200 BC | China united under Chin (Qin) dynasty | |
1842 | Treaty of Nanking ends Opium War | |
1851-1864 | “Taiping Rebellion” Suppressed by Manchus with help from the west. | |
1881 | Danielle and Hans born in Bremnes, Finaas, Norway (Island near Bergen) | Were school classmates |
1898-1909 | Hans to US, carpenter, Great Lakes Seaman, college and seminary | |
1898 | Hans Immigrated to US at age 16 to Chicago, IL | There was no work for him in Norway |
~ 1889-1904 | Worked as a carpenter | Paul Ekle was a Norwegian man who befriended Hans. Paul was a carpenter |
~ 1898-1904 | Worked as a steward in the Great Lakes Steamer lines | |
~ 1904-1906 | Graduated HS Pleasant View Academy in Ottawa, IL | |
~1907-1910 | Attended Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN and was ordained | listed in the 1910 census as a student |
1910 | Was “sponsored” by a Lutheran Church in Winnebago, IL | |
— | — | — |
1899 | US “Open Door” policy | |
1900 | Boxer anti-foreign rebellion | |
1902 | Missionary interests buy large tract on Kikung for summer retreat | |
1909 | “Sister” Danielle accepts Norwegian Missionary Society call to China as a nurse in Yiyang (on the Yangtze River) | |
1910 | Hans accepts call to China from the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America | |
1911 | Manchu Dynasty overthrown | |
1910 – 1913 | Hans has orientation to Chinese Language, mission Work and preaching centered in Xinyang | |
1913 | Hans and Danielle, without intervening contact, meet on Jigong after 11 years separation | |
1913 | Hans and Danielle married on Jigong | |
1913 – 1922 | Hans and Danielle built Suiping Mission/Church/School | |
1914 | ASK “American School Kikungshan” established as school for missionary children | |
1915 | Gerhard Nesse born | |
1917 | Henry Nesse born | |
1918 | Nesse Family has a furlough to US via Norway | |
1922 | Arthur Nesse born at Mission Hospital Kioshan, Honan | |
1922 – 1924 | Hans no longer in charge of Suiping Mission but they still lived there | |
1924 | Hans and Danielle moved to Xinyang | |
1927 | Civil War — Foreigners evacuated China and Chiang took over and unified China under Kuomingtang” Nesse family to US via Russia and Norway. | |
1928 | Chiang renews China’s relations with the West – Business and missionaries return | |
1931 | Marco Polo bridge “incident” Japan takes over Manchuria – continues conquest to south | |
1932 | Danielle dies in Xinyang, buried on Jigong. | |
1932 | Summer trip to US at Hans expense. Gerhard and Henry stay in US: school at Waldorf Academy and College, Iowa. Art returns to school at ASK moved to Kuling because Kikung “unsafe” due to communists | Gerhardt needed to be in US (for immigration purposes) before he turned 18 for citizenship |
1934-1945 | “Long March” Communists, defeated by Chiang, retreat from South China to remote Shanxi | |
1936 | Hans had regular furlough in Northfield, MN; GN to St. O last year, HN enters St. O: AN has 1st yr. HS at Northf’l high | |
1937 | Art moves to North Dakota to family of uncle: Hans returns to Xinyang | Hans now has no family living in China |
1937 | Japan-China war starts – Chiang forces to Chungking, Communists to Yunnan and make phony alliance vs. Japan U.S. helps China. War become a subset of WW II continues through 1945 | |
1941 | Pearl Harbor, China a U.S. ally | |
1942-1945 | Hans “interned” by Japanese in Wuhan. Writes “Under Japan’s New Order” | |
1946 | Hans returns to US | |
1947 | “Under Nippon’s New Order” is published. Art typed and edited. | |
1948 | Hans returns to China and resumes work in Xinyang | |
1945-1949 | Communists defeat Nationalists who retreat to Taiwan | |
1951 | Hans expelled by Communists – documents “negotiations” Dies in Norway en route from China to US | |
1951-1953 | Communists purge propertied classes, 5-10 million killed, redistribute land to peasants | |
1957-1958 | “Great Leap Forward” farm collectivization and industrialization, 20 million starve | |
1966- 1969 | “Cultural Revolution” destroys historical artifacts, educational institutions etc. | |
1972 | Nixon visits China to initiate cultural, diplomatic and business relations | |
1976 | Mao and Chou die | |
1979 | China-US relations “normalized”. Communists adopted a “standard language”, (Mandarin) for all china. Pinyin replaced Wade Giles for English-Chinese | |
1981 | Deng becomes China’s premiere – begins rapprochement with Western powers. | |
mid 1980s | China opens to Foreign contact and tourism | |
1987 | Art returns to China: Visits home area | |
199XXX | Memorial Moongate dedication; dedicated at site of Kikung cemetery; place of Danielle’s grave | |