The imperial eunuch An Dehai was beheaded in Jinan on this date in 1869.

He was so much the favorite that it’s been clained that the redoubtable Empress Dowager Cixi had outright fallen in love with the courtier.

This was a circumstance destined to sharpen both An’s confidence in his position, and the blades of the inevitable enemies within the Forbidden City who were keen to be rid of him.

In 1869, the eunuch was dispatched to Nanjing as Cixi’s envoy to arrange the wedding gowns for the marriage of her son, the titular boy-emperor in whose name Cixi wielded power. On this trip, Cixi openly flaunted the protocol requiring eunuchs keep themselves inconspicuous, and also allegedly used the occasion to feather his bed with a bit of opportunistic extortion.

This, at any rate, was the report that an imperial governor relayed back to Prince Gong, who had once helped Cixi seize power in the state but had now become her rival. Gong got a quorum of the Grand Council to sign off on An’s execution while Cixi was off at the opera. She was so bereaved to discover his fate that she had his belongings lovingly gathered up for permanent safekeeping.

On this day..

• 2020: Navid Afkari
• 1917: Private John Abigail
• 1862: Not Finnigan, miner's court survivee
• 1835: Francisco Ruiz, prostrated pirate
• 1879: Pocket, on the Hallettsville hanging tree
• 2007: Daryl Holton, wanted dead
• 1864: George Nelson, Indiana Jones rapist
• 1642: Henri Coiffier de Ruze, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
• 1823: Abram Antoine, revenger
• 1772: The Marquis de Sade and his servant, in effigy
• 1914: A French soldier, "yours also is a way of dying for France"
• 1860: (William) Walker, Nicaragua Ranger