Part 17

1793. Breda, a city of Holland, noted for its numerous sieges, was taken by the French.

1793. Congress passed a law making appropriations for purchasing two lots of ground with buildings, and other materials and necessaries for a mint, $1,279·78; and for the salaries of its officers from July to Dec. 1792, $2,694·88.

1794. Great scarcity of provisions in Paris.

1797. Battle of Monte di Savaro, between the French and Austrians, in which the former under Joubert attacked and carried the posts of the latter.

1797. HORACE WALPOLE, an English author, and son of Robert Walpole the statesman, died.

1799. Corfu, one of the Ionian islands, taken by the Turco Russian squadron.

1799. Manheim, a strong German city, taken by the French.

1801. CHARLES ALBERT DEMOUSTIER, a French poet, died. He was first a successful lawyer, but subsequently turned his attention to literature, and wrote comedies, operas and poems. His pieces are distinguished for spirit, delicacy and ease, and some of them have maintained a place upon the stage.

1802. FRANCIS RUSSEL, duke of Bedford, died, aged 37. He distinguished himself by his endeavors to improve every branch of agriculture, and was a worthy man.

1830. Great freshet at Vienna, in Austria; the Danube rose twenty-three feet, and the houses of 50,000 inhabitants were inundated.

1835. FRANCIS I of Austria (II of Germany), died. His disposition was mild; his dress plain and homely; his manners gentle and familiar; and he was greatly beloved by his German subjects.

1835. SAMUEL BLACKBURN died; an officer of the revolution, an eminent lawyer and for many years a conspicuous member of the Virginia legislature. At his death he liberated his slaves, 46 in number, charging his estate with the expense of transporting them to Liberia.

1839. ZERAH COLBURN died at Norwich, Vt., aged 35. At the age of 6 years he attracted great attention in Europe and America by his marvelous powers of calculation. At that time he was unable to read or write, and ignorant of the name or properties of a single figure traced upon paper. Yet his talent for mental arithmetic was so extraordinary as to be wholly incredible, were it not supported by unquestionable evidence. This faculty he lost before he left England, which was in 1824; and on his return he became a methodist preacher, having acquired a respectable education while abroad.

1840. HENRY WILLIAM MATTHEW ALBERS, a celebrated astronomer, and practicing physician at Bremen, died, aged 81. He acquired a lasting reputation by the discovery of the planet Pallas, in 1802, and of Vesta, in 1807.

1841. First daily paper in Brooklyn published.

1843. ASA PACKARD, aged 84, died at Lancaster, Mass. He was a soldier of the revolution, and for nearly 70 years carried a musket bullet in his body.

1845. JUDAH ALDEN, a distinguished officer of the American revolutionary army, died at Duxbury, Mass.

1849. JAMES MORIER, the celebrated author of _Hajji Baba_, and other works, died.

1852. The town of St. Bartholomew, one of the Antilles, nearly destroyed by fire; 120 houses and stores having been burned in the space of four hours.

1852. MARMONT, duke of Ragusa, died at Venice, aged 78. He was the last of Napoleon's marshals.

1855. NICHOLAS I, emperor of Russia, died, aged 59. He came to the throne in 1826, and his reign was devoted to strengthening the power and extending the domain of Russia.

1856. An earthquake in the island of Great Sangor, one of the Moluccas, by which 2,806 lives were lost.

MARCH 3.

1589. JOHN STURMIUS, a learned German grammarian and rhetorician, died. He was called the Cicero of Germany.

1633. GEORGE HERBERT, an English divine and poet, died. Lord Bacon had so high an opinion of his judgment that he would not suffer his works to be published until they had been submitted to Herbert's examination.

1634. First colony arrived at Potomac for the settlement of Maryland, under Lord Baltimore. It consisted of 200 Catholics from England. The soil was purchased of the natives, and the foundation of the province was laid on the broad basis of security to property and of freedom in religion.

1703. ROBERT HOOKE, an English mathematician and philosopher, died. He is noted for many useful inventions and improvements in mechanics; and his writings are numerous and valuable.

1722. CAMPEGIO VITRINGA died; a learned author of Friesland, in the Netherlands.

1728. CAMILLO D'HOSTUN, count de Tallart, died. He was a brave general of the French, taken prisoner by the duke of Marlborough.

1760. Unsuccessful attack on the fort at Ninety-Six, by 200 Cherokee Indians.

1776. The Americana under Col. Bull burnt the British ship Inverness and six other vessels, near Savannah, laden for England.

1779. Battle of Briar Creek, when the Americans were surprised by the British under Provost, and lost 150 killed and 162 prisoners.

1780. JOSEPH HIGHMORE, an eminent English painter, died. He was also a writer of considerable merit.

1791. The church plate in France was sent to the mint for coinage.

1792. ROBERT ADAM, a Scotch architect, died. In connection with his brother, he built some of the first mansions in London; but the work for which they are chiefly celebrated, is the elegant range called the _Adelphi_, a Greek word denoting the relationship of brothers.

1796. Civic festival at the Hague on occasion of the installation of the Batavian national assembly.

1799. The advance guards of the French army arrived before Jaffa (the ancient Joppa) in Syria, and invested the city.

1802. County of St. Lawrence, in New York, erected.

1808. JOHANN CHRIST FABRICIUS died, one of the most celebrated entomologists of the eighteenth century. He was born 1742 at Sleswic in Denmark; studied medicine; but was afterwards induced to make an especial study of entomology, a science at that time in its infancy. He adopted a new arrangement of the insect tribe by choosing for his divisions the modifications observable in the parts of the mouth.

1808. The French West India island Marigalante taken by the British. It was colonized by the French, 1647; twice taken by the Dutch, and twice before by the British, and restored to the French, 1763.

1810. The great Elm tree at Kensington, Philadelphia, under which William Penn held his first treaty with the Indians in 1682, was blown down.

1815. War declared between the United States and Algiers.

1817. LESCURE died at Beaulieu in France, aged 118. He enjoyed, at the time of his death, the vigorous use of his intellect.

1843. Com. PORTER, a gallant American naval officer, died at Constantinople, where he was minister from the United States to the Sublime Porte.

1845. Florida admitted into the Union as an independent state.

1846. HENRY PURKITT, one of those who assisted in the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, died, aged 91.

1855. ROBERT MILLS died, a civil engineer and architect, under whom the Washington Post office, Treasury building and Patent office were erected.

MARCH 4.

1193. SALADIN the Great died at Damascus.

1530. CHARLES V granted to the knights of St. John, who had recently been expelled from the island of Rhodes by the Turks, the ownership of all the castles, fortresses, and isles of Tripoli, Malta and Gozo. Malta at the time was a shelterless rock, and the inhabitants, 12,000 in number, in a wretched condition.

1583. BERNARD GILPIN, an eminent English prelate, died. He came near falling a victim to the fury of Bonner, and was only saved from the stake by the death of the queen. His life was spent in well doing.

1629. Massachusetts patent confirmed by CHARLES I, by the name of "the governor and company of Massachusetts bay in New England," Matthew Cradock first governor.

1674. The governing charter of Dundalk, in the county of South Ireland, bears this date. This town was the Dundalgan of the Irish _Ossianic_ poems, and is of great antiquity.

1681. The charter of Pennsylvania signed and sealed by Charles II, constituting William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of the province, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty.

1744. JOHN ANSTIS died; an English antiquary, and a very eminent writer on heraldic subjects.

1765. WILLIAM STUKELEY, an English antiquary, died. He wrote ably as a divine, physician, historian and antiquary; was profound in British antiquities; a good botanist; erudite in ancient coins; drew well, and understood mechanics. The footsteps of the Romans were traced by him, and the temples of the ancient Britons explored. His antiquarian researches acquired him the name of Arch Druid.

1776. The Americans took possession of Dorchester heights, which were so far completed by day light as to excite the astonishment of the British, and render their position in Boston extremely hazardous.

1776. New Providence taken from the British by the American Commodore Ezekiel Hopkins. The governor, together with considerable military stores, fell into the hands of the victors.

1778. American frigate Alfred, 20 guns, taken by the British ships Ariadne and Ceres.

1782. The house of commons resolved that it would "consider as enemies to his majesty and the country, all those who should advise or attempt the further prosecution of offensive war on the American continent."

1789. The first congress of the United States assembled at New York.

1791. Vermont admitted into the Union. (See Feb. 18.)

1794. HENRY DE LA ROCHEJAQUELIN, the hero of La Vendee, killed. The peasants of the neighborhood having risen in the royal cause, he placed himself at their head, with this laconic harangue, "_Allons chercher l'ennemi; si je recule, tuez moi; si j'avance, suivez moi; si je meurs, vengez moi_." After gaining sixteen victories, he fell in single combat with a republican soldier.

1797. One pound or 20 shilling notes first issued by the bank of England. They were designed to take the place of the specie drained from the vaults to pay the foreign contracts.

1806. Action between the British fleet, Com. Popham, and the French frigate La Voluntaire, 46 guns. The latter was captured with 360 men and 217 British prisoners.

1811. First report of canal commissioners in New York.

1811. The French under Massena retreated before Lord Wellington upon Santarem, in Portugal, leaving their killed and wounded behind.

1812. The charter of the first bank of the United States expired by its own limitation.

1814. Battle of Longwood, about 100 miles from Detroit, in which the United States troops defeated a superior British force. British loss 80; American loss 8.

1814. Battle of Troyes, between the French under Oudinot and the Allies under Schwarzenberg, in which the former were defeated, with the loss of 10 cannon and 3,000 prisoners.

1815. United States letter of marque brig Aspasia, 3 guns and 25 men, captured by the British ship Voluntaire.

1815. FRANCES ABINGTON, a celebrated English actress, died. She was the original Lady Teazle.

1832. JOHN FRANCIS CHAMPOLLION, the French archæologist, died at Paris, aged 42. Having devoted much attention to the study of Egyptian antiquities, he was, in 1826, appointed to superintend that department in the royal museum at Paris, and in 1828, went with an expedition of learned men to Egypt, at the expense of the king, Charles X. The results of this journey were regarded of so great importance in relation to the hieroglyphics, that his manuscripts on that subject were purchased by the French government at about $9,300.

1838. Carlists under Cabanero, entered Saragossa, but were driven out by the national guards with the loss of 120 killed and 700 prisoners.

1847. A telescopic comet was discovered at the Cambridge university at 7 P. M. by G. P. Pond, assistant observer, being the fourth first discovered in this country by this young gentleman.

1856. The free state legislature of Kansas assembled at Topeka.

MARCH 5.

13. B. C. MARCUS EMILIUS LEPIDUS, one of the Roman triumvirs, with Augustus and Anthony, died at Cerceii.

493. ODOACER, chief of the Heruli, murdered. It was reserved for him, at the head of a tribe of barbarians almost unknown, to strike the decisive blow that overthrew the great mistress of the world--imperial Rome.

1223. ALONZO II of Portugal died. His career was begun by an attempt to deprive his sisters of their estates, and ended by robbing the church. The pope, however, interfered, and compelled him to promise to be civil to the ecclesiastics; but death overtook him before he had time to fulfill his engagements by making restitution.

1495. HENRY VIII granted a patent to John Cabot and his three sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sanchius, empowering them to sail under the flag of England in quest of countries yet unoccupied by any Christian state, to take possession of them in the name of Henry, and plant the English banner on the walls of their castles and cities, and to maintain with the inhabitants a traffic exclusive of all competitors, and exempted from customs; under the condition of paying a fifth part of the free profit on every voyage to the crown. They embarked two years after.

1534. ANTONI ALLEGRI, an illustrious Italian painter, died. He lived at Parma, where without any instruction he executed some of the most perfect pictures in the world. He is better known as Corregio, from his birth place.

1546. ISABELLA LOSA died; a native of Cordova in Spain, so illustrious for her acquirements that she was honored with the degree of D. D.

1605. CLEMENT VIII (Hippolitus Aldobrandi), pope of Rome, died. He was a liberal minded and benevolent pontiff.

1660. MONK'S parliament ordered the printing and setting up in churches the solemn league and covenant.

1686. JAMES II forbade the bishops to preach on controverted points.

1695. HENRY WHARTON died; an English divine and historian of uncommon abilities.

1701. ROBERT, earl of Bellamont, governor of the province of New York, died, two years after his installment into that office.

1708. WILLIAM BEVERIDGE, an English divine, and bishop of St. Asaph, died, leaving many learned and valuable works.

1710. JOHN HOLT died. He had been for more than 20 years lord chief justice of the king's bench court in England.

1737. The servants called footmen occasioned a riot at Drury lane theatre, London, alleging that they had been shut out of the gallery, to which they were entitled.

1744. At Huddersfield, Yorkshire, a Roman temple was discovered and an altar inscribed to Antonius Modestus of the sixth conquering legion.

1770. Boston massacre. This occurrence, which is variously stated, is supposed to have arisen as follows: a crowd surrounded a corporal's guard in the evening, and commenced pelting them with snow balls, which exasperated his majesty's legions to such a pitch of valor, that they turned their muskets upon the citizens. The leaden balls of the soldiers were more than a match for those of the people, and five men fell mortally wounded. Their names were Mattucks, Gray, Caldwell, Maverick, and Carr.

1773. PHILIP FRANCIS died at Bath, England; distinguished as a translator of Horace and Demosthenes.

1775. PETER LAURENCE BUYRETTE DU BELLOI died; a French comedian and tragedian, who by his own pieces became extremely popular in his day.

1775. The citizens of New York held a town meeting, in which it is said the question of congress or no congress was carried in the affirmative by the aid of hoop poles obtained from a neighboring cooper's yard.

1778. THOMAS AUGUSTUS ARNE died; an English musician and opera writer. He received the degree of doctor of music.

1785. JOSEPH REED died at Philadelphia, aged 43. He was one of Washington's aids in the revolutionary war, and subsequently an adjutant-general, member of congress, and governor of Pennsylvania.

1794. County of Onondaga, in New York, erected.

1798. An Algerine barque arrived at Baltimore, 85 days out, manned by Algerines; being the first that ever entered an American port.

1811. Battle of Barrosa in Portugal, between the French under Victor, and the English, Spanish and Portuguese allied army, under Graham. The French were defeated with the loss of 3,000; allied loss 2,742.

1827. PIERRE SIMON LAPLACE, the French mathematician, died. His principal work, which will render him an object of admiration to posterity, the _Mechanique Celeste_, has been translated by our countryman Nathaniel Bowditch, in a manner creditable alike to the author, to himself and the literature of his country.

1827. ALESSANDRO VOLTA died. He was born at Como, Italy; devoted his attention to experiments in electricity, and made many important discoveries.

1829. Battle near the river Natonebi, in Asiatic Turkey, between the Turks and Russians, in which the former lost 1,000 and the latter 200 men.

1837. OLIVER ELLIOT died at Mason, N. H., aged 103. He was a soldier of the French war of 1756, and of the revolutionary war.

1846. JOHN PICKERING, president of the American Oriental society, &c., &c., died at Boston.

1849. The emperor of Austria, after a series of decrees, promulgated a new constitution.

1853. GERVINUS tried at Manheim for high treason, published in a work on the history of the nineteenth century, was found guilty of exciting to sedition, and sentenced to ten months imprisonment, and his book ordered to be destroyed.

1856. Covent garden theatre, London, burnt at the close of a masked hall.

MARCH 6.

13 B. C. AUGUSTUS CÆSAR assumed the office of high priest, in which capacity he destroyed 2,000 books of prophecy, for want of authority!

1393. JOHN HAWKWOOD, an Englishman, died at Florence. He was bred a tailor, but signalized himself so greatly in the wars in Italy, that he was promoted to the highest posts; and after his death the Florentines erected a block marble statue as an acknowledgment for the services he had done them.

1521. MAGELLAN, in the service of the king of Spain, on his voyage round the world, discovered the Ladrone, or Marian islands, and may be considered as the first discoverer of that portion of the world called Australia. This opened the way for the subsequent discoveries made in that quarter.

1557. Lord STOURTON hung at Salisbury in a halter of silk, to mark his dignity. His crime was the murder of two persons whom he had decoyed to his house.

1577. REMI BELLEAU, one of the seven poets called the Pleiades of France, died. He excelled as a pastoral writer.

1615. The yacht Halve Maan, 80 tons burden, in which Hudson entered the river which bears his name, was wrecked and destroyed on the island of Mauritius.

1716. Aurora Borealis first seen in England, and was gazed upon with every degree of alarm till nearly three o'clock in the morning.

1754. PELHAM, premier of England, died suddenly in the meridian of life. He was much opposed to the German alliances of the kingdom, but had not influence enough in the face of a hostile court to break them up.

1762. The ghost that had for so long a time alarmed the people of Cocklane, London, was detected.

1767. JAMES MALFILLASTRE, a French poet, died.

1781. Battle of Whitsell's mill, an important pass of Reedy fort creek, in which the British were worsted.

1784. FRANCIS XAVIER HALL, a Jesuit, professor of belles lettres and ecclesiastical law in several German universities, died.

1796. WILLIAM FRANCIS RAYNAL died. He was a French Jesuit, who distinguished himself as a historian of the European settlements in both Indias, and as a political writer.

1799. The French under Bonaparte took Jaffa by assault. The garrison consisted of 1,200 Turkish artillery and 2,500 Magrubins or Arnauts who were put to the sword.

1812. JAMES MADISON, an eminent American prelate, died, aged 63. His great attainments placed him in the presidential chair of William and Mary college at the early age of 28, and the reputation of the institution advanced under his charge.

1815. LEWIS XVIII declared Napoleon Bonaparte a traitor and a rebel, for having entered by main force the department of the Var.

1815. A great riot around the British parliament house, on account of the corn bill. A great many lives lost.

1817. Insurrection at Pernambuco, Brazils, headed by Domingos Jose Martins. The insurgents took possession of the town, and the governor fled to Rio de Janeiro.

1822. Owing to a strong south-west wind the tide in the Thames near London bridge was so low, that several persons forded the river and picked up many valuable articles that had laid for years on the bottom of the river.

1825. SAMUEL PARR, an eminent English divine and critic, died. He was possessed of a prodigious memory, and in curious and elegant classical knowledge he seems to have been at the head of the English scholars of his day.

1838. VILETTE EASTON, a colored woman, died at Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 110.

1854. The block of marble sent by the pope as a contribution to Washington's monument, was destroyed by unknown persons at night.

MARCH 7.

161. ANTONINUS PIUS, emperor of Rome, died at Lorium, aged 23.

1274. THOMAS AQUINAS died. He was descended from the counts of Aquino, in Italy. There was a great contest for him between his family and the monks when he was a youth; but he eluded the vigilance of his keepers, became a theologian, and was called the evangelical doctor. His works have been often reprinted in 17 vols, folio.

1575. The general assembly of Scotland enacted that no comedies, nor tragedies, or such plays, shall be made on any history of canonical scriptures, nor on the Sabbath day.

1589. WALTHER RALEIGH, having expended £40,000 in attempting the colonization of Virginia, without realizing the expected gain, made an assignment of his patent to Thomas Smith and others, with a donation of £100 for the benefit of the colony.

1661. Goffe and Whalley, the regicides, arrived at New Haven, where by the connivance of the deputy governor and clergyman, they effectually eluded discovery during the remainder of their lives.

1755. THOMAS WILSON died; bishop of Sodor and Man, an excellent prelate and an eminent writer on theology.

1769. SAMUEL DERRICK died; originally a linen draper in Dublin; subsequently a writer of pamphlets in London, and finally master of ceremonies at Bath and Tunbridge.

1771. THOMAS MARTIN, an English antiquarian, died. He wrote a history of his own native town, and made a valuable collection of antiquities, &c.

1777. JAMES AITKEN, alias John the painter, was hanged on a gallows 60 feet in height for setting fire to the rope yard at Portsmouth. He confessed his having set fire to the vessels at Bristol quay and that he was stimulated to these acts by Silas Dean of the American congress.

1778. American frigate Randolph, Capt. Nicholas Biddle, 36 guns and 305 men, blown up about 9 at night, in an action of fifteen minutes with the British ship Yarmouth, 64 guns. Capt. Biddle perished, at the age of 27; only 4 of the crew were saved.

1781. A British soldier jumped over the pallisades at Gibraltar, and notwithstanding 1143 musket balls were fired at him, succeeded in reaching the Spanish lines, waving his hat.

1788. Clinton county, in New York, erected.

1794. Revolution at Warsaw. The Russians with Gen. Inglestrom and their ambassador, driven out of the city by the Poles.

1794. The mulatto Gen. Bellegarde and his second, Pelocque, with 300 followers, surrendered to the British at St. Domingo. The chiefs were sent to the United States.

1795. The British squadron, Sir Edward Pellew, captured near the Penmarks, 8 French vessels, burnt 2 ships, 3 brigs and 2 sloops.

1801. The British expedition under Lord Keith, consisting of nearly 200 sail and an army of 15,330 men, arrived in Aboukir bay, Egypt.

1803, FRANCIS EDGERTON, duke of Bridgewater, died. He was the projector of the Medway canal in England.

1804. British and Foreign Bible society founded in London. A clergyman of Wales, whom the want of a Welsh Bible led to London, occasioned its establishment.