1917 in France

Incumbents

• President: Raymond Poincaré
• President of the Council of Ministers:
• * until 20 March: Aristide Briand
• * 20 March-12 September: Alexandre Ribot
• * 12 September-16 November: Paul Painlevé
• * starting 16 November: Georges Clemenceau

  Events

• 9 April - Battle of Arras, a British offensive, begins.
• 16 April - Second Battle of the Aisne begins, the main action of the French Nivelle Offensive.
• 29 April - Architect of the Second Battle of the Aisne and the French Commander-in-Chief, General Robert Nivelle, is sacked.
• 9 May - Second Battle of the Aisne ends in failure, leading to desertions.
• 27 May - French Army desertions turned to mutiny as up to 30,000 soldiers left the front line and reserve trenches and returned to the rear
• 16 May - Battle of Arras ends.
• 8 June - French military authorities took action with mass arrests, followed by mass trials.
• 15 August - Anglo-Canadian offensive, Battle of Hill 70 starts on the outskirts of Lens in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
• 25 August - Battle of Hill 70 ends.
• 15 November - Georges Clemenceau becomes prime minister of France.
• 20 November, British campaign, Battle of Cambrai begins. First successful use of tanks in a combined arms operation.
• 6 December - Battle of Cambrai ends.

  Births

January to June

• 3 January - Pierre Dervaux, operatic conductor and composer
• 24 January - Marcel Hansenne, middle distance runner
• 11 February - Bernard Destremau, tennis player
• 16 April - Lucienne Delyle, singer
• 22 April - Yvette Chauviré, prima ballerina assoluta
• 25 April - Jean Lucas, motor racing driver
• 29 May - Élie de Rothschild, banker
• 31 May - Jean Rouch, filmmaker and anthropologist

  July to December

• 14 June - Gilbert Prouteau, poet
• 18 July - Henri Salvador, singer
• 25 July - Philippe De Lacy, actor
• 27 July - Bourvil, actor and singer
• 15 August - Philippe Viannay, journalist
• 17 August - Paul Tessier, surgeon
• 24 September - Jean Hermil, Roman Catholic bishop of Viviers
• 20 October - Jean-Pierre Melville, filmmaker
• 22 October - Annette Laming-Emperaire, archeologist
• 30 October - Maurice Trintignant, motor racing driver
• 5 November - Jacqueline Auriol, aviator who set several world speed records
• 11 November - Madeleine Damerment, World War II heroine
• 19 November - Philippe Ragueneau, journalist and writer
• 22 November - Jean-Étienne Marie, composer

  Full date unknown

• Philippe Charbonneaux, industrial designer
• Maurice Lauré, creator of taxe sur la valeur ajoutée

  Deaths

January to June

• 4 January - Auguste Chauveau, professor and veterinarian
• 20 January - Amédée Bollée, bell-founder
• 5 February - Édouard Drumont, journalist and writer
• 16 February - Octave Mirbeau, journalist, art critic, pamphleteer, novelist and playwright
• 17 February - Carolus-Duran, painter
• 23 February - Jean Gaston Darboux, mathematician
• 26 February - Joseph Jules Dejerine, neurologist
• 16 March — Friedrich Manschott, German World War I flying ace
• 6 April — Friedrich Karl of Prussia, Prince of Prussia
• 10 April - Louis Édouard Fournier, painter
• 10 May - Louis Théophile Joseph Landouzy, neurologist
• 25 May - René Dorme, World War I fighter ace
• 30 June - Antonio de La Gandara, painter and draughtsman

  July to December

• 8 September - Charles-Edouard Lefebvre, composer
• 20 September - Émile Boirac, philosopher
• 27 September - Edgar Degas, artist
• 3 November - Léon Bloy, novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet
• 5 November - Henri Amédée de Broglie, nobleman
• 15 November - Émile Durkheim, sociologist
• 17 November - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
• 20 December - Lucien Petit-Breton, cyclist, winner of 1907 and 1908 Tour de France

  Full date unknown

• François-Victor Équilbecq, author
• Adolphe Chenevière, novelist