1940 in France
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Events from the year 1940 in France.
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.
- 10 June - Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
- 10 June - French government flees to Tours.
- 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.
- 14 June - French government flees to Bordeaux.
- 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.
- 15 June - Verdun falls to German forces.
- 17 June - Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France and immediately asks Germany for peace terms.
- 15 June - Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
- 17 June - Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber sinks British ship RMS Lancastria, that was evacuating troops from near Saint-Nazaire, France. Death toll is over 2500. Wartime censorship prevents the story going public.
- 18 June - General Charles de Gaulle broadcasts from London, 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 - Vichy France and Germany sign armistice at Compiègne in the same wagon-lit railroad car used by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to accept the surrender of Germany in 1918.
- 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 - British naval units sink or seize ships of the French fleet anchored in the Algerian ports of Oran and Mers El Kébir.
- 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 voted 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.
Sport
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Births
January to June
- 6 March - Philippe Amaury, publishing tycoon and entrepreneur (died 2006)
- 6 March - Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, philosopher, literary critic, and translator (died 2007)
- 18 March - Arlette Laguiller, Trotskyist politician
- 25 March - Jean Ichbiah, computer scientist (died 2007)
- 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)
- 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 - Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise, great-grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French (born 1874)
- 4 September - Émile Régnier, World War I flying ace (born 1896)
- 27 November - Henri Guillaumet, aviator (born 1902)
