1500. COLUMBUS arrived at Cadiz in fetters; when the king and queen,
ashamed of the orders they had given, commanded him to be released.
Notwithstanding the apologies of his sovereigns, Columbus never forgot
this ignominy. He preserved his fetters, hung them up in his apartment,
and ordered them to be buried with him.
1548. There fell in Thuringia what is described as a ball of fire, which
was attended with a great noise; and a reddish substance like coagulated
blood was afterwards found on the ground.
1605. Gunpowder plot discovered; a conspiracy for blowing up the English
parliament, headed by Catesby. In the cellar was found 40 barrels of
powder and Guy Fawkes.
1607. The famous grace _Non Nobis Domini_, composed by Bird, was first
sung, on the second anniversary of the gunpowder plot.
1612. Prince HENRY died, aged 19. His funeral expenses were £16,016, yet
his father, king James, would allow no mourning for him.
1630. JOHN KEPLER, a celebrated German astronomer, died. His genius and
discoveries have been highly commended; but he maintained some very
peculiar notions; among others, that the globe is a huge animal, which
breathes out the winds through the holes in the mountains, as through
its mouth and nostrils.
1635. THOMAS PARR, an English peasant, died at the age of 152. His
habits were extremely temperate, and it is supposed that his death was
hastened by a change of diet. JAMES BOWLES died in England in 1656, at
the same age.
1678. JOHN BAPTIST NANI, a Venitian nobleman and ambassador, died. He
wrote a history of Venice, and an account of his embassy to France.
1690. THOMAS BARTHOLINE died; an eminent professor of law and history at
Copenhagen. His three brothers were professors in the same university,
and his sister an excellent Danish poetess.
1702. The earl of Marlborough taken by a French party, but not being
known, on producing a French pass, he was suffered to escape.
1714. BERNARDIN ROMAZZINI, an Italian physician, died at Padua, aged 81.
Although blind he discharged the duties of professor of medicine with
great applause in the university.
1732. JAMES OGLETHORPE, with several colonists, embarked for Georgia, in
America.
1757. Battle of Rossbach, a village in Prussian Saxony; a decisive
victory obtained by Frederick the great over the French and Austrians
under Soubise.
1764. CHARLES CHURCHILL, the celebrated English poet, died at Boulogne.
1774. The militia of Virginia, assembled at fort Gower under lord
Dunmore, the royal governor, declared their determination to support
their countrymen, when called upon, and not the king, if he proceeded to
execute the late obnoxious laws by force.
1780. VASILI EVDOKIMOVITCH ADADUROR, a Russian mathematician, died. He
instructed Catharine II in the Russian language.
1782. The America, a 74 gun ship, built at Portsmouth, N. H., by order
of congress, was launched. This was the first line of battle ship ever
built in America.
1798. LEWIS GALVANI, an Italian philosopher, died at Bologna; celebrated
as the discoverer of that kind of electricity called, after him,
Galvanism. (See Feb. 5, 1799.)
1807. MARIA ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, an eminent French painter, and royal
academician in London, died at Rome. She is styled by the Germans, "the
painter of the soul;" and her mental acquirements and moral conduct were
no less distinguished than her talents as an artist.
1816. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, an American statesman and orator, died at his
seat of Morrisiana, near New York.
1817. CHARLOTTE AUGUSTA, wife of prince Leopold of Coburg, and daughter
of George IV of England and queen Caroline, died. The domestic life of
the two former is held to be a _pattern_--not so the latter.
1831. PHILIP VAN COURTLAND, an officer of the revolutionary war, died at
New York, aged 82.
1839. The British war ships Volage and Hyacinth proceeding to Chumpee in
violation of the Chinese proclamation, were approached by 29 Chinese war
junks, which they attacked. Six of the junks were sunk or blown up, and
upwards of 500 men killed. The English suffered no injury. This was the
beginning of the Chinese war.
1840. GEORGE R. T. HEWES, one of the persons who assisted in throwing
the tea overboard in Boston harbor in the beginning of the revolution,
died at German Flats, aged 106.
1854. GEORGE CATHCART, an eminent British general, killed at the battle
of Inkerman, aged 60.
1854. CHARLES KEMBLE, an eminent English comedian, died at London, aged
74; the last surviving brother of this distinguished family.
1854. Battle of Inkerman, in which 50,000 Russians engaged 14,000
British and French. Russians lost about 9,000 besides prisoners; allies
lost about 4,000.
1854. By the cholera which prevailed this season, the number of deaths
up to this day were: in New York, 2,425; in Philadelphia, 575; in
Boston, 255; in Pittsburg, 600.
1855. Battle at the river Ingour; Omar Pasha with 20,000 Turks defeated
10,000 Russians.