The European powers took possession of the Chinese government and each demanded a heavy indemnity for the losses sustained. It was through the intervention of President McKinley and Secretary Hay, that the Chinese were enabled to make satisfactory terms with the other nations which had troops in China. The “open door” policy, by which commercial rights were accorded all nations at the ports of China, was a victory for the United States. At the end of the year the allies were in possession of Peking, while the Emperor and Dowager Empress were in the interior. There was no fighting of any consequence after August. In the Philippines, the insurgents were gradually falling back before the advance of the American forces. Aguinaldo retreated to the mountains and his followers were in great part dispersed. Here and there would be found a small armed band, but the skirmishes invariably resulted in American victories. The result of the gubernatorial election in Kentucky, in 1899, was long in doubt and both Democrats and Republicans attempted to seize the State government. Excitement was intense when, on January 30, William Goebel, the Democratic aspirant, was shot and fatally wounded. He died February 3. Governor Taylor, the Republican incumbent, was indicted as an accessory to the crime. For a time serious trouble was feared, but the courts were allowed to settle the claim and civil war was averted. February 5, the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was signed, amending the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The chief feature of the old treaty was the agreement that any canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific would be jointly controlled. America is now free to build and control an isthmian canal. A fire at Ottawa, Canada, swept several square miles of area April 26, rendering 1,500 persons homeless and destroying $15,000,000 worth of property. May 28, a total eclipse of the sun was visible in most of the Southern States, and several good photographs of the heavenly bodies obtained. McKinley and Roosevelt were nominated at Philadelphia, June 21. Three hundred lives were lost and $10,000,000 worth of property destroyed in a fire which started in the North German Lloyd piers at New York and communicated to the ocean liners Saale, Bremen and Main. July 5, Bryan and Stevenson were nominated at the Kansas City convention. King Humbert of Italy was assassinated by an anarchist from Paterson, N. J., named Bresci, July 30. A hurricane swept the gulf states on the night of September 8, reaching the proportions of a tidal wave at Galveston. A large portion of the city was wrecked, 6,000 lives lost, and property worth $12,000,000 destroyed. The havoc created by the waters has no parallel in American annals, with the possible exception of the Johnstown disaster. John Sherman, of Ohio, Senator, Secretary of Treasury, and Secretary of State, died at Washington, October 21. He was one of the Republican leaders for many years.