1803 in France

Events

• 30 January
• *Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans: they end completing the Louisiana Purchase.
• *Napoleon authorizes the celebration of a Joan of Arc feast in Orléans on 8 May.
• 30 April - Louisiana Purchase made by the United States from France.
• May - The First Consul of France Citizen Bonaparte begins making preparations to invade England.
• 18 May - The United Kingdom redeclares war on France, after French refuse to withdraw from Dutch territory.
• 5 July - Convention of Artlenburg, the surrender of the Electorate of Hanover to Napoleon's army.
• 18 November - Haitian Revolution: Battle of Vertières, decisive Haitian victory over the French colonial army.

  Births

January to June

• 16 February - Louis-Antoine Garnier-Pagès, politician.
• 3 March - Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, painter.
• 15 March - Alexandre Boreau, pharmacist and botanist.
• 7 April - Flora Tristan, socialist writer and activist.
• 24 May - Charles Lucien Bonaparte, naturalist and ornithologist.

  July to December

• 22 July - Eugène Isabey, painter, draftsman, and printmaker.
• 24 July - Adolphe Adam, composer and music critic.
• 8 September - Léon Faucher, politician and economist.
• 12 September - Julien Auguste Pélage Brizeux, poet.
• 13 September - Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, caricaturist.
• 23 September - Jacques Crétineau-Joly, journalist and historian.
• 28 September - Ferdinand Berthier, deaf educator, intellectual and political organiser.
• 28 September - Prosper Mérimée, dramatist, historian and archaeologist.
• 11 December - Hector Berlioz, composer.
• 24 December - Jean-Rémy Bessieux, founder of Roman Catholic mission in Gabon and first Bishop there.

  Full date unknown

• Jean Étienne Bercé, entomologist.
• Hélène Jégado, domestic servant and serial killer, executed.

  Deaths

January to June

• 18 January - Sylvain Maréchal, essayist, poet and philosopher.
• 29 January - La Clairon, actress.
• 9 February - Jean François de Saint-Lambert, poet.
• 11 February - Jean-François de La Harpe, playwright, writer and critic.
• 16 February - Louis René Édouard, cardinal de Rohan, Cardinal.
• 20 February - Marie Dumesnil, actress.
• 4 March - Madame de Marsan, Royal children's governess.
• 24 April - Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, painter.
• April - Louis François Antoine Arbogast, mathematician.
• 29 May - Louis-Antoine Caraccioli, writer, poet, historian and biographer.
• 6 June - Louis Gallodier, ballet dancer and choreographer.

  July to December

• 16 August - Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan, writer.
• 5 September
• *François Devienne, composer and flautist.
• *Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, General and novelist.
• 7 October - Pierre Vachon, composer.
• 12 October - Jacques Gamelin, painter and engraver.
• 7 November - Pierre Brugière, priest and Jansenist.
• 27 November - Antoine Guenée, priest and Christian apologist.