Part 24

32 B. C. TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, a distinguished Roman, died. He understood the art of conducting himself so well, that amidst the civil wars and party strife of the time in which he lived, he preserved the respect and esteem of all parties. He reached the age of 77 without sickness; but finding himself at last attacked by a slight disease, he resolved to put an end to his life by abstaining from food, and expired in five days.

1474. The first book printed in England finished by Caxton as appears by the following entry: "_The Game and Playe of the Chesse_; translated out of the French and emprynted by William Caxton. Fynished the last day of Marche, the yer of our Lord God a thousand four hundred and lxxiiij."

1547. FRANCIS I of France died. He was the rival and opponent of Charles V of Germany, with whom he was involved in war during almost his whole reign, with various success, and to whom he was once a prisoner, with his two sons. He was a patron of literature and the arts.

1605. An expedition fitted out by the earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, under the command of George Weymouth, sailed from the Downs with a view to the discovery of a north-west passage to India, the passion for which was now in its full vigor.

1621. PHILIP III of Spain died. He ascended the throne of his father at the age of 20. The war with Holland, which had revolted, was continued with great spirit, and the siege of Ostend maintained three years, at great expense, and the loss of 80,000 men before it was reduced. He imprudently banished the Moors from his kingdom, and thus deprived himself of a million of peaceable and useful artists; a loss which the country has never recovered from.

1631. JOHN DONNE, an English poet and divine, died. He embraced protestantism at an early age, which together with his shining talents, procured him favors and emoluments. Dryden styles him "the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of the nation," and his eloquence as a divine is also attested to.

1654. Cockfighting prohibited in England by the parliament (called an act of the usurpation).

1656. JAMES USHER, archbishop of Armagh, died, aged 76. He was advanced by James I and Charles I, and courted by Cromwell.

1665. The English authorities issued an order to imprison George Fox, the founder of the sect called Quakers, for his sermons against the awful crime of building meeting houses with steeples.

1698. PETER JOSEPH D'ORLEANS, a French Jesuit, died. He professed belles-lettres, and wrote several valuable histories and biographies.

1713. Peace of Utrecht concluded, which placed England at the head of the European states, and humbled the ambition of France.

1763. Mr. HARRISON was granted £5,000 for the construction of a chronometer to determine with more accuracy the longitude at sea.

1765. The Jesuits expelled from Madrid and all Spain. The order was finally suppressed by the pope, 1773.

1774. The bill for closing the port of Boston received the royal assent.

1783. NAKITA IVANOWITZ, count de Panin, a Russian statesman, died. He was raised from the rank of a horse soldier, under Elizabeth, became a general under Peter, and prime minister of the great Catharine. He possessed great powers of mind, and other qualifications for the high places which he occupied, but his business habits were lax, his conduct haughty, and his manners dissolute.

1791. MATTHIAS OGDEN, a revolutionary patriot, died. He was one of the first that joined Washington at Cambridge; he penetrated the wilderness with Arnold to Canada, and was wounded in the attack on Quebec. On his return he was promoted by congress, and remained in the army through the war.

1794. The national convention of France, in the plenitude of omniscience, decreed _that there was no God_!

1795. The British museum purchased the oriental manuscripts of Mr. Halstead, the disciple of the prophet Brothers.

1797. DANIEL BULL MACARTNEY, an Irish gentleman, died, aged 112. He married his fifth wife, who survived him, at the age of 84, when she was 14, by whom he had 20 children in 20 years. His constitution was so hardy that no cold affected him, and he could not bear the warmth of a sheet in the night time for the last 70 years of his life. In company he drank freely of rum and brandy, which he called _naked truth_; and retained his activity to the time of his death.

1797. BONAPARTE, from his head quarters at Klagenfurth, offered peace to the archduke Charles.

1801. The island of Santa Cruz, in the West Indies, surrendered to the British under Admiral Duckworth. It was afterwards restored.

1806. GEORGE MACARTNEY, a celebrated British statesman, died. He was employed in several important embassies and other offices, till in 1792 he was selected as ambassador extraordinary to China, a mission which occupied three years, and engaged much attention in Europe; and an account of which has been published in 3 vols. quarto by Sir G. Staunton.

1807. Slave trade abolished by the British government.

1812. WELLS, the pedestrian, undertook for 5 pounds, to walk from Westminster bridge, London, to Croydon and back, in two hours, a distance of 19 miles. He performed it in 2 minutes less than the time, but dropped down with fatigue, and was unable to walk home.

1813. Battle of St. Antonio, Mexico, between the royalists and patriots. The former were defeated with the loss of 100 killed, their camp equipage, 6 cannon, and great quantities of stores, &c.

1814. Paris capitulated to the allied army, about 2 o'clock in the morning, and the French troops evacuated it at 7, hostilities to commence in 2 hours. At 11, the conquerors entered the city with the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia at their head.

1827. LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN, a German musical composer, died. His works are numerous, and universally known and admired. His musical talents procured him wealthy patrons among the nobility, by whom he was munificently supported. He was extremely deaf, and eccentric in his manners.

1831. EDWARD AUGUSTUS HOLYOAKE, a venerated New England physician, died, aged 100. He was born at Salem, Mass., 100 years after its settlement, and was a practicing physician there 79 years. He enjoyed uninterrupted good health during life, and at a dinner given by a number of the profession on his centennial anniversary, he appeared among them with a firm step. On a post mortem examination, all the vital organs appeared to have been unimpaired by age and capable of sustaining life much longer, except the stomach, which was divided by a stricture, leaving an aperture less than an inch in diameter.

1831. Battle of Praga, between the Poles under Skrzynecki, and the Russians of 8000 under Geismar, in which the latter were almost totally destroyed, with the loss of 4000 prisoners and 1600 cannon.

1831. An Irish scholar and divine, Rev. HYNES HALLORAN, chaplain to the Britannia in the battle of Trafalgar, was transported for seven years, for forging a frank, value 19 pence.

1835. JOHN WHITCOMB, a soldier of the revolution, died at Swanzey, N. H., aged 104.

1836. MATTHEW LUMSDEN died; an eminent orientalist.

1837. The president at interim of Mexico protested "in the most solemn manner, before all civilized nations, against the acknowledgment of the pretended republic of Texas made by the United States."

1839. Battle of Pago Largo in South America, between the troops of Corrientes and Entre Rios, two provinces of the Argentine republic. The former were defeated with a loss stated at 1960, including the commander-in-chief.

1851. JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN, one of the most distinguished American statesmen, died, aged 68, a senator from South Carolina.

1852. Tremont Temple, Boston, entirely destroyed by fire.

1854. THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, an English judge and dramatist, died, aged 57. He cultivated literature as a refreshing relief from the labors of his profession. He died while charging the jury.

1854. Gen. CANROBERT and more than 1000 French troops landed at Gallipoli.

1854. The artisans of Barcelona, Spain, to the number of 1500 proceeded to the municipality and demanded that the price of provisions should be reduced and wages increased.

APRIL.

APRIL 1.

168 B. C. EMYLIUS PAULUS passed from Brundusium to Corcyra (the modern Corfu) on his famous Macedonian expedition, and on the 6th, sacrificed at the shrine of Delphi.

1386. JAMES AUDLEY, an English warrior, died. He distinguished himself under Edward III in the wars with France, and on their return was liberally rewarded by his sovereign for the deeds of heroism he had displayed in the service.

1405. TAMERLANE, chan of the Tartars, died. He is supposed to have been the son of a shepherd, and raised himself by his courage and prudence to the sovereignty of nearly three quarters of the world. He was preparing for the invasion of China when death put a stop to his career at the early age of 36.

1506. ERASMUS was entertained at London by the great and learned men of the day.

1614. HENRY DE MONTMORENCY, constable of France, died. He distinguished himself in several famous battles. Catharine de Medici found means to disgrace him, when he retired to Savoy, and made successful war upon his country. He lived to be promoted to the highest office under the king.

1672. ARCHIBALD ARMSTRONG, privileged jester or fool of Charles V, died. There is a little book high priced and of little worth entitled _Archibald's Jests_.

1696. Père GERBILLON, the Jesuit missionary (see May 30th), accompanied the imperial Chinese army into Tartary, in the suite of the emperor, being his fifth journey into that country.

1696. JOHN BIGG, an English hermit, died, aged 97. He begged pieces of leather, which he nailed to his clothes, till he became a truly grotesque figure. One of his shoes is preserved in the Bodleian museum, and is made up of about a thousand patches of leather.

1712. Lord BOLINGBROKE stated in parliament, that in the great contest, called "the glorious wars of Queen Anne," the duke of Marlborough had not lost a single battle, and yet the French had carried their point, the succession to the Spanish monarchy, the pretended cause for so great an enterprise. Dean Swift called this statement "a due donation for _all fools day_."

1720. JOHN LEAKE, an English admiral, died. He fought against the far famed Van Tromp, but the battle at La Hogue most distinguished him.

1729. The grand jubilee began at Rome.

1732. JOHN BURCHARD MENCKE, a learned German author, died at Leipsic, where he had conducted the _Acta Eruditorum_ 25 years, a valuable work begun by his father in 1682, and which established a correspondence with the learned men of Europe.

1764. An annular eclipse of the sun was observed at London.

1764. At Monmouth assizes a girl, aged 18, was burned for murdering her mistress. This was among the last punishments by burning in England.

1775. Col. DANIEL BOONE, the Kentucky pioneer, began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, at a salt lick, 60 yards from the Kentucky river.

1779. JOHN LANGHORNE, an English poet and divine, died. Besides poems, sermons and miscellanies, by which he is favorably known, the translation of Plutarch in common use bears his name.

1789. First meeting of congress under the federal constitution.

1794. The British under Sir John Jervis took the island of St. Helena.

1794. JOHN LEWIS LOMBARD, a German professor of artillery, died. He wrote several works on the movement of projectiles and the principles of gunnery.

1797. The French under Bernadotte entered Lauback, the capital of Carniola. At the same time Massena, commanding the advance guard of the French army, attacked the imperialists in the defiles near Neumark; the strife being between the flower of the Austrian army and the French veterans of Italy, was most obstinately contested. The French, however, carried the day.

1799. Assault upon the works of St. Jean d'Acre, in Palestine. The French were repulsed with great loss.

1808. Russian ukase prohibiting the introduction of British goods into the Russian ports.

1810. State marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte with the archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria celebrated at St. Cloud. The emperor caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, with the singular device of Love bearing a thunderbolt.

1826. ISAAC MILNER, an English mathematician and theological writer, died. He was brought up to the weaving business, but occupied his leisure with the classics and mathematics. He was the tutor of Wilberforce and Pitt.

1832. War broke out between the Winnebago and other Indian tribes and the United States.

1832. The London _Penny Magazine_, under the superintendence of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, commenced.

1833. JOHN HOOKER ASHMUN, professor of law in Harvard university, died. He had not attained his 33d year, yet he had gathered about him all the honors which are usually the harvest of a riper life.

1837. ROBERT HAWKER, an English divine, died at Plymouth, England. In 1814 he published the holy scriptures in penny numbers for the use of the poor.

1843. JOHN ARMSTRONG, aged 84, died at Red Hook, N. Y. He was the author of the celebrated _Newburgh Letters_, and a prominent soldier in the war of the American revolution, and for some time secretary of war under President Madison.

1844. PETER S. DUPONCEAU so favorably known as a scholar and statesman, died at Philadelphia, aged 84. In his 78th year he published his _Dissertation on the Chinese Language_.

1853. SANTA ANNA arrived at Vera Cruz, having been elected president of Mexico by the vote of 19 out of 25 states.

1856. ISAAC MCKEEVER, an American commodore, died at Norfolk, Va., where he commanded the navy yard.

1856. The Emperor ALEXANDER published at St. Petersburg a proclamation announcing the signing of the treaty of peace with England, France and Turkey which terminated the struggle between Russia on the one side, and England, France and Turkey on the other, and prolonged the salvation of the latter country.

APRIL 2.

1081. Constantinople besieged by Alexius Commenus.

1507. FRANCIS, of Paula, founder of the order of Minims, died.

1512. Florida discovered by Ponce de Leon.

1594. A skirmish at Edinburgh between the earl of Bothwell and the cavalry of King James.

1640. MATTHIAS SARBIEUSKI CASSIMIR, a Polish Jesuit, died. He was so excellent a Latin poet that his poems have been thought to be equal to some of the best Latin authors, not excepting Horace and Virgil. He had begun an epic in the style of Virgil, called _The Lesciades_, but died before it was completed. Many editions of his poems have been published.

1640. PAUL FLEMMING, one of the best German poets of the 17th century, died.

1683. WILLIAM PENN gave his colonists in Pennsylvania a new charter.

1696. There fell in many parts of Ireland a thick dew, which the country people called butter, from the consistency and color of it, being soft, clammy, and of a dark yellow. This phenomenon had for some time been of frequent occurrence; it fell always in the night, and chiefly in moorish low grounds, on the top of the grass, and on the thatch of the cabins. It frequently lay a fortnight without changing its color, and had a bad odor, like that of church yards or graves.

1698. The earl of Bellemont arrived at New York to succeed Fletcher as governor.

1736. JACOB TONSON the elder, a noted English bookseller, died.

1743. Birthday of THOMAS JEFFERSON, third president of the United States.

1747. JOHN JAMES DILLENIUS, a German botanist, died in England. He is considered as the father of cryptogamic botany. His works were illustrated with plates, admirably drawn and engraved by himself.

1754. THOMAS CARTE, an English historian, died. He was engaged several years in writing a history of England, which was published in four vols. folio, and esteemed a work of great merit.

1755. Severndroog castle, on the coast of Malabar, the rendezvous of the celebrated pirate Angria, taken by the British under Com. Jones.

1768. JOHN BAPTIST BOYER, a French physician, died. He distinguished himself by the skill which he displayed during the plague at Marseilles.

1784. County of Washington, in the state of New York, erected.

1791. HONORE GABRIEL RIQUETTI, count de Mirabeau, the French revolutionist, died. He was an extraordinary character, of great talent and ambition, but whose genius was controlled by the worst propensities. He was the master spirit of the revolution, and had he lived might have given it a different character. His funeral was conducted with great pomp by the enthusiastic populace.

1793. DUMOURIEZ, the French general, arrested the minister of war and the commissioners of the convention, who had been sent to arrest him, and delivered them to the Austrian general, Clairfait.

1794. The British took the island of St. Lucia, in the West Indies, belonging to the French. It was ceded to the British in 1814.

1794. WILLIAM JONES, a distinguished oriental scholar, died in India.

1801. Battle of Copenhagen, between the Danish and British fleets, the latter under Nelson and Parker. The Danish ships and batteries were entirely destroyed, with the loss of 1600 men killed and wounded. British loss, 254 killed, 689 wounded. Nelson was created viscount on his return home, and his honors made hereditary, even in the female line.

1804. JEAN MOSSEQUIN died at Portieu, in France, aged 103. He was married the day before to his ninth wife, Marie Vascois, aged 19. He left twenty-nine children.

1817. MRS. MCCOWEN, aged 77, died at Lewistown, Pa. She was one of the first white women that came up the long narrows to that wilderness which is now a fruitful field.

1817. KOSCIUSKO abolished servitude in his domain of Siechnowieze, in Poland, and declared all ancient serfs free, exempted from all charges and quit-rents, and fully entitled to their chattels and lands.

1821. Erie county, New York, erected.

1823. First paper in Syracuse.

1839. HEZEKIAH NILES died, at Wilmington, Delaware, aged 63. He is known as the founder, and for twenty-five years the intelligent and laborious editor of _Nile's Weekly Register_, a valuable journal published at Baltimore. In private life he was one of the most amiable of men.

1840. RICHARD PHILLIPS, a self-educated English author, and editor of various publications, died, aged 73. His original name is said to have been Philip Richard, and he was many years an eminent London bookseller. He established the _Monthly Magazine_, which at one time had a great circulation. He was afterwards elected sheriff, and received the honor of knighthood.

1855. GEORGE BELLAS GREENOUGH, an English geologist, died, aged 77. He was one of the founders of the Geological society, of London, and constructed several valuable maps, the most celebrated of which is a geological and physical map of all India, giving the geological attributes of each district between the plateaux north of the Himalaya and cape Cormorin.

APRIL 3.

13. AUGUSTUS, emperor of Rome, signed his will, bequeathing to the Roman people 40,000,000 sesterces, (about $1,600,000,) and divorced the two Julias, his daughter and grand-daughter, from his sepulchre. It was written upon two skins of parchment.

33. JESUS CHRIST, our Savior, crucified.

68. GALBA accuses Nero before the people of his enormities, and elects himself lieutenant of the state.

1068. WILLIAM, the conqueror, again imposes the tax of Danegelt which occasioned an armed opposition at Exeter.

1143. JOHN II (_Commenus_), emperor of the East, died. He ascended the throne of Constantinople on the death of his father; was victorious over the Mohammedans and other foes; and swayed the sceptre with wisdom and ability.

1367. Battle of Navarette, and victory of Edward the black prince, by which Peter the cruel was replaced on the Castilian throne.

1421. Battle of Beauge, in France, when the duke of Clarence and 1500 English were slain.

1617. JOHN NAPIER, baron of Merchiston, died. He was born in Scotland, in 1550, and after completing his education traveled on the continent. On his return he devoted himself to the cultivation of science and literature, became a distinguished mathematician, and was regarded by Kepler as one of the greatest men of the age. He is known as the inventor of logarithms for the use of navigators.

1646. THOMAS LYDIAT, an English chronologer, died. He early devoted himself to literature, became an able scholar, and was deservedly esteemed by the learned of the times.

1707. EDMUND DICKINSON, a learned English physician, died. He was appointed physician to Charles II and his successor; and retired from practice to become an author.

1717. JAMES OZENHAM, an eminent French mathematician, died. He taught mathematics at Paris, and acquired property; but the Spanish war reduced his finances, and the death of his wife and twelve children embittered his last days. His works are numerous and valuable.

1736. JOHN ALBERT FABRICIUS, a learned German, died at Hamburgh. He was an indefatigable scholar, of great modesty and simplicity of manners, and so highly esteemed by the citizens of Hamburgh, that when invited elsewhere, the senate prevailed on him by a superior salary, not to relinquish his residence among them.

1760. JAMES BENIGNUS WINSLOW, an eminent Danish anatomist, died. He went to Paris, where his talents were appreciated and rewarded.

1763. All the gibbets on the Edgeware road, on which many malefactors were hung in chains, near London, were cut down by unknown persons.

1764. The archduke JOSEPH chosen and crowned king of the Romans.

1775. New York colonial legislature held its last session.

1783. Treaty of amity and commerce for fifteen years between the United States and Sweden concluded by Franklin.

1791. JOHN BERKENHOUT, a literary and medical character, died. He was the son of a Dutch merchant, and experienced many vicissitudes; first served in the Prussian and afterwards in the English army; studied medicine at Leyden; and in 1778 came with certain commissioners to America, where he was imprisoned by congress, on which account he enjoyed a pension from the British government.

1792. GEORGE POCOCKE, an English admiral, died. He signalized himself by the capture of Havana, and many other important services.

1793. DUMOURIEZ, the French general, who escaped from the lines, under the repeated fire of three battalions, joined the Austrians, accompanied by several other officers.

1811. Partial action on the Coa, near Sabugal, between the advanced posts of the British, and a division of the French army under Massena, who was defeated, and the French expelled from Portugal.

1813. Action near Urbanna, on the Chesapeake, between 17 British barges and 2 schooners, and 3 letters of marque and 1 privateer of Baltimore; the latter were captured.

1814. The French conservative senate solemnly decreed that Bonaparte had forfeited the throne, and released all persons from their oaths of allegiance to him.

1815. Eruption of mount Tomboro, on the island of Sumbawa, distant about 800 miles from Batavia, in the Indian Ocean.

1816. Treaty of peace concluded by Lord Exmouth, commanding a British fleet before Algiers, between the Dey and Sardinia, and 51 Sardinian prisoners liberated.

1816. THOMAS MACHIN, an officer of the revolution, died at his residence in Schoharie county, N. Y., aged 72. He was a British officer at the battle of _Minden_, and an American officer during the whole war of the revolution. The chain across the Hudson at West Point was constructed under his direction, and he was wounded at Bunker Hill and Fort Montgomery.

1826. REGINALD HEBER, bishop of Calcutta, died. He was zealous in his calling, and no doubt accelerated his death by his devotion to the cause of his master. He ranks high among the British poets.

1829. Safety banking fund in the state of New York established.

1833. NICHOLAS IPSILANTI, an officer of the Greek revolution, died, at the age of 35.