1208. PHILIP, duke of Swabia, assassinated. He was elected emperor of
Germany, but was obliged to give room to Otho, who had the most powerful
supporters. His memory is still respected in Germany.
1520. The assaults of the Mexicans upon the Spaniards in the centre of
their capital, which had continued without intermission since the
massacre of the 13th May, (q.v.) was made with increased fury on this
day. The Spaniards defended themselves with 12 pieces of artillery,
which made terrible havoc upon their enemy; but as the number of them
was infinite, they covered the sight of their dead with fresh numbers.
The Spaniards with Cortez at their head made a sally into one of the
principal streets, carrying fire and sword among the dense mass,
destroying men and houses before them.
1526. An imperial diet assembled at Spires, and observed the rites of
the reformed church. It was at this sitting that Charles V proposed the
meeting of a general council for reforming the abuses of the church.
1634. JOHN MARSTON died; an English dramatic author. He was a chaste and
pure writer, avoiding the ribaldry and obscenity of the age.
1644. THOMAS WESTFIELD died; a learned English divine, whose eloquence
and pathos procured him the appellation of the weeping prophet.
1663. JOHN BRAMHALL, lord primate of Ireland, died. He was highly
serviceable to the royal cause during the English civil wars.
1667. JOHN HARMAN with 16 ships defeated a French fleet of 30, near
Martinico.
1672. The king of France at the head of 120,000 choice troops, commanded
by the ablest generals in the world, entered Utrecht in triumph, and
advanced within 9 miles of Amsterdam. At this crisis the inhabitants of
Amsterdam opened the sluices and laid the country under water. Fertile
fields, numerous villas and flourishing villages were overwhelmed by the
inundation. They even formed the design of migrating to their
settlements in the East Indies, and erecting a new empire in the
southern extremity of Asia. It was found that there were vessels in the
harbor sufficient to transport 150 families, but a favorable turn in
their affairs, prevented the necessity of having recourse to that
desperate expedient.
1689. WILLIAM THOMAS, an English bishop, died; author of an _Apology for
the Church of England_, and other works.
1695. Namur in Belgium taken from the French after a long and bloody
siege.
1725. JONATHAN WILD, the noted thief catcher, hanged at Tyburn. The
evening previous he tried to poison himself, but lived to be stoned and
hooted by the populace on his way to the gallows.
1744. ROGER GALE, an English antiquary, died; esteemed one of the most
learned and polite scholars of the age.
1767. GODFREY SELLIUS, a Prussian historian, died.
1781. The wives, children and dependents of those inhabitants of
Charleston, who resided in the rebel colonies, ordered by the British to
quit the place by the 1st of August. More than 1,000 persons were thus
exiled.
1782. Action between the French and Spanish fleet, 25 sail, and the
Newfoundland and Quebec fleets; 18 of the latter, laden chiefly with
provisions, were captured.
1784. Judge WHITE, with his family, having ascended the Mohawk river,
landed at the mouth of the Sauquoit. Hence the origin of Whitestown. The
country then was an unbroken wilderness.
1788. Virginia, the tenth state, adopted the federal constitution, 89 to
79, the least majority of any state except New York.
1794. CHARLES BARBAROUX, a noted French revolutionist, guillotined. He
attacked the usurpations of Robespierre and the machinations of the
Jacobins, by which he fell.
1794. Charleroi surrendered to the French under Jourdan, seven days
after the trenches had been opened. General Reinach and 3,000 Austrians
who defended the fortress, were made prisoners of war.
1795. WILLIAM SMELLIE, a Scottish naturalist, died. He was a printer by
profession, wrote for the _Encyclopedia Brittannica_, translated
_Buffon_, and conducted the _Edinburgh Review_ and _Magazine_.
1807. An armistice between the emperors of France and Russia, when they
held a personal conference upon a raft moored in the river Niemen, near
Tilsit. The sovereigns embraced each other, and retiring under a canopy,
had a long conversation, to which no one was a witness.
1813. British under admiral Cockburn, with 2,000 troops, took Hampton,
Va., and pillaged it for two days.
1815. BONAPARTE'S farewell address to his soldiery.
1816. HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE, a Pennsylvania judge, died; known as the
author of _Modern Chivalry_, a poem, and by other works.
1823. ALEXANDER GRIFFITHS, at once a parricide and suicide, was buried
in the cross roads near London; the last so interred, as the act giving
suicides Christian burial then took effect.
1841. ALEXANDER MACOMB, commander in chief of the army of the United
States, died at Washington. He entered the service of the United States
in 1799 as cornet of dragoons; was raised to the rank of brigadier
general in 1814, and commanded at the successful battle of Plattsburgh.
1842. M. SISMONDI, the historian, died near Geneva, aged 69.
1844. JARVIS CUTLER, the first white man that cut down a tree for a
settlement in Ohio, died at Evansville, Indiana.
1852. DUDLEY MARVIN, an eminent lawyer of western New York, died, aged
65, at Ripley, Chautauque county. He was a native of Lyme, Ct., studied
at Canandaigua, and was several times returned to congress.