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Events on Monday 19 August 1839 1
1839Daguerreotype process unveiledFrance presents photography to the worldThe French government announced Louis Daguerre's photographic process as a free gift to the world at a joint session of the Academy of Sciences and Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. The daguerreotype fixed an image on a silver-coated copper plate after exposure to light and mercury vapor. It became the first practical and widely used photographic technique.