323 B. C. ALEXANDER (_the Great_,) of Macedon, died of intemperance. The
death of this famous hero took place at Babylon, on the 6th day of the
Athenian month Thagelion, which then corresponded with the 28th of the
Macedonian month Dæsius. He lived 32 years and 10 months, and reigned,
computing from the Olympiad six months prior to the death of Philip, 12
years and 10 months--a brief career of extraordinary, but profitless
glory.
1190. RICHARD I (_Cœur de Lion_), killed at the siege of Chalus, in
France. He commenced his career by rebellion against his father. On
ascending the throne of England, he plundered and massacred the Jews,
and set sail for Palestine with the bravest of his subjects. Taking the
lead in the crusade, he gained a series of victories over the Moslem. On
his way home he was seized and imprisoned, and ransomed by his subjects
with 150,000 marks. He was preparing for another crusade, when his
career was suddenly terminated by a wound from a cross-bow, in the 42d
year of his age.
1348. LAURA DE NOVES, Petrarch's mistress, died. She was descended of a
Provencal family which became extinct in the 16th century, inherited a
large fortune by the death of her father, and married Hugh de Sade of
Avignon. She was considered the most beautiful woman of the city.
Petrarch says it was 6 o'clock in the morning of the 6th April, 1327,
that he first saw her in the church of the nuns of St. Clara; and it was
at the same hour of the same day, 1348, that she died of the plague.
Nearly two centuries after, some antiquarians obtained permission to
open her grave. They found a parchment enclosed in a leaden box,
containing a sonnet bearing Petrarch's signature.
1453. MOHAMMED II besieged Constantinople, which terminated in the
overthrow of the Christian empire.
1528. ALBRECHT DUERER, a celebrated German painter and engraver, died.
He is still esteemed in Germany as one of the brightest jewels in her
crown of fame. He was the reformer if not the founder of the German
school of painting, and was the first to bring the art of engraving to
any degree of perfection.
1574. PAUL MANUTIUS, a learned Venetian printer, died, aged 62. He wrote
valuable commentaries on Cicero, and four treatises on Roman
antiquities.
1580. Earthquake which was felt throughout England. The bells rang, and
chimneys toppled down.
1590. FRANCIS WALSYNGHAM, an English statesman, died, aged 90. He
flourished in the reign of Elizabeth, and was of infinite service to the
state, by the energy and zeal with which he performed the duties of his
offices. Yet he died so poor that his remains were privately buried by
night, without any ceremony.
1609. HENRY HUDSON departed from the Texel on his famous voyage of
discovery, the object of which was to find a northern passage to India.
Meeting with obstructions he determined to attempt a north-west passage;
and this also being attended with disasters, he shaped his course south
along the American continent, and discovered the noble river which bears
his name, and gave him immortality.
1645. WILLIAM BURTON, an English antiquary, died. He published a history
of the county of Leicestershire, which is valuable.
1655. DAVID BLONDEL, a French protestant minister, died. He had the
misfortune to lose his sight by close application to study, but even
under that calamity he dictated two folio volumes on the genealogy of
the kings of France. He was a man of great learning.
1686. ARTHUR ANNESLEY, earl of Anglesey, died. He was a statesman of
great utility, sagacity and learning, under Charles I.
1695. RICHARD BUSBY, a celebrated English schoolmaster, died. He was
educated by the bounty of the parish, and became head master of
Westminster school, which place he held during half a century. He
educated most of the eminent men who flourished about the period of his
death. They regarded him as a father, though a severe one.
1707. WILLIAM VAN DER VELDE (the younger), a Dutch painter, died. He was
an admirable artist, distinguished for his excellence in marine
subjects, painted in black and white, on a ground so prepared on canvas,
as to give it the appearance of paper. It is said he has had no equal in
his line.
1717. JAMES PERIZONIUS, a German professor at Leyden, died. He published
various works in Latin, on history, classical literature and
antiquities; and was a man of extensive erudition, great application and
sound judgment.
1739. The workmen at Stocks market, England, disinterred a grave stone
with antique letters, supposed to have been buried 297 years.
1743. WILLIAM MELMOTH, (the elder,) a learned English lawyer, died. He
is better known by a treatise on religious life, of which immense
editions have been published.
1751. FREDERICK, king of Sweden and landgrave of Hesse Cassel, died.
1755. RICHARD RAWLINSON, an English antiquary, died. He was an
indefatigable collector, and made himself useful to his cotemporary
antiquaries in the completion of their works. The sale of the printed
books and pamphlets of his library occupied 60 days.
1760. CHARLOTTE CHARKE, the last surviving daughter of Colley Cibber,
died.
1776. Action between the British ship Glasgow, of 20 ninepounders, and
her tender, Capt. Howe, and American brigantine Cabot, 20 nines and 10
sixes; Columbus, 18 nines, 10 sixes; Annodine brig, 6 guns, and
Providence sloop, 12 sixes, under Com. Hopkins. The British made the
attack, and continued the engagement 3 hours, when the tender was
captured, but the Glasgow escaped.
1793. The French army evacuated Antwerp and Mons in Belgium, and
retreated towards Valenciennes and Lisle.
1794. The French took Oneglia, in Sardinia, where they captured 2
frigates and a few galleys.
1796. DAVID ALLAN, a Scottish painter, died. He practiced history,
portrait and landscape; but exercised his talents chiefly on works of
humor. Some of his pieces have been engraved.
1796. DAVID CAMPBELL, a Scottish divine, died. He was professor of
divinity at Aberdeen, translated the gospels, and answered Hume on the
miracles.
1799. CLAYTON MORDAUNT CRACHERODE, an English antiquary, died. He was a
man of great wealth and literary attainments, and his library and
cabinet was one of the most select and valuable in the kingdom. His
immense collection of books, medals, drawings, &c., &c., he bequeathed
to the British museum.
1804. CHARLES PICHEGRU, the French general, died. He was born 1761, of
poor parents, educated in a monastery, and was a tutor of Bonaparte at
Brienne. He came to America with a French regiment near the close of the
revolution. At the outbreak of the revolution in France he distinguished
himself so much that he rose to be the first in command, and achieved a
series of most brilliant and important victories, which resulted in the
conquest of Holland. He was detected in a plot for the restoration of
the Bourbons, which cut short his career, and he died in prison by
strangulation.
1808. Corner stone laid of the vault prepared for the relics of the
American seamen, soldiers and citizens, who perished in the British
prison ships at the Wallabout, during the war of the revolution.
1810. Three days' rioting commenced in London on account of Francis
Burdett's budget.
1811. French privateer Revance de Cerfe, burnt at Norfolk, Va. She was
fired by 15 men in 2 boats, at about 2 A. M.
1812. Badajos, in Spain, taken by storm, at ten at night, by the British
and Portuguese troops under Wellington; loss of the allied army 4000;
the defence made by the French governor was brave, determined and
noble.
1813. Lewistown, Delaware, cannonaded about 20 hours by the British
frigate Belvidere. The defence was conducted in such a manner that but
little injury was done.
1814. The French provisional government proposed, and the conservative
senate adopted the form of a constitution; a limited monarchy, founded
on the French and American constitutions, and declared Louis XVIII king.
1815. The American prisoners in Dartmoor prison fired upon by their
guard, and many of them killed and wounded. The prince regent pointedly
disapproved of their conduct, censured the officers and soldiery, and
offered to make provision for the widows and families of the sufferers;
this, however, was rejected by president Madison.
1829. HENRY NICHOLAS ABEEL, one of the most acute mathematicians of the
present age, died.
1831. Revolution in Brazil. Don Pedro abdicated in favor of his son, who
was proclaimed Don Pedro II.
1853. The Mexican Governor TRIAS issued a proclamation at Chihuahua,
relative to the possession of the Mesilla valley, threatening to resist
the occupation of New Mexico by the United States.
1855. An asteroid was discovered by M. Chacornac, at the imperial
observatory of France.
1856. The constitution of the new state of Deseret was established by a
people's convention at Salt Lake city, Utah territory.