303 On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France.
451 The Battle of Châlons takes place in North Eastern France. Flavius Aetius's victory over Attila the Hun in a day of combat, is considered to be the largest battle in the ancient world.
732 Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, the leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
987 Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France till the French Revolution in 1792.
1140 French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
1180 Philip Augustus becomes king of France.
1199 Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6.
1214 Battle of Bouvines: in France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
1259 Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
1274 In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
1295 Scotland and France form an alliance, the so-called "Auld Alliance", against England.
1295 The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.
1302 Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia.
1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs (''Guldensporenslag'' in Dutch) – a coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
1305 A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge.
1307 Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a "confession" of heresy.
1328 Philip VI is crowned King of France.
1328 Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
1346 Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
1356 Battle of Poitiers: an English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures the French king, John II.
1364 Battle of Auray: English forces defeat the French in Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession.
1415 The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.
1422 King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France.
1429 Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.
1431 Hundred Years' War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. Because of this the Catholic Church remember this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
1434 The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.
1450 Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
1453 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Castillon: The French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
1475 The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
1477 Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1490 Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lèse majesté.
1492 King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France against England.
1492 The Ensisheim Meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1494 French King Charles VIII occupies Florence, Italy.
1500 Ludovico Sforza is captured by the Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.
1503 Important victory of the Great captain at the Battle of Cerignola, ruling a small Spanish armies over a French four times bigger in number, in Cerignola, next Bari, Southern Italy. It is noted as the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.
1504 France cedes Naples to Aragon.
1509 Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Venetians.
1511 Mirandola surrenders to the French.
1511 Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.
1511 Spain and England ally against France.
1512 War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix win the Battle of Ravenna.
1513 Italian Wars: Battle of Novara. Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
1515 King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne.
1516 The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognises Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor recognises Francis's claim to Milan.
1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.
1535 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage).
1541 French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1543 French troops invade Luxembourg.
1545 The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.
1558 France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
1558 Battle of Gravelines: in France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes at Gravelines.
1560 The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
1561 An 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.
1562 France recognizes the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
1562 23 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
1574 Henry III becomes King of France.
1585 The Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
1594 Henry IV is crowned King of France.
1608 At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1615 First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1624 Signing of the Treaty of Compiègne between France and the Netherlands.
1631 Publication of La Gazette, first French newspaper.
1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
1634 Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
1635 Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
1645 Thirty Years' War: the Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.
1647 Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1649 The Frondeurs and the French sign the Peace of Rueil.
1654 Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
1659 The Peace of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain.
1682 Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
1685 Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1687 The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
1689 The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1689 King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.
1704 Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
1706 Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi.
1709 Battle of Malplaquet: Great Britain, Netherlands and Austria fight against France.
1729 Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville.
1739 Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
1740 Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
1744 France and Spain defeat the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo.
1746 War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
1754 French and Indian War: in the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.
1756 The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.
1757 Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
1758 French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.
1758 Seven Years' War: the island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
1758 French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control. Fort Pitt is built nearby and it grows into modern Pittsburgh.
1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
1761 The British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
1763 French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
1770 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
1774 Louis XVI becomes King of France.
1776 Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
1778 American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
1778 The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS ''Ranger'', commanded by John Paul Jones.
1778 The Continental Congress votes to ratify both the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance with France. The two treaties are the first entered into by the United States government.
1779 War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
1781 In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.
1781 American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
1783 The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
1783 A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1786 Mont Blanc on the French – Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1789 In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.
1789 In France, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly.
1789 In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
1790 France is divided into 83 ''départements'', cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
1790 The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed in France by the National Constituent Assembly.
1791 First session of the French Legislative Assembly.
1791 Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.
1792 France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
1792 ''La Marseillaise'' (French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1792 France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.
1792 War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.
1792 The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
1792 The Hope Diamond is stolen along with other French crown jewels when six men break into the house used to store them.
1792 French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of the First Coalition at Valmy.
1792 The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the monarchy.
1792 Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France.
1793 French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1793 French troops conquer Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
1793 The first Republican constitution in France is adopted.
1793 Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.
1793 French Revolution: Christianity is disestablished in France.
1793 Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and condemned in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.
1793 French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.
1793 Surrender of the frigate ''La Lutine'' by French Royalists to Lord Hood; renamed {{HMS|Lutine|1779|6}}, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1793 Battle of Geisberg: French defeat Austrians.
1794 The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
1794 Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau.
1794 The Battle of Boulou is fought, in which French forces defeated the Spanish under General Union.
1794 Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the ''Ferme Générale'', is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.
1794 The Battle of the Vosges is fought between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria.
1795 France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length.
1795 Belgium is conquered by France.
1796 The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
1797 Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria
1798 Quasi-War: the U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the "war".
1798 French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
1799 The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
1799 Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
1800 Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
1800 War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice and ending the war.
1801 The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
1802 Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
1803 Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
1803 The Convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).
1803 In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
1804 French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and second independent country on the American Continent after the U.S.
1804 Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1804 Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law.
1805 Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria
1805 Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signals almost the end of French maritime power and leaves Britain's navy unchallenged until the twentieth century.
1805 Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.
1806 Napoleonic Wars: Forces of the British Empire lay siege to the port of Boulogne in France by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve.
1806 Prussia declares war on France.
1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstädt France defeats Prussia
1807 Napoleonic Wars: the Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ends the Fourth Coalition.
1807 France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1808 Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
1808 The Republic of Ragusa is annexed by France.
1809 The second day of the Battle of Wagram sees a French victory over the Austrian army in the largest battle yet of the Napoleonic Wars.
1809 In a naval action during the Napoleonic Wars, French frigates defeat British East Indiamen in the Bay of Bengal.
1809 The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1810 The French occupy Amsterdam.
1812 Battle of Badajoz (March 16 – April 6) – British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.
1812 British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon led France.
1812 Napoleonic Wars: French grenadiers enter Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city.
1812 The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
1813 Russian troops fighting the army of Napoleon reach Berlin in Germany and the French garrison evacuates the city without a fight.
1813 Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
1813 At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1813 French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
1813 Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
1814 France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
1814 Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
1814 Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars.
1815 Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
1815 Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
1829 The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
1830 France invades Algeria.
1840 Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
1843 Ka Lā Hui: Hawaiian Independence Day – The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
1846 Neptune is discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; the discovery is verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
1854 Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.
1857 Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China.
1857 Released "The Spirits Book", which marked the birth of Spiritualism in France, by Allan Kardec.
1857 Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.
1857 Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.
1857 Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.
1859 British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1859 Italian Independence wars: In the Battle of Magenta, the French army, under Louis-Napoleon, defeat the Austrian army.
1859 French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1860 In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao.
1862 Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
1862 As the Treaty of Saigon was signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Truong Dinh decides to defy Emperor Tu Duc of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans.
1863 During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.
1867 Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board a French ship for Algeria
1868 Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
1870 Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1870 Marshal François Achille Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers in one of the biggest French defeats of the Franco-Prussian War.
1871 Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles ( France ) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans.
1871 Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.
1871 French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1873 Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
1880 Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.
1880 France annexes Tahiti.
1885 A peace treaty is signed to end the Sino-French War, with China eventually giving up Tonkin and Annam - most of present-day Vietnam - to France.
1886 The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1893 France introduces motor vehicle registration.
1894 The first ever motorized racing event is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The race is won by Comte Jules-Albert de Dion.
1894 The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.
1895 Madagascar becomes a French protectorate.
1897 Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
1897 The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1897 The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
1898 Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1902 The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from France.
1902 ''A Trip to the Moon'', considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
1904 Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the {{convert|100|mph|0|abbr=on}} barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
1905 In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
1906 The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst ever, kills 1099 miners in Northern France.
1906 The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.
1906 Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France for the first time successfully.
1909 Eugene Lefebvre (1878–1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy, France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1910 Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
1911 French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre museum.
1912 Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
1913 Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.
1913 Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, the international organizing body of competitive fencing is founded in Paris, France.
1914 World War I: Germany declares war against France.
1914 World War I: the German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.
1914 World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.
1915 French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1915 World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
1916 World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1916 World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1916 World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends – In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
1917 The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
1917 The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
1918 World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
1918 First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs.
1918 World War I: In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York leads an attack that kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
1918 World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiègne in France. The war officially ends at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) and this is annually honoured with a two-minute silence.
1919 World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1920 France occupies Memel.
1920 France captures Damascus.
1922 The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
1922 France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".
1922 The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
1923 Occupation of the Ruhr: Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.
1924 The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
1925 An Anti-French uprising in French-occupied Damascus, Syria. (All French inhabitants flee the city.)
1927 Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli disappeared after taking off aboard ''The White Bird'' biplane.
1930 Floods hit Languedoc and the surrounding area in south-west France, resulting in twelve départements being submerged and causing the death of over 700 people.
1931 France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
1931 France and Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
1938 At 2:00 am, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
1939 Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison.
1939 World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies.
1940 World War II: The United Kingdom and France announce that they have mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships.
1940 World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.
1940 World War II: Operation Ariel begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 World War II: sinking of the {{RMS|Lancastria}} by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1940 Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
1940 Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
1940 Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.
1942 World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
1942 French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
1942 World War II: Nazi Germany completes its occupation of France.
1943 Lebanon gains independence from France.
1944 World War II: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named ''Operation Overlord'', commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
1944 World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
1944 Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
1944 Suffrage is extended to women in France.
1945 World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
1945 Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
1946 Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
1946 French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas ''départements'' of France.
1946 Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
1946 The bikini is re-introduced in Paris, France (it was a Roman invention).
1946 France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
1946 France's Fourth Republic is founded.
1948 Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.
1953 Laos gains independence from France.
1953 Cambodia becomes independent from France.
1954 Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
1954 Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.
1955 In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
1956 Tunisia gains independence from France.
1956 The Loi Cadre is passed by the French Republic in order to order French overseas territory affairs.
1956 Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
1956 Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt.
1957 Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.
1958 Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.
1958 France ratifies a new Constitution of France; the French Fifth Republic is then formed upon the formal adoption of the new constitution on October 4. Guinea rejects the new constitution, voting for independence instead.
1958 Guinea declares its independence from France.
1958 Fifth Republic of France is established.
1960 The Republic of Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1960 Nuclear weapons testing: France tests its first atomic bomb.
1960 French freighter 'La Coubre' explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100.
1960 Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1960 Madagascar gains its independence from France.
1960 Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
1960 Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
1960 Niger gains independence from France.
1960 The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
1960 Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.
1960 Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
1960 Independence of Mali from France.
1960 Mauritania becomes independent of France.
1961 In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
1962 Algeria becomes independent from France.
1962 An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
1963 The Elysée treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
1963 France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.
1964 The Republic of China (Taiwan) breaks off diplomatic relations with France.
1965 The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
1965 In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, ''Asterix-1'' on board, becoming the third country to enter outer space.
1968 France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
1969 Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
1970 French submarine ''Eurydice'' explodes.
1970 Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people.
1973 A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
1974 Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
1975 The Comoros declare independence from France.
1975 The French département of Corse (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
1977 France grants independence to Djibouti.
1977 Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.
1978 Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979 A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by famed "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
1981 Abolition of capital punishment in France.
1983 Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
1985 Greenpeace vessel ''Rainbow Warrior'' is bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand harbour by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira.
1985 A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the {{RMS|Titanic}}.
1987 In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1990 France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf
1996 President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.
1997 American fugitive Ira Einhorn is arrested in France for the murder of Holly Maddux after 16 years on the run, though he would not return for another four years.
2000 Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.
2001 AZF chemical plant explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 31 people
2003 France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
2003 France: Sixteen people are injured after two bombs explode outside a tax office in Nice.
2004 The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.
2005 The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2005 The first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France.
2006 At least 1 million union members, students, and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
2006 A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
2010 John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in tennis history.