Pierre Rossier was a pioneering Swiss photographer whose albumen photographs, which include stereographs and cartes-de-visite, comprise portraits, cityscapes and landscapes. He was commissioned by the London firm of Negretti and Zambra to travel to Asia and document the progress of the Anglo-French troops in the Second Opium War and, although he failed to join that military expedition, he remained in Asia for several years, producing the first commercial photographs of China, the Philippines, Japan and Siam (now Thailand). He was the first professional photographer in Japan, where he trained Ueno Hikoma, Maeda Genzō, Horie Kuwajirō, as well as lesser known members of the first generation of Japanese photographers. In Switzerland he established photographic studios in Fribourg and Einsiedeln, and he also produced images elsewhere in the country. Rossier is an important figure in the early history of photography not only because of his own images, but also because of the critical impact of his teaching in the early days of Japanese photography.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1762: Peter III was killed at Ropsha, a few days after he was deposed as Emperor of Russia and replaced by his wife Catherine II. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia)

1815: Napoleonic Wars: Napoléon made his formal surrender to British forces on board the HMS Bellerophon off the port of Rochefort, France, ending the Hundred Days. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France)

1936: Nationalist rebels in Spain attempted a coup d'etat against the Second Spanish Republic, commencing the Spanish Civil War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War)

1945: Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry S. Truman met at the Potsdam Conference to decide how to administer post-World War II Germany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Conference)

1998: Biologists reported in the scientific journal Science how they sequenced the genome of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treponema_pallidum)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

phlegmatic: Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phlegmatic)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence. -- Isaac Watts

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts)