Today is the birthday of Georges Clemenceau (September 28, 1841 - November 24, 1929) the noted journalist and physician who became the 72nd Prime Minister of France 1906-1909) and then the 85th Prime Minister (1917-1920).
In 1861, the twenty year old Clemenceau was living in Paris where he was pursuing his studies in medicine. He co-founded a weekly newspaper which promoted Republican causes; he spent 77 days in prison because he hung posters calling for a demonstration.
In May of 1865, he became a doctor; he also founded several magazines and penned articles which denounced the government of Napoleon III. He had to flee France for the United States because the government was rounding up dissidents for detention. He set sail for the US on July 25 of the same year.
Once in the United States, he opened a medical office on 12th Street in Manhattan and earned a living as a correspondent for a Parisian newspaper. Subsequently, he taught French and horseback riding at the Catherine Aiken School, a fashionable private girls school in Stamford.
According to the Stamford Historical Society, he eloped with one of his students, Mary Plummer (1850-1923) who he later married; he had three children with her and the marriage ended in divorce.
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