On This Day – June 25th

The first news photo

The first photograph to be used in illustration of a newspaper story was a depiction of barricades in Paris during the June Days uprising taken on 25 June 1848.

The photo was published as an engraving in L'Illustration of 1-8 July 1848.

The June Days uprising (French: les journées de Juin) was an uprising staged by French workers from 23 to 26 June 1848. It was in response to plans to close the National Workshops, created by the Second Republic in order to provide work and a source of income for the unemployed, albeit with pay just enough to survive.

The National Guard, led by General Louis Eugène Cavaignac, was called out to quell the rebellion. Things did not go peacefully and over 10,000 people were either killed or injured, while 4,000 insurgents were deported to Algeria. This marked the end of the hopes of a "Democratic and Social Republic" (République démocratique et sociale) and the victory of the liberals over the Radical Republicans.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.