1851 in France

Events from the year 1851 in France.

Events

 * 1 July - Serial poisoner Hélène Jégado is arrested in Rennes.
 * 17 July - Victor Hugo uses the phrase United States of Europe in a speech to the National Assembly.
 * 2 December - French coup d'état of 1851 is staged by President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, dissolving the National Assembly.
 * 6 December - Trial of Hélène Jégado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed by guillotine.
 * 21 December - Constitutional referendum held, approving President Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been limited to a single four-year term, serving for ten additional years.
 * Messageries Maritimes merchant shipping company founded as Messageries nationales, initially for service to the Middle East.
 * Grands Goulets road completed
 * The Charles Heidsieck champagne house is established.

Births

 * 27 March - Vincent d'Indy, composer (died 1931)
 * 6 April - Guillaume Bigourdan, astronomer (died 1932)
 * 15 April - Anne Boutiaut Poulard, cook (died 1931)
 * 21 April - Charles Barrois, geologist and palaeontologist (died 1939)
 * 6 May - Aristide Bruant, singer, comedian and nightclub owner (died 1925)
 * 21 May - Léon Bourgeois, politician, Prime Minister, awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1920 (died 1925)
 * 29 June - Jane Dieulafoy, born Jeanne Magre, archaeologist and novelist (died 1916)
 * 30 September - Auguste Molinier, historian (died 1904)
 * 2 October - Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, military theorist and writer (died 1929)

Deaths

 * 28 February - Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie, Marshal of France, (born 1775)
 * 19 October - Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France, eldest child of King Louis XVI of France (born 1778)
 * 26 November - Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Marshal General of France and three times Prime Minister of France (born 1769)