996. HUGH CAPET, king of France, died. He acquired the throne by his
merits and courage, and became the head of the third race of the French
monarchy.
1553. JOHN WAYLAND, queen Mary's "allowed printer," received his
charter; yet Thomas Green, a journeyman of his, was imprisoned and
whipped, for printing a book entitled _Antichrist_.
1601. TYCHO BRAHE, the Danish astronomer, died. He chose the study of
astronomy when it was a science of small repute; and though he
immortalized his name, yet it is to be regretted that he should have
been led into so visionary a scheme as his _system_ exhibits, from a
mere spirit of opposition to Copernicus.
1612. Sir PECKSAEL BROCAS, for his adulteries, was compelled to stand at
St. Paul's cross, in London, arrayed in a white sheet with a stick in
his hand.
1644. The English parliament issued an ordinance, that no quarter should
be given to any Irish papist, who should be found in hostility to the
parliament.
1648. German thirty years' war concluded by the treaty of Westphalia. It
commenced 1618, having grown out of the reformation. It spread from one
end of Germany to the other, and left the country a scene of desolation
and disorder, wasted by fire, sword and plague, which was followed by a
great scarcity, owing to a deficiency of laborers. The art of war was
the only one that had gained any thing, and that principally by the
genius of Gustavus Adolphus, who made an era in military tactics, and
was the first who had a train of artillery in his army.
1655. PETER GASSENDI, a celebrated French philosopher, died. He was at
once a theologian, metaphysician, philosopher, astronomer, naturalist
and mathematician; eminent in some, and above mediocrity in all those
sciences.
1678. Desperate action between the English ship, Concord, captain
Grantham, and the Algerine admiral ship, Rose, commanded by Canary, a
Spanish renegado, who was beat off.
1682. WILLIAM PENN first arrived in America, and landed at New Castle,
Delaware, with 100 passengers. Next day possession of the country was
given him.
1819. Erie canal opened from Utica to Rome.
1812. Battle of Ouschatch; the Russians under Steingel and Sassanoff
defeated the Bavarians, who lost 300 killed and 200 taken.
1821. A new organization of the Spanish church introduced, abolishing
all the monasteries but ten or twelve, declaring all legacies and gifts
to monasteries, churches and hospitals, unlawful, and curtailing the
whole ecclesiastical establishment, so as to effect a saving of 44½
million dollars to the nation. The old order of things was restored to
its former footing two years afterwards, on the restoration of the king
to absolute power.
1821. ELIAS BOUDINOT, first president of the American Bible society,
died. He was president of Congress in 1782, a man of great excellence of
character, and left his large estate principally to charitable purposes.
1838. JOSEPH LANCASTER, promulgator of the Lancasterian system of
mutual instruction, died in New York, aged 68.
1842. Great storm of wind and rain in the island of Madeira; 200 houses
were swept away at Funchal, the capital.
1842. A destructive fire occurred at Canton, China, by which more than
1,400 houses were burnt.
1845. WILLIAM RUDE, of Cumberland, R. I., died, aged 98. He was at the
battle of Bunker hill, and nearly every other during the revolutionary
struggle, but escaped unhurt.
1845. England and France, having engaged by a public armed intervention
to put a stop to the war between Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, declared a
strict blockade of the port of Buenos Ayres.
1846. HENRY, an African, died in Woodford county, Ky., aged 112. At the
age of 84 he married his fourth wife, and raised a family of 7 children.
1852. DANIEL WEBSTER, the greatest of American orators, died at
Marshfield, aged 70. As a statesman, in the most complete meaning of the
term, few Americans have ever equaled and none surpassed him.
1854. PIERRE SOULE, the United States minister to Spain, on landing at
Calais from England, en route for Spain, was stopped by the French
police, and returned to London.
1855. ROBERT H. MORRIS, a distinguished New York politician, died at
Astoria, aged 51.
1855. JAMES OLIVER VAN DE VELDE, second bishop of Natchez, died, aged
63. He was a Belgian, who early united with the Jesuits, and was sent to
America. He was sometime president of the catholic college at St. Louis,
and afterward bishop of Chicago. He was held in very high estimation by
all denominations.