1875 in France

Incumbents

• President: Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
• President of the Council of Ministers: Ernest Courtot de Cissey, Louis Buffet

  Events

• 20 May – Convention du Mètre signed in Paris.

  Arts and literature

• 5 January – The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.
• 3 March – The first performance of Bizet's Carmen at the Opéra Comique, Paris.

  Births

• 21 February – Jeanne Calment, supercentenarian and the oldest living person ever documented in history
• 7 March – Maurice Ravel, composer and pianist
• 27 March – Cécile Vogt-Mugnier, neurologist
• 4 April – Pierre Monteux, conductor
• 5 April – Mistinguett, singer
• 27 April – Maurice, 6th duc de Broglie, physicist
• 28 June – Henri Lebesgue, mathematician
• 31 July – Jacques Villon, painter and printmaker
• 6 August – Marcel Labey, conductor and composer
• 27 September – Cléo de Mérode, dancer

  Full date unknown

• Maurice Princet, mathematician and actuary

  Deaths

January to June

• 1 January – Jacques Crétineau-Joly, journalist and historian
• 3 January – Pierre Larousse, grammarian and lexicographer
• 10 January – Anton Melbye, Danish painter
• 20 January – Jean-François Millet, painter
• 22 February – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, painter
• 1 March – Tristan Corbière, poet
• 25 March – Louis Amédée Achard, novelist
• 5 May – Alexandre Boreau, pharmacist and botanist
• 10 May – Gustave Thuret, botanist
• 31 May – Eliphas Levi, occult author and magician
• 3 June – Georges Bizet, composer and pianist
• 24 June – Henri Labrouste, architect
• 25 June – Antoine-Louis Barye, sculptor

  July to December

• 11 August – Charles Rohault de Fleury, architect
• 25 August – Charles Auguste Frossard, general
• 12 October – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, sculptor and painter
• 24 October – Jacques Paul Migne, priest, theologian and publisher
• 17 November – Jacques-Marie-Achille Ginoulhiac, Bishop

  Full date unknown

• Charles Auguste Désiré Filon, historian
• Michel Lévy, publisher