Part 65

1850. BENJAMIN CHAMBERS, died, aged 86. He was a native of Pennsylvania, who entered the revolutionary army at the age of 16, and afterwards settled in Indiana. He held various important civil and military appointments under the early presidents.

1854. The city of Louisville, Ky., was visited by a tornado, which blew down and unroofed a large number of buildings; a church fell upon the congregation while at worship; 25 were killed and 67 seriously injured.

1857. RUFUS W. GRISWOLD, a voluminous American author, died, aged 42. He wrote for numerous periodicals, and left several unfinished works.

AUGUST 28.

430. AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS (or St. Augustin), one of the fathers of the Christian church, died at Hippo, in Africa.

876. LOUIS I, of Germany, died. He acquired the title of the pious, at the same time rendered himself powerful and formidable to his neighbors.

1443. JOHN V, duke of Britanny, died, and was succeeded by his son Francis.

1595. DRAKE and HAWKINS sailed from England with six of the queen's ships and twenty-one private ships and barks, on an expedition against the Spanish settlements in the West Indies.

1608. FRANCIS VERE, died; an English general, who distinguished himself in the expedition to Holland, 1585.

1609. HUDSON, having retreated his steps from Chesapeake bay, discovered another great bay, which has since acquired the name of Delaware. He anchored the Half Moon in eight fathom water, and took possession of the country.

1645. HUGO GROTIUS, an eminent Dutch philosopher, died. He was a man of great talent and laborious study, and notwithstanding he passed a stormy life, his works are very numerous.

1654. AXEL OXENSTIERN, a Swedish statesman, died. He was placed at the head of affairs on the death of Gustavus Adolphus, and owed his elevation to his merit and abilities.

1686. CASSINI, an Italian astronomer, discovered the satellite of Venus.

1710. JOSEPH KEBLE, an English law writer, died. Besides his published works, which were few, he left 100 large folio, and 50 thick quarto volumes in manuscript.

1722. Port Royal in Jamaica, destroyed by a hurricane; 26 ships and many lives lost.

1731. CHARLES BOYLE, earl of Orrery, died, aged 56. He made a figure from the age of 19 up, in literary, military, and almost every other kind of warfare.

1737. JOHN HUTCHINSON, an English author, died: founder of a well-known philosophical sect, which opposed Newton's doctrine of gravitation. His theories are curious, but no longer in repute.

1754. An irruption of the French and Indians upon Hoosick and Schaghticoke, by which those settlements were broken up, two persons scalped, and the houses fired.

1775. GEORGE FAULKNER, a celebrated Irish printer, died. He was the first to carry the art to a high degree of perfection in that country, and appears to have been a worthy and useful citizen.

1788. ELIZABETH CHUDLEIGH, duchess of Kingston, died at Paris; celebrated for her matrimonial speculations.

1792. DUMOURIER took his post at the head of 20,000 men, undisciplined and unorganized. Yet with these materials he arrested the progress of 80,000 Prussians and Hessians, and forced them to retreat with the loss of half their army.

1794. Battle of Powassin, between the Prussians and the Poles, in which the former lost their batteries and cannon, after a bloody engagement.

1798. JAMES WILSON died, one of the signers of the declaration of independence. He was eminent for his talents and integrity, and continued in the discharge of some public office till his death.

1804. MARGARET, widow of Benedict Arnold, died in London, aged 44. She was the daughter of Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia. It was said of her, that with a superiority and strength of mind seldom equaled, she possessed such polished and fascinating manners, as to convert every acquaintance into a friend.

1811. JOHN LEYDEN, a distinguished linguist, died on the island of Java, in his 36th year. He was ordained as a minister, but never attained any popularity as a preacher.

1814. Bombardment of fort Erie continued by the British; a shell entered the roof of Gen. Gaines's quarters, and burst at his feet, by which he was so severely wounded as to be obliged to resign the command of the fort.

1816. Treaty signed between Algiers and England, by which Christian slavery was to be abolished, and all slaves, of whatever nation, to be delivered up. The number released was 1,033.

1839. WILLIAM SMITH, an eminent English geologist, died, aged 70. In his employment as a land surveyor and engineer, he turned his attention to the geology of England, and published upwards of 20 geological maps of the counties. He is styled the _Father of English Geology_.

1839. A grand tournament appointed at Eglintoun castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. The day was very stormy, and the multitude from all parts of Great Britain who had assembled to witness the feats, estimated at 80,000, suffered greatly from the inclemency of the weather, and the impossibility of procuring shelter, food, or vehicles. An immense sum had been expended by the romantic nobleman in getting up the festival, which proved a total failure.

1851. The yacht America beat the iron yacht Titania, on a race of forty miles out and back, and left her eight miles astern.

1854. MARIA CHRISTINA, queen mother of Spain, left Madrid for Portugal, under escort of a body of government troops, but against the will of the people; she was indebted to the state 71,000,000 reals.

1855. SPENCER H. CONE, a Baptist minister, died in New York, aged 70. He was an actor, and on the stage for the last time when the Richmond theatre was burnt. He afterwards edited a newspaper, and finally became one of the most distinguished of the Baptist ministers.

1855. The vessel engaged to lay the submarine cable between cape Ray in Newfoundland and cape North in cape Breton, 55½ miles, began to pay it out. The cable afterwards broke, and a gale coming on, it was found necessary to let it go.

1856. The Dudley observatory was inaugurated at Albany.

AUGUST 29.

30 B. C. Conquest of Alexandria by Augustus; exactly three lustra or fifteen years preceding the great victory of Drusus over the Rhœtians and Vindelici, which concluded the Barbaric war.

30. St. JOHN (_the Baptist_) beheaded. The decollation of the Baptist determines the birthday of Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, called Antipas, who for his ambition was banished by Caligula to Spain or Lyons, with Herodias, in the year 38.

410. Alaric evacuated Rome and ravaged the provinces of Italy.

284. Era of Diocletian (or the martyrs), commenced, still used by the Copts and Abyssinians. It receives its name from the persecution of the Christians in the reign of Diocletian, and was much used by the Christian writers until the introduction of the Christian era, in the sixth century.

1350. Great naval battle in the English channel, off Winchelsea, between the English under Edward III and the mariners of Biscay. Fourteen Castilian ships were carried triumphantly into port.

1353. Action between the Genoese fleet under Antonio Grimaldi, and the combined Venitian and Catalonian fleets, under Pisani, in which the former suffered so great a defeat that only 17 vessels escaped.

1445. PAUL, of Burgos, a learned Jew, died. He was converted to Christianity, and was baptized at the same time with his three sons, who all distinguished themselves.

1527. Battle of Mohatz, between the Turks under Solyman, and the Hungarians under Louis II, in which the latter were defeated with the loss of 20,000 killed. The Turks carried nearly 200,000 persons into captivity.

1583. STEPHEN PARMENIUS BUDEIUS, a learned Hungarian, shipwrecked on the coast of Newfoundland. He accompanied sir Humphrey Gilbert's squadron of discovery, for the purpose of recording their discoveries and exploits in Latin. He was on board the Delight, which carried down more than 100 persons with her.

1657. JOHN LILBURNE, a famous English enthusiast, died. He was the ringleader of a party called the levelers.

1660. The act of indemnity signed by Charles II, out of which most of those called regicides were excepted.

1692. Col. BENJAMIN FLETCHER arrived at the port of New York, with a commission as governor of the province, which he published the next day.

1708. Haverhill, on the Merrimack, surprised by the French and Indians, who burnt part of the town, killed about 40, and carried away 100 prisoners.

1749. MATHIAS BEL, died at Presburg; a Hungarian ecclesiastic, ennobled for his literacy.

1750. LETITIA PILKINGTON, a lady of great wit and literary celebrity, died at Dublin.

1764. JOHN BERNARD, a distinguished London merchant, died. He represented the city in parliament forty years, and was so highly esteemed by the public that his statue was placed in the Royal Exchange during his life time.

1769. EDMUND HOYLE died; author of a celebrated treatise on whist and other games.

1776. Americans retreated from Long Island. Gen. Mifflin commanded the rear guard, with whom Washington remained until the retreat was effected. The army amounted to 9,000.

1778. The rear of the American army under Gen. Sullivan attacked by the British, who were repulsed. British loss 260; American loss 206.

1779. The Indians defeated by Sullivan at Elmira.

1780. JAMES GERMAIN SOUFFLOT, an eminent French architect, died.

1782. British ship Royal George, 108 guns, sunk while careening. Admiral Kempenfelt and about 1,000 persons were lost, of whom 300 were women and children. (This is put down by other authorities on the 19th, and differently stated.)

1799. PIUS VI (_John Angela Braschi_), pope, died. He rendered his name famous by draining the Pontine marshes. Bonaparte entered his state twice, making him a prisoner the second time, and carried him over the Alps to Valentia, where he died of excessive fatigue, aged 82.

1804. Com. PREBLE'S fifth attack on Tripoli. The Constitution fired upwards of 300 rounds, besides grape and canister: sunk a large Tunisian galliot, and silenced two of the batteries and the castle. American loss 3 killed, 1 wounded.

1816. SCHETA, the celebrated astronomer of Liliennthal, died.

1833. Great fire at Constantinople, in which a circuit of three miles, said to comprise 12,000 houses and 50,000 inhabitants, was devastated, and many lives lost.

1843. A treaty of peace between Great Britain and China concluded. The Chinese to pay twenty-one millions of dollars, open 5 of their principal ports and cede the island of Hong-Kong to the British.

1849. The fortress of Achulga, the residence of Schamyl, a celebrated Circassian chief, was carried by assault by the Russians, after a siege of four months.

1851. LOPEZ, who had invaded Cuba with American volunteers, after sixteen days of reverses, and having lost nearly all his followers, was captured in the mountains by the aid of bloodhounds.

1851. A convention of twenty-five delegates assembled in Lewis county, Oregon, and appointed a committee to prepare a memorial to congress, to procure a division of the territory, and the organization of a separate territorial government.

1853. The Austrian minister, M. Hulsemann, addressed a note to the American government, complaining of the conduct of Capt. Ingraham in the Koszta affair.

1854. Petropaulowski, a Russian town, attacked and bombarded by the allied English and French fleet. The town was defended by 1,200 men and 120 guns.

1854. A new asteroid, named Euphrosyne, was discovered at the Washington observatory, by James Ferguson, assistant astronomer.

AUGUST 30.

30 B. C. CLEOPATRA, queen of Egypt, destroyed herself by the bite of an asp, to save herself from the disgrace of captivity.

526. THEODORIC, first king of the Goths in Italy, died. He advanced commerce and the arts, and patronized literature, but committed great acts of cruelty.

1181. ALEXANDER III, pope, died. He was an able pontiff, beloved by his subjects and respected by the world.

1483. LOUIS XI, of France, died. His ambition led him to the commission of the greatest crimes, by which he acquired the title of the Tiberius of France.

1563. WOLFGANG MUSCULUS, a celebrated German divine, died. He adopted the tenets of Luther, and by his eloquence gained over the city of Augsburg.

1566. SOLYMAN II (_the Magnificent_), sultan of Turkey, died. He prosecuted war with various success in Europe and Asia, and took the island of Rhodes from the knights of Jerusalem.

1645. Treaty of peace between the New England colonies and the Narragansett Indians; by which the latter were to pay the expense of the preparations already made for war, estimated at 2,000 fathoms of wampum; restore to Uncus the prisoners and canoes taken from him; keep perpetual peace with the English and all their allies; and give hostages for the performance of the treaty. Formidable preparations were made for this contest with the heathen savages. They drew up a manifesto, containing such facts as they considered sufficient to justify them in making war against the Narragansetts. It was entitled, "a declaration of former passages and proceedings betwixt the English and the Narrohiggansetts, with their confederates, wherein the grounds and justice of the ensuing warr are opened and cleared." In this document it is affirmed that the English colonies, "both in their treaties and converse with the barbarous natives of this wilderness, have had an awful respect to divine rules." It was determined immediately to raise 300 men; Massachusetts to raise 190, Plymouth 40, Connecticut 40, New Haven 30.

1645. A formal treaty of peace between the Dutch in New Amsterdam, under William Kieft, and the Indians in the vicinity.

1645. Parliament ordered a fast for a blessing on Scotland and sir Thomas Fairfax's army, and a cessation of the plague.

1690. King WILLIAM forced to raise the siege of Limerick after sustaining great loss.

1717. WILLIAM LLOYD, an English prelate, died, aged 91. He was a zealous promoter of the revolution, and a voluminous author.

1757. Battle of Norkettin; the Prussians forced the Russian camp and batteries, and killed 2,000 men with an equal loss on their own part.

1785. By the plague which raged at Tripoli, 30,000 persons had died up to this date, of which 3,300 were Jews. The brother of the bey, his two sons, and all the ministers of the bey were dead. All the Christians established in the city as merchants had died.

1794. The Austrian garrison of Conde laid down their arms as prisoners of war at the first summons of the French republican general Scherer. The garrison was strongly entrenched, and might have defied the enemy as long as their provisions lasted.

1795. ANDREW DANICAN (_Philidor_) died; noted for his musical performances and compositions, by which he acquired the _sobriquet_ from the king, of Philidor, after an Italian musician of that name, and by which he is generally known as a celebrated chess player. His fondness for the game grew into a passion, in order to indulge which he traveled over a great part of Europe, engaging everywhere with the best players. He remained some time in England, during which he printed his _Analysis of Chess_, a standard work. On his return to France he devoted his attention to the comic opera, of which he produced 21 pieces. A short time previous to his decease he played two games blindfolded at the same time against two excellent chess players, and won.

1797. In England, the Leeds methodist conference resolved to eject from their communion, a brother, who should propagate opinions in opposition to the established church.

1801. Cairo surrendered to the British, and Egypt evacuated by the French under Menou. He was the first French general who landed with Bonaparte, and the last who left it.

1804. THOMAS PERCIVAL, well known for his writings on moral and medical subjects, died at Manchester, England.

1804. JOHN BLAIR LINN, an American poet, died, aged 27. He published 2 vols. of miscellaneous pieces.

1810. JOHN PHILIP DE COBENTZL, an Austrian statesman, died. He was the last of that illustrious family.

1813. Battle of Nollendorf, in Bohemia, when Von Kleist made a daring descent from the mountains, upon the rear of Vandamme, and gaining a decisive victory saved Bohemia, against which Bonaparte had directed his masterly demonstrations.

1814. Alexandria, in Virginia, capitulated to the British, and delivered up the public stores, shipping, &c.

1814. The British under sir Peter Parker, having attacked the Americans at Moorsfield, were repulsed with considerable loss. Among the killed was sir Peter himself.

1832. Number of deaths in Paris from cholera since March, 18,000.

1834. HARDING, an eminent astronomer, died at Gottingen; celebrated as the discoverer of the planet Juno.

1835. WILLIAM T. BARRY, postmaster-general under president Jackson, died at Liverpool on his way to Spain, as minister plenipotentiary of the United States.

1838. DAVID HUME died, aged 82; baron of the exchequer in Scotland, and author of a celebrated work on criminal law.

1844. FRANCIS BAILEY, so favorably known as a stock broker and author, died in England. He was instrumental in founding the astronomical society of London.

1848. The United States district attorney of Arkansas had orders from government to discover and prosecute all those who were engaged in preparing a military expedition against Mexico, and establishing the republic of the Sierra Madre.

1849. The chamber of deputies at Turin voted 100,000 livres to relieve the refugees from different parts of Italy.

1850. JOHN INMAN, a New York editor, died, aged 46. He was educated for the law, but commenced his editorial experience about 1830, with the _Spirit of the Times_. He was also for a time connected with the _New York Mirror_, and in 1834 became assistant editor of the _New York Commercial Advertiser_, which he edited ably on the death of William L. Stone.

1852. JOHN CAMDEN NEILD, an English barrister, died at London, aged 72. He was privately known by his eccentricities and miserliness, and after his death became more publicly known by the strange bequest of all his property, estimated at $2,500,000, to the queen.

1852. GEORGE FREDERICK VON LANGSDORFF, a noted botanist and traveler, died at Freidburg, in the duchy of Baden.

1853. The cholera, which prevailed very generally in the north of Europe, became nearly extinct at Copenhagen, where it destroyed 4,006 lives. In St. Petersburg the deaths during this visitation were 5,609.

1854. The British admiral PRICE engaged in bombarding the Russian town Petropaulowski, was killed by a shot from his own pistol.

1855. FEARGUS EDWARD O'CONNOR, leader of the chartists in Great Britain, died at Notting hill, England, aged 59, in the custody of an institution for the insane.

AUGUST 31.

1130. ABU ABDILLAH MOHAMMED, founder of the sect and dynasty of Almohades, died. The empire founded by this imposter, lasted 140 years.

1290. EDWARD I, by a proclamation, exiled the whole race of English Jews forever, on penalty of death.

1422. HENRY V of England died at Vincennes, in France. He had conquered the kingdom, and was received at Paris as the future master of the country.

1523. ULRIC HUTTEN, an eccentric German poet, died.

1568. JOHN DE LA VALETTE PARISOT, grand master of the knights of Malta, died. He bravely defended the island against a formidable siege by the Turks in 1557.

1578. FROBISHER embarked to return from his third voyage to the northernmost part of the American continent. His fleet was separated the next night, by a violent storm, but arrived safe, one ship after another, in England. Stow, the chronicler, says, "they fraught their shippes with the like pretended gold ore out of the mines," as on their last voyage, "but after great charges it proved worse than good stone, whereby many men were deceived to their utter undoings."

1615. STEPHEN PASQUIER died; an eminent French advocate and poet.

1660. JOHN FREINSHEMIUS, a learned German, died. He understood most of the languages of Europe, and his supplements to Livy and Quintus Curtius, go far to supply the loss of the originals.

1688. JOHN BUNYAN died, aged 60. From an abandoned youth he became a respectable preacher; the authorship of _Pilgrim's Progress_ will perpetuate his memory.

1733. Fifty tons of half pence and farthings sent from the Tower of London to Ireland.

1772. WILLIAM BORLASE, an English writer on natural history, &c., died. He also devoted much attention to antiquities.

1805. JAMES CURRIE, an eminent Scottish physician, died. He wrote on medicine, and published an edition of Robert Burns with an excellent memoir.

1813. Battle of St. Sebastian; Wellington having driven the French over the Pyrennes, carried this place by storm and achieved a victory on the heights of San Marceil. French loss 15,000.

1832. EVERARD HOME, an English anatomist, died, aged 77. He was one of the most eminent medical men of his day, and his publications are numerous and in high repute.

1849. The convention for framing a state constitution for California, assembled at Monterey.

1852. JAMES L. KINGSLEY, professor of languages and ecclesiastical history, died, aged 73. He was connected with the college in the department of classical literature, with high reputation, for half a century.

1853. The cholera appeared at Newcastle upon Tyne, in England, and caused 1538 deaths before its disappearance on the 26th October.

1853. A Roman circus of great size was discovered at Tours in France, where excavations were being made.

1853. The small pox raged at the Sandwich islands, having since May carried off 1,805 persons out of a population of 60,000.

1855. WILLIAM H. FRY died at Philadelphia, aged 78. He was one of the magnates of the press in that city, and the founder of the _National Gazette_.

1855. LEWIS WESTON DILLWYN, a British naturalist, died at Swanse, Wales, aged 77. He produced several valuable works on natural history, and communicated various papers on fossils, shells and plants to the Royal society.

SEPTEMBER.

SEPTEMBER 1.

5508 B. C. The world was created, according to the _Septuagint_, followed by Julius Africanus, a chronologer of the third century, upon the first of September, five thousand five hundred and eight years, three months and twenty-five days before the birth of Christ. Of the 7,349 years which are thus supposed to elapse since the creation, we shall find 3,000 of ignorance and darkness; 2,000 either fabulous or doubtful; 1,000 of ancient history, commencing with the Persian empire and the republics of Rome and Athens; 1,000 from the fall of the Roman empire in the west to the discovery in America; and the remaining 349 will compose the modern state of Europe and mankind.

44 B. C. Divine honors decreed to the memory of Cæsar.

1159. ADRIAN IV (_Nicholas Brekespere_), pope, died. He was the only Englishman ever elected to the office.

1611. The crew of HENRY HUDSON, who had mutinied and put him adrift in an open boat, were picked up by a fisherman, in a wretched condition. Their best sustenance left, while on their voyage, was seaweed fried with candles' ends, and the skins of fowls. They were in such a state of starvation that only one of them had strength to lie on the helm and steer the ship. It appears that they had quarreled among themselves, and met with a fearful retribution.

1620. The English pilgrims sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower, for the American continent, intending to find some place near Hudson's river for a settlement.

1633. ANTONIO QUERENGHI, an Italian poet, died.

1641. The Raritans made an attack upon the colony of Staten island, and murdered the colonists, in revenge for previous depredations by the Dutch.