The oldest surviving photograph is only a year or two younger than the Decembrist revolt.

1825 · 1827 · apart: 2 years

Niépce shot the view from his window in 1826 or 1827; the exposure took anywhere from hours to days, by various estimates.

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The event

• Decembrist revolt1825 · Senate Square, Saint Petersburg. On 26 December 1825 noble officers led troops onto Senate Square, refusing to swear allegiance to Nicholas I and demanding a constitution. The revolt was crushed by artillery; five leaders were hanged and over a hundred exiled to Siberia.

19th century

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.
• 1824 Beethoven never heard the ovation at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony.
• 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.
• 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.

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