1909 in France

Incumbents

• President: Armand Fallières
• President of the Council of Ministers: Georges Clemenceau, Aristide Briand

  Events

• 20 February - The Futurist Manifesto, written by Italian Filippo Marinetti, is published in Le Figaro.
• 2 February - The Paris Film Congress opens. It is an attempt to form a cartel of leading European producers similar to that of the MPPC in the United States
• 18 April - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
• 25 July - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
• 30 July - Société Française de teintures inoffersires, as predecessor of L'Oréal was founded.
• 22 September - Three of the Chauffeurs de la Drome are executed by guillotine in Valence, Drôme in south-west France. They were a gang responsible for a three-year campaign of theft, torture and murder in the department of Drôme.

  Sport

• 5 July - Tour de France begins.
• 1 August - Tour de France ends, won by François Faber of Luxembourg.

  Births

January to March

• 3 February
• *André Cayatte, filmmaker
• *Simone Weil, philosopher and social activist
• 10 February - Henri Alekan, cinematographer
• 26 February
• *Claude Cahen, orientalist
• *Michel Tapié, artist, critic, curator and art collector
• 7 March - Léo Malet, novelist
• 14 March
• *Pierre Cloarec, cyclist
• *André Pieyre de Mandiargues, writer
• 27 March - Raymond Oliver, chef and restaurateur
• 31 March - Robert Brasillach, author, executed for collaboration

  April to June

• 7 April - Robert Charroux, writer
• 17 April - Alain Poher, politician
• 22 April - André Girard, civil servant and Resistance worker
• 11 May - René Bousquet, civil servant, served as secretary general of the Vichy regime police
• 21 May - Guy de Rothschild, banker
• 15 June - Pierre La Mure, author
• 17 June - Régine Pernoud, historian and medievalist
• 19 June - Robert Défossé, soccer player

  July to September

• 6 July - Jean Taris, swimmer and Olympic medallist
• 8 July - Louis Finot, international soccer player
• 13 July - Marie-Thérèse Walter, mistress of Pablo Picasso
• 15 July - Jean Hamburger, physician, surgeon and essayist
• 26 July - Bernard Cornut-Gentille, administrator and politician
• 5 August - Pierre Guillaumat, politician and Minister
• 11 August - Gaston Litaize, organist and composer
• 25 September - Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, film director, script-writer, playwright and author
• 27 September - Pascal Themanlys, poet, zionist and Kabbalist
• 29 September - Jules Merviel, cyclist
• September - Henri Déricourt, pilot and accused double agent

  October to December

• 1 October - Thierry Maulnier, journalist, essayist, dramatist and literary critic
• 11 October - François Tanguy-Prigent, politician and resistance fighter
• 28 October - Claude Bourdet, writer, journalist and politician
• 5 November - Pierre Repp, humorist and actor
• 8 November - Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, French Resistance leader
• 29 November - Jean Leguay, civil servant, accomplice in the deportation of Jews from France
• 2 December - Pierre Langlais, military officer

  Full date unknown

• Marcel Barral, poet

  Deaths

• 18 March - Cécile Bruyère, abbess
• 28 May - Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, neurologist