360The 1820s: the Second Saudi State and the first railway
In 1824, Imam Turki bin Abdullah founded the Second Saudi State and made Riyadh its capital. In England, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825 as the first public railway using steam locomotives. The first surviving photograph was taken, and Louis Braille created his reading system for blind people.
In 1824, corresponding to 1240 AH, Imam Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Saud restored Saudi rule in central Arabia and founded the Second Saudi State. He chose Riyadh as his capital, beginning the city's rise to become the capital of today's Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Second Saudi State continued until 1891.
On 27 September 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in north-east England. George Stephenson's locomotive, Locomotion No. 1, pulled the first train. It was the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, and it showed that rail transport could work as a business.
Around 1826 or 1827, the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce made the oldest surviving camera photograph, a view from his window at Le Gras. The exposure took many hours.
Louis Braille, who was blind from childhood, developed a system of raised dots that blind people could read by touch. He first published it in 1829. Braille is still used worldwide.
In music, Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna in 1824.
- 1824
- Imam Turki bin Abdullah founds the Second Saudi State
- 1825
- Stockton and Darlington Railway opens
- c. 1826–27
- Oldest surviving photograph
- 1829
- Braille publishes his system
Sources: Saudipedia · Britannica · Science Museum.