71 B. C. POMPEY and CRASSUS triumph at Rome. The former had closed the
ten years' war in Lusitania, and Crassus the revolt of Spartacus at
home. Marcus Lucullus triumphed the same year, bringing with him the
Thracian colossus of Apollo.
192. LUCIUS AURELIUS COMMODUS, a dissipated emperor of Rome, strangled,
and Pertinax elected. It was in the reign of this emperor, A. D. 190,
that the Capitoline library at Rome was destroyed.
406. The Huns, 100,000 strong, entered Gaul, and laid desolate her
seventeen luxurious provinces with havoc and flame, from the banks of
the Rhine to the Pyrenæan mountains.
535. The acquisition of Sicily from the Goths. Belisarius entered
Syracuse in triumph, a city which once embraced 22 miles.
1384. JOHN WICKLIFFE died; professor of divinity in the university of
Oxford, and father of the reformation of the English church from popery.
1460. Battle of Wakefield, in England; the duke of York and 3000 of his
followers slain.
1563. CHARLES DE COSSE died; a French general of great military talents,
and employed also as a diplomatist.
1583. THOMAS ERASTUS, a celebrated German physician and divine, died. He
wrote several works on philosophy, physic and divinity; but is chiefly
memorable for his work on excommunication, in which he denies the power
of the church, and affirms its censures to be incapable of extending
beyond the present life.
1600. The East India company established by a charter from Elizabeth,
granted to the earl of Cumberland and 215 knights, aldermen and
merchants. The original capital was £22,000, divided into shares of £50.
1616. JAMES LE MAIRE died at sea in returning with the Dutch navigator,
Schouten. In this voyage, the straits that bear his name were
discovered, between Staaten Land and Terra del Fuego.
1620. Era of the first settlement of New England. It being sabbath, they
kept the day for the first time in their new house, and in grateful
remembrance of the friends they found in the last town they left in
their native country, they called it Plymouth.
1674. Battle of Mulhausen, in Alsace, in which the French marshal
Turenne defeated the Austrians.
1679. JOHN ADOLPHUS BORELLI, a distinguished philosopher and
mathematician, of Naples, died; author of thirteen treatises in Italian
and Latin.
1704. The peak of Teneriffe formed a lateral eruption in the plain de
los Infantes, preceded by tremendous earthquakes.
1718. JOHN FLAMSTEAD, an eminent English astronomer, died. He formed a
new catalogue of the fixed stars, containing about three thousand.
1762. MARY COLLYER died; the translator of Gesner's poem of the _Death
of Abel_.
1771. CHRISTIAN ADOLPHUS KLOTZ, professor of philosophy at Göttingen,
died. He distinguished himself by his Latin poems, his numismatic
treatises, his works on the study of antiquity, and on the value and
mode of using ancient gems.
1775. Assault of the American forces under Montgomery and Arnold on
Quebec. Montgomery was killed in advancing upon the barrier, at the head
of the New York troops, and Arnold's division, after a desperate
engagement, in which the Americans sustained the whole force of the
garrison three hours were compelled to surrender themselves prisoners of
war. They lost 100 killed, 300 taken.
1781. HENRY LAURENS, ambassador from the United States to France,
liberated from the tower of London in exchange for general Burgoyne.
1791. JOHN ELLIS, a London scrivner, died; the last of that ancient
profession. He was an alderman of London nearly half a century, and was
besides a man of literature, whose conversation was highly extolled by
Dr. Johnson.
1792. The quantity of gold coined at the royal mint of Mexico this year
was $969,430; of silver, $23,225,611; total, $24,195,041; the largest
sum which had been coined there since the conquest of the country.
1793. THOMAS JEFFERSON resigned the office of secretary of state to the
United States.
1796. The thermometer 4° below zero in London. Several persons were
frozen to death.
1799. JOHN FRANCIS MARMONTEL, a French novelist, died. He was admired
for the vigor and delicacy of his writings, but was allowed to pass his
last days in a state of retirement bordering on want.
1811. Tariffa, near Gibraltar, attacked by the French, who were repulsed
with great loss by the British under colonel Skerritt.
1812. United States frigates President and Congress returned to Boston
after an active cruise of three months, during which they passed over a
space of about 8000 miles without meeting an adventure to test the
courage and discipline of their crews. They, however, captured two
British vessels, one laden with $300,000 specie and gold dust, the other
with oil.
1816. Deaths in Boston this year, 904; in Paris, 19,992.
1820. JOSEPH LATHROP, an American clergyman, died. His publications were
more numerous and highly esteemed than those of any contemporary
theologian in America.
1826. WILLIAM GIFFORD, an English poet and reviewer, died. He rose from
a shoemaker's bench to an editor's stool where he acquired fame and
fortune. He was a very good poet and critic, but a poor shoemaker.
1832. Insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica. More than 150 plantations
were destroyed, and the loss of property was estimated at more than
four millions of dollars. About 2000 negroes are supposed to have been
killed.
1835. Battle of Withlacoochie; about 250 United States troops and
militia engaged 300 Seminole Indians. Of the latter 40 were killed; of
the former, 4 killed, 59 wounded.
1839. HYACINTHE LOUIS DE QUELEN, archbishop of Paris, died. At the
revolution of 1830 his adherence to the Bourbons incensed the mob to
level the archiepiscopal palace to the ground, by which he was reduced
to poverty. He was a man of distinguished talents and learning.
1840. PRENTISS MELLEN, chief justice of Maine, died at Portland, aged
77. The first eleven volumes of the _Maine Reports_ are a monument of
his legal discrimination, great familiarity with practice, and high
sense of justice.
1846. JAMES COCHRAN died at Batavia, Genesee co., N. Y., aged 83. To him
the world owes the invaluable invention of making cut nails, yet he died
poor.
1849. Hudson river rail road opened to Poughkeepsie.
1852. AMOS LAWRENCE, a wealthy and leading Boston merchant, died, aged
77. His charities amounted to several hundred thousands of dollars.