August 29 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
1842
The Treaty of Nanking
Aboard HMS Cornwallis off Nanking, China signs the treaty ending the First Opium War. Hong Kong is ceded to Britain and five ports opened to trade. The unequal treaties will rankle China for a century.
1897
The First Zionist Congress
In Basel, Switzerland, Theodor Herzl convenes the First Zionist Congress -- 208 delegates demanding a Jewish homeland in Palestine. At Basel I founded the Jewish state, Herzl writes in his diary. Zionism becomes an organised political movement.