1290. The persons of all the English Jews, 16,511, were banished, and
their estates and treasures confiscated to the crown.
1399. JOHN V (_the Conqueror_), duke of Brittany, died.
1483. HENRY STAFFORD, duke of Buckingham, beheaded. He was the vile
instrument of the third Richard's usurpation, and was executed by that
king's order, without any legal process.
1596. PETER PITHOU, a learned and eloquent French civilian, died. He
visited England, and published some valuable works on law, history, and
classical literature, and restored _Phædrus_ and other ancient books
which had long been lost.
1607. Sir JAMES MELVILLE died. He was a courtier, in the strictest sense
of that word. To him the court was the world, and its rules of action
his.
1653. The parliament of the English commonwealth chose a new council of
state.
1678. WILLIAM CODDINGTON, governor of Rhode Island, died. He became
dissatisfied with the ecclesiastical government in Massachusetts, and in
1638 associated himself with 170 others, who purchased Rhode Island of
the natives. He was a man of learning, and contributed more than any
other, perhaps, to the establishment of the colony of Rhode Island, and
laying the foundation of civil and religious liberty in America.
1683. The counties of Albany, Dutchess, Kings, Orange, Queens, Suffolk,
Richmond, Ulster, and Westchester, N. Y., erected.
1700. CHARLES II, king of Spain, died. He was the last of the eldest
branches of the Austrian princes who reigned in Spain.
1710. Lord HAVERSHAM, a noted British peer, died. He was a "constant"
speaker in the house of lords.
1714. JOHN RADCLIFFE, an English physician of great eminence, died. The
university of Oxford is indebted to him for the library and infirmary
which bears his name, and for an annuity of £600 for two traveling
fellowships.
1724. HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX died; an English divine, historian, and critic.
1730. LOUIS FERDINAND MARSIGLI, an Italian nobleman, died. He was famous
in arms and in letters, and founded the academy of arts and sciences at
Bologna, called the Institute.
1755. Earthquake at Lisbon, by which it is supposed about 50,000 persons
perished. Every building worthy of notice was prostrated. Peerless pool
was lifted from its bed; the Mios lake in Norway vibrated with the
canals of Amsterdam; the fountains of Tangier were stopped, and
artificial tides flowed every fifteen minutes at Gibraltar.
1765. Stamp act went into operation in America. The great
dissatisfaction it created, was manifested by the tolling of bells, and
other solemnities.
1769. LA SALLE arrived at the mouth of the Miami, having seventeen men
in his company, the rest being dismissed, to return with furs to
Niagara, when he embarked at the bay of Puans.
1770. ALEXANDER CRUDEN died; a Scottish writer, and corrector of the
press, whose literary labors were notable. He was found dead on his
knees, in the attitude of prayer.
1771. JOHN EYRE sentenced to be transported beyond seas, for stealing a
few quires of paper. He was worth £30,000, yet committed and confessed
the deed.
1775. PETER JOSEPH BERNARD died; a French writer of operas and other
lighter pieces, which for their ease and elegance, procured for him the
name of _le gentil Bernard_.
1783. CHARLES LINNÆUS (_the Younger_) died. He succeeded his father as
professor of botany at Upsal.
1793. GEORGE GORDON died; an Englishman who led the opposition to the
papists in 1780, which gave rise to the riots of that year. His life
from that time was spent in legal censures and imprisonments, and he
finally died in Newgate prison.
1794. HENRY HOOGEVEEN died; an eminent Dutch philologist, of great
learning and industry.
1794. Rhinefield, a fortress built on a rock on the left bank of the
Rhine, abundantly provided and defended by 2000 men, surrendered at the
first summons of the French.
1805. Captain WRIGHT, of the British navy, died in the Temple at Paris.
Bonaparte is accused of having suffered him to be put to the torture and
strangled.
1806. French entered Kustrin, where they took 4000 Prussian prisoners,
90 cannon, and sufficient stores to supply the army two months.
1806. French under Mortier took Cassel and all Hesse.
1813. Four large British vessels, and a number of boats, attacked the
advance guard of the United States army, under general Wilkinson, and
were repulsed.
1815. JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM, a distinguished London physician, died. He
was long known by his public and private benevolence, his skill, and his
numerous writings, moral and medical.
1818. The first steam boat on the lakes, called from an Indian chief,
Walk-in-the-Water, left Buffalo on her first trip. The boat cost
$70,000, including the sum paid Fulton and Livingston for patent.
1819. _The North Georgian Gazette and Winter Journal_, first published
on board the Hecla discovery ship, in Winter harbor, off Melville
island, in the Polar sea. The 21st number closed its polar existence,
but it rose again in London.
1834. JOHN HOWARD died in Fayette co., Ga., aged 103. He was in the
revolutionary army, and received five wounds at the battle of Guilford.
His sight continued good till his hundredth year, and he never used
spectacles.
1835. THOMAS TAYLOR died; an English author, long known by the
appellation of _the Platonist_. His works comprise 23 vols. quarto, and
40 vols. octavo; the greatest of which are complete translations of
Aristotle and Plato, illustrated copiously from the ancient
commentators.
1835. WILLIAM MOTHERWELL, a Scottish poet of considerable reputation,
died.
1842. LOUIS D. JOSE, usually called _Portuguese Joe_, was burnt to death
in the hotel at New Orleans in which he kept the bar. He was captain of
the maintop on board the ship Saratoga, at the battle on lake Champlain,
and nailed the colors to the mast after they had been shot away by the
British.
1843. JOHN PARISH ROBERTSON, a Scottish merchant in South America, died
at Calais. He established an extensive business, and introduced many
useful improvements, which the distracted partisans of that country
could not appreciate; he was deprived of a large property which he had
accumulated, and retired to England, where he produced two works on
South America, of some merit.
1845. SAMUEL HARRISON SMITH, well known as the editor of the
_Philadelphia New World_, and the first to establish the _National
Intelligencer_, died at Washington.
1849. JABEZ W. HUNTINGTON, of Connecticut, a distinguished senator of
the United States, died at Norwich, Conn.
1849. ELIZUR GOODRICH, professor of law in Yale college, and some time
mayor of New Haven, died, aged 88. His removal from the office of
collector of customs, at New Haven, immediately on the accession of
Jefferson, gave occasion to the famous letter of that president, in
which he avowed his principle of removal for political opinions.
1849. JEFFREY CHIPMAN died at Kalamazoo, Mich., aged 60. He was a native
of Rutland, Vt., and afterwards a magistrate at Canandaigua, N. Y.,
before whom William Morgan, the apostate free mason, was arraigned for
larceny, and committed to Ontario jail, whence he was abducted. In all
the subsequent trials, J. Chipman was the first witness called.
1852. Battle of Hermasillo; the French count Boulbon de Raousset, who
led an enterprise upon Sonora, was defeated, and his expedition wholly
overthrown.
1855. Accident on the Missouri and Pacific rail road; an excursion train
going to celebrate the opening of the road, was precipitated through a
bridge thirty feet into the river, by which the chief engineer of the
road, Thomas S. O'Sullivan, and 24 others, were killed, and a great
number injured, many of them prominent citizens of St. Louis.