Julius Caesar addresses an assembly of leaders of the Gauls in Lucotecia, asking for their support.[2]
52 BCE
The Parisii are defeated by the Roman general Titus Labienus at the Battle of Lutetia. A Gallo-Roman garrison town, called Lutetia, is founded on the left bank of the Seine.[3][4]
Between 14 and 37 CE
The sailors of Lutetia erect the Pillar of the Boatmen in honor of the Roman god Jupiter.
Between 40 and 11 CE
Construction of the Forum of Lutetia
Between 100 and 200 CE
Construction of the baths, the amphitheater and the theater of Lutetia
3rd century CE
Lutetia gradually becomes known as Civitas Parisiorum, the "City of the Parisii", then simply "Paris".[3]
c. 250 CE
Arrival of Christianity in Paris; execution by Romans of Bishop Saint Denis on Montmartre, the "Mountain of Martyrs".[4]
275-276
The settlement on the left bank is ravaged by Germanic tribes.
Clovis I, the king of the Franks, makes Paris his capital.[6][4] (Some sources give the date 508[5])
About 540-550
Construction of the Saint-Étienne cathedral, predecessor to Notre-Dame de Paris, begins.[5]
543
Founding of the Basilica of Saint-Vincent, by Childebert I, the King of Paris. The Basilica becomes the burial place for the first French kings, beginning with Childebert.[7]
King Charles the Bald orders the construction of two bridges, the Grand Pont and the Petit Pont, ostensibly to block the passage of the Vikings up the Seine.
6 February – The Petit pont washes away, allowing the Vikings to lay siege to the city and pillage the surrounding region.
September – The Carolingian Emperor Charles the Fat pays the Vikings 700 pounds of silver to depart.
887-889
The Vikings attack Paris again in May 887 and June–July 888, but thanks to strengthened defenses the city is not captured.
978
October – Siege of Paris by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. The Parisians block the supplies of the invaders from going up the Seine. An army led by Hugh Capet arrives and the siege is finally lifted on 30 December.
988
Hugh Capet, elected King of the Franks in 987, resides in Paris for a time, and returns again in 989, 992 and 994–995.[9][4]
Teachers and students begin taking up residence on the left bank, around the montagne Sainte-Geneviève, since the cloister of Notre-Dame is not large enough to house them all. This is the beginning of the Latin Quarter and the future University of Paris.[10]
1131
13 October – Death of Philippe, the eldest son of king Louis VI, who died the day after being thrown from his horse, which panicked when he encountered a pig. As a result, it is forbidden to let pigs go freely on the city streets.[10]
1132
The Bishop of Paris punishes the teachers and students on the montagne Sainte-Geneviève for the growing number of conflicts between the students and the townspeople.
Abbot Suger begins the reconstruction of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in the new Gothic style. The new Basilica is consecrated on 11 June 1144, and becomes a model for cathedrals and churches across Europe.
1134
King Louis VI grants to the merchants of Paris the right to seize the property of their debtors and to form associations, the first steps toward a municipality.[11]
1137
A new market is installed at Champeaux, which gradually replaces the market on the place de Grève and becomes the central market of Les Halles.
First mention in documents of the corporation of butchers in the city.
1147
The Templars occupy their new building in Paris, in the presence of king Louis VII and of the Pope. When he departs for the Crusades, the king leaves the royal treasury in the care of the Templars, and the regency with Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis.
21 April – Pope Eugene III consecrates the new church of Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre.
King Louis VII confirms the privileges of the corporation of water merchants, whose water-bearers carry water from the Seine to residences.
1176
First mention in documents of the Fair of Saint-Germain. Half of the profits were reserved for King Louis VII.
1180
Founding of the collège des Dix-Huit by Messire Josse de Londres, an Englishman. This was the first college in Paris, established for eighteen poor clerical students in a room within the Hôtel-Dieu.[13][14]
5 February – King Philip Augustus (Philippe Auguste) arrests the leaders of the Jewish community, and requires them to pay 15,000 silver marcs.
Philip Augustus departs for the Third Crusade. Six Paris merchants are assigned to act as a council of the regency in his absence, each with a key to the treasury. Before departing, he orders the construction of the first wall around the entire city. The wall on the right bank is finished in 1208, and on the left bank between 1209 and 1213. He also begins construction of the fortress of the Louvre on the right bank.[17]
1197
March – A flood destroys all the bridges over the Seine; the King is forced to abandon his palace on the Île de la Citè and move to the hill of Sainte-Geneviève.
Battles between the sergeants of the Provost of Paris and students, which cause the death of five students. When the Paris students threaten to leave the city, Philip Augustus grants the students the right to be judged exclusively by the tribunal of the Bishop of Paris. This marks the beginning of the legal status of the University of Paris.
Pope Innocent III permits the teachers of the University to form a corporation, and in 1212 gives them a degree of independence from the authority of the Bishop of Paris.[18]
Ten Amauriciens, students of the scholar Amaury de Chartres, are condemned for heresy and burned at the stake outside of Paris, beyond the rampart gate porte des Champeaux, for making too much of the works of Aristotle.[18]
16 November – Pope Innocent III prohibits the teaching of Roman, or civil law, at the University; only canon law can be taught.
December – Conflicts between the Bishop of Paris and the University, which is supported by the new Pope, Honorius III.
1229
26 February – More street battles between students and the sergeants of the Provost of Paris. On 15 April the University temporarily leaves the city in protest, and some of the teachers depart for Oxford and Cambridge.
1230
Paris scriptoria producing illuminated manuscripts flourish. The style of the Paris school is copied throughout France.
For the first time, the ringing of the bells of the churches of Paris is regulated by clocks, so that all sound at about the same time. The time of day becomes an important feature in regulating the work and life of the city.[21]
1246
The University of Paris is granted financial and judicial autonomy, and its own seal.
26 April – Consecration of Sainte-Chapelle, built to house sacred relics from the Holy Land purchased by Louis IX (Saint Louis).
c. 1250
Founding of the Parlement of Paris (Curia Regis), to advise the King on legal matters and later to make judicial decisions.
1252
Saint Thomas Aquinas begins to teach at the University of Paris, and remains until 1259. He returns between 1269 and 1272.[21]
1254
June – Alphonse de Poitiers, brother of Louis IX, moves into his recently built townhouse (hôtel d'Hosteriche) near the Louvre. Following his example, other princes of the blood and members of the high aristocracy built princely residences in the same neighborhood.[21]
1256
10 June – First stone laid for the Abbaye royale de Longchamp, the royal convent of Longchamp, by Isabelle, Louis IX's sister.
Money-changers establish themselves on the Grand Pont, which becomes known as the Pont-au-Change.
1306
21 July – Expulsion of the Jews from Paris, and confiscation of their property. They are allowed to return in July 1315, but recover only a third of their property.[24]
30 December – Riots following an increase in rents. King Philip IV is besieged in the tower of the temple. Twenty-one rioters are later hanged.
1307
13 October – Philip IV orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, and the seizure of their property.
7 July – Étienne Marcel buys a house on the place de Grève to serve as the first city hall.
1358
22 February; Armed supporters of Étienne Marcel invade the Palace. In the presence of the Dauphin, Charles, the heir to the throne, future Charles V, they kill the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy, and take the Dauphin under their protection. On 24 February, four Paris merchants, including Étienne Marcel, become members of the new royal council.
4 May – King Charles II of Navarre, accompanied by an army of English mercenaries, enters Paris. Étienne Marcel takes his side, and the Dauphin flees the city.
22 July – Battles within and around Paris between supporters of the Dauphin and of Charles of Navarre. Charles of Navarre flees the city.
31 July – Étienne Marcel attempts to open the gates of the city to the mercenaries of Charles of Navarre, and is killed at the bastion of Saint-Antoine by supporters of the Dauphin.
2 August – The Dauphin returns to Paris. The leading supporters of Étienne Marcel and Charles of Navarre are executed, but others are given a general amnesty. The Dauphin buys the Hôtel Saint-Pol in the Saint-Paul quarter, and lives there until his death.
1368
The course of the Bièvre River at the moat of Saint-Bernard is diverted to empty into the Seine at La Tournelle. The portion within the city is covered and used as a sewer.
July–August – After a series of riots and disturbances, the Armagnacs gain control of Paris from the Burgundians; Jean Sans Peur flees the city.[4]
14 July – Jean Sans Peur and Queen Isabeau enter Paris by the Porte Saint-Antoine. The fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France, escapes the city.[29]
1419
10 September – Jean Sans Peur goes to meet the Dauphin at the bridge of Montereau, and is killed by the Dauphin's supporters (the Armagnacs).
1420
30 May – Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon), the new Duke of Burgundy and ruler of Paris, forms an alliance with the English and persuades King Charles the Mad (Charles le Fol) and leaders of university and the merchants of Paris take an oath to accept Henry V of England as the heir to the French throne.
1 December – King Henry V of England arrives in Paris and takes residence at the Louvre, while King Charles VI the Mad is moved to the hôtel Saint-Pol.[29]
1422
31 August – Death of Henry V of England, followed on 21 October by the death of Charles VI of France. Thereafter the kings of France spend very little time in Paris, until 1528, when François I returns there with the court.[30]
1423
February – The leaders of Paris take an oath of allegiance to the Duke of Bedford, representing Henry VI of England, who is in England and just one year old. Joan of Arc unsuccessfully lays siege to Paris, held by the Burgundians, and is wounded – Illustration from the Vigile du roi Charles VII (1429)
1427
First record of the arrival of the Romani people, or gypsies, in Paris.
May – Joan of Arc, captured by the Burgundians in 1429, is handed over to the English in Rouen and brought to trial for heresy. The case against her is prepared by the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. At Cauchon's request, the faculty of the University of Paris endorses the charge of heresy against her. She is convicted and burned at the stake.
1431
16 December. Henry VI of England, nine years old, comes to Paris for a month and is crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame by his uncle, the Cardinal of Winchester.
1432
March to 8 April – Floods submerge Le Marais from the porte Saint-Antoine to the porte Saint-Martin.[30]
1436
28 February – After a series of victories, the army of Charles VII surrounds Paris. Charles VII promises amnesty to the Parisians who supported the Burgundians and English.
13 April – Uprising within the city against the English and Burgundians; the soldiers of Charles VII enter the city through the porte Saint-Jacques.
15 April – The English soldiers are allowed to depart by boat on the Seine for Rouen.
1437
12 November – Charles VII returns to Paris, but remains only three weeks. He moves his residence and the court to the Châteaux of the Loire Valley.[31]
Louis XI takes sanctuary in Paris and asks the support of the merchants, university and clergy, whose franchises he abolished in 1461. The siege of Paris by the league continues until 29 October, when a treaty is signed with Louis XI.
1467
The neighborhood militias are abolished, and replaced by sixty-one detachments of professional soldiers, reviewed by Louis XI on 14 September. Page of the first book to be printed in Paris, Letters by Gasparin de Bergame.
1469
The first French printing-press was set up in the Sorbonne.[4]
First recorded case of syphilis in Paris, brought from Italy by soldiers of Charles VIII. Foreigners in the city with the disease are expelled from the city on 6 March 1497.
6 July – Reconstruction begins of the Pont Notre-Dame in stone, replacing the wooden bridge which collapsed on 25 October 1499. The new bridge is finished in 1514.[23][33]
1504
July – Ordinance of the Parlement de Paris for the lighting of Paris streets; at nine in the evening Parisians are required to put a candle in a lantern in their window. The ordinance is not widely obeyed, and is repeated in 1524, 1526, 1551, and later.[34]
1505
Publication of the first printed Book of Hours in Roman letters. The use of Gothic script gradually disappears.
5 April – The direction of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital is transferred from the chanoines of Notre-Dame cathedral to eight laymen governors selected among the business leaders of Paris by the City Assembly,
First French translation of the New Testament of the Bible published. In 1525, alarmed by this unauthorized text, the theology faculty of the University of Paris forbids further translations of the Bible.
March – The city police force of 120 archers and sixty arbaletriers is reinforced with one hundred arquebusiers,
8 August – The Augustine monk Jean Vallière is burned at the stake for proclaiming that Jesus Christ was born like other humans.
1527
15 March – Letters of patent issued to construct the quai du Louvre.
28 February – In order to turn the Louvre into a palatial residence, demolition of its great central tower begins.
15 March – François I formally announces that he plans to make Paris his principal residence.
1529
19 August – Miles Regnault, secretary of the Bishop of Paris, who had converted to Lutheranism, is condemned and burned at the stake on the Place de Grève.
1530
March – François I founds the Collège des lecteurs royaux, or Collège de France, to offer lectures in subjects not taught at the College of Sorbonne, including Hebrew, Ancient Greek, and mathematics.
1531
December – New outbreak of bubonic plague. The Holy Innocents' Cemetery is completely filled, so a new cemetery for plague victims is created on the plain of Grenelle, facing the hill of Chaillot.
1532
19 August – First stone placed for the new Saint-Eustache church, not finished until 1637.
April – The Ordinance of Fontainebleau orders the demolition of the gates on the right bank of the wall built by Philippe-Auguste.
1 November – At the opening of the academic year, the rector of the university, Nicolas Cop, causes a scandal by giving a lecture inspired by Jean Calvin.
1534
15 August – Ignace de Loyola and his followers take an oath at the base of Montmartre to defend the Church and Pope. This is the founding of the Jesuit order.[36]
17–18 October – Calvinists put up anti catholic posters in the streets of Paris and several towns in France, including on the door of king François Ier's bedroom in Amboise. The Parliament of Paris orders the arrest of two hundred suspected Calvinists, six of whom are burned on the night of 18 October, and many others before the end of the year.[36]
17 November – The printer Antoine Augerau becomes the first printer to be burned at the stake, at Place Maubert, for publishing a book criticizing the sister of the King, Marguerite de Navarre, for her alleged sins.
1535
23 January – First woman heretic, Marie la Catelle, a schoolteacher, burned at the stake for reading the New Testament in French to her pupils.
19 August – The Sorbonne publishes the first Index, or list of forbidden books.
7 November – François I creates the Grand Bureau des Pauvres, responsible for assisting the indigent, beggars and vagabonds, under the authority of the Bureau de la Ville, or city administration.[37]
2 August – Letters of patent from François I approve the reconstruction of the west wing of the Louvre, to be done by the architect Pierre Lescot with decoration by sculptor Jean Goujon.
3 August – The printer Étienne Dolet is burned at the stake on Place Maubert. Two other printers are burned that summer, Michel Vincent (19 August) and Pierre Gresteau (13 September).
1547
31 March – Death of King François I, who is succeeded by his son, Henry II.
22 April – For the first time, a large shipment of firewood is made by floating the logs down the river in a raft from the Nivernais region to Paris.
8 October – The Parlement de Paris creates a commission, called the Chambre ardente, to prosecute Protestants.
30 August – Inauguration of a new theater next to the Hôtel de Bourgogne used to present religious dramas and comedies by a troupe called Les Confrères de la Passion. This was the first theatre in the city.[37]The Fontaine des Innocents (1549), the oldest existing fountain in Paris
11 August – Many Parisians flee the city after a Spanish army advancing from Flanders defeats the French at Saint-Quentin. Queen Catherine de' Medici remains in the city and helps re-establish confidence.
Burning at the stake, after hanging, of Anne du Bourg, member of the Paris Parliament, for heresy (23 December 1559)
1559
25 May – First synod of Calvinists on rue des Marais (now rue Visconti) formally establishes the Reformed Church of France on 29 May.
10 June – The Parliament of Paris debates new royal edicts prohibiting the Protestant church. Henry II personally attends the session, and the members calling for tolerance are arrested.[41]
30 June – During the celebrations of the marriages of the sister and daughter of King Henry II on rue Saint-Antoine, Henry II is mortally wounded in the eye by a lance carried by the commander of his Scottish guard, Gabriel de Montgomery. He dies on 10 July and his young and sickly son François II succeeds him.
23 December – Anne du Bourg, a member of the Parliament of Paris and Catholic defender of tolerance for Protestants, is first hung and then burned at the stake for opposing the King's views.
1560
5 December – On the death of François II, his ten-year-old brother Charles IX succeeds him.
November – A royal edict creates the tribunal des juges consuls, ancestor of the modern Tribunal de Commerce. It meets in the Abbaye de Saint-Magloire on rue Saint-Denis (at the site of today's number 82).
14 July – A royal ordinance modifies how municipal elections are conducted; under the new rules, the cities present the King with two lists of candidates, and the King decides.
1565
9 March – New regulations for the façades of houses: wooden decoration must be replaced by cut stone or plaster.
1 August – Decision taken to build a quay along the river at what is now Chaillot.
12 July – construction begins of a new city wall on the west, which includes the Tuileries Palace and the gardens of the Tuileries.
1568
City militia reorganized into neighborhood companies commanded by captains; the companies of each quarter of the city are formed into columns commanded by colonels.
1569
30 June – Several members of a wealthy Protestant family, the Gastines, are sentenced to death, and their house demolished and replaced by a cross to expiate their "sins".
1571
6 March – The first troupe of Italian actors, called I Gelosi, arrives in Paris. After a few performances, they are banned by the Parliament of Paris.[42]
22 August – Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny, a prominent Protestant leader, is attacked and wounded on rue des Poulies, not far from the Louvre.
24 August – At four o'clock in the morning, the bells of the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois give the signal to begin the massacre of Protestants, known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The killing continues until August 30, and takes the lives of about two thousand Protestants in the city.[42]
1573
The architect Jean Bullant begins construction of a new residence for Catherine de' Medici, the future Hôtel de Soissons, finished in 1584.
The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Paris, with the elimination of ten days; 9 December is followed by 20 December.
1587
The teaching of Arabic is introduced at the Collège de France.
1588
9 May – Henry I, Duke of Guise, leader of the ultra-Catholic faction, makes a triumphal entry into Paris, cheered by the Parisians.
12 May – Day of the Barricades. The Duke of Guise leads an insurrection against Henry III. The King flees Paris for the Loire Valley on 13 May.
18–20 May – the Holy League, the Catholic party, takes charge of the administration of Paris. The Duke of Guise is named lieutenant-general of the armies.
25 December – After the murder of the Duke of Guise and Louis II, Cardinal de Guise at the Château de Blois, the Sorbonne declares that the French owe no more allegiance to King Henry III. A new city council of forty members, dominated by supporters of the Holy League, is chosen.
1589
13 March – The league proclaims the cardinal de Bourbon is the new king, under the name Charles X.
2 August – Henry III of Navarre becomes Henry IV, king of France,
1 November Henry IV tries to capture Paris by a surprise attack on the walls around the left bank, but fails.
1590
7 May – Henry IV attacks the city again, this time at the faubourgs Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin, but the attack fails.
14 May – The Catholic League holds a large procession in the city to keep up the morale of the catholic Parisians.
8 August – Popular revolt within Paris against the Catholic League, demanding either bread or peace. The rebellion is harshly suppressed.
10–11 September – Night attack on the city by Henry IV between the gates of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marcel. The attack is unsuccessful. Henry IV lifts the siege when he learns that a Spanish army is approaching to aid the Catholic League.
1591
2 September – The ruling council of the Catholic League, called the Seize ("Sixteen"), offers the crown of France to Philip II of Spain.
15 November – Growing tensions between the Seize and the Parliament of Paris. Three leaders of Parliament are arrested, tried and hanged.
4 December – The Seize are arrested by Charles de Mayenne, military commander of the Catholic League, and four members are hung at the Louvre. Growing discontent in Paris against the league.
16 May – Henry IV announces that he will give up the Protestant faith.
25 July – Henry IV formally converts to Catholicism in the Basilica of St Denis.
1595
9 January – Surveying begins for a new (southern) wing of Louvre, on the side of the Seine river, the galerie du bord-de-l'eau, to connect the Louvre with the Tuileries Palace.
22 March – The gates of Paris are opened to the army of Henry IV.
24 March – Henry IV enters the city, and is welcomed by a cheering crowd.
12 May – Expulsion of the Jesuits from the city, declared "enemies of the State," by the Parliament of Paris and the rector of the university.
1596
23 December – The pont aux Meuniers collapses. It is replaced in 1609 by the pont Marchand.
1598
13 April – The Edict of Nantes brings an end to the wars of religion. Protestant temples are banned inside Paris and within five leagues of the city. The first Protestant temples open at Grigny, then at Ablon.[47]
King Henry IV crosses the Pont Neuf to inaugurate the bridge, (20 June 1603).
1600
28 September – New statutes of the University of Paris published which increase royal authority and reduce power of students.
1602
Tapestry weavers from Brussels introduce Flemish techniques at what later became the Gobelins Manufactory.[47]
2 January – Construction begins La Samaritaine, a giant pump, located at the Pont Neuf, to raise drinking water from the Seine and to irrigate the Tuileries gardens. It began working 3 October 1608. A department store of the same name is built next to the site of the pump in the 19th century.
20 June – King Henry IV crosses the Pont Neuf to inaugurate the bridge, though work is not finished until July 1606. It is the first Paris bridge with sidewalks and without buildings[47]
July – Henry IV signs letters patent ordering construction of Place Royale (now Place des Vosges), the first residential square in Paris, on the site of the former park of the royal Hôtel des Tournelles. It is completed in 1612.
1606
1 August – Royal authorization given to build a Protestant church at Charenton.
Workshop created within the Louvre to make tapestries of silk, "in the Persian and Turkish fashion".[48]
1607
6 February – Opening of rue Dauphine, followed shortly by rue Christine and rue d'Anjou Dauphine (now Rue de Nesle), in honor of Henry IV's third son, Gaston de France, the Dauphin, bearing the title of duc d'Anjou.
18 August – First stone placed of the Collège Royal, later the Collège de France.
1611
18 September – Placing of the first stone for the Church of the Minimes on the Place Royale (later Place des Vosges). The famous Carrousel Le roman des chevaliers de la gloire, a major celebration at the inauguration of the Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, (1612). (Oil on wood, Polish school, 17th century, Carnavalet museum, Paris.)
19 April – Contract signed to create the Île Saint-Louis by combining two small islands, the Île aux Vaches and Île Notre-Dame, and building a new bridge, the Pont Marie, to the Right Bank. The work was finished in 1635.
24 July – King Louis XIII places the first stone of the façade of the church of Saint-Gervais. Work of the architect Salomon de Brosse, the façade was finished in 1621.
24 April – Concini, Minister of King Louis XIII and favorite the Queen Mother, Marie de' Medici, is murdered on the entry bridge of the Louvre, probably on Louis XIII's orders; Marie de' Medici is exiled to Blois.
1617
22 October – Letters of patent given for three companies of chair bearers, the first organized public transport within the city.[50]
1618
June – Authority over printers, bookbinders and book stores is transferred from the Church to secular authorities.
1619
27 July – first stone placed for the convent of the Trinity of the order of the reformed Petits Augustins, on the site of the modern École des beaux-arts. view of Paris in 1620, by Matthäus Merian
1620
Opening of the first Pont de la Tournelle, made of wood. The bridge was destroyed by blocks of ice floating on the river in 1637 and 1651 and rebuilt in stone in 1654.
1621
26 September – The Protestant temple at Charenton is burned by a Catholic mob, after the news of the death of Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne fighting the Protestants in the unsuccessful Siege of Montauban.
23 October – Both the Pont Marchand and the Pont au Change are burned; the Protestants are blamed. View of the Louvre Palace in 1622, reconstruction by Hoffbauer.
1622
A windmill, called the moulin du palais, is built atop Montmartre. In the 19th century, it is renamed the Moulin de la galette (it became a famous landmark in the 19th century).
22 October – For centuries, the bishop of Paris was under the authority of the archbishop of Sens. On this date Paris was given its own archbishop, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris established.[12]
1623
19 May – First water arrives from Arcueil, in a new channel following the route of the ancient Roman aqueduct, at the new reservoir on rue d'Enfer, near the present Observatory.
9 October – Contract to build a new wall around the city, reinforced with bastions. Work continued until 1647.
1632
Construction of the pont Rouge (also known as the pont Barbier) to replace the old bac (ferry). In 1689, the bridge was rebuilt of stone, and named the Pont Royal.[51]
1633
21 March – The state buys land in the faubourg Saint-Victor to create the future Jardin des plantes.
13 October – A corporation of the distillers and vendors of eau de vie is formed, breaking away from the corporation of vinegar-makers, due to the growing popularity of the beverage.[53]
6 June – Cardinal Richelieu bequeathes his new residence to King Louis XIII; it becomes the Palais-Royal at his death in 1642.
August – Panic and flight of many from Paris caused by the invasion of the Spanish army into Picardy.
1637
January – Great success of Corneille's play Le Cid, given by the Troupe du Roi au Marais
26 April – Consecration of the church of Saint-Eustache.
1638
15 January – The Royal Council orders the placing of thirty-one stones to mark the edges of the city; building beyond the stones without royal approval is forbidden. The stones are in place by 4 August.[53]
1640
Founding of the Imprimerie royale, or royal printing house, within the Louvre.
Reconstruction of the Hôtel de Villeroy, by Nicolas V de Villeroy, later tutor of Louis XIV.
1641
16 January – First permanent theater in Paris opens within the Palais-Royal.[6]
The Paris of Louis XIV
Theater production at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1643
11 October – Cardinal Mazarin moves into the Hôtel Tubeuf on rue des Petits-Champs, next to the Palais-Royal, and opens his personal library to scholars. In 1682, he donated his library to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, where it remains today as the Bibliothèque Mazarine ("Mazarine Library").[55]
28 February – First performance of an opera in Paris, La Finita Panza by Marco Marazzoli, in the hall of the Palais-Royal.
1646
20 February – Construction begins of the church of Saint-Sulpice, not completed until 1788.
1647
Pont au Change rebuilt by architect Androuet du Cerceau.[39]Battle of Paris between the soldiers of king Louis XIV and the men of the Fronde, (2 July 1652). Anonymous, (Château de Versailles)
26 August – Cardinal Mazarin has the leaders of the Parlement, or law courts, of Paris arrested, because they have refused to enforce his edicts on fiscal policy and taxes. This begins the insurrection of Paris against the royal government known as the Fronde parlementaire (1648–1649).
27 August – The Day of the Barricades. More than twelve hundred barricades erected in Paris against the royal authorities, and prisoners seized by Mazarin are liberated on the 29th.
13 September – King Louis XIV, the Regent Queen Mother and Mazarin leave Paris for Rueil, then Saint-Germain-en-Laye. After negotiations with the Parlement, they accept the Parlement's propositions and return to Paris on 30 October.
1649
5–6 January – The King and Queen Mother flee Paris again to Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
11 March – Under the Paix de Rueil, the King and court are allowed to return to Paris, in exchange for amnesty for the Frondeurs.
19 September – City hall runs out of funds. City workers go unpaid, and riots break out sporadically through the end of year.
27 August – The Day of the Barricades. More than twelve hundred barricades erected in Paris streets against the royal authorities, and prisoners seized by Mazarin are liberated on the 29th.
13 September – The King, Queen Mother and Mazarin leave Paris for Rueil, then Saint-Germain-en-Laye. After negotiations with the Parlement, they accept its propositions and return to Paris on 30 October. The tower of the Grand Châtelet in 1650
1650
Mineral springs discovered at Passy, at the present-day rue des Eaux. The mineral baths there remain fashionable until the end of the 19th century.
21 October – Louis XIV and his court return in triumph to Paris, and take up residence in the Louvre.
22 October – An amnesty is proclaimed for the Fronde participants, except for its leaders.
1653
3 February – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris. On 4 July, the leaders of Paris honor him with a banquet at the Hôtel de Ville and a fireworks show.[58]
1 March – A historic flood of the Seine washes away the Pont Marie, even though it was built of stone. The water reaches an historic high of 8.81 meters, higher than the 8.50 meters during the 1910 floods.
28 November – Privilege of making and selling hot chocolate granted to David Chaillou, first valet de chambre of the Count of Soissons. This begins the fashion of drinking chocolate in Paris.[58]The Louvre and the quay of the Seine in the 1660s
1660
Introduction of coffee in Paris. It had previously been served in Marseille in 1626, but did not become popular until 1669, during the visit to Paris of the first ambassador from the Turkish sultan.[58]
26 August – A new square, place du Trône (now Place de la Nation) is created on the east side of Paris for a ceremony to welcome Louis XIV and his new bride, Maria Theresa of Spain.
1661
20 January – Theater company of Molière takes up residence at the Palais-Royal
3–7 March – The will of Cardinal Mazarin endows the founding of the Collège des Quatre-Nations, to grant free education for sixty young nobles from the recently annexed provinces of Alsace, Pignerol, Artois and Roussillon. The architect Le Vau is selected to design the building.
1662
14 February – Installation of the salle des machines, a hall for theater performances and spectacles, in the Tuileries.
March – Royal letters of patent give to Laudati de Caraffa the privilege of establishing stations of torch-bearers and lantern-bearers to escort people through the dark streets at night.
18 March – First public transport line established of coaches running regularly between porte Saint-Antoine and Luxembourg. The service continues until 1677.
5–6 June – A grand circular procession, or carrousel, gives its name to the open area where it is held, between the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace.
15 March – A royal edict creates the position of Lieutenant-General of Police. The first to hold the office is Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, named on 29 March.
18 August – First regulations governing the height of buildings in Paris and the faubourgs.
2 September – First royal ordinance for street lighting. 2,736 lanterns with candles are installed on 912 streets.
15 September – The butte des Moulins, between, rue des Petits-Champs and rue Saint-Roch, is divided into lots, and twelve new streets created.
April 1672 – First issue of Mercure galant, later Mercure de France, published. In 1678 it published the first reviews of high fashion.[62][65]
26 August – A new city regulation fixes the new limits of the city and tries again to limit any construction beyond them. Thirty-five new boundary stones are placed around the city in April 1674. The Porte Saint-Denis, built by Louis XIV on the site of the old city wall, which he declared were no longer needed (1675).
1673
Two large pumps built on the pont Notre-Dame to lift drinking water from the Seine. They continued working until 1858.
17 March – Decree of the council to build the quai Neuf, which becomes the quai Le Pelletier.
4 July – The state buys the hôtel de Vendôme and the convent of the Capucines in order to build the future place Louis-le-Grand, the modern Place Vendôme.
22 October – The Paris Parlement registers the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, revoking the toleration of the Protestant Church. The same day begins the demolition of the Protestant temple at Charenton.
25 October – First stone placed for the pont Royal to replace the old pont Rouge. It was completed in June 1689.
28 March – Inauguration of Place des Victoires, with an equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the center. Since the houses around it have not yet been built, they are represented by painted backdrops.[67]
1687
Ordinance permitting the Vilain family to open public baths along the river between the Cours-la-Reine and the Pont Marie.
18 September – A mysterious prisoner wearing a black velvet mask is incarcerated in the Bastille. Voltaire romanticizes this story into that of a prisoner with an iron mask, who later becomes the subject of the novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas.[68]
Louis XIV visits the unfinished Les Invalides in 1706
1701
December – A royal edict divides the city into twenty police districts, added to the sixteen quarters created by the Hôtel de Ville.[68]
1706
28 August – Consecration of the church of Les Invalides, in the presence of the King.[68]
1709
6 January – Extreme cold hits Paris, that will last until the end of March. Temperature drops to -40 Celsius, (estimated as the thermometer was invented that year.)the Seine freezes, causing shipments of food by boat to be stopped. The cold wave paralyzes all of France, making it also impossible to bring supplies to Paris by road. In that period, twenty four to thirty thousand persons die from hunger and cold in Paris alone; near one million in all of France.[68]
15 March – Seine begins to thaw, causing flood.
5 April – First food shipment reaching Paris by road.
20 August – Food riot quelled by the army, leaving two dead.
Construction begins of the Palais-Bourbon, finished in 1728. After the Revolution of 1789, it became the seat of the National Assembly.
The Hôtel de Ville in 1740
1723
23 February – A royal regulation forbids printing houses and publishing outside of the Latin quarter on the Left Bank. The law is intended to make censorship more effective.[71]
1728
16 January – First street signs, made of iron painted white with black letters, put in place. They were easy to steal, and in 1729 were replaced by carved stone plaques.[72]
The establishment of Boulanger offers Parisians a choice of "restaurants", namely soups, meat and egg dishes, in competition with existing taverns and cabarets. This was a predecessor of the modern restaurant.[79]
1767
September – Benjamin Franklin comes to Paris to discuss his experiments with electricity with French scientists
30 May – Tragic fireworks display, Place Louis XV, during festivities given in celebration of the marriage of the Dauphin and Dauphine (the future king Louis XVI and queen Marie Antoinette); 132 persons died.[81]
August – The foundung of a corporation of merchants of fashion, also including feather dealers and florists, separate from the corporation of small shopkeepers.[83]
Royal decrees requiring a relation between the height of buildings and the width of the street, and declaring that new streets must be at least thirty feet (about ten meters) wide.[87]
The first restaurant in the modern sense, the Taverne anglaise, is opened by Antoine Beauvilliers in the arcade of the Palais-Royal.[88]
Construction begins of a large steam-powered pump at Gros-Caillou, on the Quai d'Orsay, to provide drinking water from the Seine for the population of the left bank.[88]
September – A royal edict orders the demolition of houses built on the Paris bridges and on some of the quays. The edict was carried out in 1788.
13 July – Devastating hail storms accompanied by strong winds of a force rarely seen, following a path from the southwest of France to the north, destroyed crops, orchards, killed farm animals, tore roofs and toppled steeples. In Paris, the faubourg Saint-Antoine was hardest hit.[92] It caused a major increase in bread prices, and the migration of thousands of peasants into Paris.[93]
16 August – The French state becomes bankrupt, and begins issuing paper money to pay for pensions, rents and the salaries of soldiers. Large-scale demonstrations and civil disorders begin. The storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789). Anonymous.
12–19 May – Paris elects deputies to the Estates-General, a legislative assembly summoned by Louis XVI to raise funds.
12 July – Parisians respond to the dismissal of the King's reformist minister, Necker, with civil disturbances. Confrontations between Royal-Allemand Dragoon Regiment and a crowd of protestors on Place Louis XV, and Sunday strollers in the Tuileries gardens. Mobs storm the city armories and take weapons. In the evening, the new customs barriers around the city are burned.[93]
14 July – Storming of the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority, releasing seven prisoners. The governor of the Bastille surrenders and is lynched by the crowd.[94]
15 July – The astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly is chosen Mayor of Paris at the Hôtel de Ville.
17 July – King Louis XVI comes to the Hôtel de Ville and accepts a tricolor cocarde.
5–6 October – The royal family is forced to move from Versailles to Paris.[94]
19 October – The deputies of the National Assembly move from Versailles to Paris, first to the residence of the Archbishop, then, on 9 November, to the Manège of the Tuileries Palace.
20–21 June – The King and his family flee Paris, but are captured at Varennes and brought back on 25 June.
17 July – A large demonstration on the Champ de Mars demands the immediate proclamation of a republic. The National Assembly orders Mayor Bailly to disperse the crowd. Soldiers fire on the crowd, killing many.[95]
19 September – Mayor Bailly resigns.
1792
25 April – First execution using the guillotine of the bandit Nicolas Pelletier on the Place de Grève.
30 March – Arrest of Georges Danton, chief opponent of Robespierre. He is guillotined 5 April. The Festival of the Supreme Being, by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, 8 June 1794.
8 June – Celebration of the Cult of the Supreme Being held on Champ de Mars, presided over by Robespierre.
11 June – Beginning of the climax of Reign of Terror, period known as the Grande Terreur. Between June 11 and 27 July, 1,366 persons are condemned to death.[97]
27 July – 9th Thermidor, the convention accuses Robespierre of crimes. He is arrested together with several of his acolytes, among which Saint-Just.
28 July – Robespierre and those arrested with him are guillotined, this signaling the end of the Reign of Terror.[94]
24 August – The revolutionary committees of the twelve Paris sections are abolished, and replaced by new arrondissement committees.
31 August – The municipal government of Paris is abolished, and the city put directly under the national government.[88]
22 October – The École centrale des travaux publics, predecessor of the École Polytechnique (school) established.
17 February – Napoleon reorganizes city into twelve arrondissements, each with a mayor with little power, under two Prefects, one for the police and one for administration of the city, both appointed by him.[97]
19 February – Napoleon makes the Tuileries Palace his residence.
12 March – Napoleon orders the creation of three new cemeteries outside the city; Montmartre to the north; Père-Lachaise to the east, and Montparnasse to the south.[100]
4 February – Napoleon decrees a new system of house numbers, beginning at the Seine, with even numbers on the right side of street and odd numbers on the left.
1806
2 May – Decree ordering the building of fourteen new fountains, including the Fontaine du Palmier on the Place du Châtelet, to provide drinking water.
7 July – First stone laid for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, on Place du Carrousel, between the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre.
8 August – First stone laid for the Arc de Triomphe at Étoile. Inaugurated on 29 July 1836, during the reign of Louis Philippe.
2 December – Decree ordering the creation a "Temple of Glory" dedicated to the soldiers of Napoleon's armies on the site of the unfinished church of the Madeleine.
29 April – During review of the Paris National Guard by King Charles X, the soldiers greet him with anti-government slogans. The King dissolves the National Guard.[107]
30 June – A giraffe, a gift of the Pasha of Egypt to Charles X, and the first-ever seen in Paris, is put on display in the Jardin des Plantes.
19–20 November – political demonstrations around the legislative elections; street barricades go up in the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin neighborhoods.
February – Concert Society of the Paris Conservatory founded. The first concert took place on 9 March.
11 April – Introduction of service by the omnibus, carrying 18 to 25 passengers. Fare was 25 centimes.[108]
1829
1 January – The rue de la Paix becomes the first street in Paris lit by gaslight.
12 March – Creation of the sergents de ville, the first uniformed Paris police force. Originally one hundred in number, they were mostly former army sergeants. They carried a cane during the day, and a sword at night.[109]
16 March – Two hundred twenty deputies send a message to king Charles X criticizing his governance.
July – First vespasiennes, or public urinals, also serving as advertising kiosks, appear on Paris boulevards.
25 July – Charles X issues ordinances dissolving the national assembly, changing the election law and suppressing press freedom.
27–29 July – The Trois Glorieuses, three days of street battles between the army and opponents of the government. The insurgents install a provisional government in the Hôtel de Ville. Charles X leaves Saint-Cloud, his summer residence.
28 November – Assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi, using an "infernal machine" of twenty gun barrels firing at once, as the king is riding on the Boulevard du Temple. The king is unharmed, but eighteen people are killed.
1836
Founding of two popular inexpensive newspapers, La Presse and Le Siècle.
7 January – Louis Daguerre presents his pioneer work on photography at the French Academy of Sciences. The academy gives him a pension, and publishes the technology for free use by anyone in the world.
12–13 May – Followers of Louis Blanqui begin armed uprising in attempt to overthrow government, but are quickly arrested by the army and national guard.[113]
2 August – Opening of railway line along the Seine between Paris and Versailles.
28 June – City government decrees installation of new street numbers, in white numbers on enameled blue porcelain plaques. These numbers remain until 1939.
9 July – Opponents of the government hold the first of a series of large banquets, the Campagne des banquets, to defy the law forbidding political demonstrations.[115]
1848–1869 – The Second Republic and the Second Empire
22 February – Government bans banquets of the political opposition.
23 February – Crowds demonstrate against Louis-Philippe's Prime Minister, Guizot. That evening soldiers fire on a crowd outside Guizot's residence, boulevard des Capucines, killing 52.[117]
24 February – Barricades appear in many neighborhoods. The government resigns, Louis-Philippe and his family flee into exile in England, and the Second Republic is proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville.
22–26 June – Armed uprising by the more radical republicans in the working-class neighborhoods of eastern Paris, suppressed by the army under General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac. The city remains under martial law until 19 October.
2 August – The first tourist excursion train to the beach at Dieppe leaves Paris. This begins the tradition of leaving Paris for summer holidays in August.[118]
13 June – Armed uprising by radical republicans in the Saint-Martin district against the government of the Second Republic, led by Ledru-Rollin. It was suppressed by the army, causing eight deaths.
3 July – Inauguration of the train line, operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Strasbourg, opens between Paris and Strasbourg in eastern France.
12 August – Inauguration of the train line between Paris and Lyon.
10 December – Decree of Louis-Napoleon to begin building the ceinture railroad line around the city, 38 kilometers long. The line was finished in 1870.
1852
26 March – A decree allows the government to more easily expropriate old buildings and the adjacent land in order to build new boulevards through the center of Paris.
29 June – Napoleon III installs a huge map of Paris in his office at the Tuileries Palace and he and his new prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, begin planning the reconstruction of central Paris.
21 November – A demonstration of the first tram line between the modern avenue de New York and the Cours-la-Reine. A line is later opened connecting Place de la Concorde with the pont de Sèvres.
1854 A Paris omnibus in the early 1850s
Louis Vuitton opens a luggage shop on Rue Neuve des Capucines, and in 1858 introduces a line of flat-bottomed canvas trunks, convenient for stacking.
14 January – Bomb attack on Emperor Napoleon III by Orsini, an Italian nationalist, outside the Paris Opera. The Emperor is unharmed, but 156 persons are killed or injured.
16 June – decree creating twenty arrondissements for the future enlarged city.
22 June – Decree by Haussmann that, along boulevards and streets at least twenty meters wide, buildings can be as high as twenty meters, but must not have more than five floors. This, along with standards for uniform façade design, material and color, gives the distinct Haussmann look to Paris boulevards.[126]
5 January – After intense criticism by Parliament, Napoleon III dismisses Haussmann
19 July – France declares war on Prussia, the southern German states immediately side with Prussia. The Franco-Prussian War begins.
28 July – Napoleon III departs Paris to take command of the French army at Metz.
4 September – News reaches Paris that Napoleon III has been captured by the Prussians at Battle of Sedan. The government falls and the Third Republic proclaimed at Hôtel de Ville.
17 September – The Prussian army surrounds the city, and siege of Paris begins.[136]
23 September – first balloon departs the besieged city. By January 28, sixty-six balloons depart with a hundred passengers.[137]
14 November – Message service by carrier pigeons established between Paris and the outside world. The Paris population suffers from cold, hunger and disease.
1871
January – Prussians bombard Paris with heavy siege guns for twenty-three nights.
28 January – Armistice and capitulation of Paris. Prussians remain in their positions outside the city.
18 March – French army tries to remove 271 cannon from the heights of Montmartre, but is blocked by members of the Paris National Guard. The Guard captures and executes two French generals. The most radical members of the Guard seize the Hôtel de Ville and other strategic points in the city. The army and government withdraw from Paris to Versailles.[139]The burning of the Tuileries Palace by the Paris Commune (24 May 1871)
26 March – Elections for the new Paris Commune, or city council, with low voting in affluent west Paris but high turnout in the working-class neighborhoods. The new council is dominated by anarchists, radical socialists and revolutionary candidates.
27 March – The new Commune officially takes power. It replaces the French tricolor with the red flag and proposes a revolutionary program.
16 May – At the suggestion of Gustave Courbet, the column in the Place Vendôme is pulled down in a civic ceremony.
21–28 May – The Paris Commune is suppressed by the French Army during "The Bloody Week" (La Semaine sanglante) with seven to ten thousand Communards killed in the fighting or executed afterwards and buried in mass graves in the city's cemeteries, and forty three thousand Parisians taken prisoners.[139] The Tuileries Palace, Hôtel de Ville and other government buildings are burned down by the Communards; and the Paris city archives [fr] are destroyed. Afterwards, Paris is placed under martial law.[140]
September – Installation of the first Wallace fountain, to encourage Parisians to drink water instead of wine or liquor.
July – Installation of first telephone system in Paris.
1880–1889
1880
3 January – The ice on the Seine thaws suddenly, and the river rises more than two meters in three hours, sweeping away the pont des Invalides, under reconstruction.[142]
10 July – Amnesty for those imprisoned or exiled after the Paris Commune.
14 July – Bastille Day is celebrated officially for the first time since 1802
10 to 30 January – The Photo-club de Paris, founded in 1888 by Constant Puyo, Robert Demachy and Maurice Boucquet, holds the first International Exposition of Photography at the Galeries Georges Petit,[147]8 rue de Sèze (8th arrondissement), devoted to photography as an art rather than a science. The exhibit launches the movement called Pictorialism.
First championship of France football tournament between six Parisian teams.
22 March – first projected showing of a motion picture by Louis Lumière at a conference on the future industry of cinematography at 44 rue de Rennes.[150]
10 August – The founding of Gaumont, the first major French film studio.
January 21–28 – Great flood of Paris. The Seine rises 8.5 meters, the highest level since 1658, and overflows its banks. The flood affects one sixth of the buildings in Paris.[157]
At the Salon d'automne of 1910, held from 1 October to 8 November, Jean Metzinger introduced an extreme form of what would soon be labeled Cubism.[160]
1911
24 January – Departure of the first Paris-Monte Carlo automobile race.
22 August – The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre. It was recovered in Florence in December, 1913.[161]
3 August – France declares war on Germany. The beginning of the First World War. Paris taxis carried 6000 soldiers to the front lines during the First Battle of the Marne (8 September 1914).
29 August – As German army approaches, French government and National Assembly depart Paris for Bordeaux.[165]
September 6–9 – Army requisitions 600–1000 Paris taxis to transport six thousand soldiers fifty kilometers to the front lines in the First Battle of the Marne.[166]
30 October – official prices of food are posted on doorways of public schools, to deter speculation.
1916
20 January – Frozen meat goes on sale in two Paris butcher shops.
29 January – First bombing of Paris by a German Zeppelin. Twenty-six persons are killed and thirty two wounded at Belleville.
27 August – 1,700 Chinese workers arrive at the Gare de Lyon to work in Paris armaments factories, replacing men mobilized into the army. One of the Chinese workers was Zhou Enlai, future Communist leader in China, who worked in the Renault factory at Boulogne-sur-Seine, town renamed Boulogne-Billancourt in 1924.[167]
15 December – The first woman conductor is hired for the Paris tramways.
9 February – Shortage of coal and grain. Bakers are permitted to sell only one kind of bread, sold the day after it is baked.
15 May – Wave of strikes in Paris workshops and factories, demanding a five-day week and an extra franc a day to compensate for higher prices. Most demands are granted.[168]
1 September – Rationing of coal begins.
25 November – Seats are reserved on Paris public transportation for the blind and those wounded in the war.
15 October – Execution by firing squad of the DutchMata Hari, a spy for the Germans, in the moat of the Château de Vincennes. Victory parade on Place de la Concorde, (11 November 1918)
1918
29 January – Rationing of bread is imposed; a card allows three hundred grams per day per person.
30 January – Night bombing raid by twenty-eight German aircraft kills sixty-five persons and injures two hundred. Further raids took place on 8 and 11 March.
11 March – German bombing raid causes a panic in the Bolivar metro station, killing seventy one persons.
21 March – German long-range artillery fires eighteen shells into Paris, killing fifteen and wounding sixty-nine. The shelling continued until 16 September.
29 March – a German shell hits the Saint-Gervais church during mass, killing eighty-two persons and injuring sixty-nine.
October – Epidemic of Spanish influenza, which began at the start of the year, kills 1,778 persons in one week.
28 January – Remains of an unknown French soldier killed in the war placed in a tomb beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
26 November – first concert broadcast by radio from the transmitter on the Eiffel Tower.
November – Ernest Hemingway arrives in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star with his wife Hadley and settles at 74 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine on the Left Bank. He remains in Paris at different addresses and with a different wife until 1928.
22 January – A bronze star is placed on the parvis of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Henceforth, distances on French highways are measured from this point.
6 May – Paris Colonial Exposition, celebrating the products and cultures of France's overseas colonies, opens in the Bois de Vincennes. Before it closes on 15 November, it attracts thirty-three million visitors.[179]
7 November – First drawing of the National Lottery.
1934
3 January – First metro line to the suburbs, to Pont de Sèvres, opens.
12 January – National Assembly debates the Stavisky Affair, a case of high-level political corruption. Violent anti-government street demonstrations break out.
6 February – Riots outside the National Assembly protesting corruption of parliament members. Eleven persons are killed and more than three hundred injured.[180] (See also 6 February 1934 riots)
14 July – The Communists and socialists hold a joint demonstration on Bastille Day, the first demonstration of the new Front populaire, or Popular Front of the left.
1936 – Population: 2,829,753[172]The pavilions of Soviet Russia (right) and Nazi Germany (left) faced each other at the 1937 Paris Exposition.
3 May – The Front populaire wins the parliamentary elections.
26 May – Strikes in many Paris industries and businesses settled by a salary agreement made with the new government on 7 June.
1937
1 May – May Day is celebrated as an official holiday for the first time.
23 June – Hitler comes to Paris for one day. He makes a brief visit to the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot to see the Eiffel Tower.
18 October – German occupation authorities announced that Jews will have a special status.
11 November – First anti-occupation demonstration by students at the Arc de Triomphe.[181]
26 December – Germans suspend the powers of the Municipal Council.
1941
14 May – Five thousand non-French Jews, mostly refugees, arrested.
22 June – Germany invades the Soviet Union. The French Communist Party actively joins the Resistance.
1 July – Rationing of textiles begins.
20 July – Opening of the transit Drancy internment camp to hold Jews before deportation.
21 August – A German officer is killed at the Barbès-Rochechouart metro station by a member of the Communist Party, Pierre Georges, later known as Colonel Fabien. The Germans respond by taking civilian hostages and threatening to execute them if more assassinations take place.
6 June – Allied forces land at Normandy. French Resistance groups in Paris, largely led by the Communist Party, begin organizing an uprising.
19 August – As Allied forces approach Paris, the French resistance seizes the telephone exchange, ministries and public buildings, including the Prefecture of Police, which is defended against the Germans by two thousand policemen. About 1,500 resistance fighters are killed in the uprising, including about six hundred civilians.[184]
25 August – The German commander, General Choltitz, refuses to carry out Hitler's order to destroy the city's monuments. At four in the afternoon, at gare Montparnasse, he surrenders the city to General Leclerc.
25 August – General Charles de Gaulle arrives at gare Montparnasse, and is shown Choltitz' surrender. In the evening, he gives a speech to the crowd from the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville.
1 September – Provisional French government led by de Gaulle established in Paris.
18 December – Le Monde newspaper begins publication.[185]
Épuration, or purge, of Parisians who collaborated with the Germans. 9,969 persons were arrested, of whom 211 were executed, and 1616 acquitted. The others received prison sentences. Many suspected collaborators left Paris and went abroad.[186]
1945
29 April – First municipal elections after the war, and the first French elections in which women could vote. Six parties take part: the Communists take thirty percent of the vote and 27 council seats out of ninety, making them the largest group in the council.
21 October – Communists and socialists win majority of seats in the first parliamentary elections after the war.
1946–1967
Recovering from the war. Paris automobile show in 1946.High fashion became a major French export after the war. A gown by Christian Dior worn by Eva Peron (1950)
1 January – Rationing of bread re-established, and continues until 1 February 1949.
3 February – First issue of the sports newspaper L'Équipe published.
5 April – Socialist government nationalizes the private gas and electricity companies.
23 April – Houses of prostitution ordered closed.
1947
12 February – First major fashion show after the war organized by Christian Dior at 30 Avenue Montaigne. High fashion became an important French export industry and foreign – currency earner.
25 April – Communist trade union begins strike at Renault factory.
5 May – Split between communists and socialists. New socialist Prime Minister Paul Ramadier dismisses communist ministers from French government.
June – Communist unions organize strikes and work stoppages of railroad and bank employees.[184]
The Bread ration reduced to 200 grams per person, less than during the German Occupation.
20 October – The Rassemblement du peuple français, a new center-right party led by Charles de Gaulle, wins Paris municipal elections, with 52 seats on the council out of ninety. The Communists win twenty-five seats, the socialists win five.[184]
November – Communist trade unions organize strikes of metal workers, public employees, teachers, and railroad workers in an effort to bring down the government, and call a general strike for December 1. Railroad lines are sabotaged. The navy, army and firemen are called in to keep electricity networks and the metro running.[184]
28 May – Violent confrontations between Communist demonstrators and police over visit of U.S. General Matthew Ridgway. Several hundred persons injured.
1953
26 April to May 3 – The Paris municipal elections won by center right – coalition formed with left republicans (RGR), Gaullists (RPF) and independents.[184]
14 July – Violent confrontations between Communists and Algerian independence supporters and the police. Seven persons are killed, and one hundred twenty-six injured.
15 September – Renault workers win three weeks of paid vacation.
1956
Short film – The Red Balloon released, set in Paris. It won the Academy Award in 1956 for best original screenplay.
7 November – Following the suppression of the Hungarian uprising by Soviet troops, large demonstrations take place outside Communist Party headquarters in Paris. When the name of the place outside their building is changed to the name of Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian anti-Russian patriot, the Communists move to a new location on place du Colonel-Fabien.[189]
8 November – New metro cars running on rubber wheels instead of steel wheels begin service between Châtelet and Mairie des Lilas.
1958
19 May – Following a revolt by the French military in Algiers on 13 May, Charles de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Palais d'Orsay offering to form a new government, "If the people wish."
1 June – De Gaulle is invested as head of government by the National Assembly.
28 September – Proposed Constitution of the Fifth French Republic approved by the National Assembly.
24 April – Opening of expanded Paris-Orly airport.
29 August – The Paris wing of the FLN, the major underground group fighting for Algerian independence, begins a campaign of killing French policemen, particularly Muslim auxiliaries. Thirteen policemen are killed between 29 August and 3 October.[190]
5 October – Paris municipality imposes a curfew on Algerians (French Muslim of Algeria), advising them to be off the streets between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.
17 October – Between thirty and forty thousand Algerians stage an illegal but peaceful march against the curfew, marching in four columns to the center of the city. The police violently breaks up the demonstration, arresting six to seven thousand persons. Trapped by the police, some demonstrators jump or are thrown off the pont Saint-Michel. The number of persons killed has never been reliably established; estimates vary widely from thirty to fifty dead[190] to over two hundred.[191] (See Paris massacre of 1961 for one point of view of the events).
17 January – Seventeen bombs explode planted by the OAS, demanding continued French rule over Algeria.
8 February – Illegal anti-OAS demonstration by FLN and Communists is suppressed by the police. Eight persons are killed, most of them crushed by the crowd trying to take sanctuary in the Charonne metro station. (For one point of view of the event, see The Charonne Metro Station Massacre.)
22 March – Coalition of Trotskyists, Maoists and anarchists organizes anti-government demonstrations at University of Nanterre.[195]
3 May – Student demonstrations spread to the Sorbonne campus, and police are called in.
6 May – The violent confrontations between demonstrators and police in the Latin Quarter leave eight hundred persons injured.
10 May – Barricades go up on rue Gay-Lussac, and a night of rioting.
13 May – The CFDT trade union and other unions support the students, and join in a large joint demonstration.
20 May – A general strike paralyzes the city. The Communists denounce Daniel Cohn-Bendit and other student leaders, because many have a Maoist ideology.[195][196]
25 May – Prime Minister Georges Pompidou negotiates a labor agreement with the CGT and other unions, concluded on May 27.
June – The student leaders deny the authority of the President and call for more demonstrations. The Communist-backed unions of the CGT announce that they have no objections to new elections. The government raises the minimum wage by 35 percent, and most union members gradually go back to work. The last barricades are removed 20 June. The official statistics for the May events show 1,910 policemen injured, and 1,459 demonstrators injured. Damage to the streets (the removal of cobblestones to make barricades) is calculated at 2.5 million francs.[195]
June – Gaullist candidates win an absolute majority in the National Assembly. In Paris, the vote for the Communist candidates falls to eighteen percent from thirty percent in the previous elections.[195]
1969
28 February – The central market at Les Halles is moved outside the city to Rungis.
Responding to the events of 1968, the University of Paris is broken up into thirteen autonomous universities
1971
7 March – Opening of the Paris-Orly west airport.
In the Paris municipal council elections Gaullist and center-right candidates win forty-six out of ninety seats; the Communists win twenty seats and the socialists seven.
The demolition begins of the historic pavilions of Les Halles, the central wholesale food market, whose function had been moved to the suburb of Rungis in 1969.
13 September – Opening of Tour Maine-Montparnasse, the first (and last) skyscraper in central Paris—said to have the most beautiful view of the city because it's the one place from which one cannot see the Tour Montparnasse.[197]
25 March Jacques Chirac becomes the first elected mayor of Paris since 1793. He centralizes municipal power in the mayor's office, creating the positions of twenty-five deputy mayors and restricting the meetings of the municipal council to one meeting a month, no longer than one day long.[199]
7 March – Radical leftist group called "Les autonomies" pillages twenty-four shops on rue La Fayette.
1 May – "Les autonomes" attack eighty-three Paris stores after the traditional May Day demonstration.
1979
13 January – Stores around the Gare Saint-Lazare are vandalized by "Les autonomes".
23 March – Following a peaceful demonstration by communist mine workers, "Les autonomes" vandalize 121 stores and shops in Paris. More than two hundred persons are injured.
1 May – The "Nuit bleu" (Blue night). A dozen bombs are set off by Corsican nationalists, who set off more bombs on 2 May and 31 May.
4 September – Inauguration of the Forum des Halles, on the site of the former central market.
1980
28 January – First anisettes, automated individual pay toilets for Paris streets, authorized.
12 June – First terrorist attack at Paris-Orly airport by the anarchist-communist revolutionary organization Action directe. Seven people wounded.
3 October – Terrorist attack on the synagogue on rue Copernic. Four persons are killed and twenty injured.
1981–1999 – Mitterrand era
1981
10 May – François Mitterrand elected President of the French Republic. He is the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic and the first leftist president in 23 years.
22 May – First Salon du Livre book fair opens at the Grand Palais.
2 September – The inauguration of the TGV high-speed train line between Paris and Lyon.
7 February – Corsican terrorist group FLNC sets off seventeen bombs in the Paris region.
22 February – Car bomb on rue Marbeuf kills one and injures sixty-three. The Syrian secret services are suspected of organizing the attack.[200]
21 June – First Fête de la Musique festival in the Paris streets and parks.
30 June – New socialist majority in the National Assembly tries to make the office of Paris mayor ceremonial, and hand over real power to the mayors of the twenty arrondissements. Their effort, opposed by Mayor Jacques Chirac, fails.[200]
9 August – A Palestinian terrorist group places a bomb at the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on rue des Rosiers in Le Marais, killing six persons and wounding twenty-two.
13 March – In the Paris municipal elections, Jacques Chirac and center-right candidates win 68 percent of the vote and eighteen out of twenty arrondissements. Only the 13th and 20th arrondissements give a majority to the left.
15 July – The Armenian militant group ASALA explodes a bomb at the check-in counter of Turkish Airlines at Paris-Orly airport. Eight persons, including a child, are killed, and fifty-four injured.[200]
4 May – First Paris Marathon takes place, with eleven thousand participants.
9 July – Action-Directe terrorist group explodes a bomb at the headquarters of the police brigade charged with fighting terrorism. One person is killed and twenty-two injured.
17 September – Bomb attack on Tati store on rue de Rennes kills seven and injures fifty-six. Between September 4 and September 17, attacks by radical Islamic groups kill eleven persons and injure city-six.
4–5 December – Students demonstrate against the Devaquet project for university reform. The Minister resigns and the reform plan is withdrawn.
1987
29 June – Police lay siege to the Iranian Embassy in France, until an Iranian diplomat implicated in the bombings of 1986 appears before a judge and then is expelled from France back to Iran.
4 March – President Mitterrand inaugurates the Louvre Pyramid, part of the Grand Louvre, the first of his grand projects for Paris.
14 July – President Mitterrand announces project to construct a new national library.
Mayor Jacques Chirac defeats President Mitterrand in Paris in the first round of the Presidential elections, but in the second round Mitterrand wins Paris by 58 to 42 percent. Mitterrand receives an absolute majority in nine Paris arrondissements.[201]
1 August – First class cars on the metro are taken out of service.
7 November – Prime Minister Édith Cresson decrees that about twenty government institutions, including the École Nationale d'Administration, (ENA) will be moved outside of Paris. ENA goes to Strasbourg. The move is highly unpopular with government officials.
7 May – Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac wins the second round of the French presidential elections over Lionel Jospin. He wins 60 percent of the vote in Paris.
22 May – Deputy Mayor Jean Tiberi replaces Chirac as the new mayor of Paris. He is formally elected by the municipal council on 25 June.
14 June – First scandals emerge about Paris city government, involving attribution of city-owned luxury apartments at low rents to government officials.
25 July – Bomb explodes on an RER train at the Saint-Michel station. Seven are killed, eighty-four injured. The attack is blamed on Algerian Islamists.
17 August – A bomb explodes in a garbage can on avenue de Friedland at corner with Place Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, injuring seventeen people.
Paris hosts the finals of the 1998 World Cup, won by France.
21st century
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2024)
2000
1 January – Eiffel Tower lit with sparkling lights for first time, to mark the new century.
2001
18 March – Election of Bertrand Delanoë, the first socialist and first openly gay mayor of Paris. The socialists and greens take 49.63 percent of the vote, compared with 50.37 percent for the center-right candidates, but the left wins a majority of the seats in the municipal council, which selects the mayor.
2002
5 October – First Nuit Blanche festival, with museums and cultural institutions remaining open all night long.
5 October – Mayor Delanoë is stabbed but not seriously injured by a deranged unemployed man, outside the Hôtel de Ville.
27 October to 14 November – Riots of young residents of the low-income housing projects of the Paris suburbs and then across France, burning schools, day-care centers and other government buildings and almost nine thousand cars. The riots caused an estimated 200 million euros in property damage, and led to almost three thousand arrests.[203] On 14 November 2005, as the riots ended. President Jacques Chirac blamed the rioters for a lack of respect for the law and for French values, but also condemned inequalities in French society and "the poison of racism."[204]
12 February – Seven activists from the radical feminist group Femen bare their breasts inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to demonstrate against the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
19 June – Inauguration of the Promenade des Berges de la Seine, a city park located on 2.3 kilometers of the former highway along the left bank of the Seine.
17 March – One-day limited traffic ban in effect due to a peak in air pollution.[207]
30 March – Election of Anne Hidalgo, the first woman mayor of Paris.
17 June – Mayor Hidalgo announces that the city budget deficit will increase to 400 million Euros in 2014, due to a reduction in support from the national government and a growth of spending on social services.[208]
19 September – City officials announce plan to gradually remove more than seven hundred thousand locks attached by tourists to the Pont des Arts as symbols of love. Officials said the weight of the locks damaged the bridge and altered its historic appearance.[209]
11 January – An estimated 1.3 million persons demonstrate in Paris against terrorism and for freedom of speech following the terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo.
14 January 2015 – President Hollande inaugurates the city's new symphony hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, at Parc de la Villette. The opening concert is dedicated to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting.[211]
25 June – Three thousand Paris taxicab drivers go on strike, blocking roads to the airports and train stations, burning two cars, and damaging seventy others. Seven policemen were injured. Taxi drivers were protesting against competition from other vehicle for hire companies such as Uber.[212]
13 November – Simultaneous terrorist attacks took place in Paris, carried out by three coordinated teams of terrorists. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attacks. The gunmen opened fire at several sidewalk cafes, exploded two bombs near the Stade de France stadium, where a match between Germany and France was taking place, and killed more than eighty persons at the Bataclan theater, where a concert was about to take place. In all, the attackers killed 130 persons and injured 368, of whom 42 were still in a critical state on 16 November.[213] Seven terrorists took part, and killed themselves by setting off explosive vests.[214] French president François Hollande declared that France was in a nationwide state of emergency, reestablished controls at the French border, and brought fifteen hundred soldiers into Paris. Schools and universities and other public institutions in Paris were ordered closed. It was the most deadly recorded terrorist attack to take place in France.[215]
^ abcFierro, Alfred, Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, p. 625
^Alfred Hermann Fried (1911). "Ein Verzeichnis der internationalen Regierungskonferenzen von 1815-1910 (List of intergovernmental conferences)". Handbuch der Friedensbewegung [Handbook of the Peace Movement] (in German) (2nd ed.). Berlin: Verlag der Friedens-Warte. hdl:2027/mdp.39015008574801 – via HathiTrust.
^Chilver, Ian (Ed.). "Fauvism"Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved from enotes.com, 26 December 2007.
^Christopher Green, Cubism and its Enemies, Modern Movements and Reaction in French Art, 1916-28, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1987 p. 314, note 51
^"Le Jazz-Hot: The Roaring Twenties", in William Alfred Shack, Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars, University of California Press, 2001, p. 35.
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