Haitian politician Celigny Ardouin was executed on this date in 1849.
The brother of historian Beaubrun Ardouin (and the already-deceased poet Coriolan Ardouin), Celigny Ardouin was the country’s former Interior Minister but was purged when the slave-turned-general-turned-president Faustin Soulouque, appointed as a figurehead president for the country’s elites, mounted a self-coup to establish himself as the emperor.
Ardouin had opposed Soulouque’s initial selection, and the emerging dictator had opportunistically accused his old foe of orchestrating disturbances in support of a senator who was frustratingly safe from Soulouque’s executioners thanks to French diplomatic pressure.
On this day..
- 2001: Vishal and Sonu, honor killings
- 1661: Jin Shengtan, literary scholar
- 1849: Ernst Elsenhans, Rastatt revolutionary
- 1844: William Saville, brutalising scene
- 1933: The Simele Massacre of Iraq's Assyrians begins
- 2009: Li Peiying, corrupt aviation kingpin
- 1864: Li Xiucheng, Taiping Rebellion general
- 1896: Charles Thiede, the first since Utah statehood
- 1930: Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, strange fruit
- 1936: The Sacred Heart, by Spanish leftists
- 1859: Ormond Chase, casus belli not quite
- 1777: A British spy, by Israel Putnam