20,000 troops of the Eight Nation Alliance arrived at Beijing and the Battle of Peking commenced, and ended.
The Russian force attacked the Tung Pien Gate. The 9th and 14th American Infantry Regiment reached the 30-foot high Tartar Wall where volunteer Corporal Calvin Pearl Titus, a bugler and chaplain's assistant, scaled it and found it undefended. He'd receive the Medal of Honor, his citation reading:
Gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment; was first to scale the wall of the city.
By 2:45 the 55 day siege of the legations was over.
Titus had been in the Army since the Spanish American War, although that was only two years prior. His MoH allowed for him to enter West Point where he graduated in 1905. He tried to become a chaplain, but his denomination was not recognized, and so his request was not granted. He therefore became an Infantry officer and served in the Border War and US Army of Occupation post World War One. He retired a Lt. Col. in 1930 and died in 1966 at age 86.
The world's first six-masted ship, the George W. Wells, was launched from Camden, Maine.
It's odd to think that sailing ships were still a big deal in the early 20th Century, but they were. My mother had a painting of such ships that hung in my parents bedroom, and when I was a child, I often pondered it.
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