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French History Events

1822 Dec 27 Louis Pasteur Is Born
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole in the Jura region of France, into the family of a poor tanner. Louis grew up in the town of Arbois. He gained degrees in Letters and ...
1848 Louis Pasteur Discovers Molecular Chirality
There's an easy way to understand chirality. Hold out your hands, palms facing each other. Imagine that each hand is the chemical structure of a molecule. Most complex molecules are chira...
1849 May 29 Louis Pasteur Marries Marie Laurent
Arriving in Strasbourg in January of 1849, he met Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector. With characteristic decisiveness, Pasteur proposed marriage within a few weeks, and i...
1854 Louis Pasteur Is Named Dean of Faculty of Sciences At The University of Lille
In 1854 Pasteur, then 32 years of age, was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the newly organized Faculté des Sciences in the city of Lille, the richest center of industrial act...
1857 Oct Louis Pasteur Is Appointed Director of Scientific Studies of the Ecole Normale Superieure
In October, 1857, Pasteur returned to Pairs, having accepted appointments as Administrator of the Ecole Normale as Director of Scientific Department of the College. There he sought a plac...
1861 Louis Pasteur Discovers Anaerobiosis
An anaerobic organism or anaerobe is any organism that does not require oxygen for growth, could possibly react negatively and may even die in its presence. There are three types: obligat...
1862 Apr 20 Louis Pasteur And Claude Bernard Complete The First Pasteurization Test
The process of pasteurization was named after Louis Pasteur, a French chemist / microbiologist, who discovered that spoilage organisms could be inactivated in wine by applying heat at tem...
1876 Louis Pasteur Disproves The Doctrine of Spontaneous Generation
Spontaneous generation, also called abiogenesis, is the belief that some living things can arise suddenly, from inanimate matter, without the need for a living progenitor to give them lif...
1878 Louis Pasteur Inoculates Chickens Against Cholera
During the heat of the summer, Pasteur returned to Paris leaving the cholera cultures used for infection stored on the shelves of the Arbois laboratory. Upon return, Pasteur's collaborato...
1881 Jun 2 Louis Pasteur Demonstrates Anthrax Vaccine
In 1877, Louis Pasteur began his animal experiments with anthrax. After years of attempting to infect animals, he announced that he had developed a means of protecting sheep against anthr...
1885 Jul 6 Louis Pasteur Uses First Successful Rabies Vaccine
"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: My strength lies solely in my tenacity." —Louis Pasteur
1887 Jun 4 Pasteur Institute Is Founded
The international subscription launched by the French Académie des Sciences in 1887 to allow Louis Pasteur to found his institute and thus provide rabies vaccinations, pursue the study of...
1895 Sep 28 Louis Pasteur Dies
Prof. Pasteur's condition became seriously worse on the evening of Friday last. Albuminuria was observed, the heart became very weak, and painful and violent spasms became frequent. Abo...
1918 Nov 11
11:00AM
 Armistice Signed at Compiegne Marks the End of World War 1
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles...
1944 Jun 6
6:30AM
 The Allied Invasion of Normandy Begins with the D-Day Landings
"Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force. You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are u..." —Dwight D. Eisenhower
1945 Mar 9 Japanese Army Officials Intern French Indochina Authorities, Assume Control of French Asian Territory
During World War II, the French were defeated by the Germans in 1940. For French Indochina, this meant that the colonial authorities became Vichy French, allies of the German-Italian Axis...