1896 in France

Incumbents

• President: Felix Faure
• President of the Council of Ministers: Léon Bourgeois, Jules Méline

  Events

• 30 September – Italy and France sign a treaty whereby Italy virtually recognizes Tunisia as a French dependency.
• France establishes an administrative post at Abengourou, Ivory Coast.

  Arts and literature

• 11 February – English writer Oscar Wilde's play Salomé is premièred, in its original French by Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre company in Paris, perhaps at the Comédie-Parisienne.
• 28 September – Pathé Frères, one of the oldest film companies, is founded by the brothers Charles, Théophile, Émile and Jacques Pathé.
• 10 December – Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi 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.
• At Giverny Claude Monet begins painting his Mornings on the Seine series, which will continue through 1897.

  Sport

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

  Births

January to June

• 4 January – André Masson, artist
• 19 February – André Breton, writer, poet, and surrealist theorist
• 20 February – Henri de Lubac, Jesuit priest and theologian
• 19 March – Jean Wiener, pianist and composer
• 18 April – Job de Roincé, journalist and writer
• 20 April – Henry de Montherlant, essayist, novelist and playwright

  July to September

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

  October to December

• 2 October – Jacques Duclos, politician
• 8 October – Julien Duvivier, film director
• 15 October – Célestin Freinet, pedagogue, and educational reformer
• 26 October – Louis Renou, indologist
• 18 November – Pierre Couderc, screenwriter, actor, acrobat and film producer
• 29 December – Philippe Étancelin, motor racing driver

  Full date unknown

• Albert Besson, hygienist and physician
• Lisette de Brinon, socialite and collaborator

  Deaths

January to June

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

  July to December

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