1868 in France

Events from the year 1868 in France.

Events

31 May - The first bicycle race is held at Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris.
18 August - Helium is discovered by astronomer Pierre Janssen (and independently by Joseph Norman Lockyer on August 20).
October - French Military Mission is ordered to leave Japan by Imperial decree.

Establishment of the Académie Julian - a major art school in Paris, France that admitted women.

17 January - Louis Couturat, logician, mathematician, philosopher, and linguist (d.1914).
3 March - Émile Chartier, philosopher, journalist and pacifist (d.1951).
28 April - Émile Bernard, painter (d.1941).
6 May - Gaston Leroux, journalist, detective and novelist (d.1927).
18 June - Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (d.1916).

27 July - Eugène Apert, pediatrician (d.1940).
28 July - André Spire, poet, writer, and Zionist activist (d.1966).
6 August - Paul Claudel, poet, dramatist and diplomat (d.1955).
11 August - Théodore Eugène César Ruyssen, historian of philosophy and pacifist (d.1967).
19 November - Gustave-Auguste Ferrié, radio pioneer and army general (d.1932).
25 December - Eugenie Besserer, actress (d.1934).

13 January - Arthur-Marie Le Hir, Biblical scholar and Orientalist (b.1811).
8 February - Jacques Camou, general (b.1792).
11 February - Léon Foucault, physicist (b.1819).
6 May - Louis Marie de la Haye, Vicomte de Cormenin, jurist and political pamphleteer (b.1788).
14 June - Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet, physicist (b.1791).
28 August - Antoine Clot, physician (b.1793).
24 December - Adolphe d'Archiac, geologist and paleontologist (b.1802).
December - Pierre Carmouche, playwright (b.1797).