1827
Nicéphore Niépce Captures the First Photograph
In a courtyard in Burgundy, Nicéphore Niépce exposed a pewter plate coated with bitumen to eight hours of sunlight and fixed, permanently, the rooftops and chimney visible from his window. The image was crude, ghostly, barely legible. It was also the oldest surviving photograph - the first time light had written its own portrait.
Treaty of London on Greek Independence
Britain, France, and Russia signed a treaty demanding Ottoman recognition of Greek autonomy, with armed intervention threatened if the Sultan refused. He refused. The allied fleets sailed south toward Navarino. The Concert of Europe, designed to prevent revolution, was about to fight a war on behalf of one. At Navarino the allied fleet destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian navy, the last major battle fought entirely under sail.
Navarino Bay
An allied British, French, and Russian fleet sailed into a bay on the Peloponnesian coast to enforce a ceasefire and ended up annihilating the Ottoman-Egyptian navy that had been bombarding Greek rebels. It was the last major naval battle fought entirely under sail - and the day Greek independence became certain.
Beethoven Dies
In a Vienna apartment, amid a spring thunderstorm said to have drawn from him one final raised fist, Ludwig van Beethoven died at fifty-six, deaf and ill. Twenty thousand people followed the coffin. Schubert was a torchbearer. The ninth symphony, the late quartets, and the impossible idea of what music could do were his legacy.