Japan. The main architect of the Meiji Reforms, which led to the new Western-style rule, Toshimichi Okubo, is violently attacked and brutally murdered by seven samurai. The fatal blow is delivered with such force that the sword pierces his throat from side to side and remains embedded in the ground. Omura Masujiro, whose reforms Westernized the Japanese military, is the next victim. Traditionalist assassins will continue to pose a threat to the Japanese establishment until the 1930s.
