1912 in France

Incumbents

• President: Armand Fallières
• President of the Council of Ministers: Joseph Caillaux, Raymond Poincaré

  Events

• 13 January - Raymond Poincaré forms a coalition government, beginning his first term of office as Prime Minister on 21 January.
• 30 March - Treaty of Fez, Sultan Abdelhafid gives up the sovereignty of Morocco, making it a protectorate of France.
• 10 April - embarks passengers from tenders at Cherbourg for the only time.

  Arts and literature

• Marcel Duchamp paints Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.

  Sport

• 26 June - 1912 French Grand Prix, won by Georges Boillot driving a Peugeot.
• 30 June-28 July - 10th Tour de France, won by Odiel Defraye.

  Births

January to March

• 6 January - Jacques Ellul, philosopher, sociologist, theologian
• 15 January - Michel Debré, politician and first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic
• 18 January - David Rousset, writer and political activist
• 3 February - Jacques Soustelle, anthropologist
• 7 February - Alfred Desenclos, composer
• 7 February - Amédée Fournier, cyclist
• 11 February - Jacques Corrèze, businessman and politician
• 12 February - Pierre Jaminet, cyclist
• 20 February - Pierre Boulle, novelist
• 28 March - Léon Damas, poet and politician

  April to June

• 12 April - Georges Franju, filmmaker
• 14 April - Robert Doisneau, photographer
• 21 April - Marcel Camus, film director
• 28 April - Odette Sansom, World War II heroine
• 16 May - Alfred Aston, international soccer player
• 23 May - Jean Françaix, composer, pianist, and orchestrator
• 29 May - Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, fourth Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
• 30 May - Roger Courtois, international soccer player
• 8 June - Roger Michelot, boxer
• 15 June - Alix Combelle, swing jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader
• 29 June - Lucie Aubrac, World War II Resistance fighter
• 29 June - Émile Peynaud, oenologist and researcher

  July to December

• 18 July - Max Rousié, rugby league and rugby union footballer
• 5 August - Abbé Pierre, priest and founder of Emmaus movement
• 26 August - Léo Marjane, born Thérèse Maria Léonie Gendebien, popular singer
• 8 September - Marie-Dominique Philippe, Dominican philosopher and theologian
• 14 September - Jean Lescure, poet
• 3 November - Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, member of the French Resistance
• 13 November - Claude Pompidou, philanthropist, wife of President of France Georges Pompidou
• 21 November - Pierre Grimal, historian and classicist

  Full date unknown

• Gérard Albouy, milliner
• Paul Petard, botanist

  Deaths

• 16 January - Alfred Jules Émile Fouillée, philosopher
• 14 April - Henri Brisson, statesman and Prime minister of France
• 12 June - Frédéric Passy, economist, joint winner of first Nobel Peace Prize, 1901
• 16 June - Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, publicist and historian
• 17 July - Henri Poincaré, mathematician, theoretical physicist and philosopher of science
• 12 September - Pierre-Hector Coullié, Archbishop of Lyon

  Full date unknown

• Magloire-Désiré Barthet, Vicar Apostolic of Senegambia
• Félicien Henry Caignart de Saulcy, entomologist