1916 in France

"See also:"
1915 in France,
other events of 1916,
1917 in France.

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Events from the year 1916 in France.

Events

*29 January - Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
*21 February - Battle of Verdun begins.
*27 April - Battle of Hulluch in World War I, 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division decimated in one of the most heavily-concentrated gas attacks of the war.
*16 May - Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire following the conclusion of World War I into French and British spheres of influence.
*1 July - First day on the Somme.
*14 July - Battle of Bazentin Ridge, start of the second phase of the Battle of the Somme.
*15 September - Battle of Flers-Courcelette begins and lasts for a week, third and last large-scale offensive by the British Army during the Battle of the Somme.
*25 September - Battle of Morval.
*26 September - Battle of Thiepval Ridge begins, German fortress of Thiepval is captured by the British.
*28 September - Battle of Thiepval Ridge ends successfully, with the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt.
*13 November - Battle of the Ancre launches, the final act of the Battle of the Somme.
*18 November - Battle of the Somme ends.
*18 December - Battle of Verdun ends.

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Births

January to June

*11 January - Bernard Blier, actor (d.1989).
*22 January - Henri Dutilleux, composer.
*14 February - Marcel Bigeard, military officer.
*16 February - Julien Darui, international soccer player (d.1987).
*20 March - Pierre Messmer, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister (d.2007).
*4 April - Robert Charpentier, cyclist and Olympic gold medallist (d.1966).
*25 May - André Devigny, soldier and French Resistance member (d.1999).
*30 May - Jacques Georges, soccer administrator (d.2004).
*3 June - Denise Vernac, actress (d.1984).
*10 June - André Mandouze, academic and journalist (d.2006).
*16 June - Francis Cammaerts, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent (d.2006).

July to December

*22 July - Marcel Cerdan, boxer (d.1949).
*24 August - Léo Ferré, poet, composer, singer and musician (d.1993).
*17 September - Francis Lefebure, physician (d.1988).
*21 September - Françoise Giroud, journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician (d.2003).
*19 October - Jean Dausset, immunologist, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980.
*26 October - François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995 (d.1996).
*14 November - Roger Apéry, mathematician (d.1994).

Full date unknown

*Lucienne Abraham, Trotskyist politician (d.1970).
*Jacques-Laurent Bost, journalist (d.1990).
*Andrée Clair, writer (d.1982).
*Jean-Yves Couliou, painter (d.1995).
*Léonie Duquet, nun, killed by a death squad in Argentina (d.1977).

Deaths

*21 March - Léon Labbé, surgeon and politician (b.1832).
*19 May - Georges Boillot, motor racing driver and World War I fighter pilot (b.1884).
*29 June - Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (b.1868).
*28 August - Henri Harpignies, painter (b.1819).
*6 July - Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker (b.1840).
*13 December - Antonin Mercié, sculptor and painter (b.1845).

Full date unknown

*Marie Bracquemond, artist (b.1841).
*Frédéric Febvre, actor (b.1835).

References