c. 15th millennium BCE★★★★★
Lascaux cave paintings
Upper Palaeolithic people paint hundreds of animal figures on the walls of the Lascaux cave in south-western France, among the best-known works of prehistoric art.
ArtCulture· France
Timeline
6 events150th century BCE
19th century
- 1839★★★★★
The daguerreotype is announced
Louis Daguerre's photographic process is made public in France, the first commercially successful form of photography.
TechnologyArt· France - July 29, 1890★★★★★
Death of Vincent van Gogh
The Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh dies at Auvers-sur-Oise, France, little recognised in his lifetime.
DeathArt· France, Netherlands - December 28, 1895★★★★★
Lumière brothers' first public film screening
The Lumière brothers hold a paid public film screening at the Grand Café in Paris, often regarded as the birth of cinema.
CultureTechnologyArt· France
20th century
- May 29, 1913★★★★★
Premiere of The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris amid uproar in the audience, becoming a landmark of modernist music.
Art· France - 1937★★★★★
Picasso paints Guernica
Pablo Picasso completes Guernica in response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War; it becomes an enduring anti-war icon.
Art· France, Spain