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
1898-1909 Hans to US, carpenter, Great Lakes Seaman, college and seminary
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
1909 Hans accepts call to China from the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America
1911 Manchu Dynasty overthrown
1913 Hans and Danielle meet on Jigong after 11 years separation
1913 Hans and Danielle married on Jigong — build Suiping mission 1913-1918
1914 ASK “American School Kikungshan” established as school for missionary children
1915 Gerhard Nesse born
1917 Henry Nesse born
1922 Arthur Nesse born
1927 Foreigners evacuated China and Chiang took unified China under “Kuomingtang”
Nesse family to US via Russia and Norway. Return to China in fall of 1928
1931 Japan takes over Manchuria
1932 Danielle dies in Xinyang, buried on Jigong. Summer trip to US. Gerhard and Henry stay in US. Art returns to schol at at ASK on Kuling.
1934-1945 “Long March” Communists retreat from South China to remote Shanxi
1937 Japan-China war starts — continues through end of WW II 1945
1941 Pearl Harbor
1942-1945 Hans “interned” by Japanese in Wuhan. Returns to US in 1946.
1948 Hans returns to China and resumes work in Xinyang
1945-1949 Communists defeat Nationalists who retreat to Taiwan
1951 Hans expelled by Communists, dies in Norway enroute 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”
1972 Nixon visits China to initiate cultural, diplomatic and business relations
1976 Mao and Chou die
1979 China-US relations “normalized”. Pinyin replaced Wade Giles for English-Chinese
1980 Deng becomes China’s premiere