A cause célèbre (plural, causes célèbres) is a common French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. In 1999 French was the 11th most spoken language in the world being spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother tongue, and... French phrase used in The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. It is the third most common first language (native speakers), with around 402 million people in 2002. English has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence... English to describe an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy or heated public debate, paticularly famous legal cases. In French, cause means "case" and célèbre means "celebrated." The origin of the phrase was from the 37-volume Nouvelles Causes Célèbres, published in Events February 10 - French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Great Britain. 15 February - the Treaty of Hubertusburg puts an end to the Seven Years War between Prussia and Austria and their allies March 1 - Charles Townshend becomes President of the Board... 1763, a volume of famous French court decisions from the (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. During this period, the power of England and the United Provinces increased; while that of Spain and Portugal declined. Similarly, the power... 17th and (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. Historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th century as 1715-1789, denoting the period of time between the death... 18th centuries. It came into common usage in English after the 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). Events January 7 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film. January 8 - A fire at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage. January 9 - New England Telephone and Telegraph... 1894 conviction of Alfred Dreyfus in an army uniform, wearing a mustache. Alfred Dreyfus (October 9, 1859–July 12, 1935) was a French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair. Born in Mulhouse, Alsace, France, Dreyfus was the youngest of seven children in the family of a... Alfred Dreyfus for Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). Espionage is the practice of obtaining secrets (spying) from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. It is usually thought of as part of an organized effort (i.e., governmental or corporate... espionage, which attracted worldwide interest.

See also: Landmark decision

External links

• Project Gutenberg (PG) was launched by Michael Hart in 1971 in order to provide a library, on what would later become the Internet, of free electronic versions (sometimes called e-texts) of physically existing books. The texts provided are mostly in the public domain, either because they were never under... Project Gutenberg has several volumes on "causes célèbres":
  • Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie ( July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870), is best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him the most widely read French author in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of... Alexandre Dumas, père: Celebrated Crimes (all eight volumes, translated in English) (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2760)