October 2024: Catch up with French history: 10, 50 and 100 years ago
From riots sparked by a death of a young eco-protester over a dam, Harkis hunger strike in Paris, to 'castaway' Alain Bombard's birth
Demonstration took place against the police force following the death of the young ecologist Remi Fraisse
Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo
October 2014
Killing of Rémi Fraisse
On October 26, 2014, Rémi Fraisse, a 21 year-old botanist, was killed by a stun grenade fired by police while he was protesting against the construction of a dam in Tarn.
His death, the first at a protest on mainland France since 1986, sparked protests across France and ultimately led to the cancellation of the project in 2015.
“It was impossible in the light of the tragedy to continue any work at the site of the Sivens dam project, said Thierry Carcenac, head of the region’s executive council.
“What happened was terrible and should never happen again,” he added.
Opponents of the dam had argued it would destroy a reservoir of biodiversity and only benefit a small number of farmers.
October 1974
Harkis hunger strike in Paris
A hunger strike in the crypt of the Madeleine in Paris in October 1974 shone a spotlight on the plight of thousands of Algerians held in internment camps in France after the war of independence.
Some 42,000 Harkis – the name given to Algerians who fought alongside French troops during the conflict – and around the same number of relatives fled to France for their lives when the war ended, regarded as traitors by their countrymen.
Despite promises to look after them, the French government initially refused to recognise their right to stay and held them in squalid camps, leading to the deaths of dozens of children between 1962 and 1975.
A New York Times article dated October 27 said: “Up to now, the Government has been indifferent. But their hunger strikes dating from early September, in the heart of Paris and other French cities, are making even President Valery Giscard d'Estaing take some kind of notice.”
It was not until 2016 that the government formally recognised the state’s role in abandoning the Harkis. In 2021, President Emmanuel Macron asked for "forgiveness" and announced a bill for recognition and compensation.
Read more: August 2024: Catch up with French history: 10, 50 and 100 years ago
October 1924
Voluntary castaway Alain Bombard born
Alain Bombard, born on October 27, 1924 in Paris, is best known for sailing an inflatable dinghy across the Atlantic without any provisions.
The madcap scheme was motivated by science – a biologist and physician, Bombard wanted to prove the human body could withstand such deprivation and, in the process, help other people stranded at sea.
He set off on October 19, 1952 from Las Palmas, heading for Barbados. Having taken only a sextant with him, navigational errors meant the journey was longer than anticipated and he only reached his destination on December 23.
He lost 25kg of body weight along the way, surviving on small quantities of seawater mixed with the liquid squeezed from fish he managed to catch. He also harvested plankton and drank rainwater.
Afterwards, he published a book about the trip entitled Naufragé Volontaire (Voluntary Castaway).
Bombard died in 2005 aged 80, having survived a rubber dinghy accident in 1958 in which nine others died. An inflatable survival raft is still often called a "bombard" in French, in his memory.
