Beethoven never heard the ovation at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony.
The nearly deaf composer was still beating time, and the singer Caroline Unger reportedly turned him round so he could see the applause.
More amazing facts
- 1817 In 1817 Russia had forts both in California and in Hawaii: Fort Ross north of San Francisco and Fort Elizabeth on Kauai.
- 1825 1825: the first public steam railway opened in England, and in St Petersburg the Decembrists marched onto Senate Square.
- 1825 · 1864 Legend says Alexander I did not die in 1825 but faked his death and lived nearly 40 more years in Siberia as the hermit Feodor Kuzmich.
- 1825 · 1827 The oldest surviving photograph is only a year or two younger than the Decembrist revolt.
- 1830 · 1863 America's national Thanksgiving was won by the author of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for 17 years, and in 1863 her letter persuaded Lincoln.
- 1831 The artist of The Great Wave went by at least thirty names in his lifetime, more than any other major Japanese artist of his day. 'Hokusai' is just the best known.