Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 45

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293 BC Papirius Cursor dedicated a temple to Quirinus, on which he placed a sun-dial, the first ever seen in Rome.

291 BC Esculapius, the Sanitary god, as it was fabled, was enshrined as a serpent on an island in the Tiber. As a physician he used the probe, cathartics, bandages, &c., hence the respect.

1250. Robert, count of Artois, killed. He was brother to Louis IX of France, refused the empire of Germany offered him by the pope, and accompanied his brother to the Holy Land, where he conducted himself with great valor. He fell in the battle of Massourah.

1574. Geoffrey Vallee, a French writer, author of Béatitude des Chrétiens, which drew upon him the censure of the inquisition, burnt at Paris.

1587. Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, beheaded in the great hall of Fotheringay castle, at the age of 44. She was the daughter of James V, of Scotland. The misfortunes which it was the destiny of this beautiful and accomplished woman to undergo are well known. After an imprisonment of 19 years in England, she was brought to the scaffold on a conviction of conspiracy against the queen, Elizabeth.

1594. Edmund Bonnefoy, a writer on oriental law, died at Geneva in Switzerland, at the age of 38. He was appointed professor in the university of Valence, in France, where he narrowly escaped assassination at the massacre of St. Bartholomews. He bore an excellent character, independent of his talents and learning.

1637. Ferdinand II of Germany, an enterprising monarch, died.

1664. Moses Amyrault, an eminent French divine, died. He was a man of such remarkable benevolence, that he bestowed the whole of his salary upon the poor, without distinguishing between catholics and protestants.

1674. A resolution was adopted by the house of commons in England, that a standing army is a grievance; that the king should have no other guard than the militia.

1690. A party of about 300 French and Indians made an assault on Schenectady about 12 o'clock at night. The inhabitants were taken by surprise, and 60 men, women and children massacred, and the town destroyed. They took 27 prisoners, the remainder of the inhabitants fled to Albany, nearly naked through a deep snow, of whom 25 lost their limbs from the severity of the frost.

1716. Earthquake in Peru.

1724. Peter I, emperor of Russia, died.

1727. George Sewell died; an English dramatic poet, physician and miscellaneous writer.

1750. An earthquake in London.

1750. Aaron Hill, a celebrated dramatic and miscellaneous writer in the time of Garrick, died.

1752. Gasper de Real died at Paris, author of a valuable work on government.

1772. The princess dowager of Wales died in her 53d year. She is said to have given the peculiar tone to the first years of her son's administration by her laconic exhortation "George be king."

1779. Moses Allen, chaplain to the Georgia brigade, was drowned in attempting to escape from a British prison ship. He was a native of Northampton, Mass.; his age 31.

1807. Battle of Preussish Eylau, between the French army of 90,000 under Bonaparte, and 60,000 Russians under Benningsen. The battle commenced at the dawn of day. At noon a storm arose, which drifted the snow in the eyes of the Russians. The contest ended at 10 o'clock at night, when each army, after 14 hours hard fighting, occupied the same position as in the morning. Twelve of Napoleon's eagles were in the hands of Benningsen, and the field between was strewed with 50,000 dead, dying and wounded. The Russians finally retreated, leaving 15,000 prisoners in the hands of the French.

1815. The congress of Vienna determined to abolish slavery.

1817. Francis Horner died, aged 39. He was distinguished alike for his spirited report of the bullion committee, and his rich contributions to the Edinburgh Review.

1819. John David Ackerblad died; a Swedish scholar, who distinguished himself by his researches in Runic, Phœnician, Coptic and Hieroglyphic literature.