In 1868 Japan was still ruled by a shogun and samurai carried swords.
Less than a century later Tokyo hosted the Olympics and launched the world's first high-speed train.
The events
- Meiji Restoration1868 · Kyoto. In 1868 the Tokugawa shogunate was abolished and power formally returned to Emperor Meiji. Japan, until recently closed to the outside world, carried out Western-style reforms and within decades became an industrial and military power.
- Tokyo Olympics1964 · Tokyo. In October 1964 Tokyo hosted the first Olympic Games held in Asia. The Games, the first relayed live by satellite, showcased a rebuilt Japan; the flame was lit by a young man born in Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing.
More amazing facts
- 1859 · 1869 Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Mendeleev's periodic law (1869) are just ten years apart.
- 1861 Alexander II signed the manifesto freeing the serfs on 3 March 1861 (19 February Old Style); the very next day Lincoln became US president.
- 1861 1861: Russia abolished serfdom, and a united Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in Turin.
- 1861 · 1888 Russia abolished serfdom in 1861 and the USA slavery in 1865; Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, only in 1888.
- 1868 · 1905 Only 37 years after the Meiji Restoration, when Japan was just leaving its samurai order behind, it defeated Russia in the war of 1904–1905.
- 1869 1869: in March Mendeleev presented his periodic table, and in November the Suez Canal opened.