August 25, 1900: Friedrich Nietzsche dies at age 55August 4, 1900: Troops of the Eight Nation Alliance march toward BeijingAugust 2, 1900: Shah of Persia saved from assassination by his prime ministerAugust 14, 1900: Corporal Titus begins the rescue of diplomats trapped in Beijing
National University, the first private nonsectarian university in the Philippines and the first to instruct students in English in addition to Spanish, was founded inManila as theColegio Filipino.[3] It would be renamedColegio Mercantil and thenNational Academy before attaining its present name.
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, theShah of Persia (nowIran), survived an assassination attempt while visitingParis. The Shah hit the assailant on the head with a cane and his Grand Vizier,Ali Asghar Khan twisted the assassin's wrist and forced the dropping of a pistol.[4] The gunman, identified as Francois Salson, said that he had also tried to assassinate formerFrench PresidentJean Casimir-Perier but that the gun had misfired.[5]
By a margin of 187,217 to 128,285,[6] voters inNorth Carolina approved an amendment to Article VI of the state constitution,worded specifically to disenfranchise African-American voters. Under section 4, all persons registering to vote were required to pass aliteracy test, "But no male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote and no lineal descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote by reason of his failure to possess the educational qualifications herein proscribed"[7]
Three days of shooting events during the Olympics were staged inParis, including livepigeon-shooting.[9] Some were retrospectively recognized asOlympic events. Almost 300 pigeons were killed, the format being that the birds were released in front of the shooter and the prize went to whoever shot down as many pigeons as possible before missing two. The event would later be described as "the one and only time inOlympic history when animals were deliberately killed in the name of sport."[10]Léon de Lunden of Belgium won the gold medal by killing 21 birds in flight.
In China, a force of 20,000 soldiers of theEight-Nation Alliance began their march fromTianjin toBeijing to relieve the besieged envoys in the Chinese capital. The group was composed of 9,000 Japanese, 4,800 Russians, 2,900 Britons, 2,500 Americans, 1,200 French and a few hundred Austrian, German and Italian troops. At the same time, Chinese imperial troops were on their way fromBeijing to resist the Allied troops.[11]
Born:
Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian and the last remaining survivor of the 19th century inKikai, Kagoshima. She became the oldest person on Earth from September 15, 2017 when the last survivor of the 1800s,Violet Brown of Jamaica, died. Tajima would die on April 21, 2018, aged 117.
In a seven-hour-longbattle at Peit-sang, Chinese imperial troops fought against the advancing allied troops. The Allies had an estimated 1,200 killed and wounded, while the Chinese lost 4,000 killed and wounded.[12]
Died:James Augustine Healy, 70, the first African-American Catholic Church bishop, andBishop of Portland (Maine) since his appointment in 1875 byPope Pius IX. Healy's father was a white Irish immigrant and plantation owner, while his mother had been an African-American slave of mixed race and he was born inMacon, Georgia. Under the laws of that state, he was regarded as a "Negro". (b. 1830)
FromConstantinople came word of the massacre of 200 men, women and children in the village of Saganik (also called Spagbank) in theSassun District ofAnatolia.[14] Two weeks later, the Ottoman Sultan ordered a committee to investigate the reports.[15]
A plot to kidnapLord Roberts was foiled as the ringleaders were arrested inPretoria.[17] Hans Cordua was the only one of the perpetrators to be executed, dying before a firing squad on August 24.
Milton S. Hershey got out of the business of making caramel candy, selling hisLancaster Caramel Company to investorDaniel F. Lafean for one million dollars in cash. Hershey and his attorney, John Snyder, turned down initial offers for a merger, then for $500,000 and finally for $900,000 cash and $100,000 stock before sealing the deal inProvidence, Rhode Island, at 11:00 in the morning.[18] With the infusion of capital,The Hershey Company built a factory inDerry Church, Pennsylvania, and created the largest chocolate manufacturer in the United States, with sales of five billion dollars a year by 2007.
Violence broke out onLaysan in theTerritory of Hawaii, after the 41 Japanese miners on the small (1.5 by 1 mile) island confronted the four white American managers of PacificGuano & Fertilizer Company. In response, manager Joseph Spencer pulled two pistols and announced that the first person to step forward would die. When the group charged en masse, Spencer fired away,killing two of the Japanese and wounding three others. The next day, the 39 survivors were arrested and imprisoned on the shipCeylon, and on August 16, everyone sailed back toHonolulu. Spencer was acquitted after a ten-day trial, and the other men were fired.[20]
The Allies captured Tung-chau, placing them within 13 miles (21 km) ofBeijing.[22]
The FrenchdestroyerFramee sank after a collision with thebattleshipBrennus, during maneuvers off the coast of Portugal, atCape St. Vincent. The accident occurred when theFramee turned to the right as theFrench fleet was ordered to turn left. Forty-six of the 60 men on theFramee died, including Captain du Plessix.[23]
As troops from theEight-Nation Alliance nearedBeijing, the Chinese army set up aKrupp cannon to fire down on the foreign legations, in the heaviest attack to that time. A counterattack by guns within the embassy compound killed the Chinese gun crew and halted the attack. The allied force was within 14 miles (23 km), in Tungchow (Tongzhou).[25]
The 20,000-member multinational force arrived atBeijing for theBattle of Peking. The Russian forces attacked the Tung Pien[clarification needed] gate. The9th and14th Americaninfantries reached the 30-foot (9.1 m) highTartar Wall where command asked for a volunteer to scale the structure.CorporalCalvin Pearl Titus, a 20-year-old bugler from Company E, climbed footholds on the wall, found it undefended, and the rest of the force followed, planting the flag at11:03 a.m. With Japanese and American attackers drawing the Chinese army away from the walled city, a group ofSikh soldiers from the British force were the first to enterBeijing, at2:45 pm. By 4:00, the 55-day siege of the foreign legations was over, and the next phase was to take the Imperial City and theForbidden City.[27]
The world's firstsix-masted ship, theGeorge W. Wells, was launched fromCamden, Maine.[29] At 342 feet (104 m) in length and 48 feet (15 m) wide, theWells was the largest wooden ship in the world at that time.
Rioting broke out in New York City onEighth Avenue, between30th and42nd Streets, following the August 12 stabbing death of Robert Thorpe of the New York City Police Department. When a black man caused an altercation outside the home where Thorpe's body lay, fighting broke out and mobs of white men were soon pulling black people off streetcars and beating them. By 10:30, the violence seemed under control, and then a revolver was fired from inside a house on41st Street. "This seemed a signal for the riot to begin again," notedThe New York Times, "for crowds began to appear as if by magic."[31]
A German excavation at the Tel Amran ibn Ali, near the Babylonian temple atEtemenanki (near modernAl Hillah,Iraq), German excavators unearthed a glazedamphora with 10,000 coins dating from the 7th century BC.[32]
The Allied troops entered the "Forbidden City", the section ofBeijing that housed the Imperial quarters and was off limits even to most Chinese citizens. TheEmpress Dowager Cixi had fled the city to theShensi province, 600 miles (970 km) to the south.[33]
Lieutenant General Gribsky,military governor of theAmur province, had published theannexation ofManchurian territory to Russia, by decree of August 12. "All the region of Manchuria occupied by our troops is henceforth withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chinese authorities and subordinated entirely to our authority and laws," the proclamation began, adding that theTranz-Zeya territory and theAigun andSakhalin settlements would be Russian territory.[34]
Bolivian troops crushed a secession attempt in the "Republic of Acre". Bolivian ambassador Fernando e Guachalla confirmed rumors of a succession on November 29, with revolution starting in December 1899 under "a Spaniard named Galvez" (journalist Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias) who returned toMadrid after three or four months, and was replaced by Rodriguez Arles of Brazil, which formally crushed the rebellion.[38]
The sarcophagus ofEmperor Conrad of theHoly Roman Empire was opened and his body photographed, confirming that he was long-bearded and exceptionally tall — 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m).[50]
Transvaal Army Lieutenant Hans Cordua was executed by firing squad, three days after having been found guilty of a conspiracy to kidnap the British commander,Lord Roberts.[51]
TheChicago Coliseum, a state of the art arena with seats for 10,000 people, was dedicated in conjunction with the opening of the convention of theGrand Army of the Republic. U.S. PresidentWilliam McKinley had been scheduled to address the assembled veterans, but cancelled because of crises in Asia.[56] The Coliseum, which hosted conventions, rock concerts and sports, closed in 1971 and was demolished in 1982. The same day, millions of white butterflies fluttered into downtownChicago.The New York Times headline the next day was "Chicago Pretty at Last".[57]
PhilosopherFriedrich Nietzsche, 55, died inWeimar, Germany, eleven years after going insane. The "Father of Modern Atheism" was buried at a graveyard at his family church.[58]
The "unidentified French coxswain" became the youngest Olympic medalist in history, helping the team ofFrançois Brandt andRoelof Klein win the first gold medal ever for the Netherlands. After the originalcoxswain, Hermanus Brockmann, proved to be so heavy that he was slowing the pair down, the Dutchmen located a boy who could serve as the third person on the team. The identity of the young man, estimated to be 10 years old, has remained a mystery, but a photograph of him was published by Brandt in a 1926 book.[59][60]
A group of thunderstorms passed overCape Verde and then began the process of coalescence and a westward drift along thetrade winds. By September 5, the storms had become a hurricane in theGulf of Mexico, and on September 8, struckGalveston, Texas, for the worst natural disaster in American history.[62]
Gaetano Bresci, who had assassinated Italy'sKing Umberto a month earlier, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment after a one-day-long trial. Bresci was found dead in his cell on May 22, 1901, an apparent suicide.[65]
Former worldheavyweight boxing champion"Gentleman Jim" Corbett had his final prizefight, knocking outKid McCoy in the fifth round of a bout atMadison Square Garden.[66] McCoy admitted later that he had been paid $5,000 to throw the fight, although Corbett said later that he had been paid to throw the fight as well.[67]
^Jooste, Graham (2002).Innocent Blood: Executions During the Anglo-Boer War.New Africa Books. pp. 179–180.
^Abramson, Albert (1987).The History of Television, 1880 to 1941. McFarland & Company. p. 23., quoted inParsons, Patrick (2008).Blue Skies: A History of Cable Television.Temple University Press. p. 23.
