A few solid starting points were recommended:

• Britannica’s history of photography article: a strong concise overview that covers both the technical development of photography and its artistic/social history.
• Wikipedia’s “History of Photography” article: useful as a quick starting reference, especially for the technical timeline, though it may lean more technical than cultural.
• Jeff Curto’s History of Photography lectures/podcasts: if you want something more structured, his early survey lectures provide a broad overview before later episodes go deeper into specific topics.
• BBC’s The Genius of Photography: a documentary series that gives an accessible historical introduction; there is also a companion book.

For a brief survey, a good approach would be to start with Britannica for the big-picture timeline, then use Wikipedia to fill in technical milestones, and follow with either Jeff Curto’s overview lectures or The Genius of Photography for more context and examples.