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Events on Wednesday 2 December 1908 1
1908 – 1912Puyi becomes Emperor of ChinaTwo years oldPuyi is placed on the throne days after the deaths of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi within twenty-four hours of each other. He screams through his own enthronement. He abdicates at six in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule, and spends the rest of his life as a restored emperor for eleven days, a Japanese puppet in Manchukuo, a Soviet prisoner, a Chinese war criminal, a re-educated gardener and finally a citizen of the People's Republic.