General
• November – Jean Neuberth, abstract painter
• 17 December – André Claveau, singer
• 19 December – Édith Piaf, singer

Deaths

• 8 April – Louis Pergaud, novelist
• 10 May – Gaston Cros, army officer and archaeologist
• 5 June – Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, painter and sculptor
• 25 July – Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, socialite, model for Portrait of Madame X
• 31 August – Adolphe Pégoud, French acrobatic pilot, World War I fighter ace
• 15 September – Alfred Agache, painter
• 31 August – Adolphe Pégoud, acrobatic pilot, World War I fighter ace
• 11 October – Jean Henri Fabre, entomologist
• 25 November – Michel Bréal, philologist