Tour de France
Geo Lefevre surveys the 1st Tour de France route and on 19 January 1903, just four days after losing the plagiarism suit to Giffard, Desgrange announced the race on the pages of the newly-christened L'Auto.
Permanent historical records · Updated 2026-11-03
1903 in France
Explore 23 historical events and records for France in 1903.
Historical records for France in 1903
Sorted by month and day. Records with no month are shown last. Showing 23 of 23 unique records.
23Unique records
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2Places on this page
January
Tour de France
The Tour de France is announced for the 1st time.
Tour de France
The race was advertised as "the greatest cycling trial in the entire world.."
Tour de France
The route would last more than a month and run from Paris through Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes before returning to Paris.
Tour de France
A race more than a month long: Paris to Lyon to Marseille to Toulouse to Bordeaux to Nantes to Paris"
Tour de France
Desgrange announced the race on the pages of the newly-christened lAuto. The race would be "the greatest cycling trial in the entire world.
Tour de France
Desgrange moved the race to July 1 to July 19, promised a five france per day living allowance to the first fifty riders and upped the prize money to 20,000 francs. 60 riders rose to the challenge.
Tour de France
Desgrange scheduled five weeks for this epic from May 31 to 5 July, specified "equal terms" (no pacers), an entry fee of twenty francs.
Tour de France
The conditions were deemed too hard, such that with a week to go, only fifteen had signed up for the event.
July
Tour de France
When Garin rode into Paris as winner, in front of a crowd of 20,000 paying spectators, Desgrange rushed out a special edition of lAuto, whose sales had rocketed to 130,000. The first running had been a resounding success
Tour de France
Promotion of the Tour de France proved a great success for the LAuto newspaper. Circulation leapt from 25,000 before the Tour to 65,000 after it. Follows the race as best he could, sometimes riding in the bunch on his bicycle, then catching a train to go ahead to see to the next checkpoint - a one-man, roving commissaire, organiser and reporter
December
Nobel Prize
Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering spontaneous radioactivity.
Nobel Prize
Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for research on radiation phenomena discovered by Henri Becquerel.
Nobel Prize in Physics
Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for radiation research.
Other events (month unknown)
Davy Medal
Receives the Davy Medal with Marie Curie.
Principles of War
Publication of "Principles of War"
Tour de France
A race more than a month long: Paris to Lyon to Marseille to Toulouse to Bordeaux to Nantes to Paris". Appointed Tour Director of the Tour de France
Tour de France
Desgrange scheduled five weeks for this epic from May 31 to 5 July, specified "equal terms" (no pacers), an entry fee of twenty francs. The conditions were deemed too hard, such that with a week to go, only fifteen had signed up for the event.
Tour de France
When Garin rode into Paris as winner, in front of a crowd of 20,000 paying spectators, Desgrange rushed out a special edition of lAuto, whose sales had rocketed to 130,000. The first running had been a resounding success.
Tour de France
Winner of the Tour de France, 1st ever winner
Tour de France
Follows the race as best he could, sometimes riding in the bunch on his bicycle, then catching a train to go ahead to see to the next checkpoint - a one-man, roving commissaire, organiser and reporter.
Tour de France
Promotion of the Tour de France proved a great success for the LAuto newspaper. Circulation leapt from 25,000 before the Tour to 65,000 after it.
Tour de France
Suggests the idea for the Tour de France at a meeting with Henri Desgrange, editor of the daily newspaper LAuto as a way to boost circulation. Desgrange recruited Lefevre from the rival daily sports paper, Le Velo, to work as his rugby and cycling correspondent
How these records were prepared
Generated from the World History Database historical_events table. Identical display records are collapsed; descriptions otherwise retain the stored text. Coverage and source quality vary. Check primary and specialist sources before citing individual historical claims.