February 16, 1899 –
Félix François Faure, President of France and the owner of the most audacious mustache in the late 19th century,
died suddenly from a massive heart attack in his private offices while in the act of some sort of sexual congress with the notable courtesan, Marguerite Steinheil on this date.
Apparently when Faure reached his petite mort, he had his grand mort. A probably apocryphal story, listed as fact by many sources, is that M. Le President died with his hands gripping Miss Steinheil’s head and an anxious government official nearly ‘brained‘ her trying to remove the hysterical lady from the vise-like grip of his ‘cold dead hands.’
The French statesmen and future president, George Clemenceau famously said, after hearing of Faure’s death, “…il voulait être César, il ne fut que Pompée,” which is incredibly witty and very filthy for a family newspaper (go look it up yourself.)
The Haus of Dcaligari 