# 1902 in France

Events from the year 1902 in France.

## Incumbents

* President: Émile Loubet
* President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau (until 3 June), Emile Combes (starting 7 June)

## Events

* 13 April – A new car speed record of 74 mph is set in Nice, by Leon Serpollet.
* 27 April – Legislative Election held.
* 11 May – Legislative Election held.
* 8 May - 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée

## Arts and literature

* January - Alfred Loisy writes L'évangile et l'Eglise, which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis.
* George Melies performs play Voyage to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune)

## Births
### January–June

* 11 January – Maurice Duruflé, composer and organist (died 1986)
* 13 January – Raymond Ruyer, philosopher (died 1987)
* 18 January – Émile Aillaud, architect (died 1988)
* 25 January – André Beaufre, colonel (died 1975)
* 29 January – Arlette Marchal, actress (died 1984)
* 8 February – André Gillois, writer and radio pioneer (died 2004)
* 26 February – Jean Bruller, writer and illustrator (died 1991)
* 9 March – Elisabeth de Rothschild, World War II heroine (died 1945)
* 13 March – Louis Ducatel, politician and businessman (died 1999)
* 14 March – Henri Barbé, communist (died 1966)
* 16 March – Louis Couffignal, mathematician and cybernetics pioneer (died 1966)
* 22 March – Madeleine Milhaud, actress (died 2008)
* 29 March – Marcel Aymé, novelist and children's writer (died 1967)
* 4 April – Louise Leveque de Vilmorin, novelist, poet and journalist (died 1969)
* 9 April – Théodore Monod, naturalist, explorer and humanist scholar (died 2000)
* 3 May – Alfred Kastler, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984)
* 7 May – Jean-Philippe Lauer, architect and Egyptologist (died 2001)
* 8 May – André Michel Lwoff, microbiologist, awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1965 (died 1994)
* 27 May – Émile Benveniste, structural linguist (died 1976)
* 2 June – Georges Coudray, politician (died 1998)
* 15 June – Pierre Béarn, writer (died 2004)
* 28 June – Pierre Brunet, figure skater (died 1991)

### July–December

* 6 July – Louis Vola, double bass player (died 1990)
* 16 July – Vincent Badie, lawyer and politician (died 1989)
* 9 August – Zino Francescatti, violinist (died 1991)
* 11 August – Christian de Castries, military officer (died 1991)
* 16 August – Gilbert Gérintès, rugby union player (died 1968)
* 24 August – Fernand Braudel, historian (died 1985)
* 28 August – Jean Favard, mathematician (died 1965)
* 15 October – André Prudhommeaux, anarchist bookstore owner (died 1968)
* 20 October – René Floriot, lawyer (died 1975).
* 31 October – Marie-Laure de Noailles, patron of the arts (died 1970)
* 4 November – Pierre Edouard Leopold Verger, photographer and ethnographer (died 1996)
* 16 November – Paul Bontemps, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1981)
* 20 November – Jean Painlevé, film director (died 1989)
* 31 December – Marcel Bidot, cyclist (died 1995)

### Full date unknown

* Jules Semler-Collery, composer, conductor and teacher (died 1988)

## Deaths

* 26 January- Noël Ballay, explorer, colonial administrator and poet (born 1847])
* 6 February – Clémence Royer, scholar (born 1830)
* 17 February – Marie-Louise Gagneur, feminist (born 1832)
* 12 April – Marie Alfred Cornu, physicist (born 1841)
* 15 April – Jules Dalou, sculptor (born 1838)
* 4 July – Hervé Faye, astronomer (born 1814)
* 8 August – James Tissot, painter (born 1836)
* 29 September – Émile Zola, writer (born 1840)
* 7 December – Pierre Paul Dehérain, chemist and botanist (born 1830)

### Full date unknown

* Alexandre Bertrand, archaeologist (born 1820)