1872 in France

See also: 1871 in France, 1873 in France.

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Events from the year 1872 in France.

Events

• 27 November - Meteor shower display over France.
• Louis Ducos du Hauron creates the first color photograph.

Births

• 16 January - Henri Büsser, composer and conductor (died 1973).
• 18 January - Emmanuel d'Orléans, noble from the House of Orléans (died 1931).
• 7 June - Rodolphe d'Erlanger, painter and musicologist (died 1932).
• 1 July - Louis Blériot, inventor, engineer and aviation pioneer (died 1936).
• 2 July - Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, psychiatrist (died 1934).
• 15 July - Jean Dargassies, racing cyclist (died 1965).
• 28 July - Albert Sarraut, politician, twice Prime Minister of France (died 1962).

Full date unknown

• Émile Armand, individualist anarchist (died 1962).
• Léon Bouly, inventor who devised and created the cinématographe (died 1932).
• Maurice de la Taille, priest and writer (died 1933).
• François-Victor Équilbecq, author (died 1917).
• Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet, painter (died 1967).
• Daniel Halévy, historian (died 1962).

Deaths

January to June

• 6 February - Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry, author and theologian (born 1805).
• 31 March - Jules Guyot, physician and agronomist (born 1807).
• 5 April - Paul Auguste Ernest Laugier, astronomer (born 1812).
• 28 April - Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, photographer (born 1802).
• 20 June - Elie Frédéric Forey, Marshal of France (born 1804).
• 27 June - Michel Carré, librettist (born 1821).

July to December

• 5 July - Charles-Pierre Denonvilliers, surgeon (born 1808).
• 4 October - Jean-Jacques Bourassé, priest, archaeologist and historian (born 1813).
• 21 October - Jacques Babinet, physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (born 1794).
• 23 October - Théophile Gautier, poet, novelist, journalist, dramatist and literary critic (born 1811).
• 29 October - Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, chess master (born 1800).
• 6 December - Félix Archimède Pouchet, naturalist (born 1800).
• December - Jean-Baptiste Honoré Raymond Capefigue, historian and biographer (born 1801).

Full date unknown

• Etienne Arnal, actor (born 1794).
• Ximénès Doudan, journalist (born 1800).