1912 in France

Incumbents

• President: Armand Fallières
• President of the Council of Ministers: Joseph Caillaux (until 21 January), Raymond Poincaré (starting 21 January)

Events

• 13 January – Raymond Poincaré forms a coalition government, beginning his first term of office as Prime Minister on 21 January.
• 7 March – Aviator Henri Salmet makes the first non-stop flight from Paris to London in three hours. ##claim retracted see Flight, 23 March 1912, p. 264 M. Salmet's London-Paris Flight ## --
• 30 March – Treaty of Fez, Sultan Abdelhafid gives up the sovereignty of Morocco, making it a protectorate of France.
• 10 April – embarks passengers from tenders at Cherbourg Harbour for the only time.

Arts and literature

• Pierre Bonnard - La Femme au chat
• Georges Braque - Fruit Dish and Glass
• Robert Delaunay - Fenêtres ouvertes simultanément Ière partie 3e motif
• Marcel Duchamp - Nu descendant un escalier n° 2
• Albert Gleizes
  • Les Baigneuses
  • Le Dépiquage des Moissons
  • L'Homme au balcon
  • Les ponts de Paris (Passy)
• Henri Matisse
  • La Conversation
  • Les Poissons rouges
  • La Petite Mulâtresse
  • Paysage marocain (Acanthes)
  • Le Rifain assis
  • Vue sur la baie de Tanger
  • La Fenêtre à Tanger
  • Zorah sur la terrasse
• Jean Metzinger
  • Au Vélodrome
  • L'Oiseau bleu
  • Danseuse au café
  • Man with a Pipe
  • Femme à l'Éventail
  • La Femme au Cheval
• Claude Monet - Saint-Georges Majeur au Crépuscule
• Francis Picabia
  • La Procession, Séville
  • La Source
• Pablo Picasso
  • Bouteille, Verre, et Fourchette
  • Violon et Raisins

Film

• André Calmettes - Richard III
• Alice Guy-Blaché - L'Américanisé
• Georges Méliès - À la conquête du pôle
• Louis Mercanton & Henri Desfontaines - Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth

Literature

• Anatole France - Les dieux ont soif
• Maurice Leblanc - The Crystal Stopper
• Louis Pergaud - La Guerre des boutons

Music

• Claude Debussy - Khamma (piano score only)
• Paul Dukas - La Péri
• Reynaldo Hahn - Le Dieu bleu
• Jules Massenet - Roma
• Maurice Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Triptyque, Op. 136
• Erik Satie
  • Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien)
  • Prélude de la porte héroïque du ciel

Sport

• 26 June – 1912 French Grand Prix, won by Georges Boillot driving a Peugeot.
• 30 June–28 July – 10th Tour de France, won by Odiel Defraye.

Births

January to March

• 6 January – Jacques Ellul, philosopher, sociologist, theologian (died 1994)
• 15 January – Michel Debré, politician and first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic (died 1996)
• 18 January – David Rousset, writer and political activist (died 1997)
• 3 February – Jacques Soustelle, anthropologist (died 1990)
• 7 February – Alfred Desenclos, composer (died 1971)
• 7 February – Amédée Fournier, cyclist (died 1992)
• 11 February – Jacques Corrèze, businessman and politician (died 1991)
• 12 February – Pierre Jaminet, cyclist (died 1968)
• 20 February – Pierre Boulle, novelist (died 1994)
• 28 March – Léon Damas, poet and politician (died 1978)

April to June

• 12 April – Georges Franju, filmmaker (died 1987)
• 14 April – Robert Doisneau, photographer (died 1994)
• 19 April – Raymond Pichard, Dominican priest and television presenter (died 1992)
• 21 April – Marcel Camus, film director (died 1982)
• 28 April – Odette Sansom, World War II heroine (died 1995)
• 16 May – Alfred Aston, international soccer player (died 2003)
• 23 May – Jean Françaix, composer, pianist, and orchestrator (died 1997)
• 29 May – Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, fourth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (died 1994)
• 30 May – Roger Courtois, international soccer player (died 1972)
• 8 June – Roger Michelot, boxer (died 1993)
• 15 June – Alix Combelle, swing jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader (died 1978)
• 29 June – Lucie Aubrac, World War II Resistance fighter (died 2007)
• 29 June – Émile Peynaud, oenologist and researcher (died 2004)

July to December

• 18 July – Max Rousié, rugby league and rugby union footballer (died 1959)
• 5 August – Abbé Pierre, priest and founder of Emmaus movement (died 2007)
• 26 August – Léo Marjane, born Thérèse Maria Léonie Gendebien, popular singer (died 2016)
• 8 September – Marie-Dominique Philippe, Dominican philosopher and theologian (died 2006)
• 14 September – Jean Lescure, poet (died 2005)
• 3 November – Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, member of the French Resistance (died 1996)
• 13 November – Claude Pompidou, philanthropist, wife of President of France Georges Pompidou (died 2007)
• 21 November – Pierre Grimal, historian and classicist (died 1996)

Full date unknown

• Gérard Albouy, milliner (died 1985)
• Paul Petard, botanist (died 1980)

Deaths

• 16 January – Alfred Jules Émile Fouillée, philosopher (born 1838)
• 14 April – Henri Brisson, statesman and Prime minister of France (born 1835)
• 12 June – Frédéric Passy, economist, joint winner (with Henry Dunant) of first Nobel Peace Prize, 1901 (born 1822)
• 16 June – Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, publicist and historian (born 1842)
• 17 July – Henri Poincaré, mathematician, theoretical physicist and philosopher of science (born 1854)
• 12 September – Pierre-Hector Coullié, Archbishop of Lyon (born 1829)

Full date unknown

• Magloire-Désiré Barthet, Vicar Apostolic of Senegambia (born 1832)
• Félicien Henry Caignart de Saulcy, entomologist (born 1832)

References

References

1. Flight, 16 March 1912, p. 238 [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1912/1912%20-%200238.html London-Paris Record Flight ]
2. Higham, Peter (1995). ''The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing''. Guinness Publishing. p. 194. {{ISBN. 0-85112-642-1.