1909 in France

Incumbents

• President: Armand Fallières
• President of the Council of Ministers: Georges Clemenceau (until 24 July), Aristide Briand (starting 24 July)

Events

• 20 February - The Futurist Manifesto, written by Italian Filippo Marinetti, is published in Le Figaro.
• 2 February - The Paris Film Congress opens. It is an attempt to form a cartel of leading European producers similar to that of the MPPC in the United States
• 18 April - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
• 25 July - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
• 30 July – Société Française de teintures inoffersires, as predecessor of L'Oréal was founded.
• 22 September - Three of the Chauffeurs de la Drome are executed by guillotine in Valence, Drôme in south-west France. They were a gang responsible for a three-year campaign of theft, torture and murder in the department of Drôme.

Arts

• Georges Braque
  • Barques de pêche
  • Le Compotier
  • Mandora
• Albert Gleizes - Bords de la Marne
• Henri Matisse - Nu assis
• Francis Picabia - Caoutchouc
• Pablo Picasso - Femme à l'éventail
• Henri Rousseau
  • Les Rives de la Bièvre près de Bicêtre
  • La Muse inspirant le poète
• Paul Signac - Le Pin de Bertaud Gassin
• Suzanne Valadon - Adam et Ève

Film

• André Calmettes - Macbeth
• Segundo de Chomón - Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves
• Georges Méliès
  • Le Locataire diabolique
  • Hydrothérapie fantastique
  • Le Génie des cloches ou le Fils du sonneur
  • Papillon fantastique

Literature

• Maurice Barrès - Colette Baudoche
• André Gide - La porte étroite
• Maurice Leblanc - L'Aiguille creuse

Music

• Frédéric Chopin - Les Sylphides (orch. Alexander Glazunov)
• Claude Debussy
  • Le petit nègre
  • Chansons de Charles d’Orléans
• Paul Dukas - Vocalise-étude
• Georges Enesco - Piano Quartet No. 1
• Manuel de Falla - Pièces espagnoles
• Gabriel Fauré - Impromptu No. 5
• Jules Massenet - Bacchus
• Maurice Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Le matin, Op. 129

Sport

• 5 July - Tour de France begins.
• 1 August - Tour de France ends, won by François Faber of Luxembourg.

Births

January to March

• 3 February
  • André Cayatte, filmmaker (died 1989)
  • Simone Weil, philosopher and social activist (died 1943)
• 10 February - Henri Alekan, cinematographer (died 2001)
• 26 February
  • Claude Cahen, orientalist (died 1991)
  • Michel Tapié, artist, critic, curator and art collector (died 1987)
• 7 March - Léo Malet, novelist (died 1996)
• 14 March
  • Pierre Cloarec, cyclist (died 1994)
  • André Pieyre de Mandiargues, writer (died 1991)
• 27 March - Raymond Oliver, chef and restaurateur (died 1990)
• 31 March - Robert Brasillach, author, executed for collaboration (died 1945)

April to June

• 7 April - Robert Charroux, writer (died 1978)
• 17 April - Alain Poher, politician (died 1996)
• 22 April - André Girard, civil servant and Resistance worker (died 1993)
• 11 May - René Bousquet, civil servant, served as secretary general of the Vichy regime police (died 1993)
• 21 May - Guy de Rothschild, banker (died 2007)
• 15 June - Pierre La Mure, author (died 1976)
• 17 June - Régine Pernoud, historian and medievalist (died 1998)
• 19 June - Robert Défossé, soccer player (died 1973)

July to September

• 6 July - Jean Taris, swimmer and Olympic medallist (died 1977)
• 8 July - Louis Finot, international soccer player (died 1996)
• 13 July - Marie-Thérèse Walter, mistress of Pablo Picasso (died 1977)
• 15 July - Jean Hamburger, physician, surgeon and essayist (died 1992)
• 26 July - Bernard Cornut-Gentille, administrator and politician (died 1992)
• 5 August - Pierre Guillaumat, politician and Minister (died 1991)
• 11 August - Gaston Litaize, organist and composer (died 1991)
• 25 September - Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, film director, script-writer, playwright and author (died 1985)
• 27 September - Pascal Themanlys, poet, Zionist and Kabbalist (died 2000)
• 29 September - Jules Merviel, cyclist (died 1976)
• September - Henri Déricourt, pilot and accused double agent (died 1962)

October to December

• 1 October - Thierry Maulnier, journalist, essayist, dramatist and literary critic (died 1988)
• 11 October - François Tanguy-Prigent, politician and resistance fighter (died 1970)
• 14 October - Robert Mercier, footballer (died 1958)
• 28 October - Claude Bourdet, writer, journalist and politician (died 1996)
• 5 November - Pierre Repp, humorist and actor (died 1986)
• 8 November - Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, French Resistance leader (born 1989)
• 29 November - Jean Leguay, civil servant, accomplice in the deportation of Jews from France (died 1989)
• 2 December - Pierre Langlais, military officer (died 1986)

Full date unknown

• Marcel Barral, poet (died 1997)

Deaths

• 18 March - Cécile Bruyère, abbess (born 1845)
• 28 May - Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, neurologist (born 1840)

References