1900 in France

Incumbents

• President: Émile Loubet
• President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau

  Events

• 31 March – The length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
• 1 April – Every French policeman is assigned to carry a gun.
• 14 April – Paris World Exhibition opens.
• 21 April – Battle of Kousséri takes place in Chad, linking all French possessions in Western Africa.
• 27 June – Treaty of Paris is signed between the Spanish Empire and the French Empire by which Río Muni was relieved of all conflicting claims.
• 19 July – The first line of the Métro is inaugurated in Paris.

  Arts and literature

• 2 February – First performance of Gustav Carpenter's opera, Louise.

  Sport

• 14 May-28 October - Olympic Games held in Paris.

  [Births]

January to March

• 3 January – Marcel Gobillot, cyclist and Olympic medallist
• 5 January – Yves Tanguy, surrealist painter
• 9 January – Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, journalist, politician and French Resistance member
• 11 January – Benoît Fauré, cyclist
• 24 January – René Guillot, author
• 4 February – Jacques Prévert, poet and screenwriter
• 11 February – Raymond Cambefort, one of the last three fully verified World War I veterans living in France
• 21 February – Madeleine Renaud, actress
• 6 March – Henri Jeanson, writer and journalist
• 8 March – Pierre David-Weill, investment banker
• 19 March – Frédéric Joliot-Curie, physicist and Nobel laureate

  April to June

• 13 April – Pierre Molinier, painter and photographer
• 15 April – Pierre Nord, writer, spy and resistance member
• 20 April – Jacques Adnet, designer, architect and interior designer
• 27 April – Marcel Légaut, philosopher and mathematician
• 28 April
• * Maurice Thorez, communist politician
• * Jean Vaysse, rugby union player
• 17 May – Achille Souchard, cyclist
• 22 May – Yvonne de Gaulle, wife of Charles de Gaulle
• 14 June – Roger Bourdin, baritone
• 29 June – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer

  July to December

• 4 July – Robert Desnos, surrealist poet
• 12 July – Marcel Paul, trade unionist and communist politician
• 17 July – Marcel Dalio, actor
• 19 July – Pierre Coquelin de Lisle, sport shooter and Olympic gold medallist
• 26 July – Jacques Février, pianist
• 11 August – Georges Limbour, writer
• 6 September – Marc Bernard, writer.
• 30 September – Pierre Yvert, philatelic editor
• 9 October – Henri Lauvaux, athlete and Olympic medallist
• 13 October – Ghislaine Marie Françoise Dommanget, actress and Princess of Monaco
• November – Émile Gagnan, engineer and inventor
• 15 December – Hellé Nice, model, dancer and motor racing driver

  Full date unknown

• Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, lover and later wife of Samuel Beckett
• Georges Neveux, dramatist and poet

  Deaths

• 11 February – Émile Blanchard, zoologist and entomologist
• 19 March – Charles-Louis Hanon, piano pedagogue and composer
• 26 March – Victor Auguste, baron Duperré, colonial administrator
• 5 April – Joseph Louis François Bertrand, mathematician
• 15 April - Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux, writer
• 22 April – Amédée-François Lamy, military officer
• 18 May – Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, philosopher and archaeologist
• 16 June – François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, admiral
• 24 September – Louis Ratisbonne, writer and man of letters
• 13 October – Louis Adolphe Cochery, politician and journalist
• Full date unknown – Jules Adenis, dramatist and opera librettist