879. LOUIS II. of France, died. He is characterized as a weak prince,
who had not sufficient firmness to maintain his rights.
1534. JAMES CARTIER sailed from France with two small ships and 122 men,
with a view to the establishment of a colony. He arrived at Newfoundland
in May, and named the gulf St. Lawrence, from his entering it on the day
of that festival. He returned without effecting a settlement.
1563. The city of Goa in India introduced printing.
1599. GABRIELLE D'ESTREES, a mistress of Henry IV, died. She was
descended from an illustrious house, and was 20 years of age when her
beauty captivated the king. He procured a divorce from Margaret of
Valois, in order to raise Gabrielle to the throne; but her sudden death,
probably by poison, frustrated the plan, and plunged him in excessive
grief. Her amiable disposition, gentleness of character and modesty, won
her general favor, and she was universally lamented by the French.
1603. A couple of vessels, fitted out by the mayor and aldermen of
Bristol, under the command of Martin Pring, to make discoveries on the
north of Virginia, and collect sassafras, sailed for the American coast.
The sassafras, which was greatly overrated for its medicinal virtues,
formed a profitable article of traffic, and is still extensively
exported to Great Britain. Of this, they procured a cargo near Bristol,
Rhode Island.
1606. The colony of Virginia, as it was called, divided by the king into
two colonies. Although 109 years had elapsed since the discovery of the
country by the Cabots, in the service of Henry VII, the English had made
no effectual settlement in the new world. Twenty years had elapsed since
Walter Raleigh attempted the settlement of a colony in Virginia, but not
an Englishman was now to be found in the country.
1630. WILLIAM HERBERT, earl of Pembroke, died. He was the son of the
illustrious Mary Sidney, and united in himself the virtues of his mother
with the manners and accomplishments of a scholar. He is the author of a
volume of poems.
1651. Birthday of EHRENFRIED WALTER VON TSCHIRNHAUSEN, an ingenious
Lusatian mathematician, and founder of the celebrated Dresden porcelain
manufactory. He also constructed, about the year 1687, an extraordinary
burning mirror.
1653. OLIVER CROMWELL, having turned out the long parliament, locked the
doors upon them.
1703. ANDREW MOREL, a Swiss antiquary died. He was a diligent and
curious collector of medals, and in a work published in 1683 promised to
give a description of twenty thousand medals, exactly designed. A part
of this great work appeared after his death, in two vols., folio,
describing 3,539.
1728. ROBERT WOODCOCK, an eminent English musician and composer, died.
He also excelled as a painter of sea pieces.
1736. FRANCIS EUGENE, prince of Savoy, died, aged 73. He was born at
Paris, and destined for the church, against his own inclinations. He
applied to the king for a company of dragoons, and on being refused,
entered the Austrian service. His first campaign was in capacity of a
volunteer against the Turks; where he acquitted himself with so much
distinction, that he was appointed to the command of a company of
dragoons. He finally rose step by step to the rank of commander in chief
of the Austrian army, and achieved a succession of brilliant victories
and enterprises in Europe, which humbled the arms of the French, and
rendered his name immortal in the annals of fame. His successful
campaign in conjunction with the duke of Marlborough, rendered him so
popular in England, that a maiden lady bequeathed him £2500, and a
gardener £100. [By some authorities, 21st.]
1741. Battle of Molwitz, between the Prussians and Austrians. The latter
were defeated with the loss of 7000 men and 180 officers. The Prussians
took 1200 prisoners; their loss was 1500 killed, and 3000 wounded.
1752. WILLIAM CHESELDEN, an eminent English surgeon and anatomist, died.
He acquired great professional reputation, and published several popular
works. He was the first foreigner admitted into the French royal academy
of surgery.
1756. JOSEPH VAISSETTE, a French ecclesiastic, died. He published a
_History of Languedoc_, and a _Universal Geography_.
1774. JOHN SAAS, a French canon and librarian, died. He wrote an
abridgment of the French _Historical Dictionary_, and other works.
1786. JOHN BYRON, the English admiral, died. He enjoys a high and
merited reputation for courage and professional skill.
1794. The islands of the Saints, in the West Indies, captured by the
British.
1795. Action between the British ship Astrea, Capt. Pawlet, and French
ship La Glorie, 24 guns: the latter was captured.
1796. Battle of Montenotte, which was attacked by the Austrians under
Beaulieu, and defended by the French under Rampon, with such desperate
resistance that Bonaparte had time to come up and obtain a victory,
taking 2000 prisoners.
1797. Miss FARREN, the actress, took leave of the stage, after the
performance of her part in the _School for Scandal_, to marry the earl
of Derby.
1798. BERNADOTTE, the French ambassador at Vienna, in obedience to the
Directory, displayed the tri-colored flag at his lodgings; but the
populace in a rage tore it down. Not receiving the satisfaction he
desired, he left the court.
1806. HORATIO GATES, a distinguished officer in the revolutionary war,
died. He came over from England as a soldier, and at the defeat of
Braddock, 1755, was shot through the body. He joined the American army
in 1775, and in 1777 captured Burgoyne. He was afterwards defeated by
Cornwallis, at Camden. In 1790 he liberated his slaves in Virginia, and
removed to New York, where he died.
1813. VON BERGER and FINK executed at Oldenberg, Germany. When the
Russians approached the town, the French magistrates fled, leaving a
committee of regency of which the above were members. This committee
were summoned before a court martial, at which Vandamme presided, and
these two excellent men were unjustly condemned to death, although their
accuser had only proposed their imprisonment.
1813. JOSEPH LOUIS LAGRANGE, a Sardinian mathematician, died. He went to
Paris 1787, where he met with great favor, and under Bonaparte was
invested with honors and dignities. His chief work is the _Méchanique
Analitique_.
1814. Battle of Toulouse, at which the French under Soult were defeated
by Wellington.
1816. The bank of the United States incorporated by act of congress,
with a capital of $35,000,000.
1818. JOHN CLEVES SYMMES, "of Ohio, late captain of infantry,"
promulgated "to all the world," his theory that the earth is hollow,
containing a number of solid concentric spheres, one within the other,
and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees. His theory amused the
world for a number of years.
1823. CHARLES LEONARD REINHOLD, an Austrian philosopher, died. He was
sent to study with the Jesuits, whose order was abolished while he was a
student. In 1787 he settled at Jena, which owes much of its reputation
to him, and in 1797 at Kiel, where he died. His works are numerous.
1835. JACOB SCHMUCK, a distinguished officer in the war of 1812 with
England, died. He was a native of Pennsylvania, died at St. Augustine.
1842. JOHN SUTHERLAND, commonly called _Killyman_, died at Merigonisbe,
aged 116. He was born in the last year of the reign of George I, and
consequently lived under all the sovereigns of the house of Hanover, six
in number. He emigrated to Nova Scotia about 1822, and continued to wear
the kilt to the end of his life, declaring that he would never disgrace
his country by adopting a foreign garb.
1856. The Americans under Lieut. Green attacked 200 Costa Ricans, killed
27 of them and dispersed the rest. American loss 1 killed and 2 wounded.
1856. A company of 208 men left New York to join Gen. Walker in
Nicaragua.