1899 in France

Incumbents

• President: Felix Faure, Emile Loubet
• President of the Council of Ministers: Charles Dupuy, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau

  Events

• 18 February – Emile Loubet is elected president following the death of Felix Faure.
• 16 April – Battle of Lougou, French victory in Niger.
• 20 June – Right-wing nationalist movement Action Française formed by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois.
• 17 July – The French Bretonnet-Braun mission is destroyed in the Battle of Togbao, in Chad, by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.
• 19 September – Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned.
• 28 October – Battle of Kouno, indecisive battle between French forces and a Muslim army led by Rabih az-Zubayr in Chad.
• Automobile manufacturer Renault established by Louis Renault and his brothers Marcel and Fernand.

  Arts and literature

• 21 January – Actress Sarah Bernhardt, having taken over management of the Paris theatre which she renames the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, opens in the title rôle of Victorien Sardou's La Tosca. On 20 May she premières a French adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet with herself in the title rôle, one of the first successful female actresses to tackle a male part.
• Henri Matisse paints :File:Henri Matisse, 1899, Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges, oil on canvas, 46.4 x 55.6 cm, The Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art.jpg|Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges.
• Camille Pissarro takes an apartment overlooking the Tuileries Garden in Paris and produces a series of paintings of the view.

  Sport

• 31 August – The Olympique de Marseille association football club is founded.
• 21 September – Henri François Béconnais sets the 1 km speed record in a Soncin automobile at Achères.

  Births

January to March

• 6 January – Alphonse Castex, rugby union player
• 7 January – Francis Poulenc, composer
• 12 January – Pierre Bernac, baritone
• 15 January – Louis Guilloux, writer
• 20 January – Pierre Gandon, illustrator and engraver of postage stamps
• 23 January – Pierre Grany, athlete
• 7 February – René Crabos, rugby union player
• 15 February – Georges Auric, composer
• 21 February – Yvonne Vallée, actress
• 9 March – Jules Dewaquez, soccer player
• 25 March – Jacques Audiberti, playwright, poet and novelist
• 28 March – Bernard Delaire, last French naval veteran of the First World War

  April to June

• 7 April – Robert Casadesus, pianist
• 11 April – Clément Dupont, rugby union player
• 8 May – Jacques Heim, fashion designer
• 14 May
• * Pierre Victor Auger, physicist
• * Pierre Petiteau, rugby union player
• 15 May – Jean-Étienne Valluy, general
• 17 May – Anita Conti, explorer, photographer and first French female oceanographer
• 24 May – Suzanne Lenglen, tennis player
• 20 June – Jean Moulin, prefect and Resistance leader

  July to September

• 5 July
• * Marcel Achard, playwright, screenwriter and author
• *Marcel Arland, novelist, literary critic and journalist
• 7 July – Jean-Albert Grégoire, car pioneer
• 19 July – Germaine Sablon, singer and actress
• 26 July – Édouard Bader, rugby union player
• 9 August – Armand Salacrou, dramatist
• 14 August – Adolphe Bousquet, rugby union player
• 28 August – Charles Boyer, actor
• 9 September – Brassaï, photographer, sculptor and filmmaker
• 14 September – Youenn Drezen, Breton nationalist writer and activist

  October to December

• 1 October – Joseph Guillemot, athlete and Olympic gold medallist
• 5 October – Georges Bidault politician and resistance leader
• 8 October – Edmond Michelet, politician
• 24 October – Philippe Kieffer, Naval officer
• 30 October – Georges Capdeville, soccer referee
• 8 December
• * Fernand Arnout, weightlifter and Olympic medallist
• * François Borde, rugby union player
• 9 December – Jean de Brunhoff, writer and illustrator

  Full date unknown

• Marcel Fétique, bowmaker
• Henri-Robert Petit, journalist, Collaborationist under the Vichy regime and far-right activist

  Deaths

• 16 February – Félix Faure, President of France
• 16 May – Francisque Sarcey, journalist and drama critic
• 10 June – Ernest Chausson, composer
• 5 July – Hippolyte Lucas, entomologist
• 11 July – Charles Joseph Marty-Laveaux, literary scholar
• 14 July – Jean-François Klobb, colonial officer
• 20 July – Charlotte de Rothschild, socialite and painter
• 25 September – Francisque Bouillier, philosopher
• 28 November – Virginia Oldoini, Mistress of Napoleon III and significant figure in the early history of photography.

  Full date unknown

• Henri Delaborde, art critic and painter