Charles Pathé develops film facilities capable of mass production, in Vincennes near Paris

The sculptor Aristide Maillol has his first one-man exhibition, at the Galerie Vollard in Paris

Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande has its premiere in Paris

French film pioneer Georges Méliès uses trick effects for his film Journey to the Moon

William K. Vanderbilt drives the first internal-combustion car to win the land speed record, at 76 mph at Ablis in France

Gertrude Stein leaves the USA to share with her brother an apartment in Paris that soon becomes a literary and artistic salon

Maurice Ravel sets to music romantic oriental poems by Tristan Klingsor in his song-cycle Shéhérazade

The annual Prix Goncourt is established in France, in accordance with the will of Edmond de Goncourt

France and Britain sign an Entente Cordiale, resolving several colonial disputes and laying the foundation for a new alliance

Gwen John makes her home in Paris, where she becomes Rodin's model and mistress

Kaiser Wilhelm II visits Tangier in support of Moroccan independence, causing a diplomatic crisis with the colonial powers France and Britain

Henri Matisse completes his painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté

French psychologists Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon develop a scale by which to measure the 'mental age' of children

Pablo Picasso's palette becomes warmer as Blue evolves into Rose

Henri Matisse, in the south of France, paints The Open Window, Collioure, the first of his many works on this theme

The first German submarine, or U-boat, is constructed in a programme to catch up with Britain and France in this area

Aristide Maillol has his first major success with a large sculpture at the Salon d'Automne in Paris

Claude Debussy completes the three symphonic sketches forming La Mer

Matisse, Derain and others, exhibiting in Paris their shockingly colourful new works, are dubbed fauves ("wild beasts") by a critic

More than 1200 French miners die in an underground explosion in the district of Calais

An international conference at Algeciras effectively gives France informal control of Morocco

Charles Pathé opens the first purpose-built luxury cinema, the Omnia-Pathé, in Paris

The first Grand Prix of motor-racing is held near Le Mans over a 64-mile course

Pablo Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein prefigures cubism in its mask-like treatment of her face

Alfred Dreyfus is reinstated in the army after the French supreme court overturns his conviction for treason