63. Shipwreck of ST. PAUL. It was a fortnight from the fast, and about
the present day, that Paul, by the occular testimony of Luke, was cast
upon the shores of Malta, where they wintered three months until the
period of navigation in March. Josephus, the Jewish historian, was
wrecked in the same sea, and in or very near the same year.
303. DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIAN celebrated in a grand triumph their
victories and those of the two Cæsars, their associates, in Persia and
Britain, on the Rhine, the Danube and the Nile; the last spectacle of
the kind that Rome ever beheld.
870. EDMUND (_the Saint_), king of East Anglia, murdered by the Danes,
who had him tied to a tree and shot to death with arrows. His kingdom
comprised the present counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and part of
Cambridgeshire.
1185. ABDURRAHMAN, surnamed Abn Zeyd, died. He was a Moslem divine and
poet, and left several valuable works.
1191. BALDWIN, archbishop of Canterbury, died at Acre, in Palestine,
whither he had followed the crusaders, whose cause he had exerted
himself to promote.
1347. STEPHEN COLONNA defeated and killed at Rome by the tribune Rienzi.
1411. JOHANNES CANTACUZENUS, a Byzantine historian, died. His knowledge
in literature and arms was so great that he became the favorite of the
court and the people, and was finally persuaded to accept the throne,
from which he retired again on the restoration of order.
1481. The _Last Siege and conquest of Jerusalem_, translated from the
French "by me simple person, William Caxton," was printed at London in
the Abby; one of the earliest specimens of English typography.
1497. The Portuguese admiral, VASQUEZ DE GAMA, doubled the cape of Good
Hope, which, until then, had been considered the utmost boundary of
navigation, and called the cape of Tempests.
1549. KETT, a tanner, rebelled against Edward, and was taken by Dudley,
earl of Warwick, and hung in chains on the top of Norwich castle.
1571. The field of Craibstone stricken by John Master of Forbes, and
Adam Gordon, brother to lord Huntley, where the said John lost the
field, and was taken, and sundry of his friends slain, to the number on
both sides of three score, or thereby, and good Duncan Forbes slain the
same day.
1572. The first presbyterian meeting house in England erected at
Wandsworth in Surrey.
1591. CHRISTOPHER HATTON, chancellor of England under Elizabeth, died.
He was a man of learning and great integrity, and though placed in so
high a situation, had not been bred to the law. It was by his advice
that the unfortunate Mary submitted to her fatal trial.
1660. The bishops of England again took their seats in the house of
lords, verifying the adage of the king's grandfather, "no bishop no
king."
1672. The island of Tobago taken from the Dutch by the English.
1683. A book entitled _Julian the Apostate_, burnt by the hangman, and
its author, Samuel Johnson, a clergyman, fined 500 marks for an alleged
libel on the duke of York.
1729. NICHOLAS GERVAIS, a French missionary, massacred in Guiana with
all his attendants.
1737. Queen CAROLINE of England died, aged 55. Her favorite study was
theology, and she has been accused of scepticism; at her death she
refused the sacrament, but joined cordially in the Lord's prayer.
1759. Naval battle off Belleisle; the French fleet under M. de Conflans
defeated by the British under admiral Hawke. The French lost several
large ships, and abandoned the project of invading Great Britain.
1769. CHARLES HUGH LE FEVRE DE ST. MARK, a French miscellaneous writer,
died at Paris.
1773. CHARLES JENNENS died; an English gentleman of considerable
fortune, who compiled the works of some of Handel's oratories, and began
an edition of Shakspeare's works, which he did not live to complete.
1780. Battle of Blackstocks; the British under Tarleton attacked the
American general Sumpter, but was repulsed with the loss of more than 30
killed or wounded. Sumpter and 4 others were wounded and 3 killed.
1789. RICHARD BURN, an English vicar, died; author of a work on
ecclesiastical law, and on the office of justice of the peace, which
have gone through several editions.
1789. North Carolina adopted the federal constitution, ayes 193, noes
75. This was the 12th pillar in the political edifice.
1789. A deputation was admitted to the French national assembly from the
city of Issondein, with a patriotic offer of all the silver buckles of
the inhabitants, to the value of 115 marks. Whereupon M. Dailly moved
that all the members of the assembly should make a similar sacrifice,
which was instantly agreed to.
1792. Battle of Cumptich, in which the French under Dumourier, after a
long and bloody action, defeated the Austrians under the duke of Saxe
Teschen, who exhibited great judgment and intrepidity in conducting his
retreat.
1794. Figueras, an extensive and well provided fortress on the frontier
of Spain, was taken by the French, when 9000 Spaniards were taken
prisoners.
1798. Two French frigates attacked and captured U. S. schooner
Retaliation.
1804. ARCHIBALD MACLAIN, an Irish protestant clergyman, died. He
translated Mosheim's ecclesiastical history.
1804. The American expedition under Lewis and Clark went into winter
quarters at fort Mandan, on the Missouri river, lat. 47° 21´ N.
1812. BONAPARTE evacuated Orcha on his retreat from Moscow. He left
there 23 cannon, some prisoners, and an immense number of sick and
wounded, who fell into the hands of the Cossacks.
1813. JOHN BAPTIST BODONI, the celebrated printer of Parma, and probably
the most distinguished in his profession during the last century, died.
1815. France ceded to the kingdom of the Netherlands whatever it still
retained of the Austrian Netherlands, particularly a rich mineral
district situated in the center of the Ardennes, and the fortresses of
Marienburg and Philippeville.
1840. A series of extensive hurricanes and storms, which commenced on
the 13th and swept over England, Ireland and a part of France, ceased
their fury. The destruction of lives and property, on land and at sea,
was immense.
1843. FERDINAND RUDOLPH HASSLER, aged 74, died at Philadelphia. He was
director of the United States coast survey.