Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 89

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251. St. Cyril, archbishop of Jerusalem, died.

979. Edward the Martyr, died. He was the son of Edgar, and succeeded his father as king of England at the age of 15. The young king paid little attention to any thing but the chase; and hunting one day, he got separated from his attendants, and repaired to Corfe castle, where his step-mother, Elfrida, resided. Having procured a draught of liquor, he was drinking it on horseback, when one of Elfrida's servants gave him a deep stab behind. He immediately spurred his horse, but fainting from loss of blood, was dragged in the stirrup till he died. The pity caused by his innocence and misfortune induced the people to regard him as a martyr.

1350. In the national roll of accounts for glazing St. Stephen's chapel, Westminster, Edward III ordained that the wages for artists be from 5d. per day to one shilling, except for John Barnaby, his wages should be twopence.

1552. Maurice of Saxony took up arms against the emperor Charles V.

1629. Charles James, prince of Great Britain, born, baptized and died.

1629. Charles I, of England, issued a proclamation that he would account it presumption in any one to prescribe a time for him to call a parliament.

1635. Patrick Forbes, a Scotch prelate, died. He was a great and a good man; a benefactor particularly to Aberdeen university, of which he revived the professorship of law, physic and divinity.

1696. Bonaventure Baron, professor of divinity at Rome, died. He was a native of Ireland, but spent 60 years of his life in Rome; and was a learned and voluminous writer.

1718. Mary Wortley Montague made the first experiment of inoculation for small pox upon her own son at Belgrade, in Turkey. It was tried in England upon criminals, with complete success, about nine years after. This disease first made its appearance at Mecca, where it is stated to have destroyed the invading Ethiopian army, and thus terminated in 360, what is denominated the war of the elephant.

1728. George Stanhope, an able English divine, died. His theological works were numerous and popular.

1741. Conflagration of the chapel and buildings in the fort at New York, which was followed immediately by the negro plot.

1745. Robert Walpole died, aged 69. He became heir to the family estate by the death of his elder brother, and in the jovial life of a country gentleman, soon lost his early inclination to literature. In 1700 he was returned to parliament, and warmly espousing the whig interest, rose to a high promotion in the offices of the government, and in 1742, was created earl of Oxford, on his resignation of the premiership. He is the reputed author of the saying that "all men have their price."

1754. The first theatre established in the city of New York, closed with the Beggar's Opera and the Devil to Pay, when the following notice appeared in the prints, which managers now-a-days have little occasion to repeat: "Lewis Hallam, comedian, intending for Philadelphia, begs the favor of those who have any demands against him to bring in their accounts and receive their money."

1766. Stamp act repealed by the British government, reserving however, the right to make laws binding on the colonies in all cases whatsoever. News of this repeal excited great joy in America, where it was celebrated by the ringing of bells, fireworks and festivals.

1768. Laurence Sterne, an eccentric English author and divine, died. His romance of Tristram Shandy and the Sentimental Journey, are well known.

1775. British Gen. Gage seized 13,425 musket cartridges and 3000 pounds of ball, all of it private property, stored on Boston Neck.

1776. The British troops having evacuated Boston, Sir Archibald Campbell, unaware of this movement, on entering the harbor with 1700 men, was made prisoner by Washington.

1780. Congress resolved to call in by taxes in one year and burn all the continental money emitted prior to that time, and to issue ten million dollars new money, redeemable in specie within six years.

1781. Anne Robert James Turgot, an eminent French statesman, died. He studied divinity, but his talents recommending him to the notice of the government, he was appointed to a civil office, where he displayed so great ability that he was appointed comptroller of the finances. His measures were grand, liberal and useful: but being ridiculed by the profligate and the vicious, who rioted on the miseries of the people, he retired from public life.

1796. Steuben county erected in south western New York.

1797. Palma Nuova, a frontier town in Italy, evacuated by the archduke Charles, who had wrested it from the Venitians only ten days before. The French under Bernadotte and Serrurier, on entering it found 30,000 rations of bread, and a million quintals of flour.

1805. Bonaparte assumed the title of king of Italy.

1814. John Vint, editor of the Isle of Man Gazette, and a distinguished philanthropist, died.

1817. An earthquake in Spain, Portugal, and Sicily, destroyed whole villages.

1817. Charles Combe died; an eminent English physician and critic, and highly distinguished as a medalist.

1836. Abate Fea, a celebrated archæologist, died at Rome, aged 88. He is known as the translator of Winckelman.

1839. The Chinese imperial commissioner, Lin, issued a proclamation at Canton, ordering the foreign opium dealers to deliver up all the opium in their possession, to have it burnt and destroyed, and forbidding its importation to all eternity, under pain of death.

1840. Dr. Parish, favorably known to the medical world, died in Philadelphia.

1846. First steam boat arrived at Austin, Texas.

1846. William M. Crane, of the United States navy, died by his own hand.

1848. The emperor of Austria published by proclamation, at Milan, abolition of censorship, and a convention of the states. But the people wanting more, troubles began.

1854. A terrible gale at Albany, N. Y.; fifty houses unroofed, many chimneys and walls blown down, and great damage done.

1856. Henry Pottingen, lieutenant general in the East India company's service, died aged 67. He distinguished himself in the Afghanistan war, and settled the opium difficulty with the Chinese.

1856. The Cunard steamer Curlew, from Halifax, ran on a reef north of the Bermudas, and was lost, with a part of her mail.