400. B. C. XENOPHON, with the 10,000, forced a passage through the
defiles of Armenia.
1519. MAXIMILIAN I, emperor of Germany, died. He was elected king of
the Romans 1486, and ascended the imperial throne 1493. Under him the
Turks were checked in their enterprises against Germany, and repelled
from his hereditary territories.
1598. The Marquis DE LA ROCHE received from Henry IV a commission to
conquer Canada. He sailed from France with a colony of convicts from the
prisons. He landed them on the Isle of Sable, and sailed for Acadie,
from whence he returned to France. The survivors of the colony, twelve
in number, were taken off seven years afterwards, and presented to the
king in their sealskin clothes and long beards. He gave them fifty
crowns each and pardoned their offences.
1640. An engagement of four days' duration near the Island Tamaraca,
Brazils, between the Dutch and Portuguese, in which the latter were
defeated and the Dutch admiral killed.
1678. A remarkable darkness at noon in England.
1777. General MERCER died of the wounds of the battle of Princeton.
1781. The states general of Holland issued letters of marque and
reprisal against England.
1793. ARTHUR LEE, a distinguished American statesman, died at Urbana,
Va. The long and faithful services which he rendered his country during
his arduous struggles for independence, in the alternate character of
ambassador and statesman, are universally known and acknowledged.
1794. JOHN GEORGE ADAM FORSTER died, aged 40. He was of Scotch descent,
born in Prussia, studied at St. Petersburg, taught German and French in
England, accompanied Cook in his voyage round the world, accepted the
professorship of natural history at Hesse Cassel, was appointed
historiographer of a Russian expedition round the world; this project
being frustrated by the Turkish war, he went to Germany, and residing at
Mentz when the French took that city 1792, was sent by the republicans
to request a union of that city with France. During his absence the
Prussians retook the city, by which he lost all his property, including
his books and papers, and died soon after. The Germans number him among
their classical writers.
1795. In consequence of a great thaw, the communication of the main army
of the French under Pichegru and the four divisions that crossed the
Waal the day before on the ice, was totally interrupted during two days.
1795. Mr. PITT recommended in the British parliament that a premium be
given by government to large families.
1805. British frigate Doris, Capt. Campbell, lost on the Diamond rock,
Quiberon bay. The crew saved themselves and blew up the frigate.
1805. The thermometer at Danbury, Ct., stood at 19° below zero; being
the coldest weather known there since 1780.
1807. A fatal explosion at Leyden, in Holland. A vessel containing
40,000 pounds of powder, moored before the house of Prof. Rau, exploded
with a tremendous crash. Upwards of 200 houses were overthrown, besides
churches and public buildings, 150 persons killed and 2000 wounded.
1809. Cayenne surrendered by the French, to the British and the
Portuguese under Capt. Yeo.
1815. National fast in the United States.