French History

Fifteen years after American test pilot Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier, a new front opened in the Cold War. With the Americans and Soviets still engaged in an all-out sprint to win the Space Race, both sides of the Iron Curtain launched a battle for supersonic ...read more

1. Few monarchs have ruled for longer. Born in 1638, Louis XIV became king at age 4 following the death of his father, Louis XIII, and remained on the throne for the next 72 years. This marks him as both the longest-reigning French monarch in history and the longest-reigning ...read more

1. Fact: The key meeting to plan the French Revolution took place on a tennis court. This one’s all true. In May 1789, amid widespread discontent and financial crisis, representatives of France’s nobility, clergy and commoners met at the Palace of Versailles. Tired of being ...read more

During the reign of King Louis XIV, an enigmatic man spent several decades confined to the Bastille and other French prisons. No one knew his identity or why he was in jail. Even stranger, no one knew what he looked like—the prisoner was never seen without a black velvet mask ...read more

It might sound like something out of “Sesame Street” but the XYZ Affair was, in fact, a diplomatic incident between France and America in the late 18th century that led to an undeclared war at sea. In 1793, France went to war with Great Britain while America remained neutral. ...read more

A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the ...read more

Despite inheriting tremendous debts from his predecessor, Louis XVI continued spending extravagantly, including by helping the American colonies win their independence from Great Britain. By the late-1780s, France’s government stood on the brink of economic disaster. To make ...read more

1. The Star-Spangled Banner The story behind America’s anthem dates back to the War of 1812’s Battle of Baltimore. In September 1814, American attorney Francis Scott Key sailed out to the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay to negotiate the release of an imprisoned friend. ...read more

1. The Eiffel Tower was once yellow In fashionable Paris, even the Eiffel Tower must keep up with style trends. Over the decades, the “Iron Lady” has changed her looks with the application of a spectrum of paint colors. When it opened in 1889, the Eiffel Tower sported a ...read more

1. Marie Antoinette was born an Austrian princess. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1755, Archduchess Marie Antoinette was the 15th child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and the powerful Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa. 2. She was only 14 years old when she married the future Louis ...read more

1. The museum started out as a fortress. The Louvre began life in the late 12th century when Philip II (or Philip Augustus), the first person to be officially known as the King of France and one of medieval Europe’s most successful rulers, began construction on a defensive ...read more

When Gustave Eiffel’s company built Paris’ most recognizable monument for the 1889 World’s Fair, many regarded the massive iron structure with skepticism. Today, the Eiffel Tower, which continues to serve an important role in television and radio broadcasts, is considered an ...read more

With Paris fallen and the German conquest of France reaching its conclusion, Marshal Henri Petain replaces Paul Reynaud as prime minister and announces his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis. The next day, French General Charles de Gaulle, not very well known even to ...read more

After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up ...read more