Part 7

1833. BANASTRE TARLETON died, aged 78. He commanded the British cavalry in the Carolinas, in the revolution.

1841. SARAH ANN DAVIS sentenced at Philadelphia for murder; the first capital conviction of a female in Philadelphia.

1844. WILLIAM GASTON died at Raleigh, the capital of his native state. The prudence and energy of his mother made a disposition, naturally volatile and irritable, become a pattern of patience and perseverance. His speeches when a member of congress were highly finished.

1853. JUNIUS SMITH died, aged 74; having devoted a considerable portion of his life to the establishment of transatlantic steam-navigation, and the naturalization of the teaplant in the United States.

1854. ALEXANDER DE BODISCO died at Georgetown. He was seventeen years Russian minister at Washington, and was very popular with the American people.

1855. There was an earthquake in a part of New Zealand, by which the surface of the earth was raised between three and four feet, and the shellfish attached to the rocks died.

JANUARY 24.

41. CAIUS CALIGULA, the Roman emperor, assassinated. He commenced his reign with every promise of becoming a good monarch. But at the end of eight months he was attacked with a fever, which appears to have left a frenzy upon his mind, for his disposition was totally reversed. After committing the most atrocious acts of cruelty and folly, he was assassinated by a tribune as he came out of the amphitheatre, in the 29th year of his age, and the 4th of his reign.

76. Birthday of PUBLIUS ÆLIUS ADRIAN, the Roman emperor. He was a renowned general and great traveler; who, on a visit to Britain, built the famous wall or rampart, which still retains his name, extending from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway frith, 80 miles, to prevent the incursions of the Caledonians into England.

1559. CHRISTIAN II, king of Denmark, died. His history affords a series of cruelties and usurpations almost without a parallel, from 1515, when he ascended the throne, until 1523, when he was deposed. The remainder of his life was passed in imprisonment.

1709. GEORGE ROOKE, an English admiral, died. He took the fortress of Gibraltar, by surprise, 1704; since which it has continued in the hands of the British, and is considered impregnable.

1712. Birthday of FREDERICK the Great of Prussia.

1727. PHILIP DE VENDOME, a French general, died. He distinguished himself in the army of Louis XIV.

1762. JAMES RALPH, a voluminous writer of poetry, politics and history, died. He was an American by birth, but went over to England about 1729. He wrote a history of England, commencing with the Stuarts.

1781. The British garrison at Georgetown, South Carolina, surprised and taken by General Lee.

1793. The French minister, M. CHAUVELIN, ordered to quit England before the 1st of February.

1795. Lord HOOD sailed from England, on an expedition against Corsica.

1797. At a dinner complimentary to Charles J. Fox, the chairman, the duke of Norfolk, gave as a toast, "Our sovereign's health, the majesty of the people;" for which offence he lost all his offices.

1812. DANIEL MCDONALD died at Canajoharie, aged 102. He was a native of Ireland, born in the reign of Queen Anne, and had seen four monarchs on the English throne. He took an early and active part in the revolutionary war; and was possessed of a most remarkable degree of activity, both of body and mind, until the morning he expired.

1834. WILLIAM DONNISON, an officer of the revolution, died. He was appointed adjutant and inspector-general of the Massachusetts militia by Gov. Hancock in 1788, which office he held until 1813.

1838. JOSEPH GOUGE, a revolutionary soldier, died, aged 109.

1838. Defeat of the Indians at Loche-Hatchee by the United States troops under Gen. Jessup; loss of the latter, 7 killed and 32 wounded.

1841. MATTHIAS DENMAN, an enterprising western pioneer, and in early life one of the first owners of the land on which Cincinnati now stands, died at Springfield, N. J., aged 91.

1851. G. L. P. SPONTINI died in Italy; a celebrated dramatic composer, in the line of opera.

1857. Dr. MEDHURST, English missionary to China, died, aged 71. He was also a noted linguist, and author of a work on China, a Chinese dictionary, and a Japanese and English vocabulary.

JANUARY 25.

275. LUCIUS DOMITIUS AURELIANUS, emperor of Rome, assassinated. He was the son of a peasant; his mother a priestess of the Temple of the Sun. He enlisted as a common soldier, and rose from that humble station to the highest military offices during the reigns of Valerian and Claudius, the latter of whom, on his death bed, recommended Aurelian to the choice of the troops. He delivered Italy from the barbarians, and conquered the famous Zenobia queen of Palmyra. He had planned an expedition against Persia, and was waiting in Thrace for an opportunity to cross the straits when he fell a victim to a conspiracy.

1327. EDWARD II of England, then a prisoner in Kenilworth castle, compelled to resign his crown in favor of his son, Edward III.

1533. HENRY VIII privately married to Ann Boleyn in a garret at Whitehall.

1640. ROBERT BURTON, an English divine, died. He is known principally by his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, a rare book, which it is said he wrote to divert his own thoughts from that feeling.

1692. The Indians, accompanied by some French, attacked the town of York in Maine, killed 50 and carried away 100 of the inhabitants, and destroyed the town.

1717. The episcopal clergy of Scotland, who had before been fined for not praying for King George by name were forced to abscond or fly their country.

1726. WILLIAM DE LISLE, a distinguished geographer, died at Paris. His maps are still of great authority.

1730. A fire which broke out in the archduchess's apartments at Brussels, consumed the palace, with the national records and state papers.

1745. Action in the Straits of Banca, (Sumatra) between the British ships Debtford and Preston, Com. Barnet, and three French company ships, in which the latter were captured.

1759. Birthday of ROBERT BURNS.

1782. DE GRASSE attacked the van of the British fleet under Admiral Hood. The French were drawn from their anchorage ground, and by a masterly manœuvre the British succeeded in obtaining it.

1786. CHARLES PRICE, one of the most successful counterfeiters ever known, committed suicide in prison, London. He had continued to practice forgeries on the Bank of England to an incredible amount during six years, contriving all the while to elude the most cunning devices of the police to detect him, although the notes were traced in every quarter to have proceeded from one man, always disguised and always inaccessible.

1787. Battle with the insurgents under Shays, at Springfield, Mass., who retreated with the loss of 3 killed.

1791. GEORGE SELWYN, a noted English wit, died, aged 72.

1804. JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES declared emperor of Hayti.

1807. Battle at Mohringen, in Prussian Poland, in which Bernadotte defeated the Russians under Pahlin and Salitzin, who lost 1200 killed and 300 prisoners.

1813. Concordat signed at Versailles, by which Napoleon allowed the pope to exercise the pontificate in France and Italy, in the same manner as his predecessors.

1834. Castle of St. Louis at Quebec, the residence of the British governor-general, destroyed by fire.

1836. General PAEZ gained a victory over the rebels at Venezuela near Porto Cabello.

1838. Earthquake in the eastern part of Europe. Seven severe shocks occurred during a few days, by which 300 houses were thrown down in the city of Bucharest, and 60 persons killed.

1841. The shock of an earthquake was felt in the city of New York and vicinity to such a degree as to excite considerable alarm.

1843. EDWARD DRUMMUND, private secretary to Sir Robert Peel, was assassinated in the streets of London. For nearly 20 years he discharged duties second to those of a cabinet minister, because less conspicuous.

1845. ABIGAIL LEONARD died at Raynham, Mass., 101 years old. She was the fifth in descent from John Alden, who first landed from the Mayflower on the Plymouth rock.

1849. The usual convention of the two houses of congress declared that the people had elected Zachary Taylor their president and Millard Fillmore vice-president.

JANUARY 26.

477. Subterranean thunders were heard simultaneously from the Black to the Red sea, and the earth was convulsed without intermission for the space of six months after. In many places the air seemed to be on fire. Towns and large tracts of ground were swallowed up in Phrygia, during this convulsion, the particulars of which would seem incredible, were they not corroborated by contemporary historians.

1564. The pope confirmed by a bull the decrees of the Council of Trent.

1630. HENRY BRIGGS, an English mathematician, died.

1679. Keel of the Griffin, the first vessel in the western waters, laid 6 miles west of Niagara falls, by La Salle.

1679. The invaluable library of Elias Ashmole destroyed by fire at his chambers in London, together with his collection of coins and other curious antiquities.

1681. Two Cameronian women hanged at Edinburgh for calling the king and bishops "perjured, bloody men."

1699. Peace of Carlowitz concluded between Leopold I of Austria, and Mustapha II sultan of Turkey, after fifteen years of hostility.

1721. PETER DANIEL HUET, a celebrated French critic and classical scholar died. He was engaged twenty years in publishing an edition of the Latin classics, which extended to 62 vols.

1730. A leaden pot containing a human heart preserved in spirits dug up at Waverly in Surrey, England, supposed to have been there 700 years.

1733. A negro for an assault upon a white woman was burnt alive in New Jersey.

1737. All the prisoners for debt in White Chapel jail, England, were discharged by the executors of the will of the late Mr. Wright who paid their debts.

1769. JOHN WHITE, printer and publisher of the _Newcastle Courant_, died, aged 81. At his decease he was the oldest master printer in England.

1779. ARNOLD sentenced by court martial to be reprimanded by Gen. Washington.

1782. DE GRASSE with the French fleet, 29 sail, attacked the British under Hood, 22 sail, but was repulsed with the loss of 1000 killed and wounded. British loss trifling.

1787. The assembly of notables met at Paris, having been called together to assist the king, Louis XVI, and M. Calonne, to raise a revenue to meet the exigencies of the times. M. Calonne presented his new plan of reform and taxation, imposing a share of the burden upon the privileged classes: but as the assembly was composed of these classes they could not make up their minds to impose taxes upon themselves which had hitherto been borne by the lower classes. The assembly was called to help the king and his minister out of a dilemma, but plunged them deeper in trouble, and accelerated the revolution.

1793. The stadtholderate of Holland abolished, and the Batavian republic under the protection of France established.

1793. The senate of Venice acknowledged the French republic.

1795. The French national convention declared Marseilles in a state of siege.

1795. The assembly of the states of Holland met and chose Peter Paulus their president for the term of fifteen days.

1814. The Russians under Blücher passed the Marne and marched upon Troyes. Bonaparte at the same time entered Vitry.

1820. HENRY ANDREWS, a self-taught English mathematician, died. For more than forty years he produced an almanac for a company of stationers under the name of Francis Moore, physician, and astonished the simple and ignorant by his marvelous predictions. His prophecies were as much laughed at by himself as by the worshipful company of stationers for whom he annually manufactured them in order to render their almanacs salable among the ignorant, with whom a lucky hit covered a multitude of blunders. A few years before his death he predicted that the people would soon know better than to be influenced by the prophecies which his employers required him to write. He did not live to see the publication of the _British Almanac_, which effected the downfall of _Poor Robin_ (the title of one of his almanacs), which ceased to exist in 1828.

1823. EDWARD JENNER died, aged 74, celebrated for having introduced the practice of vaccination as a preventative of the small pox. He was the youngest son of a clergyman, born in England 1749. He commenced his investigations concerning the cow pox about the year 1776, and twenty years afterwards the practice was introduced into London hospitals. The success of this discovery procured him honorary titles, and a grant from parliament of £20,000.

1838. JOHN O'NEIL died at Havre de Grace, Md., distinguished for the resistance which he made at that place, to the British under admiral Cockburn, during the last war.

1839. STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER died at Albany. He was born in the city of New York 1764, and graduated at Cambridge, Mass. He was the fifth in descent from Kilian Van Rensselaer, the original proprietor and patentee of the colony of Rensselaerwyck, a territory 48 miles long and 24 broad. He filled several offices, civil and military; was a man of great wealth, and distinguished for his magnificent charities and Christian virtues.

1839. Tremendous gale and heavy rain in the United States. The river at Philadelphia rose 17 feet above low water mark, and at Kenebec 13 feet above high water mark. New York and Albany were considerably flowed.

1850. FRANCIS JEFFREY, a Scottish jurist, celebrated by his long connection with the _Edinburgh Review_, died, aged 77.

1853. SYLVESTER JUDD died, aged 40; a unitarian clergyman at Augusta, Me., author of several works which found many admirers.

JANUARY 27.

438. St. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, one of the Fathers and archbishop of Constantinople, died.

1673. JEROME LALLEMANT, superior of the Jesuits in Canada, died, aged 80; leaving behind him a high reputation in his order. He furnished seven of the _Relaçons_.

1676. The Narragansetts, in retreating from their country in Rhode island, drove off from one of the inhabitants of Warwick, 15 horses, 50 oxen and 200 sheep.

1696. The Royal Sovereign burnt by accident. She was the first great ship built in England, and became one of the best men of war in the world. For sixty years she was so formidable to her enemies that none of the most daring of them willingly ventured an engagement. The levies of money for building this noble vessel caused the rebellion.

1733. THOMAS WOOLSTON, an English divine, died in prison. He imbibed a fondness for allegorical interpretations of scripture from reading some of the early writers--particularly Origen. His speculations finally led to an indictment for blasphemy, and being unable to pay the fine imposed, he was retained in prison. He was a learned man, but held notions peculiar to himself, which was a high offence in those days.

1760. The ice carried away one of the dykes of the Rhine, in consequence of which the neighboring country was inundated.

1783. The British under Gen. Mathews took possession of Bednapore and Candapore, without firing a gun, and the whole country, except Mangalore, yielded in consequence.

1795. PICHEGRU made a requisition upon the Dutch for the French army of 200,000 quintals of corn, 5,000,000 rations of hay, 5,000,000 measures of oats, 200,000 rations of straw, 150,000 pairs of shoes, 20,000 pairs of boots, 20,000 cloth coats and waistcoats, 40,000 pairs of stocking breeches, 150,000 pairs of linen pants, 200,000 shirts, 50,000 hats, to be furnished within a month, and 12,000 oxen to be furnished within two months.

1800. King John's castle, at Old Ford near Bow, in England, was blown down by a storm. It was built in 1203 and afforded the king a sleeping place after signing the magna charta.

1807. BURR'S conspiracy communicated to congress.

1807. BONAPARTE confiscated the possessions of Ernest Frederick Anthony, hereditary prince of Saxe Coburg, for holding a commission in the Russian service.

1807. Action between the British ship Caroline and the Spanish ship St. Raphael, which resulted in the capture of the latter, bound from Lima to Manilla, with 500,000 Spanish dollars, 1,700 quintals of copper, and a valuable cargo.

1814. Camp Defiance attacked by the Indians at day break. The United States troops and friendly Indians were commanded by Gen. Floyd, who repulsed the assailants with great slaughter.

1823. CHARLES HUTTON, an eminent English mathematician, died. He was born 1737; his father, a viewer of mines, intended him for the same employment; but he rose by his own energy and application to a high degree of fame and fortune.

1832. AUGUSTIN DANIELS, count de Billiard, died, a French statesman and soldier. He fought at Jemappes, was with Bonaparte through the Egyptian campaign; at Austerlitz; in all the great battles in Prussia; at Moskwa; and lost an arm at Leipsic. He made himself useful under Louis XVIII and Louis Philippe.

1832. ANDREW BELL, founder of the Bell or Madras system of education, died. It has been made a subject of dispute whether Bell or Lancaster is the progenitor of the monitorial or mutual system of instruction. In 1796 Dr. Bell returned from Madras, and submitted his system to the public. It has since been widely diffused over the civilized world.

1836. FREDERICK DAVID SCHAEFFER died, pastor of the German Lutheran church in Philadelphia. He was born and educated in Germany, but came to this country in early life. He was a man of learning, and distinguished for his knowledge of languages.

1840. ISAAC CHAUNCEY, a distinguished American commodore, died at Washington.

1841. MCLEOD arrested within the limits of the state of New York. Though engaged in burning the steamboat Caroline in 1837, yet being a British subject and that government having assumed the responsibility of that act, his arrest threatened a rupture of the peace between the two nations.

1850. WILLIAM ATKINS COLEMAN, for more than thirty years connected with the literature of New York, died.

1856. CHARLES MORRIS, a commodore in the United States navy, died, aged 71. He was the acknowledged chief of the navy in administrative wisdom and in varied professional attainments; had displayed great heroism and intrepidity in the capture of the Philadelphia and Guerriere; in the latter action he was shot through the body by a musket ball.

JANUARY 28.

814. CHARLEMAGNE, or Charles I of France, died. He was an illustrious sovereign, as well in the cabinet as in the field; and though he could not write his name, was the patron of men of letters and the restorer of learning. He wanted the virtue of humanity.

1547. HENRY VIII of England having grown so unwieldy and corpulent that he was raised up and let down the stairs by a machine, after an illness of some weeks, sank under his disease, and died in the 38th year of his reign, and the 56th of his age. He repudiated his first wife 20 years after marriage, and in the course of about ten years espoused five others. Henry's reign was one of the most remarkable in the annals of the kingdom. He made himself so much feared, that no English king had fewer checks to his power. No hand less strong than his could have snapped the chain which bound the nation to papacy, and have resisted successfully the power and influence of the pope.

1588. THOMAS CARN died in London, aged 207; an instance of longevity exceeding any other on modern record, but well authenticated in the parish register of St. Leonard, Shoreditch. An old man died at Ekaterinoslaf, Russia, in 1813, between 200 and 205 years of age; and Don John Taveira de Lima died in Portugal, 1738, aged 198.

1596. FRANCIS DRAKE, the first Englishman that circumnavigated the world, died on board his own ship. (See Jan. 9.)

1612. THOMAS BODLEY died. He was actively employed during the last fifteen years of his life in collecting manuscripts and books for the library at Oxford which bears his name, and which by his perseverance came to be one of the most celebrated in Europe.

1687. JOHN HEVELIUS died, an eminent German astronomer.

1725. PETER the Great, of Russia, died, aged 53. He devoted his life time to civilize his subjects, and raise the nation from barbarism and ignorance, to politeness, knowledge and power. He spared no pains or fatigue to obtain knowledge which he thought would be beneficial to his subjects.

1732. The protestants of Saltzburg being driven out of their country, settled by invitation of the king of Prussia in Brandenburg.

1738. The first stone of Westminster bridge over the Thames laid.

1782. JOHN BAPTISTE BOURGUIGNON D'ANVILLE, the French geographer, died. He was esteemed as well for the gentleness and simplicity of his manners, as for his extensive knowledge. He labored at his maps fifteen hours a day for fifty years.

1782. JAMES MURRAY, a very eminent historical writer, and pastor, died at New Castle upon Tyne, England.

1790. The Jews of Spain, Portugal and Avignon admitted to the privileges of French citizens.

1794. JOHN GOTTLOB IMMANUEL BREITKOPF died at Leipsic. He acquired great celebrity as a printer and type founder. His foundry contained punches and matrices for 400 alphabets. He improved the printing press, and discovered a new method for facilitating the process of melting and casting. From his foundry types were sent to Russia, Sweden, Poland, and even America. With the interruption of only five or six hours for sleep, his whole life was devoted to study and useful employment.

1796. Prince of Wales, regent of England, attacked in his carriage by the populace.

1797. Battle of Unroomster, in India; Zemaun Shah attacked the Seicks at 8 o'clock in the morning, by opening his _shutah renauls_, or wall pieces mounted on camels, and a heavy fire was kept up until 2 o'clock, when the Seicks gave a signal for a general charge, and agreeable to their mode in close combat, flung away their turbans, let loose their hair, put their beards in their mouths, and dashed into the midst of the Huddalah army. The two armies continued engaged in close combat four hours, when Zemaun's troops gave way, and were pursued to the very gates of Lahore. The loss of the Seicks was 15,000; that of the Shah 20,000 killed.

1803. Madame CLAIRON, a French actress, died. She evinced when very young a predilection for the stage, and adopting the theatrical profession, soon became the first tragic performer of her age, and long remained without a rival. She published _Mémoires et Réflexions sur la Déclamation Théatrale_.

1804. JOSEPH NICHOLAS D'AZARA, a Spanish diplomatist, died, aged 73. He became acquainted with Napoleon in 1796, who conceived great admiration of him. He was an ardent admirer of the arts and sciences, and collected an elegant library and a rich collection of paintings and antiques, which however he lost in the political changes of the times.

1816. RICHARD JOACHIM HENRY VON MOELLENDORF, a Prussian general, died. He commanded the Prussian troops employed in 1793 in the disgraceful dismemberment of Poland, on which occasion he did every thing consistent with his commission to alleviate the misfortunes of the Poles.

1818. NATHAN BIRDSEYE died at Stratford, Conn., aged 103. His funeral was attended by 100 of his descendants; the whole number of which was 258.

1836. WILLIAM SCOTT, Baron Stowell, died. He filled the office of judge of the court of admiralty in England, thirty years with distinguished ability. He is represented to have been the charm and ornament of every society of which he formed a part; and his unbounded charities acquired for him universal regard and esteem.