# 1916 in France

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Events from the year 1916 in France.

## Incumbents

* President: Raymond Poincaré
* President of the Council of Ministers: Aristide Briand

## Events

* 29 January – Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
* 21 February – Battle of Verdun begins.
* 27 April – Battle of Hulluch in World War I, 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division decimated in one of the most heavily concentrated gas attacks of the war.
* 16 May – Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire following the conclusion of World War I into French and British spheres of influence.
* 1 July – First day on the Somme.
* 14 July – Battle of Bazentin Ridge, start of the second phase of the Battle of the Somme.
* 15 September – Battle of Flers-Courcelette begins and lasts for a week, third and last large-scale offensive by the British Army during the Battle of the Somme.
* 25 September – Battle of Morval.
* 26 September – Battle of Thiepval Ridge begins, German fortress of Thiepval is captured by the British.
* 28 September – Battle of Thiepval Ridge ends successfully, with the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt.
* 13 November – Battle of the Ancre launches, the final act of the Battle of the Somme.
* 18 November – Battle of the Somme ends.
* 18 December – Battle of Verdun ends.

## Births
### January to June

* 11 January – Bernard Blier, actor (died 1989)
* 22 January – Henri Dutilleux, composer (died 2013)
* 14 February – Marcel Bigeard, military officer (died 2010)
* 16 February – Julien Darui, international soccer player (died 1987)
* 1 March – Lucienne Abraham, Trotskyist politician (died 1970)
* 20 March – Pierre Messmer, Gaullist politician and Prime Minister (died 2007)
* 4 April – Robert Charpentier, cyclist and Olympic gold medallist (died 1966)
* 9 April – Léonie Duquet, nun (killed by a death squad in Argentina 1977)
* 5 May – Andrée Clair, writer (died 1982)
* 6 May – Jacques-Laurent Bost, journalist (died 1990)
* 25 May – André Devigny, soldier and French Resistance member (died 1999)
* 30 May – Jacques Georges, soccer administrator (died 2004)
* 3 June – Denise Vernac, actress (died 1984)
* 10 June – André Mandouze, academic and journalist (died 2006)
* 16 June – Francis Cammaerts, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent (died 2006)

### July to December

* 22 July – Marcel Cerdan, boxer (died 1949)
* 24 August – Léo Ferré, poet, composer, singer and musician (died 1993)
* 17 September – Francis Lefebure, physician (died 1988)
* 21 September – Françoise Giroud, journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician (died 2003)
* 18 October – Jean-Yves Couliou, painter (died 1995)
* 19 October – Jean Dausset, immunologist, shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 (died 2009)
* 26 October – François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995 (died 1996)
* 14 November – Roger Apéry, mathematician (died 1994)

## Deaths

* 17 January – Marie Bracquemond, Impressionist painter (born 1840)
* 22 February – Émile Driant, nationalist writer, politician and army officer (born 1855; killed in action)
* 3 March - Jean Mounet-Sully, actor (born 1841)
* 4 March – Franz Marc, German painter and printmaker (born 1880)
* 21 March – Léon Labbé, surgeon and politician (born 1832)
* 12 May – Frank Cheadle, Australian rugby league footballer and World War I soldier (born 1885)
* 19 May – Georges Boillot, motor racing driver and World War I fighter pilot (born 1884)
* 25 May – Jane Dieulafoy, archaeologist and novelist (born 1851)
* 29 June – Georges Lacombe, sculptor and painter (born 1868)
* 6 July – Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker (born 1840)
* 8 July – Augustin Cochin, historian (born 1876)
* 28 August – Henri Harpignies, painter (born 1819)
* 26 September – Max Ritter von Mulzer, World War I German flying ace (born 1893)
* 13 December – Antonin Mercié, sculptor and painter (born 1845)
* 14 December – Frédéric Febvre, actor (born 1835)