Some are allergic to it, others like it.
Every year, illustrious personalities or historical events are remembered through official commemorations, exhibitions and television broadcasts.
Molière, for example, will he be celebrated as much in 2023 for the 350th anniversary of his death as last year, for the 400th anniversary of his birth?
Controversial personalities
This year, the range is wide, from the millennium of the Romanesque abbey of Mont Saint-Michel to the 50th anniversary of the publication of
L'Archipel du goulag
, passing through the 400th anniversary of Blaise Pascal or the centenary of the death of Gustave Eiffel.
In France, there is an official calendar offered by the Institut de France and its dedicated service, France Mémoire, directed by the historian Yves Bruley.
Each date is or will be accompanied on the website by a historical file with articles, images or podcasts.
But many other events can be commemorated at everyone's convenience.
Because “
to commemorate is not to celebrate
”, recalls in its press release France Mémoire, which has chosen to highlight the 100th anniversary of the death of Maurice Barrès, journalist and nationalist and anti-Semitic novelist.
The year 2023 will also mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Napoleon III, a controversial personality, to whom we owe economic and social progress but who "
remains the man of the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851
".
Read alsoNapoleon III, by Thierry Lentz: the unloved emperor
But this year 1873 also gave birth to many personalities whose 150th anniversary we will celebrate: among others, the artist and women of letters Colette, a journalist in her spare time for
Le Figaro
, the pioneer of cinema too long ignored, Alice Guy, the writer Charles Péguy, Sainte Thérèse of Lisieux, or Jules Rimet, the initiator of the Football World Cup.
The Picasso year
In addition to the deaths of Sarah Bernhardt and Gustave Eiffel, this year will also be marked by the centenary of the mime Marceau, Maria Callas, Jorge Semprún, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne or the first edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The year 2023 will also be that of Pablo Picasso, whose 50th anniversary of death will give rise to a "
rich program
" in France and Spain, according to the Ministry of Culture.
It will also be the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Ariane program.
But let's not forget that abroad, 1973 was the year of the coup in Chile, of the death of Salvator Allende, of that of Pablo Neruda.
Ten years earlier, in 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated, Edith Piaf died as well as Jean Cocteau.
Finally, closer to us, 40 years ago, Louis de Funès, Hergé, Luis Buñuel, Tino Rossi, Rudolf Nureyev disappeared.
In 1993, Federico Fellini, Léo Ferré.
The same year, former Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy committed suicide while a hostage-taking in a nursery school in Neuilly put a future President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, to the test.
Personalities, events, some of which you can rediscover throughout the year through our archives.
In the meantime,
Le Figaro invites
you to test your knowledge by answering this quiz.
