MONDAY, 8th.
1397 _The Union of Calmar_, by which Norway, Sweden and Denmark,
were formed into a single kingdom, under Margaret of Denmark,
commonly called the "Semiramis of the North." This union lasted
till 1520, when Sweden became again an independent state under
Gustavus Vasa.
1797 Died, at Beaconsfield, _Edmund Burke_.
TUESDAY, 9th.
1497 _Vasco de Gama_ sailed from Belem, near Lisbon, on a voyage of
discovery, which terminated in his finding the passage to the
East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, while Columbus was seeking
the shores of Asia, by sailing continually to the West, and in
so doing discovered the _New World_. The Portuguese navigator,
by patiently pursuing the Coast of Africa, and at length
doubling the Cape, which terminates this continent on the south,
actually arrived on this long-sought coast the 22nd of May, 1499
after a voyage of one year and ten months.
1762 _Catherine II._ deposed her husband, Peter III., and caused
herself to be proclaimed Empress of all the Russias.
1816 The countries of La Plata and Paraguay declared themselves free,
and assumed the name of the United Provinces of South America.
WEDNESDAY, 10th.
1212 London Bridge was nearly consumed by a fire, which broke out
at both ends at the same time. In this conflagration near 3000
persons perished, the sides of the bridge being occupied by
rows of houses, there was, consequently, no escape for the
unfortunate inhabitants, thus hemmed in by the fire on two
sides, and the water behind.
1472 The Town of Beauvais saved from falling into the hands of the
Burgundians by the courage and zeal of the women, who, when the
garrison, exhausted by a long resistance, were on the point
of giving way, came to their assistance, led by one Jeanne de
Hachette. This heroine herself threw down from the walls the
Burgundian officer, who was about to plant his standard on them.
Louis XI. made an honourable marriage for her, and commanded
that the event should be annually commemorated by a procession,
in which the females should walk first; a custom which prevails
to this day.
1559 _Henry II. of France_ died of a wound in the eye, received in
a tournament from the Count de Montgomery. In his last moments
the monarch commanded that the unfortunate, but innocent, cause
of his death should not be molested; but, fifteen years after,
he was arraigned for the fact, and sacrificed to the revengeful
feelings of Catherine de Medicis.
THURSDAY, 11th.
1708 The _Duke of Marlborough_ and _Prince Eugene_ obtained a great
victory over the French at Audenard, or Oudenarde, on the
Scheldt.
FRIDAY, 12th.
1536 Death of _Erasmus_.--He was one of the most learned men of the
extraordinary age in which he flourished. Equally courted by the
Sovereigns of France and England, and by the Popes of the House
of Medici, he could never be induced to abandon the learned
pursuits in which he delighted, for the employments or benefices
so profusely offered to him. The cotemporary of Luther, it has
been said of him, that there was not an error which Luther
sought to reform that Erasmus had not made the subject either of
severe censure or keen satire; yet, restrained by the natural
timidity of his temper, by his love of peace, and hoping that
mild measures would produce a gradual amelioration of the vices
he so loudly censured, he chose rather to assume the character
of a mediator between Luther and the Church of Rome, than openly
to join the party of the reformers. He died at Basle, in the
sixty-ninth year of his age, and was interred in the Cathedral
of that town.
SATURDAY, 13th.
1771 _Captain Cook_, in the Endeavour, returned to Portsmouth, having
sailed round the world.
1788 A dreadful storm took place in France, which desolated the
country and destroyed the harvest for a space of fifty leagues.
1789 The first breaking out of the French Revolution; the mob of
Paris forcibly entered the Hospital des Invalides, and possessed
themselves of the arms deposited there.
1793 Marat, the coadjutor of Robespierre and Danton, and one of the
worst monsters the Revolution produced, was assassinated by
Charlotte Cordé.
SUNDAY, 14th.
SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 1223 Died at Mantes, in the forty-third
year of his reign, and the fifty-ninth of his age, _Philip II.
of France_, called by his historians Philip-Augustus. He was the
great rival of Richard Coeur de Lion of England.
1824 _Riho Riho_, or _Tamehameha II., King of the Sandwich Islands_,
died in London; his wife, who came to this country with him, had
died about a week before.