Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 85

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1262. Hugo de St. Caro, a Dominican, died. He deserves to be placed in the first rank of sacred critics and patrons of literature. The Dominicans are indebted to him for their celebrated Correctorium Bibliorium, and the first concordance of the Bible, that is of the Latin Vulgate; a comment on the old and new testament, and for the division of the Bible into chapters. He undertook to procure a union of the Greek and Roman churches.

1369. Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, killed. He manifested the most wanton inhumanity in his private and public life, by which he became odious to the people, and was killed by his brother.

1471. Edward IV of England returned from exile, and landed at Ravenspur; in his bonnet he wore an ostrich feather as prince of Wales; and his Fleming followers carried hand-guns, which is the first account of them in England.

1519. Fernando Cortez, having taken possession of the Indian town of Tabasco on the day of his landing in the country of Mexico, now marched out with his troops to a plain, where he was attacked by an immense body of Indians, who wounded above seventy of his soldiers at the first discharge of their weapons. The Spanish artillery did great execution, but when the cavalry came to the charge, the Indians, imagining the horse and rider to be one, were extremely terrified, and fled to the woods and marshes, leaving the field to the Spaniards.

1640. Manasses de Pas died; a French general, distinguished for his valor. His abilities were equally displayed in the cabinet, as ambassador to the courts of Sweden and Germany. He died of the wounds he received at the siege of Thionville.

1644. Roger Williams having been sent to England as agent for Rhode Island and Providence, obtained of the earl of Warwick a patent for the incorporation of the towns of Providence, Newport and Portsmouth, with the power of governing themselves, but subject to the laws of England.

1660. William Ledra, a quaker, hanged by the puritans of Massachusetts, on conviction of having returned from banishment, to which he had been condemned for his faith.

1676. Attack on Northampton, Mass., by a body of Narraganset Indians, of Philip's party. The town had been fortified by palisades, set up a little while before for their better security against the savages. The Indians broke through these in three places, and succeeded in killing six persons and firing a few dwellings; but a company of soldiers being at that time quartered in the town, the enemy were speedily repulsed with the loss of many of their lives.

1710. Michael Begon, a French avocat, died. He also distinguished himself in the marines, and as governor of the French West India islands.

1712. Mary, countess of Falconberg, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, died. She possessed great beauty, spirit and activity; and on the deposition of her brother, exerted herself for the restoration of Charles II.

1745. Fort Augustus blown up by the forces of the pretender to the crown of England.

1754. Peter Claude Nivelle de la Chausse, an admired French poet, died. Though favored by fortune, he preferred the honors of literature to all other distinctions, and acquired celebrity by his dramatic pieces, which possess great merit.

1757. John Byng shot at Portsmouth. He served under his father admiral George Byng, and rose to the same rank himself. His attempt to relieve Fort St. Philip in Minorca proving abortive, when blockaded by a French fleet under La Glassionere, and his hesitation in engaging the enemy when a bold attack might perhaps have gained him the victory, excited the clamor of the nation against him, and he was doomed to meet the penalty of cowardice.

1758. General Wade died. In 1715, he commanded against the forces of the pretender to the throne, and remained in Scotland as commander-in-chief after the war was ended. It was during this period that he cut the celebrated military road through the highlands, which facilitated the improvement and civilization of the country more than all the measures resorted to before the reign of George I. It was he who introduced the bill into parliament which disarmed and changed the dress of the highlanders.

1793. Battle of Tirlemont, in which the prince of Saxe Coburg defeated the French under Dumourier, who lost 33 cannon and 3,000 men.

1795. Action off Genoa between the British and French fleets, in which the latter were defeated, with the loss of the Caira, 80 guns, 3,000 men, and the Censeur, 74 guns, 1,000 men.

1799. William Melmoth died. He distinguished himself as the translator of the Epistles of Pliny and Cicero, and was the author of poems, letters and memoirs.

1800. Daines Barrington, an English lawyer, antiquary, and miscellaneous writer, died. He abandoned his offices, which he discharged with great dignity, to devote himself to literary pursuits, which he loved. His writings are numerous.

1803. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, died. He was born at Quedlinburg, 1724; studied the languages, became familiar with the classic writers, and formed the resolution of writing a great epic poem. In 1745 he studied theology at Jena, where he commenced in solitude the first canto of The Messiah. This work he finished about 1790. It procured him great celebrity in the north of Europe, so that he was received with great respect and veneration wherever he went. His funeral was attended by the principal men of Hamburg, in 126 carriages.

1813. Delaware river blockaded by the British ships Poictiers, Belvidere, &c.

1813. On this and the preceding day snow and hail of a red color, with much red dust and red rain fell over all Tuscany.

1823. General Dumourier, a name that fills some interesting pages of modern history, died in his 85th year, at Turville park, near London.

1835. Treaty with the Cherokee Indians, by which they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi, and agreed to retire to a territory guarantied to them in Arkansas, in consideration of the sum of $5,262,251.

1836. John Mayne, a Scotch poet, died near London, at an advanced age. His chief poem is The Siller Gun, four cantos.

1854. Steam boat Reindeer burst a flue at Cannelton, Indiana, by which 50 persons were killed.

1855. The new suspension bridge at Niagara falls crossed for the first time by a locomotive and train of cars.