Blaise Diagne becomes first black African elected to the French Chamber of Deputies
The Senegalese-French political leader was the first black Africa to hold a position in the French government.
France
The automobile is invented in France and Germany
Its thirty-five-horsepower engine weighed only fourteen pounds per horsepower, and it achieved a top speed of fifty-three miles per hour.
Vincent Van Gogh paints “The Starry Night”
Largely self-taught, van Gogh produced more than 2,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketches, which became in demand only after his death.
First ‘Impressionist’ art exhibition opens in Paris, featuring Monet, Degas, Renoir, and others
Impressionism is an art movement that took the French art world—and later the artistic spheres of other countries —by storm in the 19th century.
The Suez Canal official opens, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas
The Suez Canal primarily benefited the sea trading powers of the Mediterranean countries, which now had much faster connections to the Near and Far East.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck publishes Philosophie Zoologique, the first truly cohesive theory of biological evolution
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was a French naturalist and an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.
Nicolas Appert invents canning, revolutionizing food storage
In 1809, Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner and brewer, observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leaked, and developed a method of sealing food in glass jars.
France becomes world’s first country to adopt universal suffrage for all men
Universal suffrage (or franchise) ensures the right to vote for as many people who are bound by a government’s laws as possible, as supported by the “one person, one vote” principle.
Gersonides invents the Jacob's staff
In its most basic form, a Jacob’s staff is a stick or pole with length markings; most staffs are much more complicated than that, and usually contain a number of measurement and stabilization features.
Construction begins at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.