Events from the year 1746 in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
Incumbents
*
Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
–
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
Events
*May 9 –
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
, on being admitted into the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, gives a ''discours de réception'' in which he criticizes
Boileau's poetry
*June 16 –
Battle of Piacenza
The Battle of Piacenza was fought between a Franco-Spanish army and the Austrian army near Piacenza, in Northern Italy on June 16, 1746. It formed part of later operations in the War of the Austrian Succession. The result was a victory for the ...
: Austrian forces defeat the French and Spanish (
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...
)
*August 12 –
Battle of Rottofreddo
The Battle of Rottofreddo was fought on 10 August 1746 during the War of Austrian Succession between a French army and Austrian forces. The French were led by Marshal Maillebois, and could repel the Austrian attack, but had to withdraw after th ...
: French forces repel an Austrial attack before withdrawing (War of the Austrian Succession)
*October 11 –
Battle of Rocoux
The Battle of Rocoux took place on 11 October 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, at Rocourt (or Rocoux), near Liège in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, now modern Belgium. It was fought between a French army under Marshal Saxe an ...
: French forces defeat the allied Austrian, British, Hanoverian and Dutch (War of the Austrian Succession)
*
Jean-Étienne Guettard
Jean-Étienne Guettard (22 September 1715 – 7 January 1786), French naturalist and mineralogist, was born at Étampes, near Paris.
In boyhood, he gained a knowledge of plants from his grandfather, who was an apothecary, and later he qualif ...
presents the first
mineralogical
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...
map of France to the
Académie des sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
*
DMC (Dollfus-Mieg & Cie.) established as a textile spinning company in
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...
by Jean-Henri Dollfus
Births
*January –
Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis
Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité, Madame de Genlis (25 January 174631 December 1830) was a French writer of the late 18th and early 19th century, known for her novels and theories of children's education. She is now best remembered for her journal ...
, writer, harpist and educator (died 1830)
*March 7 –
André Michaux
André Michaux, also styled Andrew Michaud, (8 March 174611 October 1802) was a French botanist and explorer. He is most noted for his study of North American flora. In addition Michaux collected specimens in England, Spain, France, and even Per ...
, botanist (died 1802)
*March 30 –
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
, Spanish-born painter (died 1828)
*May 5 –
Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache (, 5 May 1746 – 18 November 1823) was a French politician, a Jacobin who served as Minister of War from October 1792 and Mayor of Paris from February 1793 to May 1794.
Biography
Pache was born in Verdun, but grew up in Par ...
, politician (died 1823)
*May 9 –
Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Durin ...
, mathematician and geometer (died 1818)
*July 30 –
Louise du Pierry, astronomer (died 1807)
*November 12 –
Jacques Charles
Jacques Alexandre César Charles (November 12, 1746 – April 7, 1823) was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist.
Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due to mistaking ...
, physician (died 1823)
*
Victor d'Hupay
Joseph Alexandre Victor d'Hupay (1746–1818) was a French writer and philosopher. He is known for being perhaps the first writer to use the term ''communism'' in its modern sense. He wished to transform the ideals of the Enlightenment philosopher ...
, philosopher and writer (died 1818)
Deaths
*February 22 –
Guillaume Coustou the Elder
Guillaume Coustou the Elder (29 November 1677, Lyon – 22 February 1746, Paris) was a French sculptor of the Baroque and Louis XIV style. He was a royal sculptor for Louis XIV and Louis XV and became Director of the Royal Academy of Painting ...
, sculptor and academician (born 1677)
*March 20 –
Nicolas de Largillière
Nicolas de Largillière (; 10 October 1656 – 20 March 1746) was a French portrait painter, born in Paris.
Biography
Early life
Largillière's father, a merchant, took him to Antwerp at the age of three. As a boy, he spent nearly two years in ...
, painter (born 1656)
*July 3 –
Joseph-François Lafitau, Jesuit missionary and naturalist (born 1681)
*August 11 –
Nicolas-Hubert de Mongault, ecclesiastic and writer (born 1674)
*
Jacques Bonne-Gigault de Bellefonds
Jacques Bonne-Gigault de Bellefonds (1698–1746) was a French prelate who was Archbishop of Arles from 1741 to 1746.
Biography
Jacques Bonne-Gigault de Bellefonds was born at the Château de Montifray, near Beaumont-la-Ronce, on 1 May 1698.
...
, archbishop (born 1698)
*
Michel Fourmont Michel Fourmont (1690–1746) was a French antiquarian and classical scholar, Catholic priest and traveller. A member of the Académie des Inscriptions, he was one of the scholars sent by Louis XV to the eastern Mediterranean to collect inscriptions ...
, antiquarian, scholar and forger (born 1690)
*
Joseph d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin Joseph d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin ( fl. 1720–1746) was a French and Acadian military officer serving in Acadia. He was also an Abenaki chief.
His father was Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin and Joseph's brother was Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadi ...
, military officer in Acadia (born c. 1690?)
See also
References
{{Year in Europe, 1746
1740s in France