1887 in France

Incumbents

• President: Jules Grévy, Marie François Sadi Carnot
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 30 May: René Goblet
• * 30 May-12 December: Maurice Rouvier
• * starting 12 December: Pierre Tirard

  Events

• 11 January – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the French Academy of Medicine by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
• 21 April-28 April – Schnaebele incident nearly leads to war between France and Germany.
• 23 February – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000 along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

  Births

January to June

• 17 January – Marcel Godivier, cyclist
• 18 March – Alfred Vaucher, theologian, church historian and bibliographer
• 16 April – Paul Marie André Richaud, Cardinal
• 31 May – Saint-John Perse, poet and diplomat, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960
• 13 June – André François-Poncet, politician and diplomat

  July to December

• 2 July – Marcel Tabuteau, oboist
• 28 July – Marcel Duchamp, artist
• 16 September – Nadia Boulanger, composer and conductor
• 30 September – Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert, General
• 5 October – René Cassin, jurist and judge, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968
• 11 October – Pierre Jean Jouve, writer, novelist and poet
• 13 November – Jean de Limur, film director
• 31 December – Gaston Modot, actor

  Deaths

• 2 August – Joseph-Louis Lambot, inventor of ferro-cement
• 14 August – Jules Pasdeloup, conductor
• 20 August – Jules Laforgue, poet
• 21 October – Bernard Jauréguiberry, Admiral and statesman

  Full date unknown

• Jules Desnoyers, geologist and archaeologist
• Honoré Jacquinot, surgeon and zoologist