979. ETHELRED II, crowned at Kingston by the famous Dunstan, then
archbishop of Canterbury. This was the first king in England who took a
coronation oath, and the first it is said to institute trial by jury. In
this reign priests were forbidden to marry.
1040. HAROLD I (_Harefoot_), king of England, died. He was succeeded by
his brother Hardicanute, whose first act was to order the body of Harold
to be dug up and thrown into the Thames.
1293. Naval engagement in the British channel, between the French and
English fleets, by mutual agreement, with the whole of their respective
forces. The English, under Edward I, were victorious, carrying off more
than 250 sail of their opponents.
1293. The mariners of Portsmouth and the Cinque Ports captured the
Norman fleet, of 200 ships, off Brittany, and massacred the crews.
1322. FITZ-SIMEON and HUGH the illuminator, two friars of Dublin,
commenced their pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre.
1345. RICHARD AUNGERVILLE, an English scholar and statesman, died;
better known as Richard de Bury. He may be classed as the first
bibliomaniac upon record in England. He purchased thirty or forty
volumes of the _Abbot of St. Albans_, for fifty pounds weight of silver;
and so enamored was he of his collection, which became very large for
that period, that he expressly composed a treatise on the love of books,
entitled _Philobiblon_.
1471. Battle of Barnet, between Edward IV and the great earl of Warwick,
in which the latter was defeated and slain, together with his brother
and 10,000 men. Margaret (the queen of Henry VI, who was confined in the
tower,) landed from France on the same day with troops, only to hear the
tidings of the disaster which had befallen her cause.
1558. Marriage of the dauphin of France with Mary Stuart, queen of
Scots, to whom he had been affianced ten years.
1619. JOHN VAN OLDENBARNEVELDT, a statesman in the time of Elizabeth,
beheaded for his praiseworthy attempts to limit the power of the
stadtholder Maurice, which were construed into crimes. His noble lady,
who witnessed his death without emotion, was afterwards solicitous for
the pardon of a son, telling the astonished Maurice that she did not ask
pardon for her husband for he was innocent, but she entreated for her
son for he was guilty.
1662. WILLIAM FIENNES, Lord Say and Sele, died. He was a troublesome
subject under Charles I and Cromwell; but became tractable under Charles
II (as he had been under James I), and was promoted, instead of others
who had been more devoted to the royal cause.
1685. THOMAS OTWAY, an English dramatist, died. His tragedy of _Venice
Preserved_ still keeps the stage; and though his pieces were generally
successful, he died at a public house (where he had secreted himself
from his creditors) in a state of great destitution, at the early age of
34.
1707. Battle of Almanza, in which the combined English and Portuguese
armies were totally defeated by the French and Spaniards under the duke
of Berwick, with the loss of 5,000 killed and wounded, and 10,000
prisoners.
1711. LOUIS, the dauphin of France, died of smallpox, aged 50.
1743. THOMAS RUNDLE, a learned English prelate, died. He was the
intimate friend of the learned and polite of his age. A volume of his
letters has been published.
1760. LOUIS SILVESTER, an eminent French painter, died. He was ennobled
by the king of Poland.
1769. JOHN GILBERT COOPER, an English miscellaneous writer, died. He was
a man of wealth, who made literature his amusement. His works, original
and translated, are lively and elegant.
1780. Battle of Monk's Corner in South Carolina; the American cavalry
surprised and defeated by Tarleton.
1783. MICHAEL FRANCIS DANDRE-BARDON, a French painter, died. He was
professor in the academy of painting, and admired for his historical
writings.
1785. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD, an English poet, died. His principal works are
the _Roman Father_ and _Creusa_, dramas, which were received with great
applause.
1793. Action between the British ship Phæton and French privateer
Dumourier, with a Spanish prize in tow. The prize was taken; her cargo
was valued at £1,300,000, and £935,000 was adjudged salvage for her
recapture.
1793. JOHN BAPTIST GOBEL, a French bishop, guillotined. He took an
active part in the revolution, abjured religion, and was _condemned by
Robespierre for atheism_, and executed.
1795. A cargo of boards arrived at Newburyport, the first arrival
through the locks and canals on Merrimack river--an expensive project of
inland navigation, which was the best then in vogue.
1796. Battle of Millesimo, Italy; the French under Napoleon defeated the
Austrians and Sardinians, who lost 2,500 killed, about 8,000 prisoners,
and 22 cannon.
1801. LEMUEL HOPKINS, a Connecticut physician and poet, died. He was
singular in his appearance and habits, but possessed great skill and
assiduity in his profession; and as a man of learning and a poet
entitled to more fame than is awarded him.
1803. JOHN F. HAMTRAMCK, an officer of the revolution, died at Detroit,
where he was stationed as colonel of the first regiment of United States
infantry, and commandant of Detroit and its dependencies. He served
during the whole war of the revolution, with such distinguished merit as
to receive the particular approbation of Washington.
1809. BEILBY PORTEUS, bishop of London, died. His talents and
acquirements procured him honors and wealth; and his writings will
perpetuate his name.
1814. Congress repealed the embargo law of Dec, 1813.
1855. The office of the _Industrial Luminary_ in Parkville, Missouri,
was broken into, and ransacked, and the press thrown into the Missouri
river, and the editors ordered to leave the state. The mob voted that no
person belonging to the northern methodist church should preach in
Platte county under "the penalty of tar and feathers for the first
offence, and a hemp rope for the second."