In besieged Paris in 1870, letters were photographed onto microfilm so a single pigeon could carry thousands at once.
Dispatches came back by pigeon too, and were projected onto a wall to be copied out.
The events
- Franco-Prussian War1870–1871 · Sedan. In July 1870 France declared war on Prussia but was quickly defeated: on 2 September Napoleon III himself was captured at Sedan and France became a republic. Paris surrendered after a siege in January 1871. Victory let Bismarck unify Germany, while France lost Alsace and part of Lorraine.
- Cher Ami saves the Lost Battalion1918 · Argonne Forest. In October 1918 a surrounded American battalion came under fire from its own guns. The pigeon Cher Ami, shot through the breast and losing a leg, reached headquarters with a note; the shelling stopped and 194 men survived.
More amazing facts
- 1869 1869: in March Mendeleev presented his periodic table, and in November the Suez Canal opened.
- 1869 · 1871 Aida was not written for the opening of the Suez Canal.
- 1869 The biggest gold nugget ever found lay just 3 cm below the surface.
- 1869 · 1886 The owner of Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Disney, lived there for just 172 days.
- 1869 P. T. Barnum exhibited a fake of a fake.
- 1869 · 1872 Phileas Fogg's race was made possible by 1869.