Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 9

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62. BC Lucius Sergius Catiline, the Roman conspirator, killed in Etruria. The history of his life unfolds a series of most revolting crimes; but there is reason to believe that some of them are unreal. Murder, rapine and conflagration, were thefirst pleasures of his life. Pompey, Crassus and Cæsar favored his schemes with a view to their own aggrandizement. Only two Romans remained determined to uphold their falling country—Cato and Cicero. The speeches of the latter in the Roman senate on the crisis of affairs are imperishable monuments of eloquence and patriotism, and produced the overthrow of the conspirators. Five of them were put to death, and Catiline being surrounded by the army under Petreius resolved to die sword in hand. The battle was fought with desperation, and the insurgents fell, with their leader at their head.

1066. Edward the Confessor, king of England, died. He was called to the throne 1041. He was not the immediate heir, but his claim was supported of Godwin, earl of Kent, whose daughter Editha he married. He was a weak and superstitious prince, and acquired the title of Saint or Confessor, by abstaining from nuptial connection with his queen. He was the first English monarch who undertook to cure the king's-evil by touching the patient. With him ended the Saxon line of kings.

1477. Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, killed in battle on this or the following day. This prince, the son of Philip the Good and Isabella of Portugal, early displayed a violent, impetuous and ambitious disposition; and in after life was constantly embroiled in unjust and cruel warfare, in which he performed many daring exploits. But having turned his arms against the Swiss, the fortune of war turned against him; and being deserted by his allies, with his usual temerity risked a battle with only 4000 men against a vastly superior force, was defeated and killed by the thrust of a lance in the 44th year of his age. His body covered with blood and mire, and his head imbedded in the ice, was not found till two days after the battle, when it was so disfigured that his own brother did not recognize it. With him expired the feudal government of Burgundy.

1531. The electoral college assembled at Rome and elected Ferdinand, brother of Charles V, king of the Romans. He was crowned a few days after at Aix-la-Chapelle.

1536. Catharine of Arragon, the repudiated queen of Henry VIII, died. She was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, born 1483. She was first married to Arthur, prince of Wales, who died five months after; and the king unwilling to return her dowry caused her to be contracted to his remaining son, Henry. The prince, at the age of 15, made a public protest against this proceeding, but finally consented to the match. Notwithstanding the inequality of their ages and the capricious disposition of the king, they had been married 20 years when the division took place. This separation led to a divorce from the pope also, and was the cause of mighty effects.

1559. Catharine de Medicis died. She was born at Florence 1519; married, 1533, the dauphin, afterwards Henry II, of France. She was three times regent of France, and during her administration made a conspicuous figure in the annals of Europe by her political genius. By her was begun the palace of the Tuilleries; but the lasting monument of her fame and iniquity is the massacre of St. Bartholomew's, which was brought about by her intrigues, when more than 50,000 protestants were massacred in one day.

1621. Paul Van Somer died in London. He was born at Antwerp, 1576, and arrived at great proficiency as a painter. His pencil was chiefly employed on portraits of royal and eminent personages, and is said to have equalled Vandyke.

1636. De Vries, who had recently arrived from Holland in the capacity of a patroon, sent his colonists over to Staten island from fort Amsterdam, to commence the colony and buildings.

1675. Turenne defeated the imperialists at Turkheim.

1705. Second volcanic opening of the peak of Teneriffe, in the ravine of Almerchiga, a league from Icore. It closed on the 13th of the same month.

1722. Bell, the Traveler, arrived at Moscow on the return from China. (See July 14, 1719.) The account of this journey, and of what he saw and learned at Pekin, is the most valuable part of his book, and one of the best and most interesting relations ever written by any traveler.

1724. Czartan Petrarch died, aged 184, at a village near Temeswar, in Hungary. He was born in the year 1539; and at the time the Turks took Temeswar from the Christians he was employed in keeping his father's cattle. A few days before his death he had walked with the help of a stick to the post house to ask charity of the travelers. His hair and beard were of a greenish-white color, like mouldy bread; and he had a few of his teeth remaining, and enjoyed a little eyesight. His son, who was ninety-seven years of age, declared that his father had married at an extreme age, for the third time, and that he was born in this last marriage. He had descendants in the fifth generation, with whom he sometimes sported, carrying them in his arms. His son, though ninety-seven, was still fresh and vigorous. The commandant of Temeswar on learning of his sickness, caused his portrait to be painted, and it was nearly finished when he expired.

1757. Damiens attempted the assassination of Louis XV, for which he was condemned to the most cruel tortures, and finally quartered by four horses. (See March 28.)

1764. A comet was first seen at Tewkesbury, England, near two small stars in the hand of Bootes.

1776. The New Hampshire provincial convention resolved to change the form of government.

1781. Arnold invaded Virginia with 1500 British troops; he marched to Richmond, destroyed the public stores and buildings, the rope-walk, and much private property.

1781. The British ship Warwick, Capt. Elphinstone, captured the Dutch ship Rotterdam, 50 guns and 300 men; the first material capture during that war.

1782. Trincomalee in the island of Ceylon, taken by the British under admiral Sir Edward Hughes.

1783. Onore, situated between Panian and Bombay, taken by assault by the British Gen. Matthews; the garrison and many of the inhabitants were cruelly slaughtered.

1795. The French attacked the British Gen. Dundas at Geldermalsem, and compelled him to fall back to Buren; and afterwards the whole force of Gen. Walmoden to cross the Leck.

1795. The British ships Bellona and Alarm captured the French ship Le Dumas of 20 guns, off Deseada.

1796. Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, died. He was born at Windham, Ct., 1732; his father being a farmer could allow him only a common school education; but his own assiduity made up the deficiency, so that at the age of 22 he commenced the study of the law with borrowed books; in 1764 he was sent to the general assembly; 1765 appointed king's attorney; 1774 raised to the bench of the supreme court; 1775 sent a delegate to the general congress of the colonies, and in 1779 succeeded John Jay as president of congress. At the time of his death he was governor of Connecticut.

1797. British ship Polyphemus, Capt. Lumesdaine, captured the French ship L'Uranie, 38 guns, off Ireland.

1798. A bill passed the house in congress paying Kosciusko $12,800; and the four daughters of count de Grasse $400 each per annum for five years.

1799. Treaty of defensive alliance between England and Turkey.

1806. Breslaw surrendered to the French under Vandamme; Lieut. Gen. De Thile, Maj. Gen. Krafti and 5500 Prussians taken.

1807. British sloop Nautilus, Capt. Palmer, lost on a rock near Peri, in the archipelago of the Seven islands. The captain refused to leave the vessel, and was lost in his 26th year.

1809. The British rear guard under Sir John Moore attacked by the French van guard under Soult. Gen. Colbert, aged 30, was mortally wounded, and the French were compelled to fall back.

1812. The French Gen. Leval was compelled to abandon the siege of Tariffa, defended by the British, Col. Skerritt.

1814. Gluckstadt surrendered to the British.

1814. British ships Bacchante and Saracen captured the fortress of Cattaro after a cannonade of ten days.

1827. Frederick, duke of York, died. He was the second son of George III, born in 1763; 1787 took his seat in the house of peers; 1789 fought a duel, firing his pistol in the air; 1791 married the eldest daughter of the king of Prussia, from whom he afterwards separated; 1793 went to Flanders at the head of the British army, and in the end showed himself unequal to the station; 1809 was called to account by the house of commons for the follies committed in the army through the influence of a female favorite; 1818 was appointed the keeper of his father, with a salary of £10,000. Although enjoying princely salaries and pensions he died universally lamented by his tailors and other creditors to the amount of some hundred thousands of pounds.

1841. James Abraham Hillhouse, an eminent American poet, died at New Haven, Ct., aged 51.

1845. The national debt of England amounted at this time to £794,193,645.

1849. The discovery of the magnetic clock by Dr. Locke of Ohio, announced to the secretary of the navy by Lieutenant Maury of the National observatory.

1852. Eugene Levesque died at Paris, aged 81; author of travels in America.

1852. Benjamin La Rochi died at Paris, aged 54; French translator of Shakespeare.

1852. Baron Kemenyi, a Hungarian chief, eminent for his patriotism and exploits in the struggle with Austria and Russia, died aged 53.

1853. Charles W. Morgan, an American commodore, died, aged 63. He was a nephew of Gen. Morgan of the revolution, and distinguished himself in the action between the Constitution and the Guerriere.

1853. Revolution in Mexico; Gen. Arista resigned, and Cevallos elected president ad interim.

1854. The steamer San Francisco, which had withstood a heavy gale, was foundered at sea. Of 700 persons on board 247 had been washed overboard before assistance arrived.

1855. Gen. Castilla defeated Pres. Echenique and entered Lima in triumph.

1855. The entire Victoria bridge across the St. Lawrence, carried away by the ice.