Abdul Hamid II was born on 21 September 1842 in Istanbul. The thirty-fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II came to the throne in 1876 and promulgated the first Ottoman constitution, but suspended it and parliament in 1878 and ruled as an autocrat for three decades. He sought to hold the empire together by emphasizing his role as caliph, built railways, including the Hejaz Railway, and telegraph networks, and expanded education. His reign saw territorial losses in the Balkans, Egypt and Tunisia, and the massacres of Armenians in the 1890s, which earned him the name Red Sultan. He was deposed after the Young Turk Revolution and the counter-coup of 1909.
Before and after
- 1842Richard Owen coins the word Dinosauria
- 11 January 1842Birth of William James
- 9 March 1842Premiere of Nabucco
- 29 August 1842Treaty of Nanjing
- 21 September 1842Birth of Abdul Hamid II
- 12 November 1842Birth of John William Strutt
- 27 November 1842Birth of Peter Kropotkin
- 1843Launch of The Economist
- 1843Discovery of terbium
More in Art, literature & culture
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- 17 November 1869Construction of Suez Canal
- 1871The Internationale
- 31 March 1889Construction of Eiffel Tower
- 1894Radio
- from 6 April 1896 to 15 April 18961896 Summer Olympics
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.
