* 1871 – Prince Alexander John of Wales ( d. 1871 )

* 1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and dictator ( d. 1941 )

* 1871 – The Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.

* 1871 – Theodore Dreiser, American author ( d. 1945 )

* 1871 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer ( d. 1919 )

* 1871 – John French Sloan, American artist ( d. 1951 )

* 1871 – The first stage of the Brill Tramway opened.

* 1925 – Lars Jørgen Madsen, Danish rifle shooter ( b. 1871 )

* 1871 – John Lester, American cricketer ( d. 1969 )

* 1871 – John Millington Synge, Irish writer ( d. 1909 )

* 1871 – Guangxu Emperor of China ( d. 1908 )

* 1871 – Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer ( d. 1948 )

* 1789 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentine military ( d. 1871 )

* 1871 – Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration.

* 1871 – Albert Lebrun, French politician ( d. 1950 )

* 1871 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1937 )

* 1941 – Guillermo Kahlo, German-Mexican photographer, father of Frida Kahlo ( b. 1871 )

Armoured trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ), the Franco-Prussian War ( 1870 – 1871 ), the First and Second Boer Wars ( 1880 – 81 and 1899 – 1902 ), the First ( 1914 – 1918 ) and Second World Wars ( 1939 – 1945 ) and the First Indochina War ( 1946 – 1954 ).

As life in Paris returned to normal, in June 1871 Bizet's appointment as chorus-master at The Opéra was seemingly confirmed by its director, Émile Perrin.

The Fortune of the Rougons ( French: La Fortune des Rougon ), originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart.

La Curée ( 1871 – 72 ; English: The Kill ) is the second novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart.

Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel () ( 7 January 1871 – 3 February 1956 ) was a French mathematician and politician.

* Émile Borel ( 1871 – 1956 ), French mathematician

During the next twenty-two years he created at the Comédie Française the leading parts in forty-four new plays, including Théodore de Banville's Gringoire ( 1867 ), Paul Ferrier's Tabarin ( 1871 ), Émile Augier's Paul Forestier ( 1871 ), L ' Étrangère ( 1876 ) by the younger Dumas, Charles Lomon's Jean Dacier ( 1877 ), Edward Pailleron's Le Monde où l ' on s ' ennuie ( 1881 ), Erckmann and Chatrian's Les Rantzau ( 1884 ).

Émile de Saint-Amand Deschamps ( pronounced ) ( 1791 – 1871 ) was a French poet.

* Émile Deschamps ( 1795 – 1871 ), French poet

* February 3-Émile Borel ( born 1871 ), mathematician.

Famous victory marches around or under the Arc have included the Germans in 1871, the French in 1919, the Germans in 1940, and the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945.

* 1935 – Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel laureate ( b. 1871 )

During the Siege of Paris in 1871, the North German Confederation, supported by its allies from southern Germany, formed the German Empire with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, to the humiliation of the French, who ceased to resist only days later.

* 1957 – Maurice Garin, French cyclist ( b. 1871 )

The French Republican Calendar () or French Revolutionary Calendar ( calendrier révolutionnaire français ) was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871.

* 1871 – Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.

* 1871 – Marcel Proust, French writer ( d. 1922 )

* 1871 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, French Canadian writer ( b. 1786 )

* 1795 – Anselme Payen, French chemist ( d. 1871 )

The collection was part of the Department of Antiquities but was given autonomy in 1871 under Louis Courajod, a director who organized a wider representation of French works.

* 1871 – Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1935 )

The second French school was Symbolism, which literary historians see beginning with the poet Charles Baudelaire ( 1861 – 67 ) ( Les fleurs du mal, 1857 ), and including the later poets, Arthur Rimbaud ( 1854 – 91 ), Paul Verlaine ( 1844 – 96 ), Stéphane Mallarmé ( 1842 – 98 ), and Paul Valéry ( 1871 – 1945 ).

* 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting.

* 1871 – Louis Perrée, French fencer ( d. 1924 )

* 1871 – Frantz Reichel, French athlete and rugby player ( d. 1932 )

* 1871 – Declaration of the Paris Commune ; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.

* The French Revolutionary Calendar, in force in France from 1793 to 1805 and briefly under the Paris Commune in 1871, began the calendar year on the day of the Southward equinox-September 22, 23 or 24.

In addition, French mobilization for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 1871 made it necessary for Napoleon III to withdraw his troops from Rome and The Papal States.