Chinese Emperor Xian Feng dies at his summer palace in northern China, aged thirty

Quing Dynasty Emperor Xing Feng died at his summer palace in Jehol several hundred miles north of Beijing.  He had fled there when British and French troops had captured the capital. He was thirty years old and had ruled for eleven years.  Cixi, his most influential concubine and the mother of his heir, Zaichun, swiftly took control of her five-year old son's minority and ruled China for the next half century as Empress Dowager. (By John Osborne)