1891: Russian royalty visits Thailand - the photo depicts a state visit by Russia's Crown Prince Nicholas Alexandrovich – soon to be Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar – to the kingdom of Siam in 1891. The crown prince sits second from left in the front row, embossed with great emblems of state, halfway through a grand tour of Asia that also took him to India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Japan. Siam is modern-day Thailand and was the only country in Southeast Asia never colonised by Europeans. King Chulalongkorn sits in the middle of the front row, with Crown Prince Maha Vajirunhis on the far left. The still-teenage prince would die unexpectedly of typhoid a few years later.
