The Chinese government delivered an ultimatum in response to the attack on the Taku Forts to eleven ambassadors in the legation quarter demanding that all foreign residents, including diplomats, missionaries and their families leave Beijing by 4pm the following day. The demand accompanied a promise to provide troops for a safe exit.
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Two years before the fateful revolution of 1911, the United States and Qing China entered into an agreement which allowed select Chinese students to enroll at American universities.
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The Qing Dynasty had been in existence since 1644. That would come to an end in 1912. China has pretty much been in some sort of political mess since then, although it certainly had plenty of problems before that.
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At the Battle of Beicang 北倉之戰) the Eight National Alliance forced Chinese troops out of their positions and into retreat.
Bishop of Portland James Augustine Healy died at age 70. He was the first African American Bishop.
He'd been born into slavery to an Irish immigrant father and enslaved mother who had a species, sort of, of common law marriage. The union occured when he was 33 and she was 16. Her ancestry included a fair degree of European heritage, which would lead to their children appearing to be of European ethnicity. The union was not as surprising as it might seem and inspite of the burden of slavery, such unions occured, but could only have common law status.
The ten children to the union had apparently originally also been enslaved but were freed. The family, in spite of the lack of a licit marriage, must have been religious as Bishop Healy was not its only member to enter religious life. His brother Patrick was a Jesuit, his brother Alexander was a Priest, his sister Amanda a member of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, and his sister Eliza a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal and the first African American abbess. Those who had secular vocations were also high achieving. They were remarkably well educated, something that had been secured by their parents with some difficulty.
Apparently their parents had intended later in their lives to sell their plantation and move north, but death intervened.
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20,000 troops of the Eight Nation Alliance began an advance from Tianjin to Beijing. 2,500 of those troops were American. The largest contingent, 9000, was Japanese.
Imperial Chinese troops were also traveling to Beijing to reinforce the city.
Jacob Dolson Cox, Civil War general and also lawyer, Republican politician from Ohio, Liberal Republican Party founder, educator, author, and microbiologist passed away at age 78.
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Hsi Ching-ch'eng, formerly China's ambassador to Russia, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, was executed for his opposition to the Boxer faction in the Imperial Court.
Albert Einstein received his diploma from technical school, the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland.
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Chinese revolutionaries signed the Regulations for Peaceful Rule, a petition for help from the United Kingdom. While the Boxer Rebellion was actually going on, the petition hoped for a parliament served by an advisory body of foreign ambassadors.
Sun Yat-sen was one of the signatories.
The push pin (thumb tack) was patented.
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A temporary truce was called between the Chinese Army and the Eight National Alliance in Beijing which allowed for food and the transmission of information to occur.
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Boxers and Imperial Chinese soldiers began the siege of Tchou-kia-ho (Zhujiahe) in Qin County of Hebei Province, China.
It had a large Christian population.
Chinese residents of the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk were slaughtered by Russian troops.
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Shanxi Province Governor Yu-Hsien ordered captive foreign missionaries and their families to be executed. 46, 34 Protestants and 12 Catholics, were.
Catholic missionaries came to Shanxi in 1633, and Protestant churches were established in 1865.
Queen Victoria signed the Act to Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia proclaiming that five of the six colonies (Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland) and "if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto", a sixth would "unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."
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The Chinese army drove off German and American defenders within the legation area but failed to exploit their advantage before the situation was recovered.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, married Sophie Chotek von Chotkova at Reichstadt in Bohemia.
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Boxer rebels attacked the Wangla village in the Hebei province of China, and burnt down its Catholic church and killed all the Catholics save for four orphan girls. The girls Lucy Wan Cheng (18), Mary Fan Kun (16), Mary Chi Yu (15) and Mary Zheng Xu (11) refused to recant their faith and were murdered, becoming part of the 85 Martyr Saints of China.
At night Boxer rebels with burning torches appeared in all parts of Beijing, attacking Christian dwellings, seizing unfortunate Christians torturing them. Orthodox Christians were taken outside the city gates to the pagans' idols, interrogated and burnt on fires.
The killers were frequently astonished by the Christians refusal to recant.
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Foreigners at Tianjin were rescued by invading Western armies. Included in those who were saved was 26 year old Herbert Hoover.
Chinese troops set fire to the Hanlin Academy in Beijing, but its important library was not affected.
The worst rail disaster in Georgia's history occurred when the Southern Railway’s No. 7 train came across a washed-out bridge at the Camp Creek trestle, just south of Atlanta and plummeted xisty feet into a flooded creek and burst into flames. Thirty-five of the forty-five people on board were killed.
Old Number 7 Train Wreck: Information Gathered 1998 From 1900 Train Wreck: "The last accident at Camp Creek on June 22 , 1900." The railroad bridge over Camp Creek washed out as the train was crossing. T...
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William McKinley and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt were unanimously nominated for president and vice-president on the Republican ticket.
China declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.
Major General Arthur MacArthur, commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines and Civil War hero, offered amnesty for 90 days to Filipino guerillas.
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Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the German ambassador to China, was killed by Boxer En Hai as he and an aide went to the Chinese Foreign Ministry without their guards.
Chinese troops began a siege of the Peking Legation Quarter at 4:00 p.m., which was the evacuation deadline. Behind the quarter's walls were 900 foreigners, 523 defenders and 3,000 Chinese Christians.
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Ships from the Eight-Nation Alliance consisting of Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.started a bombardment of the Taku Forts in China and began an invasion.
There was no declaration of war by this US, making the action arguably illegal, although the point can be debated.
China was, of course, an incredibly weak nation and the mercy of European powers, something that its never forgotten.
At the Republican Convention a movement started to draft Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President.
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Chinese Empress (Tzu Hsi) Cixi decreed that Boxer rebels could not enter Beijing.
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Japanese diplomat Sugiyama Akira was murdered by Imperial Chinese soldiers who dragged Akira from his carriage and hacked him to bits, then displayed his severed head at the railway station in Beijing.
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Boxers burned the grandstand of the horse racing track at the country club for western diplomats in Beijing. It unfortunately turned lethal when British horsemen at the track rode out to investigate and one drew a pistol and killed a Boxer, causing the Chinse government to surround the foreigners at the Peking Legation Quarter.
The War Department authorized the production of telescopic sights for rifles. The rifle at the time was the Krag–Jørgensen rifle, which had proven unsatisfactory in comparison to the M93 Mauser used by Spain in the Spanish American War.
The sight consists of a telescope which is attached by means of brackets to the left side of the rifle. The front bracket is secured to the lower band by two screws, and the ring through which the telescope passes has a horizontal motion to provide for drift and windage. A ball-and-socket joint in this ring allows the telescope to be moved in any direction … The rear bracket is screwed to the side plate of the receiver, and the ring which holds the telescope has a vertical movement for changes of elevation.
Telescopes of three different powers are submitted for trial, viz. 8 diameters, 12 diameters, and 20 diameters. The medium power (12 diameters) gave the best results.
The telescope is of practically universal focus; that is, it does not require readjustment for different marksmen or for different ranges. The eye can be placed close to the eyepiece or several inches away without any apparent difference in the focus. Danger of being struck in the eye when the piece recoils can therefore be avoided.
The lenses are large and are held in place by having the metal of the tubes in which they are mounted spun over their outer edges. The telescope is light, but at the same time strong. The brackets for attaching the telescope to the rifle are strong and durable and there appears to be no tendency to jar loose.
The sight was tested by actual firings up to a range of 2,000 yards, each member of the board participating in the firings. As a result of this test, the board is of the opinion that the use of this telescopic sight appears to be of especial value in hazy or foggy weather and at long ranges. In either case the target can be seen with remarkable clearness, and the marksman can be absolutely sure that he is aiming at the proper object. This would be of especial importance to sharpshooters acting independently.
The ordinary sight is useful for accurate firing at a regular target up to about 2,000 yards; but it is impossible to see a man or even a small body of men clearly at that range unless projected against the sky or under other very favorable conditions. It is for this reason that volley firing is so largely resorted to at long ranges.
With a telescopic sight a man could be distinguished easily at 2,000 yards, even with an unfavorable background.
The board is of the opinion that this sight is suitable for use in the U.S. service, and recommends a number of them be purchased for trial by troops in the field. If found to be satisfactory, a sufficient number should be purchased to supply such a number of the sharpshooters of each organization as experience in the field shall indicate to be desirable.
Only seven scoped Krags were produced. Work was already commencing on a replacement for the Krag which would soon produce the M1903 Springfield, a rifle much more suitable for a scope, but which was not equipped with one for sniping purposes until World War One.
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An ultimatum to the Empress Dowager Cixi of China to arrest and punish Boxers was issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan)
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