Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 88

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49 BC Pompey abandoned Italy, and took the sea with his legions, at Brundusium.

45 BC Battle of Munda, in Spain, between the armies of Cæsar and Pompey, which decided the fate of the Roman republic. These men did not consider the Roman empire sufficiently large for two of them.

180. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, surnamed the philosopher, died on an expedition against the Marcomanni. He was so extremely popular with his Roman subjects, that they placed him among the gods, and kept his statue in their houses.

464. St. Patrick, the tutelar saint of Ireland, died. He was carried away with many of his father's vassals by pirates, from whom he made his escape to Gaul and Italy. He received a commission from Pope Celestine to convert the Irish to Christianity, in which mission he was eminently successful.

807. A large spot noticed upon the sun's disc, which continued there eight days.

1072. Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, died. He became very powerful in Denmark, and even obliged the king to divorce his wife Gutha, because she was somewhat allied to him. Though intriguing and violent, he possessed some good qualities, and formed many wise regulations in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

1562. Diego Esquivel Alava, a learned Spanish bishop, died. He was at the Council of Trent, and published a work on councils.

1565. Alexander Ales, a Scottish theologian, died. He first opposed the tenets of Luther, but afterwards embraced them, and suffered persecution. He wrote commentaries on some of the books of the old and new testament.

1632. Treaty of St. Germain, by which Canada and Nova Scotia were restored to the French. The capture of Quebec was unknown at the time peace was re-established, or perhaps those territories would not have been so generally given up.

1634. Thomas Randolph, an English poet, died. He was the friend of Jonson, and his works have been several times reprinted.

1640. Philip Massinger, an English dramatic poet, died. Some of his comedies still keep the stage. He was courted by the wits and learned men of his time.

1657. An offensive and defensive league concluded between France and England.

1676. Warwick, R. I., destroyed by the Indians. Only one house was left unburnt.

1677. Valenciennes, in France, taken by assault by the army under Louis XIV, in person.

1681. The members of the English parliament from London came to Oxford, the place of their meeting, armed and with ribbons on their hats inscribed with "No popery, no slavery."

1695. Augustin Lubin, an Augustine friar, died. He was geographer to the French king, and author of various works.

1715. Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, died. He was a zealous promoter of the revolution in England, which placed the present family on the throne, and of which he wrote the history.

1740. Mrs. Stevens received £5,000 from the English parliament for making public her medicine for the stone.

1741. John Baptist Rousseau, an eminent French poet, died. He possessed a fine genius, but an unhappy temper embittered his life by stimulating him to abuse those whose friendship would have procured him a place above dependence.

1767. Birthday of Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States.

1776. Boston evacuated by the British. By four in the morning the king's troops, with those Americans who were attached to the royal cause, began to embark, and before ten all of them were under sail. As the rear embarked, General Washington marched into the city, where he was joyfully received as a deliverer. The British left 250 cannon and 25,000 bushels of wheat.

1781. Johannes Evald died: the most distinguished poetical genius of Denmark, in the eighteenth century. Being left to his own reading by his tutor, his imagination was captivated with Tom Jones and Robinson Crusoe. Proposing to himself the latter hero for a model, he eloped at the age of thirteen with a view of proceeding to Batavia, but was overtaken, and his project frustrated. He next conceived the scheme of entering the Prussian army, and enlisted at Magdeburg; but being received only as a foot soldier, instead of a hussar, he deserted to the Austrians. On quitting the army he devoted himself to the study of theology, but having suddenly become violently enamored with a young lady, who regardless of his passion, bestowed her hand on another, a permanent melancholy settled upon his mind, and under this influence he took up his pen. His first work Fortune's Temple, a vision, at once stamped his reputation. In 1772 he executed his literary chef-d'œuvre, Balder's Död, a drama of extraordinary poetical beauty, and greatly superior to anything which had then appeared in the Danish language. His after life was embittered by poverty and sickness; and it was under the hospitable roof of Madame Skou that he breathed his last, after having been confined to his bed or armchair two years, and almost deprived of the use of his limbs.

1782. Daniel Bernouilli, a German philosopher, died. He studied medicine as a profession, but was at the same time engaged with mathematics. At the age of twenty-four, he was offered the presidency of an academy at Genoa, but gave the preference to an invitation from St. Petersburgh. He returned to Basle in 1733, where he spent the remainder of his days, so much respected by the inhabitants, that to bow to Daniel Bernouilli, when met in the street, was one of the first lessons which every father gave his children.

1790. The government of France issued assignats to the amount of 170,000,000 francs. This system of assignats, while it gave more strength to the public, yet was the source of more private suffering than any other measure during the French revolution.

1793. Battle of Neerwinden, or Linden, between the French under Dumourier, and the Austrians under Coburg and Clarifayt. Dumourier was obliged to retreat.

1794. French sloop Avenger, 16 guns, taken by Admiral Jervis's squadron off Martinique.

1795. A number of the Parisians complained to the national convention of the scarcity of bread in Paris.

1798. Thomas Jackson, an English actor, died. His epitaph is ingenious: "Sacred to the memory of Thomas Jackson, comedian, who was engaged 21st December, 1741, to play a comic cast of characters in the great theatre, the world; for many of which he was prompted by nature to excel. The season being ended, his benefit over, the charges all paid, his account closed, he made his exit in the tragedy of Death on the 17th of March, 1798, in assurance of being called once more to rehearsal, where he hopes to find his forfeits all cleared, his cast of parts bettered, and his situation made agreeable by him who paid the great stock debt, for the love of performers in general."

1799. The French army arrived before St. Jean d'Acre, and to their no small chagrin and astonishment, beheld the town prepared for a siege, and the English colors flying in the harbor.

1800. The British ship Queen Charlotte, 110 guns, destroyed by an explosion off Leghorn. More than 800 persons perished with her.

1806. William Rowley, an eminent British physician, died. He was a man of great skill and experience in his profession, and his benevolence and humanity were conspicuous; yet was he one of the most obstinate opponents to the introduction of vaccination as a preventive of small pox that ever impeded the might of his authority to that experiment.

1808. Rupture of the negotiation at Washington between the British minister and the American government.

1811. Charles IV, of Sweden, resigned the government of his kingdom in favor of his adopted son, Bernadotte.

1828. James Edward Smith, an eminent English naturalist and physician, died. He was one of the founders of the Linnean society, and published several valuable works on natural history and botany.

1843. George Turner, aged 93, died at Philadelphia. He was a native of England, but joining the American revolutionary army, he distinguished himself in many severe actions and endeared himself to Gen. Washington.

1849. William II, king of Holland, died.

1855. The French and Russians at Sebastopol contended fiercely for the rifle pits which the latter had established between the French advance and the Mamelon.