Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 26

Table of Contents

988. Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, died. He assisted in placing Hugh Capet on the throne of France.

1582. Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, duke of Alva, a Spanish general and minister of state, died, aged 74. It is said of him that during nearly sixty years of warfare against different enemies, he never lost a battle, and was never taken by surprise. He was undoubtedly the ablest general of his age; had a proud mien, a noble aspect and a strong frame; slept little, labored and wrote much. But pride, severity and cruelty tarnished his renown, so that he became odious even to his own countrymen.

1609. Joseph Justus Scaliger died, aged 69. His education commenced early, and he was one of the most indefatigable students through a long life, that was ever known. So entirely immersed was he in his studies, that he passed whole days in his chamber without eating or drinking, and paid very little attention to the common affairs of life. He may be called the founder of the science of chronology.

1647. The plague broke out at Edinburgh. A writer of the time says, that the last plague they had raged so violently that the fortieth person lived not of those who dwelt there four years before, but that it was peopled with new faces.

1666. Shah Jehan, a Mogul emperor, died, aged 74. He was the son and successor of Jehangir, but did not inherit much of the talent and spirit of that powerful ruler. During a severe illness the government was usurped by his son, and on his recovery he was removed from Delhi to Agra, where he died, probably by poison.

1692. King William and his court issued a proclamation against vice and profaneness.

1702. The affirmation allowed by Queen Anne to the quakers in England, extended to those of Pennsylvania.

1707. Aurungzebe, (ornament of the throne,) died; the last powerful and energetic sovereign that ruled over the Mogul empire of Hindostan. From his 20th year, military duties devolved upon him; he raised a body of troops, and obtained the government of the Deccan. He invited his old friends the fakirs, or religious mendicants, to a feast, and compelled them to put on new and decent clothing. The gold and silver pieces which he found on burning their old garments, was of great service to him in prosecuting the war against his elder brother for the sovereignty. He stirred up dissensions among his brothers, by which they were put out of his way, shut up his father in his harem, and in 1659 ascended the throne. Notwithstanding his cruelty he governed with much wisdom, and consulted the welfare of his people. Two of his sons endeavoring to form a party in their own favor, he caused to be put to death by slow poison. In the midst of his activity he died at Ahmednagar, and with his death terminated the brilliant epoch of the Moguls.

1721. Francis Pagi died, author of a chronological history of the popes.

1733. Bernard de Mandeville, an English author, died. He was born at Dort in Holland, and went to England to practice medicine. Meeting with poor encouragement, he turned author; but his topics, though professedly intended for the promotion of the public morals, introduced him to the notice of the grand jury. His pen procured the means of subsistence, but acquired for him an unenviable notoriety.

1750. John Bland, the renowned writing master, died at his academy in London.

1759. Battle of Wandewash, in India. The French under Lally defeated with the loss of 800 killed and wounded, by the British under Col. Coote, who lost 262 do.

1769. The first letter of Junius appeared in Woodfall's Public Advertiser; and the last number was also published on this day, 1772.

1773. Alexis Piron, a French dramatist, died. His first effusions were satires, which procured him so many enemies that even in the latter part of his life he could not get admission into the Academy. He revenged himself by calling them les invalides du bel esprit, and composing his own humorous epitaph:

Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien,

Pas même académicien.

1774. Mustapha III, emperor of Turkey, died, and was succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamet.

1775. Pugatchef, the daring chief of the Tartars, defeated by the Russians, into whose hands he fell and was put to death.

1780. Admiral Rodney of the English fleet arrived with his prizes and transports for the relief of Gibraltar; the garrison was short of provisions.

1782. Grand fete in Paris on the birth of the dauphin.

1793. Louis XVI beheaded at Paris, aged 38. He had reigned 17 years and 7 months, and is now represented as an amiable and benevolent man, anxious to make his subjects happy; who in turn treated him in the vilest manner, and executed him as a tyrant and a traitor. His behavior on many trying occasions vindicated him effectually of timidity, and showed that the unwillingness to shed blood by which he was particularly distinguished, arose from benevolence, and not from pusillanimity. Upon the scaffold he exhibited a firmness that became a noble spirit.

1814. Jacques Bernardin Henry de St. Pierre, a French philosophical writer, died, at his estate near Paris. He is best known as the author of Paul and Virginia, which appeared in 1788, and passed through fifty editions in one year. It has been generally translated in Europe.

1815. Matthias Claudius, a German poet, died. His prose and poetry are said to bear a peculiar stamp of humor, frankness and cordiality, and many of his songs, set to music by the first composers, have become a part of the national melodies. He filled several public offices.

1816. Day of general mourning in France, on account of the death of Louis XVI, twenty-three years after his execution.

1820. Ambroise Marie Francis Joseph Palisot de Beauvais, a French naturalist, died. He came to America in the pursuit of science, and while at Philadelphia learnt that he had been proscribed by the revolutionists as an emigrant. He supported himself as a teacher of music and languages until the arrival of the French minister, who afforded Palisot the means of prosecuting inquiries into the natural history of America. He was employed to arrange Peale's collection. On returning to France with his rich collections, he was admitted into the Institute, in the place of Adanson.

1824. Charles Macarthy killed. He commanded at the Cape-Coast against the Ashantees. Whilst making preparations to repel these savages in 1821, the king sent his compliments to him, and said he hoped to have his head as an ornament to their great war drum. Subsequently Sir Charles marched against the enemy with a mixed force of Europeans and blacks; the latter ran away, and the whites being defeated and their commander captured, the ferocious menace was realized. The trophy however was afterwards recovered.

1839. Great conflagration at Constantinople, in which the grand vizier's palace, called the Sublime Porte, including the ministerial and administration offices, was destroyed. Loss estimated at 20,000,000 piasters.

1847. Major James Morton, died at High Hill, Virginia, aged 90. In the revolutionary war he acquired the cognomen of Solid Column, by which soubriquet he was recognized by La Fayette in 1824, at Richmond.

1854. The magnificent British vessel Tayleur on its voyage to Melbourne, wrecked on the Irish coast, and 370 persons lost.