Antiques Collectables and Fine Art

[HistoryMan]

January 9: The most famous image of Edgar Allan Poe was a daguerreotype...

1768 - Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London.
Philip Astley (January 8, 1742 - January 27, 1814) is regarded as the father of modern circus.

He was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme and his father was a cabinetmaker. At the age of 9, he apprenticed to work with his father, but Astley's dream was to work with horses. So he joined Colonel Eliott’s Fifteenth Light Dragoon Regiment when he was 17, and later became a Sergeant-Major. He also served in the French and Indian War and his army service brought him into contact with professional trainers and horse riders. Astley himself was a brilliant rider.


1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype photographic process , named after its inventor, Louis Daguerre.

The daguerreotype was a positive-only process allowing no reproduction of the picture. The development of the image was effected by placing the exposed plate over a slightly heated (about 75°C) cup of mercury. The vapour of mercury condensed on those places where the light had acted in an almost exact ratio to the intensity of its action. This produced a picture in an amalgam, the vapour of which attached itself to the altered silver iodide. Proof that such was the case was subsequently afforded by the fact that the mercurial image could be removed by heat. The developing box was so constructed that it was possible to examine the picture through a yellow glass window whilst the image was being brought out. The next operation was to fix the picture by dipping it in a solution of hyposulphite of soda. The image produced by this method is so delicate that it will not bear the slightest handling, and has to be protected from being accidentally touched



The most famous image of Edgar Allan Poe was a daguerreotype taken in 1848 shortly before his death.


1878 - Humbert the Good became King of Italy.

Umberto I or Humbert I of Italy (Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio of Savoy, 14 March 1844 - 29 July 1900), surnamed "the Good", was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death.


- Umberto I -
The son of Vittorio Emanuele II and of Adelaide, archduchess of Austria, Umberto was born at Turin, capital of the kingdom of Sardinia, on 14 March 1844. His education was entrusted to the most eminent men of his time, amongst others to Massimo Taparelli, marquis d'Azeglio and Pasquale Stanislao Mancini. Entering the army in March 1858 with the rank of captain, he was present at the battle of Solferino in 1859, and in 1866 commanded a division at the battle of Custozza. Attacked by the Austrian cavalry near Villafranca, he formed his troops into squares and drove the assailants towards Sommacampagna, remaining himself throughout the action in the square most exposed to attack. With Bixio he covered the retreat of the Italian army, receiving the gold medal for valour.




1916 - World War I: In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire was victorious in the Battle of Çanakkale.