1940 in France
List of events
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Other events of 1940
History of France • Timeline • Years |
Incumbents
- Chief of State : Albert Lebrun (until 11 July), Philippe Pétain (starting 11 July)
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Vice-president of the Council of Ministers
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- until 21 March: Édouard Daladier
- 21 March-16 June: Paul Reynaud
- 16 June-11 July: Philippe Pétain
- 11 July-13 December: Pierre Laval
- starting 13 December: Pierre-Étienne Flandin
Events
- 21 March – Édouard Daladier resigns as Prime Minister. French cabinet shuffles and Daladier is replaced by Paul Reynaud .
- 10 May – Battle of France begins. German forces invade Low Countries .
- 13 May – German armies open 60-mile wide breach in Maginot Line at Sedan .
- 18 May – Marshal Philippe Pétain named vice-premier of France.
- 19 May – General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.
- 20 May – German forces, under General Erwin Rommel , reach the English Channel .
- 26 May – Dunkirk evacuation of British Expeditionary Force starts.
- 3 June – Paris is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the first time.
- 4 June – Dunkirk evacuation ends – British forces complete evacuating 300,000 troops.
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10 June
- French government flees to Tours .
- Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
- 12 June – 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at St. Valery-en-Caux .
- 13 June – Paris is declared an open city .
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14 June
- Paris falls under German occupation and German troops march past the Arc de Triomphe , following exactly the same route that the victorious French troops coming home from the First World War, 22 years previously.
- French government flees to Bordeaux .
- 15 June – Verdun falls to German forces.
- 16 June – The Churchill war ministry in the United Kingdom offers a Franco-British Union (inspired by Jean Monnet ) to Paul Reynaud , Prime Minister of France , in the hope of preventing France from agreeing to an armistice with Germany , but Reynaud resigns when his own cabinet refuses to accept it.
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17 June
- Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France and immediately asks Germany for peace terms.
- Operation Aerial begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
- Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber sinks RMS Lancastria , serving as a British troopship evacuating troops and nationals from near Saint-Nazaire , with the loss of at least 4,000 lives, immediate news of which is suppressed in the British press.
- 18 June – Appeal of 18 June : General Charles de Gaulle , de facto leader of the Free French Forces , makes his first broadcast appeal over Radio Londres from London, rallying the French Resistance , calling on all French people to continue the fight against Nazi Germany : "France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war".
- 21 June – Armistice negotiations begin at Compiègne .
- 22 June – Armistice of 22 June 1940 : The French Third Republic and Nazi Germany sign an armistice ending the Battle of France , in the Forest of Compiègne , in the same Wagons-Lits railroad car used by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to conclude the Armistice of 11 November 1918 with Germany. This divides France into a Zone occupée in the north and west, under the Military Administration in France (Nazi Germany) , and a southern Zone libre , Vichy France .
- 23 June – Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris. [1]
- 24 June – Vichy France signs armistice terms with Italy.
- 28 June – General Charles de Gaulle is officially recognized by Britain as "Leader of all Free Frenchmen , wherever they may be."
- 3 July – Attack on Mers-el-Kébir : British naval units sink or seize ships of the French fleet anchored in the Algerian ports of Mers El Kébir and Oran to prevent them from falling into German hands.
- 4 July – Vichy France breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain.
- 10 July – Vichy France begins with a constitutional law where only 80 members of the parliament vote against.
- 12 September – Lascaux : 17,000-year-old cave paintings are discovered by a group of young Frenchmen hiking through Southern France. The paintings depict animals and date to the Stone Age .
Births
January to June
- 14 January – Georgie Dann , singer (died 2021)
- 30 January – Françoise Delord , ornithologist and zoo-owner (died 2021)
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6 March
- Philippe Amaury , publishing tycoon and entrepreneur (died 2006)
- Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe , philosopher , literary critic , and translator (died 2007)
- 18 March – Arlette Laguiller , Trotskyist politician
- 25 March – Jean Ichbiah , computer scientist (died 2007)
- 13 April – J. M. G. Le Clézio , writer and professor
- 27 May – Jean-Claude Piumi , soccer player (died 1996)
- 17 June – Marcel Aubour , international soccer player
July to December
- 23 July – Danielle Collobert , author, poet and journalist (died 1978)
- 28 August – Philippe Léotard , actor and singer (died 2001)
- 31 August – Jean-Pierre Teisseire , politician and professional football player
- 1 September – Annie Ernaux , née Duchesne, author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature [2]
- 24 September – Yves Navarre , writer (died 1994)
- 24 October – Jean-Pierre Genet , cyclist (died 2005)
- 30 December – Philippe Cousteau , oceanographer (died 1979)
Deaths
- 16 January – Émile-Félix Gautier , geographer (born 1864 )
- 2 February – Eugène Apert , pediatrician (born 1868)
- 14 March – Paul Lemoine , geologist (born 1878 )
- 24 March – Edouard Branly , inventor and physicist (born 1844)
- 13 April – Pierre Marie , neurologist (born 1853)
- 18 May – Adolphe Guillaumat , army general (born 1864 )
- 23 May – Paul Nizan , philosopher and writer (born 1905)
- 6 June – Maurice Arnoux , World War I flying ace (born 1895 )
- 2 August – Jules-Louis Breton , chemist, politician and inventor (born 1872 )
- 25 August – Prince Jean, Duke of Guise , great-grandson of Louis Philippe I , King of the French (born 1874)
- 4 September – Émile Régnier , World War I flying ace (born 1896 )
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27 November
- Jean Chiappe , civil servant (born 1878 )
- Henri Guillaumet , aviator (born 1902 )
See also
References
- ↑ "Hitler in Paris" . Archived from the original on 5 October 2008 . Retrieved 2 April 2008 .
- ↑ "French author Annie Ernaux wins 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature" . Onmanorama . 6 October 2022 . Retrieved 6 October 2022 .
Further reading
- Bloch, Leon Bryce and Lamar Middleton, ed. The World Over in 1940 (1941) detailed coverage of world events online free ; 914pp
1940 in Europe
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