# 1888 in France

Events from the year 1888 in France.

## Incumbents

* President: Marie François Sadi Carnot
* President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Tirard (until 3 April), Charles Floquet (until 3 April)

## Events

* 16 March – France annexes the Polynesian kingdom of Raiatea and Taha'a.
* 18 March – France annexes the Polynesian kingdom of Bora Bora.
* 8 April – The town of Mende, Lozère, becomes the first French administrative centre to have electric light installed.
* July–August – Strike of laborers in Paris.
* 8 July – Inauguration of Fontinettes boat lift on the Canal de Neufossé.
* 12 July – Georges Ernest Boulanger and his supporters win seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
* 2 October – Census of foreign residents.

## Arts and literature

* 21 February – Vincent van Gogh moves to Arles where he will be very productive as a painter.
* 14 October – Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England (followed by Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge).
* 23 December – Having quarrelled with Gauguin, van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the hospital in Arles.
* Jeweller and glass designer René Lalique establishes the Lalique luxury goods business in Paris.

## Births
### January to March

* 8 January – Pierre Wertheimer, businessman and racehorse owner (died 1965)
* 9 January – Alfred Plé, rower and Olympic medallist (died 1980)
* 20 January – Georges Marrane, politician (died 1976)
* 4 February – Georges Girard, bacteriologist (died 1985)
* 20 February – Georges Bernanos, author (died 1948)
* 1 February – Henri Pequet, pilot, flier of first official airmail flight in 1911 (died 1974)
* 28 February – Eugène Bigot, composer and conductor (died 1965)
* 7 March – Claude Roger-Marx, writer (died 1977)
* 17 March – Henri Gance, weightlifter and Olympic gold medallist (died 1983)
* 22 March – René Massigli, diplomat (died 1988)
* 28 March – Léon Noël, diplomat, politician and historian (died 1987)

### April to June

* 1 April – Lucien Callamand, actor (died 1968)
* 2 April – Roger Ducret, fencer and Olympic gold medallist (died 1962)
* 14 May – Lucien Berland, entomologist and arachnologist (died 1962)
* 15 May – Jean Wahl, philosopher (died 1974)
* 27 May – Louis Durey, composer (died 1979)
* 5 June – Armand Annet, colonial governor (died 1973)

### July to December

* 14 July – Jacques de Lacretelle, novelist (died 1985)
* 26 July – Marcel Jouhandeau, writer (died 1979)
* 31 July
** Léonce Crenier, Roman Catholic monk and theologian (died 1963)
** Jean Moreau, politician (died 1972)
* 8 August – César Vezzani, opera singer (died 1951)
* 12 September – Maurice Chevalier, actor and singer (died 1972)
* 16 September – Lucien Lamoureux, politician and Minister (died 1970)
* 24 September – Georges Jean Marie Darrieus, aeronautical engineer (died 1979)
* 30 September – Louis Lecoin, militant pacifist (died 1971)
* 6 October – Roland Garros, aviator and World War I fighter pilot (died 1918)
* 28 October – Stéphane Boudin, interior designer (died 1967)
* 9 November – Jean Monnet, architect of European Unity (died 1979)
* 23 November – Louis Antoine, mathematician (died 1971)
* 3 December – François Dupré, hotelier, art collector and horse breeder (died 1966)
* 16 December – Alphonse Juin, Marshal of France (died 1967)
* 26 December – Marius Canard, orientalist (died 1982)

### Full date unknown

* Georges Bénézé, philosopher (died 1978)
* Camille Le Mercier d'Erm, poet, historian and Breton nationalist (died 1978)

## Deaths

* 18 January – Auguste Nicolas, Roman Catholic apologetical writer (born 1807)
* 23 January – Eugène Marin Labiche, dramatist (born 1815)
* 13 February – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, first Archbishop of Santa Fe (born 1814)
* 20 February – François Perrier, general and geodesist (born 1835)
* 22 February – Jean-Delphin Alard, violinist (born 1815)
* 15 March – Léonard Morel-Ladeuil, goldsmith and sculptor (born 1820)
* 16 March – Hippolyte Carnot, statesman (born 1801)
* 29 March – Charles-Valentin Alkan, composer and pianist (born 1813)
* 1 April – Jules Émile Planchon, botanist (born 1823)
* 11 April – Louis-Frédéric Brugère, professor of apologetics and church history (born 1823)
* 14 July – Antoine Étex, sculptor, painter and architect (born 1808)
* 9 August – Charles Cros, poet and inventor (born 1842)
* 16 November – Arsène Darmesteter, philologist (born 1846)

### Full date unknown

* Pierre Bossan, architect (born 1814)
* Émile Sagot, (1805–1888) illustrator and lithographer