The history of the hour record is replete with exploits by some of the greatest names in cycling from both road and track racing ( including, among others, Major Taylor, Henri Desgrange, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Francesco Moser, Miguel Indurain and Tony Rominger ).

The 1901 Paris-Brest was sponsored not only by Le Petit Journal but L ' Auto-Velo, edited by Henri Desgrange.

The Pyrenees were included in the Tour de France at the insistence of Alphonse Steinès, a colleague of the organiser, Henri Desgrange.

At the south portal of the tunnel, at the edge of the road, there is a monument to Henri Desgrange, instigator and first director of the Tour de France.

The " Souvenir Henri Desgrange " is awarded to the first rider across the summit of the highest mountain in each year's tour.

The editor was a prominent racing cyclist, Henri Desgrange, who had published a book of cycling tactics and training and was working as a publicity writer for Clément.

Henri Desgrange on a bicycle

Henri Desgrange, then columnist of Le Vélo and director of L ' Auto from 16 October 1900, was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes.

The track, managed by Henri Desgrange, who in 1903 founded the Tour de France, was 666 metres round, egg-shaped and almost without banking.

Jacques Goddet, who had taken ownership of the track on the death of Henri Desgrange, fought the demolition order.

After the Dreyfus affair separated advertisers from the newspaper, a new newspaper was founded in 1900, with former cyclist Henri Desgrange as editor.

At Coutances he heard that the previous year's winner, Henri Pélissier, his brother Francis and a third rider, Maurice Ville, had resigned from the competition after an argument with the organiser, Henri Desgrange.

The acceptance of drug-taking in the Tour de France was so complete by 1930, when the race changed to national teams that were to be paid for by the organisers, that the rule book distributed to riders by the organiser, Henri Desgrange, reminded them that drugs were not among items with which they would be provided.

Henri Desgrange, the organiser and chief judge, wanted to disqualify him for breaking the rules.

His ears stuck out so far that the Tour organiser, Henri Desgrange referred to him as " butterfly ".

The organiser, Henri Desgrange, promoted his unknown competitors to readers of L ' Auto, the newspaper he edited, by giving them nicknames.

Henri Desgrange on a bicycle

Henri Desgrange was one of two brothers, twins.

Henri Desgrange

Henri Desgrange ( 2nd from right ) TdF 1913

Before he dropped out, he warned the organiser, Henri Desgrange, who said: " You are the first rider to come to see me before dropping out.

The route started near the Versailles château and ran round a triangle through Rambouillet, Maulette, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse, Versailles and Boulogne to finish on the Vélodrome Buffalo where the founder of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, had become the world's first hour record holder in 1893.

Tour organizer Henri Desgrange then stopped the race, and organized a sprint tournament, with semifinals and finals, which was won by Octave Lapize.

Fayed's son, Dodi, from his first marriage to Samira Khashoggi, died in a car crash in the Pont de l ' Alma tunnel in Paris along with Diana, Princess of Wales and driver Henri Paul on 31 August 1997.

* December 31 – Henri Matisse, French painter ( d. 1954 )

Bernadotte was born in Pau, France, as the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte ( Pau, Béarn, 14 October 1711 – Pau, 31 March 1780 ), procurator at Pau, and wife ( married at Boëil-Bezing, 20 February 1754 ) Jeanne de Saint-Vincent ( Pau, 1 April 1728 – Pau, 8 January 1809 ).

When it became clear that Henri of Navarre would not rennounce his Protestantism the Duke of Guise signed the Treaty of Joinville ( December 31, 1584 ), on behalf of the League, with Philip II of Spain, who supplied a considerable annual grant to the League over the following decade to maintain the civil war in France, with the hope of destroying the French Calvinists.

He was best known internationally as the boyfriend of Diana, Princess of Wales, with whom he died in a car crash in the Pont de l ' Alma tunnel in Paris along with driver Henri Paul on 31 August 1997.

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco ( Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, Count of Polignac ; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005 ), styled His Serene Highness The Sovereign Prince of Monaco, ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20th century.

Paul Henri Charles Spaak ( 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972 ) was a Belgian Socialist politician and statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium ( 1938 – 1939, 1946 and 1947 – 1949 ), as the first President of the United Nations General Assembly ( 1946 – 1957 ), as the first President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community ( 1952 – 1954 ), and as the second Secretary General of NATO ( 1957 – 1961 ).

Eugène Henri Brisson (; 31 July 183514 April 1912 ) was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France for a period in 1885-1886 and again in 1898.

On 31 October of that same year, Henri married Micaëla Anna María Cousiño y Quiñones de León ( born on 30 April 1938 ), daughter of Luis Cousiño y Sebire and his wife Doña Antonia Maria Quiñones de Léon y Bañuelos, 4th Marchioness of San Carlos.

* Alphonse Henri, comte d ' Hautpoul ( 1789 – 1865 ), a Prime Minister of France from 31 October 1849 to 10 April 1851 during the French Second Republic

He was badly injured in the car accident in Paris that killed Diana, Dodi, and the driver Henri Paul on 31 August 1997.

Henri Paul ( 3 July 1956 – 31 August 1997 ) was the Deputy Head of Security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris.

* August 31 – Henri Bourassa, politician and publisher ( b. 1868 )

Henri Marteau pictured by Nadar ( artist ) | NadarHenri Marteau ( March 31, 1874 – October 3, 1934 ) was a French violinist and composer.

Henri Queuille (; 31 March 1884 in Neuvic, Corrèze – 15 June 1970, Paris ) was a French Radical politician prominent in the Third and Fourth Republics.

Henry II ( French: Henri II ; 8 November 1563 – 31 July 1624 ), known as " the Good ( le Bon )", was Duke of Lorraine from 1608 until his death.

Henry II of Jerusalem and Henry II of Cyprus, born Henri de Lusignan ( June 1270 – 31 March 1324 ) was the last ruling and first titular King of Jerusalem ( after the fall of Acre on 28 May 1291, this title became titular ) and also ruled as King of Cyprus as Henry II.

# Henri of Lorraine ( 31 July 1570, Nancy – 26 October 1600, Vienna ), Marquis of Mouy and Count of Chaligny, married on 19 September 1585 Claude de Mouy.