February 12: On This Day in World History … briefly
He died in Beijing of complications arising from kidney cancer and heart disease on October 17, 1967, at the age of 61.
1912: Child emperor gives up dynasty
China’s five-year-old boy emperor Puyi listened in his court in Peking as his weeping aunt read out a letter. He could not have understood that it was his abdication, marking the end of the 267-year rule of the Qing dynasty and 3 000 years of monarchy.
The Manchurian Qing tribe conquered China during the chaos following the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Their rule declined through 70 years of foreign wars and insurrection, with 16 rebellions in one decade. The uprising began when an army revolt in the south became a full-scale nationalist rebellion.
The revolutionary leader Dr Sun Yat-sen was made president of the new republic but, to avoid civil war, he gave up the presidency to General Yuan Shik-k’ai, suspected of planning to usurp the throne.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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