447 B. C. Battle of Coronea; the Bœotians gained a great and most
important victory over the Athenians. Clinias, the father of Alcibiades,
and Tolmides, fell.
33. AGRIPPINA, the virtuous wife of Germanicus Cæsar, died in exile of
starvation. She was banished after the death of her husband.
1216. JOHN (_Lackland_), king of England, died, aged 47. No prince in
English history has been transmitted to posterity in darker colors;
ingratitude, cruelty, and perfidy, were habitual in his character.
1547. JAMES SADOLET, a polite and learned Italian writer and cardinal,
died.
1564. Captain JOHN HAWKINS sailed from Plymouth, England, with four sail
for the African coast; which was the first slave trade adventure, and
the opening of that infernal commerce. The negroes were taken to
Hispaniola, and sold to the Spaniards.
1605. JOHN RIOLAN died; a Paris physician and writer on anatomy and
medicine.
1631. Corn made a legal tender in Massachusetts, unless money or beaver
were expressly stipulated.
1633. A royal declaration ordered to be read in churches, reviving in
England, wakes, lawful sports and recreations, after divine service on
sabbaths.
1744. The duchess dowager of Marlborough died in her 85th year, leaving
many legacies. She was the famous Sarah Jennings in queen Anne's days.
1757. RENE ANTHONY FERCHAULT DE REAUMUR, a French philosopher, died. He
gave a new construction to the thermometer which bears his name, and
wrote much on the various branches of natural philosophy.
1770. JOHN MANNERS died; an English nobleman, who distinguished himself
at the head of the British forces in the German war, under Ferdinand of
Brunswick.
1775. The Americans took Chamblee, in Canada, and for the first time
captured the British colors; they also took 4 tons of powder.
1775. Falmouth, a town in the northeast part of Massachusetts, burnt.
The inhabitants had obstructed some British movements, whereupon an
armed vessel was sent to reduce the town to ashes. Of the dwelling
houses, 139 were burnt, and 278 stores.
1783. FRANCIS XAVIER D'OLIVEYRA, a Portuguese statesman, died in
England.
1783. The American army disbanded by proclamation.
1799. Treaty for the evacuation of Holland by the British and Russians.
1799. Three British frigates captured the Spanish galleon Santa Brigida,
36 guns and 320 men, with 1,500,000 Spanish dollars on board, and a
cargo of merchandise, ivory, &c., of equal value.
1801. The Batavian republic again divided into the old provinces; the
legislature was diminished to 35 deputies; the executive power extended
to a council of twelve men.
1806. The French under Davoust took possession of Leipsic, in Saxony.
They found there 15,000 quintals of flour, and British goods to an
immense amount; sixty millions were offered as a ransom for the latter.
1809. Battle of Salamanca; the Spaniards defeated the French under Ney,
and forced them to fall back with the loss of 1,500 men.
1811. The ladies of Cadiz formed a society to supply the wants of the
Spanish soldiers.
1812. Action between the United States sloop of war Wasp, 18 guns,
captain Jones, and British sloop of war Frolic, 22 guns; the latter
captured in 45 minutes, with the loss of 30 killed, 50 wounded; Wasp had
5 killed, 5 wounded. Same day British ship Poictiers, 74 guns, came up
with and captured both of them, the Wasp being too much damaged in her
rigging to escape.
1812. Battle of Poltosk; the Russians under Witgenstein and Steingel
attacked the French and Germans under St. Cyr, and compelled them to
retire within their entrenchments.
1812. Battle of Garalavitz; the Russians under Benningsen defeated the
French, 50,000, under Murat, killed 2,500, took 1,000 prisoners, 38
cannon, 40 ammunition wagons, and a large amount of spoil, besides the
great standard of honor belonging to the regiment of cuirassiers.
1812. The French abandoned the city of Moscow; Napoleon, on learning the
defeat of Murat, determined to march to his support with the whole
French army.
1813. Second day's battle of Leipsic; the two great armies had paused
one day to prepare for this grand contest. The forces of Napoleon were
not less than 180,000; those of the allies had been swelled to near
300,000. The carnage was fearful, and the French were compelled to yield
before an overwhelming superiority of numbers. The loss of Bonaparte on
this day, including defections and prisoners, was not less than 80,000
men, 200 cannon, and an immense amount of baggage.
1813. THEODORE KOERNER, the German poet, was killed in the battle of
Leipsic. He is particularly celebrated for the spirited poems which he
composed in the campaign against Napoleon, in which he fell.
1814. Union of Norway and Sweden.
1815. BONAPARTE, the exiled emperor of France, with his suit, landed at
St. Helena.
1817. STEPHEN HENRY MEHUL, an eminent French musical composer, died.
1827. The last lottery authorized by the British government, drawn in
London. In that lottery there were six prizes of $133,200 dollars each.
1833. Captain JOHN ROSS, who left England in 1829 in search of a
north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, returned on
this day, after an absence of four years, and when all hopes of his
return had been given up.
1840. The ceremony of the exhumation of the body of Napoleon Bonaparte
was performed at St. Helena, with great parade, in order to be conveyed
to Paris. The body, which had been embalmed by French physicians
previous to interment, in 1821, was found in a state of complete
preservation. (See Dec. 15.)
1841. A great flood of the Thames, caused by a succession of northerly
gales; the water rose much higher than during the inundations of 1821
and 1828, and much property was destroyed.
1843. EBENEZER ELMER, an officer of the revolution, and the last
survivor of the Jersey line, died at Bridgeton, aged 91.
1844. Destructive gale at Buffalo, carrying away part of the pier which
protected the harbor, sinking vessels, and submerging a part of the
city, by which more than fifty lives were lost.
1849. LEONIDAS WETMORE, an officer in the U. S. infantry, died on board
a steam boat in the Mississippi. He was actively engaged in the Florida
war, and participated in most of the hard fought battles of the Mexican
campaign.
1850. DANIEL CLARK SANDERS, formerly president of the university of
Vermont, died, aged 82. He published a history of the Indians, and kept
a meteorological register to the day of his death.
1852. Commodore MCCAULEY, commander of the United States naval forces in
the Pacific, by proclamation, withdrew his protection from American
vessels proceeding to the Lobos islands for guano.
1854. FRANCIS BURT, governor of the territory of Nebraska, died at
Bellevue, aged 45. He was a native of South Carolina, and resigned the
office of third auditor of the treasury at Washington for the
governorship, which he held hardly two weeks after his arrival.