1214: Birth of Louis IX, king of France (1226-1270).

1599: Birth of Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan leader of the English Civil War.

1792 - The French began officially losing their heads -- or causing others to -- when the second article of Dr. Guillotin's ratified proposal occurred at Place de Grève.

1840: Birth of the Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

1874: Birth of the Italian inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi.

1859: The making of the Suez Canal was initiated at Port Said, Egypt.

1898: In response to the previous day's event, the United States officially declared war on Spain.

1901: New York became the first state to require automobile license plates (for a $1 fee).

1915: ANZAC, et. al., troops landed at Gallipoli in Turkey.

1945: Delegates of about 50 countries met in the United States to organize the United Nations.

1953: Biologists Francis Crick and James Watson described the "double helix" of DNA in an article published in the magazine Nature.

1959: The St. Lawrence Seaway was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight Eisenhower.

No.
This took a little search since I didn't know anything about Frederic Bartholdi's life beyond the making of La Liberté Éclairant le Monde (Liberty Enlightening the World). In 1867 and 1869, Bartholdi had proposed that a lighthouse designed as the Roman goddess, Libertas (L.=Liberty), garbed as an Egyptian peasant be placed at the canal's entrance; this project was never accepted. Undoubtedly, it did heavily influenced the design of the Statue of Liberty but  political reasoning in France seems the main basis for requesting its construction for the centennial of the United States.