383. GRATIANUS, emperor of Rome, assassinated at the age of 24. He was a
powerful Christian ruler, but of an unfortunate turn of mind to conduct
a government.
1170. STRONGBOW, under king Dermot, carried Dublin by storm.
1270. LOUIS IX, of France, died. He made two crusades for the recovery
of the Holy Land, and died of a contagion off Tunis, in Africa.
1313. HENRY VII, emperor of Germany, died. He entered Rome sword in
hand, at a time when the country was distracted by the war of the
Guelphs and Ghibelines, and was crowned by the pope.
1381. An eruption of Etna, which consumed all the olive yards around
Catania.
1482. MARGARET, of Anjou, queen of Henry VI, of England, died. She
became conspicuous by her heroism in battle for the rescue of her
husband, and being taken prisoner was ransomed with 50,000 crowns.
1576. The earl of ESSEX died in Ireland, suspected to be poisoned by the
earl of Leicester, who married his widow.
1585. Sir RICHARD GRENVILLE, planted the first English colony in
America, on the island of Roanoke, consisting of 107 persons. This
settlement was begun 17 years after the French had abandoned Florida, on
the same coast, but far to the north of the settlements for which France
and Spain had contended. The expedition was fitted out by Sir Walter
Raleigh, and consisted of 7 ships.
1654. Battle of Arras, in France; the Spaniards under Conti defeated by
Turenne.
1675. Battle of Sugarloaf hill, a few miles above Hatfield, on the
Connecticut river. The Hadley Indians had betrayed their conspiracy with
Philip's party, by fleeing from their dwellings, were pursued by
captains Lathrop and Beers, and overtaken at this place, where a
skirmish took place, in which 9 or 10 of the English fell, and about 26
Indians.
1725. A Hungarian picture of this date has the following inscription:
"John Roven, in the 172d year of his age, and Sarah, his wife, in the
164th year of her age. They have been married 147 years, and both born
and died at Stradovia. Their children, two sons and two daughters, yet
live; the youngest son is 116 years of age."
1758. Battle of Zorndorf between the Prussians, 30,000, under Frederick
the Great, and 50,000 Russians, under Fermor. The Russians were
defeated, with the loss of 19,000 killed, and 3,000 taken, and 103
cannon. Prussian loss, 10,000 killed. This was the bloodiest and one of
the most remarkable battles of the seven years' war.
1770. THOMAS CHATTERTON, an English poet of astonishing genius, died at
the age of 18, by taking poison, to escape hunger and misery.
1776. DAVID HUME, the Scottish historian, died. His _History of England_
is a work of great merit, and has long been the most popular work of the
kind.
1782. A large foraging party of British attacked at Combahee, in South
Carolina, by the Americans under general Gist and colonel Laurens, who
captured a schooner. Laurens was mortally wounded, and died aged 27.
1788. Archbishop SENS, premier of France under Louis XVI, seeing the
finances of the state utterly desperate, and fearing for the king and
more for himself, retired from the administration, and left the monarch,
while bankruptcy and famine threatened the kingdom, to manage as he
might, amid the storms which the measures of the minister himself had
provoked to the uttermost. He fled to Italy with the greatest
expedition, after having sent his resignation to his unfortunate
sovereign.
1789. MARY WASHINGTON, mother of the illustrious general, died at
Fredericksburgh, Va., aged 82.
1796. LAFAYETTE and other prisoners released from the castle of Olmutz,
at the requisition of the French government.
1797. JOHN BAPTIST LOUVET DE COUVRAY, a French advocate, died;
distinguished as an actor in the revolution, and an author.
1799. JOHN ARNOLD, eminent for his improvements in the mechanism of
timekeepers, died. He was the inventor of the expansion balance and
detached escapement, and was the first artist who applied the gold
cylindrical spring to the balance of a timepiece.
1800. ELIZABETH MONTAGUE died; an English lady of considerable literary
celebrity.
1803. TATE WILKINSON died; an English comedian and manager, often
noticed by the writers of his day.
1804. Fifth attack on Tripoli by the Americans under commodore Preble.
1805. JOHN SKEY EUSTACE, a distinguished officer of the revolution,
died, aged 45. In 1794 he went to France, and commanded a division of
the French army in Flanders.
1806. JOHN PHILIP PALM, a Nuremberg bookseller, shot for a publication
against Bonaparte.
1807. EDWARD PREBLE died; the brave and intrepid commodore of the
American fleet, which in 1804 subdued Tripoli.
1808. Action between the British and Swedish squadron under admiral
Hood, and the Russian squadron, in which the latter was defeated.
1810. The solemn inauguration of the column to the glory of the _grande
armée_ in the place Vendôme, Paris, took place on the 15th.
1812. The French raised the siege of Cadiz, which had long resisted
their efforts. Among the artillery abandoned, was a large mortar, which
had been employed in throwing shells the immense distance of three
miles.
1814. Washington city evacuated by the British under major general
Robert Ross and admiral Cockburn.
1819. JAMES WATT, an eminent Scottish natural philosopher, died;
celebrated for his improvements in the steam engine.
1822. WILLIAM HERSCHEL, the English astronomer, died. He discovered the
planet Georgium Sidus, which sometimes bears his name.
1830. Insurrection of the Belgians commenced at Brussels. The populace
attacked and destroyed several houses belonging to the most obnoxious
individuals, and skirmishes followed between the inhabitants and the
troops.
1834. MORRIS EVANS died at Raleigh, N. C., aged 105.
1835. Earthquake in Natolia, by which 2,000 houses were destroyed in the
city of Kaisarieh.
1836. CHRISTIAN WILLIAM HUFELAND, an eminent Prussian physician and
medical writer, died, aged 75. He was a popular lecturer, distinguished
for his profound and extensive learning, and ingenious application of
his theory to practice.
1837. The cholera raged at Rome, and was fatal to 300; the greatest
number of deaths that occurred in any one day.
1849. The French admiral, de Tromelin, took possession of and dismantled
the fortifications at Honolulu, Sandwich islands, the government having
refused to comply with the demands of the admiral. He relinquished the
possession three days after.
1854. The city of Troy, N. Y., visited by a destructive fire, which
consumed more than a hundred houses and manufactories.