1013. ABDULLAH, a Moorish historian, was killed at the taking of
Cordova, his native city.
1421. An inundation of the rivers at Dort, in Holland, which swept away
100,000 persons, and destroyed 72 villages.
1434. The ice broke up at Paris, which had continued from the first of
January. Snow fell in Holland forty days successively during the same
winter.
1492. The Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, signed at Granada
their grant to Columbus, constituting him hereditary admiral and viceroy
over all the islands and continents he should discover during his
expedition, with the benefit of a tithe of the profits arising from the
merchandise found within his admiralty.
1537. The river Simeto, in Sicily, overflowed its banks, and destroyed
500 houses with the neighboring castles, and all the wood was uprooted
by a storm.
1575. WILLIAM DAVENANT, a learned German, died. He was the friend and
confidant of the leaders of the reformation, as well as of every man of
learning and consequence of the age. His works are numerous.
1610. HENRY HUDSON sailed on his last voyage.
1613. A "prodigious monster" born at Adlington, England, with two bodies
joined to one back. It was described by a reverend gentleman, in a
pamphlet entitled _Strange News_.
1670. ERIC DANIEL ACHRELIUS, a Swedish philosopher and professor at Abo,
died, aged 66.
1688. GEORGE VILLIERS, duke of Buckingham, died. He distinguished
himself as a statesman, a poet and dramatic writer; but his character
both in public and private life was extremely reprehensible.
1697. CHARLES XI, king of Sweden, died; successful as a warrior and
accounted a just prince.
1704. _The Boston News Letter_, the first newspaper printed in the North
American colonies, was commenced at Boston, by John Campbell, who was a
bookseller and postmaster, and printed by B. Green.
1711. JOSEPH I, 15th emperor of Austria, died. He was crowned king of
Hungary, 1687; elected king of the Romans, 1690, and succeeded to the
empire of Germany, 1705.
1761. BENJAMIN HOADLEY, bishop of Winchester, died, aged 85. He was a
great controversialist, and started a question which occupied the press
a number of years. His works comprise 4 volumes folio.
1765. Lord BYRON convicted before the house of peers in London of
manslaughter in slaying Mr. Chaworth in a duel. Being a privileged peer,
burning in the hand was dispensed with, and he was discharged on the
payment of fees.
1770. Great illumination of the city of London, on account of the
liberation of the celebrated politician, Mr. Wilkes, from prison.
1777. HENRY WOODWARD, a celebrated English comedian and harlequin, died,
aged 60. His death was occasioned by an accident as he was jumping upon
a table in the character of Scrub!
1780. Engagement between the British fleet under Rodney, and the French,
admiral De Guichen, in the West Indies. The French took shelter under
Guadaloupe, where the British were too much crippled to follow.
1784. Universal religious equality created by law in New York.
1790. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the American printer, statesman and
philosopher, died. He was born at Boston, 1706, and went to Philadelphia
at an early age, where he spent the remainder of his life. His public
career is well known; his private life, written by himself, is full of
counsel, and cautions, and examples of prudence and economy, and is the
largest work he ever composed.
1794. The Russians expelled from Warsaw by the Poles.
1796. The French convention decreed that all printers of journals should
be personally liable for the contents of their papers, as well as the
hawkers, sellers and posters of periodical papers.
1816. An act for improving the internal navigation of the state of New
York, embracing the Erie and Champlain canals, became a law. Stephen Van
Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph Ellison, and Myron
Holley, were created commissioners, and seventy thousand dollars
appropriated to the purpose.
1817. Seven Luddites hanged at Leicester, England. Luddites was a name
given to malcontents who went about destroying labor-saving machinery.
1830. Navigation of the Black sea opened to American vessels.
1834. IVAN PETROVITCH MARTOS, died; formerly director of the academy of
fine arts at St. Petersburg, and one of the most eminent sculptors of
the age. His works are found in the principal cities of Russia.
1835. WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND died. He rendered himself notorious by an
attempt to impose on society some dramatic compositions of his own, as
relics of those of Shakspeare. He confessed himself the author, and
fully exonerated his father who had been implicated in the fraud.
1837. JOSEPH ANDERSON, an American statesman, died at Washington, aged
80. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and served in the New Jersey line
throughout the revolutionary war.
1837. HENRY VOSE died at Woodville, Mississippi, of small pox. He was
distinguished at the West Point school as a proficient in mathematics,
and was subsequently connected with the press in Mississippi, to which
he contributed extensively in geography, statistics and history.
1837. United States sloop of war Natchez captured a Mexican brig of war,
after having made a formal demand upon the Mexican authorities to
release six American vessels which had been illegally captured.
1838. JOHN REILAY died at Troy, aged 104.
1843. ALEXANDER PROUDFIT, pastor of the Associate reformed church at
Salem, Washington co., N. Y., and secretary of the New York Colonization
society, died, aged 75.
1849. The steamer General Pike burnt on the Mississippi, when Col.
Butler of Texas, with several others, perished in the flames.
1850. JAMES THOM, the sculptor, died at New York.
1852. ETIENNE MAURICE GERARD died in Paris, aged 74. He entered the army
in 1791, and was engaged in the battles of Fleurus and Austerlitz, and
in those of the disastrous Russian campaign; became a marshal and peer
of France, and twice held the place of minister of war.
1854. Riot at Saginaw, Michigan; some 300 armed men attempted to burn
the jail, and rescue certain prisoners. The sheriff and others were
killed.
1854. The Winchester, an emigrant ship from Liverpool for Boston, was
wrecked, and a large number of passengers lost.
1855. A new planet of the eleventh magnitude was discovered by Luther,
at the observatory of Bilk, near Dusseldorf.
1855. Petropaulowski deserted by its inhabitants, and its fortifications
destroyed, and what stores could not be removed were burned.
1856. The peace conference at Paris terminated, for the settlement of
the war in the Crimea between Russia on the one side, and England,
France and Turkey on the other.