1881 in France

• President: Jules Grévy • President of the Council of Ministers: Jules Ferry (until 14 November), Charles de Freycinet (starting 14 November) ==Events==

• 13 February – First issue of the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is published by Hubertine Auclert. • 23 March – A fire caused by a gas explosion destroys the Opéra de Nice with fatalities. • April – Sixth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, at Nadar's studio. • 12 May – Treaty of Bardo is signed between the French Republic and Tunisian bey Muhammed as-Sadiq. Tunisia becomes a French protectorate. • 29 July – Law on the Freedom of the Press is passed. • 15 August–15 November – International Exposition of Electricity staged in Paris. Among new developments demonstrated is Clément Ader's stereophonic théâtrophone. • 13 October – Determined to bring about the revival of the Hebrew language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda has what is believed to be the first conversation in Modern Hebrew, with friends living in Paris. ==Literature==

• Gustave Flaubert - Bouvard et Pécuchet • Anatole France - Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard • Joris-Karl Huysmans - En ménage • Jules Verne - La Jangada ==Births==

• 11 January – Lucien Rosengart, engineer (died 1976) • 21 January – André Godard, archeologist and architect (died 1965) • 19 February – Paul Tournon, architect (died 1964) • 20 February – Julien Maitron, cyclist (died 1972) • 21 February – Marc Boegner, theologist, pastor, French Resistance member and essayist (died 1970) • 18 March – Paul Le Flem, composer and musician (died 1984) • 23 March – Roger Martin du Gard, author, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature (died 1958) • 12 April – Élisée Maclet, painter (died 1962) • 1 May - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, paleontologist, Jesuit priest (died 1955) • 21 June – Camille Drevet, anti-colonialist, feminist and pacifist activist (died 1969) • 27 June – Jérôme Carcopino, historian and author (died 1970) • 29 July – Paul Couturier, priest and promoter of the concept of Christian unity (died 1953) • 7 August – François Darlan, Admiral (died 1942) • 10 October – Gaston Ragueneau, athlete and Olympic medallist (died 1978) • 4 November – Gaby Deslys, dancer and actress (died 1920) • 8 November – Robert Esnault-Pelterie, pioneering aircraft designer (died 1957) • 5 December – René Cresté, actor and director (died 1922) • 12 December - Louise Thuliez, resistance fighter in World War I and World War II (died 1966) ==Deaths==

• 19 January – Auguste Mariette, scholar and archaeologist (born 1821) • 13 February – Alexis Paulin Paris, scholar and author (born 1800) • 17 February – Emile-Justin Menier, pharmaceutical manufacturer, chocolatier, and politician (born 1826). • 1 March – Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys, statesman and diplomat (born 1805) • 24 March – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, geologist and mineralogist (born 1817) • 26 March – Jules Achille Noël, painter (born 1815) • 4 April – Napoléon Peyrat, author and historian (born 1809) • 27 April – Émile de Girardin, journalist, publicist and politician (born 1802) • 2 June • Émile Littré, lexicographer and philosopher (born 1801) • Pierre Louis Rouillard, sculptor (born 1820) • 28 June – Jules Armand Dufaure, statesman (born 1798) • 9 July – Paul Bins, comte de Saint-Victor, author (born 1827) • 21 December – Édouard Dulaurier, Orientalist and Egyptologist (born 1807) ==References==