A Crimean War officer lived to be filmed.
Leo Tolstoy served in besieged Sevastopol in 1854–55, and in 1908, around his 80th birthday, he was caught on film — the footage survives.
The events
- Crimean War1853–1856 · Sevastopol. In 1853–1856 Russia fought the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia. After a 349-day siege Sevastopol fell, and under the Treaty of Paris Russia lost the right to keep a navy in the Black Sea.
- First Lumière film screening1895 · Paris. On 28 December 1895, at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines, Auguste and Louis Lumière held the first paid public screening of films with their Cinématographe. The date is widely regarded as the birth of cinema.
More amazing facts
- 1853 Pain relief in childbirth became respectable thanks to a queen.
- 1854 When the Americans 'opened' Japan, they gave it a toy train.
- 1854 The safety lift was sold with a stunt.
- 1856 · 1865 Everest was named after a man who objected.
- 1856 Under an 1856 law a US citizen can claim any unclaimed island for America, provided it is covered in bird droppings.
- 1856 Purple went from emperors to London fashion thanks to a student's failed experiment.