1590. GERARD BONTIUS, professor of medicine at Leyden, died. He was the
first who immortalized himself by pills, having invented a kind, the
secret of which was long unknown.
1596. Cadiz taken and plundered by Howard and Essex. Loss computed at
20,000,000 ducats.
1607. HUDSON returned to England from his first voyage of discovery,
having discovered the island of Spitzbergen, but failed in the great
object, the discovery of a north-west passage to India.
1609. HUDSON, in his first ascent of the great river, came in view of
mountains which lay from the river's side, and anchored, it is supposed,
near the present site of Catskill landing.
1613. THOMAS OVERBURY, a polite English writer, poisoned in the Tower.
He wrote in verse and prose. (See 17th.)
1623. NICHOLAS BERGIER, historiographer of France, died. He wrote a
history of the great roads of the Roman empire.
1643. RICHARD BOYLE, the great earl of Cork, died. He went to Dublin
with a small fortune, and by his great industry and ability enriched
himself and benefited his country.
1678. The expedition under La Salle arrived at Quebec from France; count
Frontenac being governor of Canada.
1712. SIDNEY, earl of Godolphin, died. He began his political life under
Charles II; voted for the exclusion of the duke of York, but became
minister to the same person when James II; voted for a regency when
James fled; became minister to William III, and under queen Anne became
premier.
1745. ARTHUR BEDFORD, a learned English clergyman, died. He made great
exertions for the reformation of the drama.
1775. ANDREW FOULIS, a learned Scottish printer, died. From his press
issued some of the finest specimens of correct and elegant printing that
were produced in the eighteenth century.
1776. The British under general Howe took possession of New York.
1777. WASHINGTON left Philadelphia and crossed the Schuylkill with the
remains of his army, determined to give battle to sir Wm. Howe wherever
he could meet him.
1784. The first ærial voyage made in England by Vincent Lunardi, an
Italian.
1793. Battle at Parmesans; the French defeated by the Prussians under
the duke of Brunswick, with the loss of 3,000 taken prisoners, and 27
cannon. Same day Wurmser advanced upon the French lines at Lauter and
Weissenburg, and carried by assault the different redoubts, took all
their tents and 26 cannon, and would have destroyed the greater part of
the army had not their retreat been favored by a fog.
1794. Battle of Boxtel; the French under Pichegru defeated the
Prussians. The French under Jourdan also defeated the Austrians under
Clairfait.
1797. LAZARUS HOCHE died; a brave and intrepid general in the French
army during the revolution.
1810. A plot discovered to massacre the British at Lisbon, though
defending the Portuguese cause.
1814. One of the large vats in the brew house of Meux & Co., London,
burst, and demolished two houses; 3,500 barrels of beer were lost and
four persons killed.
1814. British ship Hermes, destroyed in an attack on fort Bowyer, at
Mobile point, and the other three ships compelled to put to sea. The
fort was attacked at the same time by the British and Indians on the
land side. The American garrison consisted of 130 men, of whom 4 were
killed and 4 wounded. British loss, killed and wounded, 232.
1819. An edict of the king of the Netherlands required, that in certain
provinces, none other than the national language, the Flemish-Dutch,
should be used in public business.
1829. Slavery abolished in Mexico by the president.
1829. JAMES HAMILTON died at Dublin; inventor of the Hamiltonian method
of instruction.
1830. WILLIAM HUSKISSON, an English statesman, killed by a train of cars
on the Liverpool rail road.
1833. JOHN GORDON SMITH, an eminent English scholar, died. He published
a celebrated work on medical jurisprudence; became involved in pecuniary
difficulties, and terminated his short and useful life within the walls
of the Fleet prison.
1834. WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, an American statesman, died. He was minister
to France in 1813, and in 1825 a candidate for the presidency.
1838. ADALBERT VON CHAMISSO, one of the most popular modern poets of
Germany, died at Berlin.
1843. Revolution in Athens, which, though not sufficient to eject king
Otho from the throne of Greece, yet obliged him to concede much to the
popular will.
1849. STRAUSS, the celebrated musical composer, died at Vienna.
1849. The sultan of Turkey formally refused to deliver up Kossuth and
his colleagues, Hungarian refugees, on the demand of Russia and Austria,
and diplomatic relations with the ambassadors of those powers were
broken off.
1855. GEORGE T. NAPIER, a celebrated British general, died, aged 72. He
first distinguished himself at Martinique in 1809, and afterwards in the
Peninsula, where he lost an arm. He was seven years civil and military
governor of the cape of Good Hope, where he introduced important
measures and reforms.