The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.

Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris begins, which will result on January 28, 1871 in the surrender of Paris and a decisive Prussian victory.

Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.

The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.

Georges Bizet's opera ''Carmen'' receives its première at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

The feminist newspaper ''La Citoyenne'' is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.

The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.

The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

The first ever motorized racing event is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The race is won by Comte Jules-Albert de Dion.

In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop and crosses more than 30 metres of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse.

At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies.

Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, ''La Fronde'', in Paris.

An exhibition of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.

Igor Stravinsky's ballet score ''The Rite of Spring'' receives its premiere performance in Paris, provoking a riot.

Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, the international organizing body of competitive fencing is founded in Paris, France.

World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.

Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon is signed in Paris.

A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I.

Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic.

Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli disappeared after taking off aboard ''The White Bird'' biplane.

At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.

The premier performance of Ravel's ''Boléro'' takes place in Paris.

World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.

World War II: Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.

World War II: Operation Ariel begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.

World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.

The bikini is re-introduced in Paris, France (it was a Roman invention).

The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.

Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.

Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.

The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.

Charles De Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turning point of May 1968 in France.

Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.

Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion".