1402. Birthday of JOAN OF ARC.
1540. HENRY VIII married Anne, daughter of John, duke of Cleves. This
was his fourth wife. He had asked her hand in marriage after having seen
a portrait of her by Holbein; and becoming disgusted with her in six
months bestowed upon her the epithet of _Flanders mare_, and sent her
home. She retired, not much disconcerted, to her own country, where she
died 1557.
1649. ANNE OF AUSTRIA, queen regent of France, obliged to fly from Paris
to St. Germain.
1698. Birthday of METASTASIO, the celebrated Italian poet.
1711. CHRISTOPHER BATEMAN, a noted English bookseller, died. He suffered
none to open a book in his shop till it was bought.
1724. The bishop of London preached a sermon against masquerades, which
produced a decree that no more than six masquerades, the number already
subscribed for, should be held.
1725. Pope BENEDICT XIII, in great state and measured ceremony, opened
with a golden hammer the _holy gates_ of the four great churches which
had been shut 25 years, for obtaining indulgences, &c.
1734. JOHN DENNIS, an English dramatist and critic, died. He was the son
of a saddler, born in London 1657, and liberally educated. His first
play appeared in 1697, and was followed by many dramatic pieces and
poems which were sufficiently worthless to procure their author an
imperishable notoriety in the _Dunciad_, where Pope has gibbeted him. He
squandered a fortune which had been left him by an uncle, and not being
able to subsist by his pamphlets and criticisms for the magazines,
depended upon his friends for a living; and even those whom he had made
his enemies joined in the benefit for him at the Haymarket theatre,
after he had become blind and partially insane. One of his plays, which
was condemned, is famous for a new kind of thunder introduced in it; a
few nights after its representation, the players made use of the
contrivance in Macbeth, when the author rose in the pit and with an oath
claimed it as his thunder. His _thunder_ is said to be that still used
in the theatres.
1738. JEAN BAPTIST LABAT, a missionary and traveler, died. He was born
at Paris 1663, and became a Dominican priest in Norway, where he taught
mathematics and philosophy also. In 1693 he embarked for Martinique as a
missionary; and during several voyages in service of the mission,
visited all the Antilles. When the English attacked the island of
Guadaloupe, he rendered his country important services as an engineer.
He afterwards traveled much in Europe, and published his travels. His
voyage to the West Indies has been translated into several languages,
and is a truly scientific work.
1763. Unsuccessful and very disastrous attack by two English ships on
Buenos Ayres. The commodore and nearly 300 of the crew were drowned.
1766. The wild man PETER taken in the Hartz forest and presented to
George II, was brought from Cheshunt and shewn to George III and his
queen. Like Shakespeare's Caliban, he could bring wood and water but not
articulate any language.
1777. The American army, under Gen. Washington, went into winter
quarters at Morristown, N. J.
1781. ARNOLD detached Lieut. Col. Simcoe, from Richmond to Westham, Va.,
who destroyed the cannon foundry and a quantity of public stores which
had been removed from Richmond.
1785. The Halsewell, East Indiaman, Capt. Richard Pearce, wrecked on the
island of Purbeck; of 240 persons but 74 were saved.
1794. The duke of Brunswick resigned his command as generalissimo of the
coalition against France.
1795. French frigate La Pique, 33 guns, captured off Marigalante by the
British frigate Blanche, Capt. Faulkner, who was shot through the heart;
also 7 of his crew killed and 21 wounded. La Pique had 76 killed, 113
wounded, and 30 were lost when her mast went overboard.
1810. JAMES RICHARD DACRES died of a fall from his horse. He was
vice-admiral of the Red, and father of the Capt. Dacres captured by
Hull.
1813. ALEXANDER issued his ukase at Wilna, directing the foundation
stone of a new church to be instantly laid in Moscow, dedicated to
_Christ our Savior_, as a perpetual monument to future generations of
the deliverance of Russia from the French, and the devotion of his
people.
1816. FRANCIS NORODSKY, a Polish gentleman, died at Warsaw, aged 125.
The Polish government allowed him a pension of 3000 florins, which the
emperor Alexander continued till his death.
1817. General THOMAS died, at Milledgeville, Georgia, of cancer in the
mouth.
1823. The siege of Missolonghi raised. Mavrocordato, the commander in
chief, had thrown himself into the town on the 5th of November with 380
men, and 22 Suliots under Marco Botzaris, and though almost destitute of
artillery and ammunition, defended it against the Turkish forces. On the
23d November it was relieved by sea, and the enemy were repulsed in
several assaults, when they finally abandoned the walls.
1831. Died at Geneva, RODOLPHE KREUTZER, a distinguished violinist and
musical composer.
1836. ABRAHAM VAN VECHTEN died at Albany, aged 75. He was a highly
respected man, an eminent lawyer, and one of the fathers of the New York
bar.
1839. A tremendous gale or hurricane in the west of England, which did
great damage at Liverpool.
1840. Madame D'ARBLAY, the well known novelist, Miss Burney, died at
Bath. Lord Chancellor Thurlow said her _Cecilia_ was worth all the books
in his library.
1841. Great freshet in the Hudson river and tributaries.
1849. GEORGE SINNET, a native of Germany, the last survivor of Gen.
Wolfe's army, died at Brighton, Nova Scotia, aged 120.
1854. Russians defeated at Citale, near Kalafat, with a loss of 2500
men.