The World at War

FRANCE - The Crisis Years 1930 -1935

FRANCE - The Crisis Years Timeline

1930Colonel de La Rocque becomes leader of Les Croix de Feu and transforms the veterans organization into a paramilitary one.
Editions Artheme Bayard begins publication of Je suis partout, an anti-Semitic, pro-fascist daily newspaper whose contributors include Robert Brassilach, Drieu La Rochelle and Bertrand Jouvenel.
January 4 The National Assembly authorizes construction of the Maginot Line.
January 9 Clothes washing machines go on sale in Paris for the first time.
January 11 Maurice Ravel conducts a performance of Bolero at the Lamoureux concert hall, Paris.
January 15 Surrealist leader André Breton is denounced in Un Cadavre, a pamphlet authored by Georges Bataille, Michel Leiris and Raymond Queneau.
January 17 Camille Chautemps becomes leader of the Radical Socialists in the Chamber of Deputies.
January 21 Aubade, a ballet choreographed by Georges Balenchine and based on the words and music of Francis Poulenc, premiers at the Theatre des Champs Elysées, Paris.
January 26 The Socialists refuse to participate in forming a cabinet.
Exiled Russian General Koutiepoff is kidnapped in Paris by Soviet agents and taken to Villers sur Mer where he is put in a canoe and taken to Soviet freighter anchored offshore.
January 27 Cinemascope is patented by Henry Chretien.
February 17 La Comedie Francaise gives a final performance of Jean Cocteau's La Voix Humaine.
The Tardieu Government resigns.
February 21 Camille Chautemps is appointed Premier.
February 25 Premier Chautemps resigns.
March 2 Andre Tardieu is appointed Premier.
March 17 President Doumergue opens the Villejuif Cancer Institute established by Gustave Roussy.
April 16 The Chamber of Deputies approves a 1930-31 budget that increases spending on infrastructure, social welfare and benefits for the civil service and creates the Pari-Mutuel Urbain, a government betting monopoly.
May 9 The Young Plan is ratified by France, Italy, Belgium and Great Britain. France announces its intention to withdraw from the Rhineland.
May 12 Aviators Mermoz, Gimie and Dabry complete the first airmail flight across the South Atlantic in a Late 28 flying boat.
May 13 Arturo Toscanini directs the New York Philharmonic's performance of Beethoven's Heroic Symphony and Mendlessohn's Song for a Summer's Night in his Paris debut.
May 23 Frehel premiers at l'Olympia.
May 28 A Propos de Nice, a film by Jean Vigo, premiers with a private showing at the Theatre du Vieux Colombier.
June 28 The Bonnevay Law to finance low cost housing is approved by the National Assembly.
June 30 French troops complete their evacuation of the Rhineland.
July Le Surréalisme au Service de la Revolution, a literary review edited by André Breton in collaboration with Louis Aragon, Salvador Dali, Luis Bueñel, Max Ernst and Yves Tanquy, publishes its first issue.
July 12 Ray Ventura records the first album of jazz vocals sung in French.
July 27 The team of Cochet, Borota and Brugnon lead France to a fourth consecutive Davis Cup victory.
André Leducq wins the Tour de France. National teams replace manufacturer's teams in the cycling competition.
August 1 Striking textile and steel workers clash with police in the the Nord region.
September 2 Captain Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte complete the first non-stop flight from Paris to New York in their Bréguet Point D'Interrogation in 37 hours 18 minutes.
September 26 Paris qui Remue, a new review starring Josephine Baker opens at the Casino de Paris. Baker sings the hit song J'ai Deux Amours.
October 10 The heavy cruiser Dupleix is launched at the Arsenal de Brest.
October 29 Madame Leburn, wife of the President, christens the luxury liner Normandie at Penhoet Shipyards, Saint Nazaire.
November 5 President Doumergue lays the cornerstone of the Musee Permanent des Colonies.
November 14 Justice Minister Raoul Peret comes under fire for him association with failed Banque Adam director Albert Oustric.
November 17 Justice Minister Raoul Peret resigns.
November 21 The Chamber of Deputies appoints a committee of inquiry into political complicity in the recent securities scandals.
December 3 Studio 28 is ransacked by right wing extremists protesting the the showing of L'Age d'Or, a film by Salvador Dali and Luis Bueñel.
December 4 The Tardieu cabinet resigns after falling into the minority following a debate on the general political situation in the country.
December 11 Paris Prefect of Police Louis Chiappe bans exhibition of L'Age d'Or and Sergei Eisenstein's La Ligne Generale.
December 13 Senator Theodore Steeg forms a Radical-Socialist Government with Radical Left, Republican Left and Republican-Socialist participation. Edouard Daladier is appointed Minister for Public Works, Camille Chautemps Minister for Public Instruction and Albert Saurrat Navy Minister.
Goncourt Prize for Literature
H. Fauconnier for Malaisie
Notable Books Hotel du Nord by Eugene Dabit
La Voie Royale by André Malraux
Pietr le Letton by Georges Simenon (first of 19 novels in the Inspector Maigret series).
Notable Films L'Age d'Or - directed by Luis Bueñel, written Salvador Dali and Luis Bueñel
1931January 3 Marshal Joseph Jacques Joffre dies in Paris at age 79.
January 19 Albert Oustric is sentenced to a year in prison and a 5,000 franc fine for his role in the failure of the Banque Adam.
January 22 The Steeg Government is overthrown by a vote of 293 to 283 after a brief debate.
Marshal Philippe Petain is received into the Academie francaise with welcoming discourse delivered by Paul Valéry.
January 27 Pierre Laval forms his first cabinet. Aristide Briand becomes Foreign Minister and Pierre Etienne Flandin Finance Minister.
January 31 France is awarded possession of Clipperton Island, an uninhabited Pacific atoll 1600 miles southwest of California, in arbitration of a dispute with Mexico adjudicated by King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
February 10 Premier Laval cites, "the need to confide to a high military authority the mission of coordinating all measures for the defense of French territory against air attacks, to betaken by different ministries" in appointing Marshal Petain to the post of Inspector General for Air Defenses. General Weygand replaces Petain as Inspector General of the Army and is in turn replaced by General Gamelin as Army Chief of Staff.
February 12 32,292 unemployed workers are receiving relief payments.
February 24 Socialist legislation appropriating 100 million francs for the relief of the unemployed is approved by a vote of 285 to 268 in the Chamber of Deputies.
February Communist Jacques Doriot is elected mayor of Saint Dennis following his predecessor's recall.
April 2 Tire manufacturer André Michelin dies.
April 3 Former Justice Minister Raoul Peret, Senator René Besnard, former under Secretary of State Gaston Vidal and Albert Favre are put on trial before the Senate for corruption in connection with the Oustric Affair.
April 4 La Croisiere Jaune, a 12,000 kilometer automobile expedition along the ancient Silk Route from Beirut to the China Sea begins. Fourteen Citroen CV4's equipped with caterpillar treads begin the journey organized by André Citroen.
April 14 The first public demonstration of television in France is produced by René Barthelemy, a physicist at L'Ecole Superieur d'Electricité.
May 6 President Doumergue and Marshal Lyautey open the Colonial Exposition in the Bois de Vincennes. Ne Visitez Pas l'Exposition Coloniale, a protest tract published by the Surrealists, fails to dampen attendance.
May 13 Senate President Paul Doumer is elected President of the Republic by the National Assembly on the second ballot by a 504 to 334 vote over Pierre Marraud, the candidate of the Left. Aristide Briand dropped out of the running after the first ballot.
May 19 The Dakar to Djibouti ethnographic and linguistic expedition led by Marcel Griaule departs Bordeaux.
June 11 Albert Lebrun succeeds Paul Doumer as President of the Senate
June 14 Four hundred passengers drown when the steamer St. Philibert sinks off Saint Nazaire during a cruise organized by the Union des Cooperatives de Loire Inferieure.
June 24 La Croisiere Jaune automobile expediton arrives in Sringar, India having covered 5543 kilometers.
July 21 The Senate Court acquits the Oustric Affair defendants including former Finance Minister Raoul Péret.
July 23 Yvonne Godard sets a new world record for swimming the 1000 meter freestyle.
July 26 France wins a fifth consecutive Davis Cup.
October 17 Paris qui Brille, a new revue starring Mistinguett, opens at the Casino de Paris.
October 26 Victor Perez of France defeats American Frankie Genaro in two rounds to take the world flyweight boxing championship.
November 15 The Colonial Exposition closes with a parade of colonial troops attended by half a million Parisians. The exposition attracted thirty million visitors during its six month run.
November 27 Colonel de la Rocque leads a mob of Croix des Feu, Camelots du Roi and Jeunesses Patriotes that storms the Trocadero and breaks up the final session of the International Disarmament Confernence.
December 5 Fanny, a play by Marcel Pagnol, premiers in Paris.
December 17 A Socialist motion to institute a system of unemployment insurance financed out of the budget is defeated by the Chamber of Deputies on a 316 to 257 vote. The Government proposes expanded State participation in departmental and municipal relief programs
Goncourt Prize for Literature
Jean Fayard for Mal D'Amour
Notable Books Aden Arabie by Paul Nizan
Vol de nuit by Antione de Saint-Exupery
Notable Films A Nous la Liberté - directed by René Clair
Croix de bois - directed by Raymond Bernard based on a novel by Roland Dorgelès.
Notable Recordings Parlez moi d'Amour - Lucien Boyer
Suppose - Josephine Baker
1932January 5 Formation of L'Association des ecrivans et artistes revolutionnaires, a Communist front group is announced in L'Humanité.
January 14 Albert Lebrun is reelected to the Senate presidency.
January 16 The French Football Federation accords recognition to professional football.
February 6 The Laval Government resigns.
February 12 La Croisiere Jaune automobile expedition arrives in Peking having covered 12,115 kilometers.
February 20 André Tardieu becomes Premier.
March 7 Aristide Briand dies at age 69 in Paris.
March 11 A law requiring employers to join a worker's compensation fund takes effect.
May 6 The President of the Republic, Paul Doumer, is assassinated by Paul Gorguloff, a White Russian émigré.
May 8 The Radical-Socialists win 157 seats in the new Chamber of Deputies to become the Chamber's largest bloc overcoming the Socialists who increase their numbers from 112 to 129.
May 10 Albert Lebrun is elected President of the Republic
May 21 The heavy cruiser Algérie is launched at the Arsenal de Brest.
June 3 Edouard Herriot forms a Radical Socialist Government after coalition talks with the Socialists break down.
July 6 The submarine Prométhée sinks off Cherbourg. 49 sailors drown.
July 9 The Lausanne Conference with Allied agreement to abolish reparations. Germany makes a final payment of 3 billion Reichsmarks to the Bank for International Settlements
July 11 The Chamber of Deputies adopts a resolution calling the reestablishment of a balanced budget.
Marcel Thil wins the world middle weight boxing championship from American Gorilla Jones who is disqualified for low blows.
July 27 The Seine Court of Assize condemns Paul Gorguloff to death for the murder of President Paul Doumer.
July 31 France wins a sixth consecutive Davis Cup championship.
September 14 Paul Gorguloff is guillotined for the murder of President Doumer.
October 28 Edouard Herriot unveils his Government's the disarmament proposals for the Geneva Conference.
Léon Blum wins Socialist support for the Government in a vote of confidence which carries in the Chamber of Deputies by a tally of 430 to 20.
November 18 Surcouf, the world's largest submarine, is launched at Cherbourg.
December 3 Josephine Baker returns to the Casino de Paris in a new revue La Joie de Paris.
December 14 Premier Herriot insists on making a $19 million war debt payment due December 15th.
The Government is defeated by a vote of 403 to 187 on a confidence resolution in the Chamber of Deputies.
December 18 Senator Joseph Paul-Boncour forms a new cabinet.
During the Year Tino Rossi makes a triumphal appearance at the Alcazar in Marseilles.
Charles Trenet and pianist Johnny Hess form the Charles & Johnny duo.
Goncourt Prize for Literature
Guy Mazeline for Les Loups
Notable Books Voyage au bout de la Nuit by Louis Ferdinand Celine
Au fil de l'épée by Charles de Gaulle
Notable Films Poil de Carotte - written and directed by Julien Duvivier (a sound remake of his 1926 silent film)
Notable Recordings Quand les beaux jours seront là - Charles Trenet
Sur le Yang Tsé Kiang - Charles Trenet
A petits pas - Henri Alibert
1933January 1 La Condition Humaine by André Malraux is serialized in the Nouvelles Revues Francais.
January 10 La Direction Generale des Beaux Arts opens the Cinematheque Nationale at the Trocadero Palace.
January 16 Jean Mermoz completes the first flight across the South Atlantic in his Couzinet tri-motor Arc en Ciel.
January 18 Finance Minister Henry Cheron introduces an austerity budget calling for reduced benefits for the civil service and increased taxes. The Socialists make a counter proposal eliminating the new taxes.
January 28 The Paul-Boncour cabinet resigns after the Socialists join conservatives to defeat a proposed 5.5% tax increase and a reduction in expenditures by a vote of 193 to 300.
January 31 Edouard Daladier forms a Radical-Socialist cabinet after the Socialists turn down an offer to form a union of the Left.
January The Federation of Business Owners organizes a committee of public awareness which campaigns on the slogan, "To the Devil with taxes! Parliament too! Dictators! Dissolve!"
February 11 The number of employed increases to 326,340.
February 16 Shopkeepers close their stores for a few hours to protest the new tax increases.
February 19 The National Lottery is established to a fund aid for retired veterans and victims of agricultural disasters.
February 20 Civil Servants go on strike to protest the Government's austerity budget.
March 1 Leon Blum and Vincent Auriol resign from the Socialist leadership to support the Government's austerity budget which passes the National Assembly by a narrow margin.
March 5 The Executive Committee of the Communist Third International calls for the formation of a "solely proletarian front against fascism and the capitalist offensive". The Socialist SFIO begins negotiations with the French Communist Party PCF for a popular front.
March Marshal Franchet d'Esperey is seriously injured in an automobile accident.
April 6 Premier Daladier accepts Mussolini's proposed Pact of Four to keep peace in the ranks of the League of Nations.
April 7 Zero de Conduite, a film by Jean Vigo, premiers at the Cinema Artistic. The film stirs strong criticism and is eventually banned by the censors.
April 30 Olympique of Lille defeats A.S. Cannes 4 goals to 3 in the final of the first professional football championship of France.
May Revue Politique et Parlementaire publishes a preview of Charles de Gaulle's book Vers l'Armee de Metier.
June 19 Interior Minister Camille Chautemps authorizes the admission of exiled Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky to France.
June Le Corbusier's Swiss Pavilion opens in the Cite Universitaire Internationale, Paris.
July 15 France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Four at the Venetian Palace in Rome.
July 25 Leon Trotsky and his wife arrive in Marseilles.
July 30 Great Britain wins the Davis Cup 3 sets to 2 ending a six year French reign.
August 27 Premier Daladier announces that France will join Italy in guaranteeing the independence of Austria.
September 22 Paris disarmament talks between France, Great Britain and the United States end in an agreement to suspend French disarmament and German rearmament for four years.
September 29 Marcel Bucard, a former member of the Faisceau, an extreme rightist league, announces the creation of Francism which he calls, "a revolutionary action movement".
October General Becart argues against replacing horse cavalry with light mechanized divisions in an article written for L'Officier de Reserve.
October 7 Air France officially takes over from the bankrupt Aéropostale.
October 24 The Chamber of Deputies defeats the Government's proposal to reduce civil service salaries.
October 26 Albert Saurrat forms a new cabinet dominated by the Radical-Socialists.
October 29 Air Minister Paul Painlevé dies of a cardiac arrest following a speech to the Chamber of Deputies.
November 7 A hairdresser from Tarascon wins 5 million francs in the first drawing of the National Lottery.
November 24 The Chamber of Deputies defeats the Saurrat Government's attempt to reduce civil service salaries.
November 26 Camille Chautemps forms a Government without neo-Socialist participation.
The Union Federale des Combattants, a moderate veterans organization, warns the Chautemps Government to take action against the Depression and clean up the corruption or risk the overthrow of the Republican regime.
November 27 Folies en Folie, a new revue starring Mistinguett and Fernandel, opens at the Folies Bergere.
December 8 François Coty's ligue du Solidarité française and newspaper L'Ami du Peuple declare bankruptcy.
December 24 Gustave Tissier, director of the municipal pawnshop in Bayonne, is arrested. He is accused of issuing 239 million francs worth of fake bonds as part of gigantic swindle concocted by Russian émigré Serge Alexander Stavisky. Stavisky flees to escape prosecution.
During the Year Perfumier Francois Coty launches L'Ami du Peuple, an anti-semitic and pro-fascist newspaper; founds La Solidarite Francaise, an extreme rightist league and funds Marcel Bucard's Francisists.
Marcel Deat coins the motto the rightist leagues, Order, Authority and Nation.
Goncourt Prize André Malraux for La Condition Humaine
Notable Books Vielle France by Roger Martin du Gard
Intermezzo by Jean Giraudoux
La Mystere Frontenac by Francois Mauriac
Un Barbare en Asie by Henri Michaux
Notable Films Zero de Conduité - directed by Jean Vigo
1934January 5 Gustave Tissier accuses the Radical-Socialist Deputy Mayor of Bayonne Joseph Garat of complicity in the Stavisky Affair.
January 8 Stavisky found dead in Chamonix ski chalet. The death is ruled a "suicide". Stavisky had a lengthy criminal record but his trial had been delayed 19 times through the intervention of political connections. The suicide unleashes a flood of criticism in the right wing newspapers aimed at corruption in the leadership of the ruling Radical-Socialist Party.
January 9 Les Camelots du Roi, a para-military branch of L'Action Francaise, marches on the Chamber of Deputies but are repulse by the police.
January 10 Marie Bonaparte's Institute for Psycho-analysis opens in Paris.
January 15 Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie announce the discovery of artificially created radio-activity
January 27 Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eugene Raynaldy resigns after being implicated in a swindle perpetrated by a banker named Sacazan. The Chautemps cabinet is forced to resign the same day.
January 30 Edouard Daladier forms a Radical-Socialist cabinet with Centerist backing after a failed attempt to lure the Left into a coalition. Daladier promises to get to the bottom of the Stavisky Affair.
February 3 Premier Daladier fires Paris police prefect Jean Chiappe who reportedly held a favorable view of the extreme rightists.
February 6 Leaders of the rightist leagues call for a show of force at the Place de la Concorde. The demonstration turns into a riot. The police are overwhelmed as they try to close access to a bridge leading to the National Assembly and open fire killing 15 rioters and wounding 665. A policeman is killed and 664 are injured.
February 7 The Daladier Government resigns following the resignation of the Radical-Socialist ministers.
President Lebrun calls on Gaston Doumergue to form a new cabinet
Renewed rioting erupts during the evening.
The Socialists appeal to "all Republican forces, workers and peasants" and invite the Communists to discuss common action to defend the Republic. The Communist refuse and join the CGTU (General Workers Union) in organizing a separate demonstration.
February 9 The Communist Party and the General Workers Union CGTU stage a Counter-demonstration to protest the February 6 riots. Clashes with the police leave 9 dead and hundreds injured. Afterward the CGTU joins the Socialists in calling for a General Strike on February 12. L'Humanite issues a last minute call for Communist participation in the strike.
February 12 Demonstrations and strikes are staged by labor unions and parties of the Left to protest the violence of the extreme Right and in support of the Republic. 120,000 march in Paris. Socialists and Communists fraternize in the Place de la Nation despite the wishes of the their leaders. Factional violence erupts in Marseilles.
February 16 A committee of inquiry is formed to investigate the Stavisky Affair.
February 17 L'Humanité denounces the Socialists as "the last rampart of capitalist society".
February 21 The body of Albert Prince, a lawyer practicing before the Paris Court of Appeal, who was believed to possess compromising information regarding the defendants in the Stavisky Affair, is recovered near the Paris-Dijon Railway.
April 11 Jean Cocteau's La Machine Infernale premiers at La Comedie des Champs Elysées.
April 17 Interior Minister Albert Saurrat withdraws Leon Trotsky's right to asylum in France.
April 30 Igor Stravinsky directs the performance of Persephone, based on a book by André Gide, at L'Opera de Paris.
May 2 Pierre Drieu La Rochelle awarded le prix de la Renaissance for La Comedie de Charleroi..
May 7 Rightists movements and the leagues (except for Les Croix de Feu) form a National Front under the leadership of Charles Trochu.
May 10 Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann and Romain Rolland establish La Bibliotheque Allemande de la Liberté in Paris to mark the first anniversary of the Nazi book burnings in Germany.
June 1 Singer Tino Rossi makes his Paris debut at L'ABC. Rossi records forty songs for Columbia Records later in the year.
June 12 Street fights between Leftists and members of the Croix des Feu at Saint Etienne leave 50 people injured.
June 26 Maurice Thorez calls for unity of action with the Socialists against fascism during a closing address to the Communist Party National Conference at Irvy.
June 27 Jacques Doriot, Mayor of Saint Denis, is expelled from the Communist Party for alleged factionalism.
June 28 Paul Reynaud calls for devaluation of the franc.
July 4 Madame Marie Curie dies in Paris at age 67.
July 5 The National Assembly approves a revision to the tax code lowering direct taxation.
July 6 The National Assembly approves public works appropriations to combat unemployment.
July 13 Marthe Hanau, founder of La Gazette du Franc, is convicted of embezzling 100 million francs and sentenced to three years in prison.
July 21 Marshal Hubert Lyautey dies in Thorey at age 80.
July 25 François Coty, founder of Solidarité française league and several extreme right newspapers dies.
July 27 The Communist Party and the Socialists sign a united action pact against fascism, war and the decrees of the Doumergue Government and in favor of protecting democratic liberties.
August 15 Robert Brasillach's L'Enfant de la Nuit is serialized in La Revue Universelle.
October 5 Film director Jean Vigo dies at age 29.
October 9 King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou are assassinated by a member of the Croatian Ustashi in Marseilles.
October 10 Louis Armstrong performs at La Salle Pleyel.
October 12 Violette Nozieres is sentenced to death for poisoning her father and the attempted murder of her mother. Nozieres becomes cause celebre among the Surrealists including André Breton, Salvador Dali and Ernst Max. Her sentence is later commuted to life in prison.
October 14 Tino Rossi makes his Paris debut with performances at l'ABC and in La Parade de France, a revue of regional stars at the Casino de Paris.
The Socialist-Communist alliance gains ground in the second round of balloting for municipal councils at the expense of the Radical-Socialist.
October 15 Former President and Premier Raymond Poincaré dies in Paris at age 74.
October Communist leader MauriceThorez calls for an alliance between the middle class and the working class and welcomes the Radical Socialists with open arms thus setting the stage for formation of a Popular Front.
November Premier Doumergues broadcasts plans to ask the National Assembly to approve a series of financial decrees and to meet in Versailles to vote on constitutional reforms without debate.
November 8 Premier Doumergues is forced to resign. Pierre Etienne Flandin, President of the Democratic Alliance, forms a new government of "truce" between Radical-Socialists and moderates. Pierre Laval becomes Foreign Minister and Edouard Herriot, Minister of State.
November 20 The cabinet adopts measures recommended by an inter-ministerial committee studying the affect of foreign workers on the unemployment situation. New entries by foreign workers are barred, strict controls placed on existing foreign workers, rules giving new protections and favoring French workers adopted, severe penalties imposed for violations
December 2 Le Quintette du Hot Club de France featuring Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt gives the first concert by a "Hot Jazz" orchestra at the Paris School of Music.
December 21 Citroen automobile company is forced into judicial liquidation by the Tribunal de Commerce de la Seine.
Goncourt Prize for Literature
Roger Vercel for Capitaine Conan
Notable Books Le Nouvel Esprit Scientifique by Gaston Bachelaud
La Crise de la Conscience Europeenne by Paul Hazard
Vers l'armée de métier by Charles de Gaulle
Notable Films L'Atalante - directed by Jean Vigo, screenplay by Jean Vigo & Albert Riéra, based on the novel by Jean Guinée.
Toni - directed by Jean Renoir, screenplay by Carl Einstein, based on a newspaper item.
Notable Recordings A Paris dans chaque Faubourg - Lys Gautry
Adieu Venise provenaale - Henri Alibert
On n'a pas tous les jours vingt ans - Berthe Sylva
1935January 26 The French ship Jeanne d'Arc visits Clipperton Island in the Pacific to establish sovereignty over the atoll.
February 7 The Chamber of Deputies defeats a Socialist proposal to appoint a committee charged with the abrogation or modification of decree laws. Radical-Socialist Edouard Daladier votes with the Socialists.
February 25 Louis Lumiere presents an experimental 3-D film at the Academy of Science, Paris.
March 15 The Chamber of Deputies approves extending the term of compulsory military service to two years in response to German rearmament and a manpower shortage. A group of Radical-Socialists abstain or vote against the proposal.
April 14 France, Great Britain and Italy sign the Stresa Accords which guarantee the independence of Austria.
April 26 The first official television broadcast in France is transmitted from a studio in the basement of the Ministry of Post, Telephone and Telegraph.
May 2 Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Soviet Ambassador Vladimir Potemkin sign a five year mutual assistance pact.
May 5 Olympique de Marseilles defeats Le Stade Rennais 3 to 0 in the final match of the Coupe de France football championship.
May 15 Radical-Socialists fail to register gains in second round balloting for municipal councils marking the failure of its alliance with moderates. Parties of the Left register a strong showing.
May 29 The luxury liner Normandie departs Le Havre on its maiden voyage to New York.
May 31 The Flandin Government resigns.
June 1 Fernand Bouisson is appointed Premier.
June 4 Premier Bouisson resigns without forming a cabinet.
June 7 Pierre Laval forms a new cabinet composed of moderates and right leaning Radical- Socialists. The Chamber of Deputies accords the cabinet full powers to legislate by decree "in defense of the franc and to guard against speculation" until October 31 by a vote of 324 to 160.
June 12 The Socialist Party Congress meeting in Mulhouse approves formation of a Popular Front with the Communists.
June 14 The Socialist CGT and the Communist CGT-U agree to resume talks aimed at merging the two labor unions.
June 17 The Comite National du Rassemblement Populaire is formed under the leadership of Victor Basch, President of the League of the Rights of Man, to organize a mass demonstration in defense of the Republic on July 14th.
June 21 An International Congress of Writers for the Defense of the Culture meets at the Palais de la Mutualite in Paris under the chairmanship of André Malraux and André Gide.
June 25 The Writers Congress passes a resolution calling for the establishment of a Permanent International Association for the Defense of the Culture, Opposed to Fascism and War to be headquartered in Paris.
June The premier Concours d'Elegance for automobiles is staged in Paris.
July 12 Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Dreyfus dies of a heart attack at age 75.
July 14 The Comite National du Rassemblement Populaire organizes Leftist demonstrations in Paris and many provincial cities. After a rally at the Buffalo de Montrouge stadium Leftist parade from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de la Nation in Paris.- Organizers count 500,000 marchers, the police estimate 100,000.
July 16 The Government issues 29 decrees cutting public expenditures by 10% and reducing salaries and benefits of public employees
July 19 Marthe Hanau, leading figure in La Gazette du Franc scandal is found dead in her prison cell.
August 8 A new series of decrees designed to "stimulate economic activity, safeguard savings and lower the cost of living" is issued.
August 30 Author Henri Barbusse dies in Moscow.
September 30 Maurice Chevalier returns to Paris after seven years in Hollywood to star in a new revue Parade du Monde at the Casino de Paris.
October 2 The battleship Dunkerque is launched at the Arsenal de Brest.
October 7 André Breton and Georges Bataille launch a new literary revue, Contre-Attaque with a manifesto titled l'Union de lutte des intellectuels revolutionnaires (The United Struggle of Revolutionary Intellectuals).
October 18 France votes in favor of League of Nations sanctions against Italy in response to the invasion of Ethiopia.
October 30 A third series of governmental decrees intended to revive the economy is issued.
November 4 Trial begins for defendants in the Stavisky Affair.
December 7 Pierre Laval and British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare submit a proposal to Mussolini which would leave two sections of Ethiopia under Italian control. The Italian is favorable to the plan but British public opinion forces Hoare to withdraw the proposal.
December 10 Henri Dorgeres forms the Chemises vert (Green Shirts) an extreme rightist paramilitary.
December 16 André Japy completes a solo flight from Paris to Saigon in 98 hours and 52 minutes.
During the Year Louis Leplée, the manager of Le Gerny's, hires street singer Edith Piaf to be the resident artist at the elegant Champs Elysées cabaret.
Tino Rossi stars in Tout Paris chante, a new revue at the Casino de Paris.
Exiled Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky leaves France for Norway.
Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie for their work in separating radio-active elements
Goncourt Prize for Literature
Joseph Pegre for Sang et Lumiere
Notable Books Pour un realisme socialiste by Louis Aragon
Le Bleu du Ciel by Georges Bataille
Le Sang Noir by Louis Guilloux
Memoires d'un Tricheur by Sacha Guitry
Le Temps du Mépris by André Malraux
Notable Films Pension Mimosas - directed by Jacques Feyder, screenplay by Charles Spaak & Jacques Feyder
Zouzou - directed by Marc Allegret, starring Josephine Baker
Notable Recordings L'Etranger - Edith Piaf
Les Momes de la cloche - Edith Piaf
Le plus beau Tango du monde - Tino Rossi
Adieu Hawai - Tino Rossi
Prosper - Maurice Chevalier
Tout va tres bien, Madame la Marquise - Ray Ventura and His Collegians

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