1896 in France

• President: Felix Faure{{cite web|title=Felix Faure (1895–1899)|url=http://www.elysee.fr/la-presidence/felix-faure/|website=www.elysee.fr|access-date=2018-09-25|language=fr-FR}}
• President of the Council of Ministers: Léon Bourgeois (until 29 April),{{cite web |title=Léon Bourgeois {{!}} French politician and statesman |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Bourgeois |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=25 September 2018 |language=en}} Jules Méline (starting 29 April){{cite web |title=Félix-Jules Méline {{!}} premier of France |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Felix-Jules-Meline |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=25 September 2018 |language=en}}

• 30 September – Italy and France sign a treaty whereby Italy virtually recognizes Tunisia as a French dependency.Iiams, Thomas M. (1962). Dreyfus, Diplomatists and the Dual Alliance: Gabriel Hanotaux at the Quai D'Orsay (1894–1898), Geneva; Paris: Librairie Droz/Librairie Minard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dgObEERSxvQC&pg=PA115 p. 115].
• France establishes an administrative post at Abengourou, Ivory Coast.

• 11 February – English writer Oscar Wilde's play Salomé (1891) has its stage première (while Wilde is in prison), in its original French, by Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre company in Paris, perhaps at the Comédie-Parisienne.{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Raby|chapter=Introduction|page=xiii|title=The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays|publisher=Oxford University Press|series=Worlds Classics|year=2008}}{{cite book|last=Bristow|first=Joseph|year=2009|pages=96, 106, 193|title=Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend|location=Athens, Ohio|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-8214-1837-6}}
• 28 September – Pathé Frères, one of the oldest film companies, is founded by the brothers Charles, Théophile, Émile and Jacques Pathé.
• 30 September – France and Italy sign a treaty whereby Italy virtually recognizes Tunisia as a French dependency.Iiams, Thomas M. (1962). Dreyfus, Diplomatists and the Dual Alliance: Gabriel Hanotaux at the Quai D'Orsay (1894–1898), Geneva/Paris: Librairie Droz/Librairie Minard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dgObEERSxvQC&pg=PA115 p. 115]
• 10 December – Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi (first published this Spring in Le Livre d'art) is premièred by the Théâtre de l'Œuvre in Paris. The opening word, "Merdre!", triggers disturbances and the play is not performed again in the author's lifetime.
• France establishes an administrative post in Abengourou, Ivory Coast.
• At Giverny Claude Monet begins painting his Mornings on the Seine series, which will continue through 1897.

• Racing Club de Lyon, a football club predecessor to Olympique Lyonnais, is officially founded.

• 4 January – André Masson, artist (died 1987){{cite web |title=André Masson |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/andre-masson |website=www.guggenheim.org |access-date=25 September 2018}}
• 19 February – André Breton, writer, poet, and surrealist theorist (died 1966){{cite web |title=André Breton Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works |url=https://www.m.theartstory.org/artist-breton-andre.htm |website=The Art Story |access-date=25 September 2018 |archive-date=25 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925220047/https://www.m.theartstory.org/artist-breton-andre.htm |url-status=dead }}
• 20 February – Henri de Lubac, Jesuit priest and theologian (died 1991){{cite book |last1=Rise |first1=Svein |title=Key Theological Thinkers: From Modern to Postmodern |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317109273 |page=201 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNoFDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA201|language=en}}
• 19 March – Jean Wiener, pianist and composer (died 1982){{cite web |title=Jean Wiéner (1896–1982) - Author - Resources from the BnF|url=http://data.bnf.fr/13901146/jean_wiener/ |website=data.bnf.fr |access-date=25 September 2018 |language=en}}
• 18 April – Job de Roincé, journalist and writer (died 1981)
• 20 April – Henry de Montherlant, essayist, novelist and playwright (died 1972)

• 16 July – Léon Weil, World War I veteran (died 2006)
• 18 July – Jean Dufay, astronomer (died 1967)
• 21 July – Jean Rivier, composer (died 1987)
• 27 July – Henri Longchambon, politician (died 1969)
• 12 August – Alexis Tendil, World War I veteran (died 2005)
• 15 August – Marie Besnard, accused serial poisoner (died 1980)
• 23 August – Jacques Rueff, economist and adviser to the French Government (died 1978)
• 1 September – André Hunebelle, film director (died 1985)
• 14 September – Georges Piot, rower and Olympic medallist (died 1980)
• September – Elsa Triolet, writer (died 1970)

• 2 October – Jacques Duclos, politician (died 1975)
• 8 October – Julien Duvivier, film director (died 1967)
• 15 October – Célestin Freinet, pedagogue, and educational reformer (died 1966)
• 18 October – Marie-Laurence Quatrefages, politician and Righteous Among the Nations (died 1976){{Cite web |title=Quatrefages Marie (Egrefeuille) |url=https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/8217123 |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=Yad Vashem |language=en}}
• 26 October – Louis Renou, indologist (died 1966)
• 18 November – Pierre Couderc, screenwriter, actor, acrobat and film producer (died 1966)
• 29 December – Philippe Étancelin, motor racing driver (died 1981)

• Albert Besson, hygienist and physician (died 1965)
• Lisette de Brinon, socialite and collaborator (died 1982)

• 8 January – Paul Verlaine, poet (born 1844)
• 26 February – Arsène Houssaye, novelist and poet (born 1815)
• 5 May – Auguste Sallé, traveller and entomologist (born 1820)
• 29 May – Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, geologist (born 1814)
• 26 June – Louis, Duke of Nemours, second son of King Louis-Philippe of France (born 1814)

• 10 July – Joseph-Christian-Ernest Bourret, Cardinal (born 1827)
• 16 July – Edmond de Goncourt, writer, critic and book publisher (born 1822)
• 17 August – Élie-Abel Carrière, botanist (born 1818)
• 18 September – Hippolyte Fizeau, physicist (born 1819)
• 7 October – Louis Jules Trochu, soldier and statesman (born 1815)
• 26 October – Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, statesman (born 1827)
• 17 December – Paul Arène, poet and writer (born 1843)

• List of French films before 1910

{{reflist}}

{{France year nav}}

{{Year in Europe|1896}}

Category:1890s in France