On this day in ...… 1900, Empress Dowager Longyu of China (right) ordered all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families. (image credit) A niece of the Empress Dowager Cixi, on whom we've also posted, she had the title of Empress bestowed on her in 1889. When Cixi and her adoptive son, the emperor, died of ill health, and a new emperor was named in 1908, Longyu became Empress Dowager. Her military command was issued amid the Boxer Uprising, which the imperial government at 1st tried to suppress but later came to support, eventually committing the regular Chinese army to join the Boxers in their fight against foreign troops. A 55-day siege would ensue, ending when international forces took Peking and subdued the rebellion, thus weakening imperial rule in China.
… 1909 (100 years ago today), Nannie Helen Burroughs (left), African American educator, orator, religious leader, and businesswoman, founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. (photo credit) The school combined vocational education and traditional Christian values, training students in domestic science, business, sewing, printing, barbering, and shoe repair. Additionally, the curriculum emphasized to all students the importance of being proud black women by teaching African-American history and culture. Burroughs, who'd been born in 1879, died in 1961; thereafter the school was renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School and converted to an elementary school. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.(Prior June 18 posts are here and here.)
