1081. Constantinople besieged by Alexius Commenus.
1507. FRANCIS, of Paula, founder of the order of Minims, died.
1512. Florida discovered by Ponce de Leon.
1594. A skirmish at Edinburgh between the earl of Bothwell and the
cavalry of King James.
1640. MATTHIAS SARBIEUSKI CASSIMIR, a Polish Jesuit, died. He was so
excellent a Latin poet that his poems have been thought to be equal to
some of the best Latin authors, not excepting Horace and Virgil. He had
begun an epic in the style of Virgil, called _The Lesciades_, but died
before it was completed. Many editions of his poems have been published.
1640. PAUL FLEMMING, one of the best German poets of the 17th century,
died.
1683. WILLIAM PENN gave his colonists in Pennsylvania a new charter.
1696. There fell in many parts of Ireland a thick dew, which the country
people called butter, from the consistency and color of it, being soft,
clammy, and of a dark yellow. This phenomenon had for some time been of
frequent occurrence; it fell always in the night, and chiefly in moorish
low grounds, on the top of the grass, and on the thatch of the cabins.
It frequently lay a fortnight without changing its color, and had a bad
odor, like that of church yards or graves.
1698. The earl of Bellemont arrived at New York to succeed Fletcher as
governor.
1736. JACOB TONSON the elder, a noted English bookseller, died.
1743. Birthday of THOMAS JEFFERSON, third president of the United
States.
1747. JOHN JAMES DILLENIUS, a German botanist, died in England. He is
considered as the father of cryptogamic botany. His works were
illustrated with plates, admirably drawn and engraved by himself.
1754. THOMAS CARTE, an English historian, died. He was engaged several
years in writing a history of England, which was published in four vols.
folio, and esteemed a work of great merit.
1755. Severndroog castle, on the coast of Malabar, the rendezvous of the
celebrated pirate Angria, taken by the British under Com. Jones.
1768. JOHN BAPTIST BOYER, a French physician, died. He distinguished
himself by the skill which he displayed during the plague at Marseilles.
1784. County of Washington, in the state of New York, erected.
1791. HONORE GABRIEL RIQUETTI, count de Mirabeau, the French
revolutionist, died. He was an extraordinary character, of great talent
and ambition, but whose genius was controlled by the worst propensities.
He was the master spirit of the revolution, and had he lived might have
given it a different character. His funeral was conducted with great
pomp by the enthusiastic populace.
1793. DUMOURIEZ, the French general, arrested the minister of war and
the commissioners of the convention, who had been sent to arrest him,
and delivered them to the Austrian general, Clairfait.
1794. The British took the island of St. Lucia, in the West Indies,
belonging to the French. It was ceded to the British in 1814.
1794. WILLIAM JONES, a distinguished oriental scholar, died in India.
1801. Battle of Copenhagen, between the Danish and British fleets, the
latter under Nelson and Parker. The Danish ships and batteries were
entirely destroyed, with the loss of 1600 men killed and wounded.
British loss, 254 killed, 689 wounded. Nelson was created viscount on
his return home, and his honors made hereditary, even in the female
line.
1804. JEAN MOSSEQUIN died at Portieu, in France, aged 103. He was
married the day before to his ninth wife, Marie Vascois, aged 19. He
left twenty-nine children.
1817. MRS. MCCOWEN, aged 77, died at Lewistown, Pa. She was one of the
first white women that came up the long narrows to that wilderness which
is now a fruitful field.
1817. KOSCIUSKO abolished servitude in his domain of Siechnowieze, in
Poland, and declared all ancient serfs free, exempted from all charges
and quit-rents, and fully entitled to their chattels and lands.
1821. Erie county, New York, erected.
1823. First paper in Syracuse.
1839. HEZEKIAH NILES died, at Wilmington, Delaware, aged 63. He is known
as the founder, and for twenty-five years the intelligent and laborious
editor of _Nile's Weekly Register_, a valuable journal published at
Baltimore. In private life he was one of the most amiable of men.
1840. RICHARD PHILLIPS, a self-educated English author, and editor of
various publications, died, aged 73. His original name is said to have
been Philip Richard, and he was many years an eminent London bookseller.
He established the _Monthly Magazine_, which at one time had a great
circulation. He was afterwards elected sheriff, and received the honor
of knighthood.
1855. GEORGE BELLAS GREENOUGH, an English geologist, died, aged 77. He
was one of the founders of the Geological society, of London, and
constructed several valuable maps, the most celebrated of which is a
geological and physical map of all India, giving the geological
attributes of each district between the plateaux north of the Himalaya
and cape Cormorin.