July 20, 1900 (Friday)
- "For one month we have been besieged in British Legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops. Quick relief only can prevent general massacre. --CONGER." China's minister to the United States, Wu Tingfang, delivered the telegraphed message to Secretary of State Hay, providing the first confirmation that the foreign envoys in Beijing were still alive. The message, sent by U.S. Ambassador to China Edwin H. Conger in the U.S. State Department cipher, had been a reply to Hay's ciphered message of July 11. To rule out the possibility that the Chinese army had captured the cipher books, Secretary Hay sent a reply the next day: "Despatch received. Authenticity doubted. Answer this giving your sister's name." Conger's reply confirmed the news.
Read more about this topic: July 1900
Famous quotes containing the word july:
“This, it will be remembered, was the scene of Mrs. Rowlandson’s capture, and of other events in the Indian wars, but from this July afternoon, and under that mild exterior, those times seemed as remote as the irruption of the Goths. They were the dark age of New England.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)