1862 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch - Napoleon III

  Events

• 6 January - French, Spanish and British forces arrive in Veracruz, Mexico, beginning the French intervention in Mexico.
• 5 May - Battle of Puebla, victory for the Mexican Army against the French occupational forces.

  Arts and literature

• 3 April - The first two volumes of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is published.
• 15 May - The remainder of Les Misérables is published.

  Births

• 28 March - Aristide Briand, statesman, Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner
• 6 April - Georges Darien, writer
• 22 August - Claude Debussy, composer
• 19 October - Auguste Lumière, filmmaker
• 7 December - Paul Adam, novelist
• 8 December - Georges Feydeau, playwright

  Deaths

• 11 January - Jean Philibert Damiron, philosopher
• 7 February - Prosper Ménière, scientist
• 11 February - Jules Lequier, philosopher
• 17 March - Fromental Halévy, composer
• 9 April - Charles Deval, ophthalmologist
• 18 June - Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix, vicar apostolic of Eastern Siam
• 5 July - Étienne-Denis Pasquier, statesman
• September - Mathieu-Richard-Auguste Henrion, magistrate, historian and journalist

  Full date unknown

• Louis Alfred Becquerel, physicist and medical researcher
• Antoine Fauchery, photographer
• Louis Petitot, sculptor