* 1861 – Stanislas de Guaita, French occultist ( d. 1897 )

* 1897 – Franco-Hova Wars: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.

In 1897, the shoal became a French possession, later being placed under the administration of a commissioner residing in Réunion in 1968.

On November 24, 1897, French naval authorities found three Americans on Clipperton working for the American Guano Company, who had raised the American flag on the island.

Following the decisive Ethiopian victory at Adwa, Menelik II rapidly negotiated a series of treaties fixing Ethiopia's boundaries — with French Somaliland in March 1897, British Somaliland a few months later in June 1897, with Italian Eritrea in 1900, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1902, British East Africa in 1907, and Italian Somaliland in 1908 — which simplified this problem on one level.

* 1897 – Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.

* 1824 – Blondin, French tightrope walker ( d. 1897 )

* 1897 – Charles Kuentz, German-born French WW1 veteran and centenarian ( d. 2005 )

In 1886, a group of French and British language teachers, led by the French linguist Paul Passy, formed what would come to be known from 1897 onwards as the International Phonetic Association ( in French, l ’ Association phonétique internationale ).

* 1873 – Thérèse of Lisieux, French Roman Catholic nun ( d. 1897 )

* 1897 – Marcel Petiot, French mass murderer ( d. 1946 )

* 1840 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist ( d. 1897 )

* 1897 – Louis de Cazenave, French supercentenarian ( d. 2008 )

* 1897 – Georges Bataille, French philosopher and writer ( d. 1962 )

* 1897 – Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1956 )

** Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ( b. 1897 )

* July 8 – Georges Bataille, French writer ( b. 1897 )

* December 24 – Louis Aragon, French writer ( b. 1897 )

* April 22 – Charles Denis Bourbaki, French general ( d. 1897 )

In 1897, the Commission de décimalisation du temps was created by the French Bureau of Longitude, with the mathematician Henri Poincaré as secretary.

* Alphonse Daudet ( 1840 – 1897 ) was the best-known French writer from Provence in the 19th century, though he lived mostly in Paris and Champrosay.

* Pierre Deval ( 1897 – 1993 ), a French modernist and figurist painter, lived and worked at the Domaine d ' Orvès in La Valette-du-Var from 1925 until his death in 1993.

* 1897 – Louise Bogan, American poet ( d. 1970 )

* 1992 – Ruth Pitter, English poet ( b. 1897 )

* 1897 – Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet ( d. 1931 )

* 1897 – Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet ( d. 1977 )

* 1820 – Jean Ingelow, English poet ( d. 1897 )

* 1931 – Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet ( b. 1897 )

The Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi is generally believed to have been killed in the battle, and a monument was constructed in his honor at Albeşti in 1897.

" In 1851 the last sentence was struck after the Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland had campaigned for the rights of the Jews, and in 1897 also the next but last sentence.

* W. Herbert Brewster ( 1897 – 1987 ) was an influential African American Baptist minister, composer, dramatist, singer, poet and community leader.

* Francis Turner Palgrave ( 1824 – 1897 ), British critic and poet

* Thomas Edward Brown ( 1830 – 1897 ), Manx poet, scholar, and divine

Notable Vassar alumni include first black graduate Anita Florence Hemmings ( 1897 ), poet Edna St. Vincent Millay ( 1917 ), computer pioneer Grace Hopper ( 1928 ), poet Elizabeth Bishop ( 1934 ), physician Beatrix Hamburg ( 1944 ), politician and activist Frances Farenthold, psychiatrist Bernadine P. Healy ( 1965 ), actress Meryl Streep ( 1971 ), CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid ( 1977 ), television personality Andrew Zimmern ( 1984 ), actress Lisa Kudrow ( 1985 ), actress Hope Davis ( 1986 ), musician Mark Ronson, journalist Evan Wright ( 1988 ), writer-director Noah Baumbach ( 1991 ), Flickr founder Caterina Fake ( 1991 ), What Not to Wear host Stacy London ( 1991 ), Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn ( 1996 ), actress Lecy Goranson.

Francis Turner Palgrave ( 28 September 1824 – 24 October 1897 ) was a British critic and poet.

French poet Edmond Rostand wrote the play Cyrano de Bergerac in 1897.

From May to June 1973, he appeared on Broadway as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano, a musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac by Anthony Burgess ( libretto and lyrics ) and Michael J. Lewis ( music ).

Emma Thomas " Ruth " Pitter, CBE, FRSL ( 7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992 ) was a 20th century British poet.

Xu Zhimo (, January 15, 1897 – November 19, 1931 ) was an early 20th century Chinese poet.

Joseph Auslander ( 11 October 1897, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 22 June 1965, Coral Gables, Florida ) was an American poet, anthologist, translator of poems, and novelist.

Jean Ingelow ( 17 March 1820 – 20 July 1897 ), was an English poet and novelist.

Kornel Ujejski ( September 12, 1823 in Beremiany, Podole-September 19, 1897 in Pavliv near Lviv ), also known as Cornelius Ujejski, was a Polish poet, patriot and political writer.

This poem arrested the attention of watchful critics of poetry, and when it was followed by a collection of Poems in 1897 the writer's position as a new poet of exceptional gifts was generally recognized.

* Hasan Âli Yücel ( 1897, İstanbul – 1961 ) poet, thinker and politician, former minister of education, born to a Görele family.

Iris Tree ( 27 January 1897 – 13 April 1968 ) was an English poet, actress and artists ' model, described as a bohemian, an eccentric, a wit and an adventuress.