A calendar of Chinese history
28 events
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Lichun, the Start of Spring
Festival
Lichun, literally the 'start of spring', opens the first of the twenty-four solar terms of the traditional Chinese calendar: it begins when the Sun reaches celestial longitude 315°, in early February depending on the year. Preceded by dahan ('great cold') and followed by yushui ('rain water'), lichun traditionally marks the beginning of spring and of the year; the solar terms, Chinese in origin, were also adopted in Korea, Vietnam and Japan.
Source : Période solaire
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Zhao Kuangyin founds the Song dynasty
Politics
In 960, General Zhao Kuangyin, after a coup that forces the last Later Zhou ruler to abdicate in his favour, proclaims himself emperor as Taizu, beginning the Song dynasty. He reigns until his death in 976, conquers Southern Tang, Later Shu, Southern Han and Jingnan to reunify most of China proper, and relies on civil officials to curb the power of military generals.
Source : Zhao Kuangyin
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Birth of Deng Yingchao
Birth
Deng Yingchao is born in 1904 in Nanning, capital of Guangxi. A Communist Party member and the wife of Zhou Enlai until his death in 1976, she chairs the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988, and dies in 1992.
Source : Deng Yingchao
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Japan agrees to return Shandong to China
Politics
In 1922, Japan agrees to return Shandong Province to the Republic of China.
Source : Japon
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Birth of He Lifeng
Birth
He Lifeng is born in Xingning in 1955. A member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 2018 to 2023, he becomes one of the four vice premiers of the State Council in 2023.
Source : He Lifeng
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Haicheng earthquake, the first successful evacuation
Disaster
In 1975, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 strikes the city of Haicheng in Liaoning. Acting mainly on a pronounced sequence of foreshocks, Chinese officials had ordered an evacuation that prevents up to 150,000 deaths according to estimates, the only successful evacuation of a population before an earthquake in history, although many die of fire and hypothermia in the following days. None of these precursors will be observed before the 1976 Tangshan earthquake.
Source : 1975 Haicheng earthquake
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Birth of actor Chen Kun
Birth
Chen Kun is born in Chongqing in 1976. Trained at the Beijing Film Academy in the same class as Zhao Wei, the actor and singer works mainly in television but appears in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Painted Skin, and wins the Huabiao Award for Best Actor in 2007 for The Knot.
Source : Chen Kun · On chine.in
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TransAsia Airways plane crashes in Taipei
Disaster
In 2015, a TransAsia Airways ATR 72 flying from Taipei to the island of Kinmen crashes into the Keelung River minutes after taking off from Taipei Songshan Airport. After one engine failed, the other, still working normally, was shut down by mistake; of the 58 people on board, only 15 survive.
Source : Vol TransAsia Airways 235
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Opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics
Sport
In 2022, the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics takes place at 8 pm local time in the Beijing National Stadium, launching the Beijing Games.
Source : Cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2022
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Birth of Ma Fuxiang
Birth
Ma Fuxiang is born in 1876 in the fortress of Hezhou, Gansu, under the Qing dynasty. A Hui officer of the Ma clique, he is one of the warlords of the Beiyang government era of the Republic of China, and dies in 1932.
Source : Ma Fuxiang
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Birth of musician Liu Tianhua
Birth
Liu Tianhua is born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, in 1895. The musician and composer is famous for his works for the erhu and the pipa; he dies of scarlet fever in Beijing in 1932.
Source : Liu Tianhua
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Birth of Lee Hoi-chuen, father of Bruce Lee
Birth
Lee Hoi-chuen is born in Shunde in 1901. A star of Cantonese opera and a film actor in Hong Kong, he is the father of Bruce Lee, who is born during the troupe's year-long tour of the United States, and appears in several Hong Kong films of the 1950s, one of them featuring the young Bruce. He dies in Hong Kong in 1965.
Source : Lee Hoi-chuen
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Death of Zhang Peilun
Death
Zhang Peilun, born in 1848, dies in 1903. He had commanded Chinese naval forces during the Sino-French War.
Source : Zhang Peilun
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Harbin falls to the Japanese army
War
In 1932, the defence of Harbin, fought during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, comes to an end: the city falls to the Imperial Japanese Army, which had attacked it at the start of the year.
Source : Défense de Harbin
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Birth of table tennis champion Guo Yuehua
Birth
Guo Yuehua, sometimes spelled Kuo Yao-Hua, is born in Xiamen in 1956. The Chinese table tennis player wins the world singles title twice, in 1981 and 1983.
Source : Guo Yuehua
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Beijing accuses Moscow of seeking world hegemony
Politics
In 1964, China accuses the Soviet Union of seeking world hegemony through its policy of cooperation with the United States.
Source : Chine · On chine.in
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Birth of Chen Jining
Birth
Chen Jining is born in 1964. A former president of Tsinghua University, the academic succeeds Zhou Shengxian as minister of environmental protection in January 2015, then serves as mayor of Beijing from 2017 to 2022.
Source : Chen Jining
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Birth of chess player Wang Lei
Birth
Wang Lei is born in Shanghai in 1975. A Woman Grandmaster since 1996, she wins the Chinese chess championship four times, in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001.
Source : Wang Lei (joueuse d'échecs)
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Birth of gymnast Huang Xu
Birth
Huang Xu is born in Nantong, Jiangsu, in 1979. The Chinese gymnast goes on to win two Olympic titles.
Source : Huang Xu
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Birth of table tennis player Tang Peng
Birth
Table tennis player Tang Peng is born in Beijing in 1981. He competes for Hong Kong.
Source : Tang Peng
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Death of poet Xiao San
Death
Poet and translator Xiao San, born Xiao Kesen in Xiangxiang in 1896, dies in Beijing in 1983. He was the first to write a biography of Mao Zedong.
Source : Xiao San
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Birth of rower Ju Rui
Birth
Chinese rower Ju Rui is born in 1993. She wins bronze in the women's eight at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Source : Ju Rui
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Death of Te Wei, pioneer of Chinese animation
Death
Te Wei, illustrator and animation director born in Shanghai in 1915, dies in the same city in 2010. At the Shanghai Art Studios, he showed that traditional Chinese painting could be brought to animated film.
Source : Te Wei
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Macau casinos close for fifteen days
Economy
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, which began with an outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019, forces all casinos in Macau to close for fifteen days.
Source : COVID-19 pandemic
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Death of writer Shen Rong
Death
Shen Rong, sometimes spelled Chen Rong, a writer, journalist and short story author born in Sichuan in 1936, dies in 2024.
Source : Shen Rong
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Birth of chess grandmaster Wu Shaobin
Birth
Wu Shaobin is born in 1969. China's eighth grandmaster in 1998, he plays for China at the 1994 Chess Olympiad and later for Singapore, winning the Singaporean championship in 2003 and 2005; he is married to former women's world champion Xie Jun.
Source : Wu Shaobin
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Death of Tibetan monk Lobsang Gyatso
Death
Lobsang Gyatso, a Tibetan monk and geshe born in 1928, dies in 1997. He had founded the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in India and served as its director.
Source : Lobsang Gyatso (moine)
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Birth of speed skater Li Wenlong
Birth
Li Wenlong, a Chinese short track speed skater, is born in 2001.
Source : Li Wenlong