1960 in France

Incumbents

• President: Charles de Gaulle
• Prime Minister: Michel Debré

  Events

• 6 January - Manifesto of the 121 is published.
• 22 January - President Charles de Gaulle fires Jacques Massun, commander-in-chief of the French troops in Algeria.
• 24 January - A major insurrection occurs in Algiers against French colonial policy.
• 13 February - France tests its first atomic bomb in the Sahara.
• 23 March - Nikita Khrushchev meets Charles De Gaulle in Paris.
• 12 April - Eric Peugeot, youngest son of the founder of Peugeot, is kidnapped in Paris. Kidnappers release him 15 April in exchange for $300,000 ransom.
• 27 April - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
• 11 May - The SS France is launched for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire by Yvonne de Gaulle.
• 20 June - The Mali Federation between Senegal and Sudanese Republic gains independence from France.
• 5 August - Burkina Faso declares independence from France.
• 17 August - Gabon gains independence from France.
• 28 November - Mauritania becomes independent of France.
• 5 December - Pierre Lagaillarde, who led 1958 and 1960 insurrections in Algeria, fails to appear in a Paris court. He has reportedly fled with 4 fellow defendants to Spain en route to Algeria.
• 9 December - President Charles de Gaulle's visit to Algeria is marked by bloody riots by European and Muslim mobs in Algeria's largest cities, killing 127 people.
• 14 December - The OECD is formed in Paris.
• 27 December - France sets off its third nuclear test blast at its atomic proving grounds at Reggane, Algeria.
• Carrefour open their first retail store, in Annecy.

  Arts and literature

• 25 March - Tom Pillibi by Jacqueline Boyer wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 for France.

  Sport

• 26 June - Tour de France begins.
• 17 July - Tour de France ends, won by Gastone Nencini of Italy.

  Births

• 23 January - Patrick de Gayardon, skydiver, skysurfer and a BASE jumper
• 18 March - Jean-Pierre Bade, soccer player
• 18 May - Yannick Noah, former tennis player, musician
• 15 June - Patrick Edlinger, rock climber
• 12 July - Corynne Charby, actress, singer and model
• 24 July - Catherine Destivelle, rock climber and mountaineer

  Deaths

• 4 January - Albert Camus, author, philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel prize in 1957
• 13 March - Louis Wagner, motor racing driver
• 23 May - Georges Claude, engineer, chemist and inventor
• 14 July - Maurice, 6th duc de Broglie, physicist