1759 in France

Events from the year 1759 in France. France is a major participant in the Seven Years' War and its North American theater, the French and Indian War.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – Louis XV

Events

 * 16 February – Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, ends the French Army's 2-month siege of the British Indian fort at Madras and retreats
 * 4 March–20 November – Étienne de Silhouette serves as Controller-General and attempts major financial reforms
 * 5 March – Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is proscribed by the Vatican and (on March 8) temporarily suppressed by the French government; the ban is lifted in September to allow publication of a revised version
 * 13 April – Battle of Bergen in Hesse: French victory
 * 4 July – Le Havre is bombarded by the British Royal Navy
 * 25 July – British forces in North America capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé
 * 26–27 July – Battle of Ticonderoga: At the southern end of Lake Champlain, French forces withdraw from Fort Carillon, which is taken by the British and renamed Fort Ticonderoga
 * 1 August – Battle of Minden: French are defeated but withdraw in order
 * 10 August – Bordeaux earthquake.
 * 18 August – Battle of Lagos: The French fleet under Commodore Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran is defeated off the Portuguese coast
 * 5 September & 28 October – Regulations issued for the production of printed cotton fabrics in the kingdom, permitting Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf to set up a manufactory in Jouy-en-Josas for the production of toile de Jouy
 * 10 September – Battle of Pondicherry: Naval battle off the coast of India between the French under Admiral d'Aché and the British; although the military outcome is indecisive, the French fleet is badly damaged and sails home, never to return to the subcontinent
 * 13 September – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British forces led by James Wolfe defeat the French commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm (although both commanders are fatally wounded), leading to the capitulation of Quebec City
 * 20 November – Battle of Quiberon Bay: The French fleet under Marshal de Conflans is defeated by the British under Edward Hawke off the coast of Brittany in the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet and a planned French invasion of Britain is abandoned
 * Halley's comet returns; a team of three mathematicians, Alexis Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute, have – for the first time – predicted the date
 * Madame du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics), and the government authorizes her to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial support

Arts and literature

 * 15 January – Voltaire's satire Candide is published simultaneously in five countries

Births

 * 29 January – Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc, botanist (died 1828)
 * 9 February – Jacques Desjardin, military officer (died 1807)
 * 22 February – Claude Lecourbe, military general (died 1815)
 * 21 May – Joseph Fouché, statesman (died 1820)
 * 19 July – Jacques Anselme Dorthès, physician, entomologist and naturalist (died 1794)
 * 27 July – Pierre Charles Baquoy, historical painter and engraver (died 1829)
 * 15 August – Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin, miniature painter (died 1832)
 * 26 October – Georges Danton, Revolutionary leader (executed 1794)
 * 16 December – Charles Guillaume Alexandre Bourgeois, physicist and painter (died 1832)

Deaths

 * 10 March – Antoine Magnol, physician and botanist (born 1676)
 * 28 April – Marie Louise Trichet, Catholic religious (born 1684)
 * 12 May – Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, sculptor (born 1700)
 * 3 June – Didier Diderot, craftsman (born 1685)
 * 27 June – Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, economist (born 1712)
 * 24 July – Antoine Gaubil, Jesuit missionary in China (born 1689)
 * 27 July – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, mathematician and philosopher (born 1698)
 * 14 September – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, military officer (born 1712)
 * 16 September – Nicolas Antoine Boulanger, philosopher (born 1722)
 * 18 October – Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, composer (born c.1670)
 * 6 December – Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, daughter of King Louis XV of France (born 1727)