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Deaths on January 26

Duncan Gordon Boyes
1869Jan, 26

Duncan Gordon Boyes

Duncan Gordon Boyes, English soldier; Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1846)
Duncan Gordon Boyes VC (5 November 1846 – 26 January 1869) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The award was bestowed upon him for his actions during the Shimonoseki Expedition, Japan in 1864. He was later discharged from naval service as a result of ill-discipline and moved to New Zealand to work on his family's sheep station. Suffering from depression and alcoholism, he committed suicide at the age of 22 in Dunedin.

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Events on 1869

  • 6Mar

    Periodic table

    Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
  • 28Apr

    First Transcontinental Railroad

    Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
  • 15May

    Susan B. Anthony

    Women's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
  • 17Nov

    Suez Canal

    In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
  • 22Nov

    Clipper

    In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched and is one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.