1470. Battle of Erpingham, in England, and defeat of the rebels under
Sir Robert Welles.
1507. CÆSAR BORGIA killed by a cannon shot before the castle of Biano.
He was the natural son of Pope Alexander VI, and by him invested with
the purple. He was a man of such conduct and character that Machiavel
has thought fit to propose him, in his famous book, called _The Prince_,
as a pattern to all princes who would act the part of wise and polite
tyrants. He allowed no one to stand in his way to promotion from any
scruples to removing them by the foulest means.
1578. ALEXANDER PICCOLOMINI died; author of dramatic and other pieces.
He was the first who used the Italian language in philosophical
subjects.
1581. WILLIAM FULKE preached a sermon within the tower of London in the
hearing of such obstinate papists as were there imprisoned.
1612. The third charter of Virginia granted, by which new privileges and
immunities were given for the encouragement of the colony.
1664. CHARLES II, of England, granted to his brother the duke of York,
all Mattawacks, now Long Island; all Hudson's river, and all the lands
from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware
bay, together with the royalties and rights of government.
1676. Action between the French fleet under Duquesne, and the Spanish
and Dutch fleets under De Ruyter, who was mortally wounded.
1682. Chelsea hospital, England, founded.
1683. The first assembly of Pennsylvania was holden at Philadelphia, two
years from the time that Penn obtained the charter.
1697. LUDOVICK MUGGLETON, a schismatic English tailor, died. He
entertained notions peculiar to himself, and damned all who differed
from him. He was pilloried and imprisoned, and his books burnt by the
hangman.
1703. AUBREY DE VERE died. His father was the valiant Robert de Vere,
who married the daughter of a Friesland boor, named Beatrix Van Hemims.
He was lord of the bed chamber to Charles I; was found so passive under
Cromwell, that he escaped even the fine; conformed to the manners of the
court of Charles II; went over from James II to William the conqueror;
and was graceful in old age at the court of Queen Anne. He had been
privy councilor to each of these sovereigns, and was hereditary lord
chamberlain, senior knight of the garter, and premier earl of England.
1713. STEELE commenced his paper _The Guardian_.
1716. ISAAC BRIAND was fined £2000 by the court of aldermen, London, for
marrying Miss Elizabeth Watson, an orphan of 13 years of age and a great
fortune, without their consent.
1761. The shock of an earthquake felt in Massachusetts and the adjoining
states, at half past two in the morning.
1768. Six students of Edmund hall, Oxford, were expelled the university
for methodism. Their crime was praying, expounding the scriptures and
singing psalms.
1772. Montgomery (originally Tyron) county, N. Y., erected.
1775. The earl of Effingham resigned his command in a regiment ordered
to America. He refused to bear arms against his fellow subjects in the
colonies.
1780. The British garrison at Mobile, Capt. Durnford, capitulated to the
Spaniards under Don Bernardo de Galvez. The garrison consisted of 284
regulars, 54 inhabitants and 51 armed Indians.
1797. The French under Serrurier crossed the Piave, having defeated the
Austrians who opposed their passage.
1801. The British fleet sailed from Aboukir bay, Egypt, and the army
under Abercrombie, having effected their landing, took up their line of
march for Alexandria.
1807. British order in council, interdicting all trade between port and
port in France.
1809. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IV, king of Sweden, dethroned, and the reigns of
the government assumed by his uncle the duke of Sudermania, afterwards
Charles XIII. (By some authorities, March 15.)
1811. The French under Massena attacked at Redinha, Portugal, by the
duke of Wellington, and compelled to fall back.
1813. Warren county, N. Y., erected.
1814. The allied British and Portuguese, under Marshal Beresford, took
possession of Bordeaux in France, in the name of Louis XVIII.
1819. ROBERT WATT, author of the _Bibliotheca Britannica_, died. His
family were severe sufferers by the failure of Constable & Co., of
Edinburgh.
1837. M. DE PRADT, archbishop of Malines, died at Paris, aged 78. He
bore a conspicuous part in the political history of France, was often
employed in important missions, and was the author of many political
publications.
1843. LITTLETON HUNT, aged 107, died at Guinett, Ga. When a soldier of
the revolutionary army he was severely wounded at the battle of Eutaw
springs.
1844. EDWARD R. SHUBRICK, a brave and accomplished American naval
officer, died on board his ship, the Columbia, off the coast of Brazil,
aged 50.
1846. JONATHAN ELLIOT, a well known newspaper editor and political
writer, died at Washington, D. C.
1854. HUGH MACPHERSON died, aged 86; for 61 years professor of Greek at
the university of Aberdeen.
1857. Rail road accident on the Great Western railway in Canada, by
which a great number of persons were killed at a bridge over the Des
Jardins canal.
1857. JOHN JOHNSON, an old revolutionary soldier, died in Alleghany
township, Westmoreland county, Penn., aged 103. He served in the
continental army during the whole of the revolutionary war; fought at
the battles of the White plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine,
Germantown, Monmouth, Stony point, Guilford court house, and Yorktown
where Lord Cornwallis capitulated and surrendered to Gen. Washington, in
all the battles and skirmishes of Gen. Anthony Wayne; and at the
storming of Stony point by Wayne, he formed one of the _forlorn hope_.