Читать книгу The Every Day Book of History and Chronology - Joel Munsell - Страница 99

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168 BC The Roman senate assembled at eight o'clock in the morning, a few days after Paulus Emilius had assumed the immortal consulate. The English house of commons usually sat at the same hour five centuries ago.

193. Publius Helvius Pertinax, emperor of Rome, assassinated. He was of obscure origin, and was elected on the death of Commodus. His virtues were too great for the time in which he lived, and he was destroyed by the same hands which had raised him up; and the imperial diadem was offered at public auction.

1134. Stephen Harding, an Englishman, and one of the founders of the Cistercians, died. In the year 1098, he retired with twenty companions to Citeaux, a marshy wilderness in France, where they founded a monastery. A valuable manuscript copy of the Bible in four volumes, still preserved, attests the assiduity of the monk.

1318. The town and castle of Berwick taken by the generals of Bruce.

1380. Gunpowder is said to have been first used in Europe on this day, by the Venetians against the Genoese. The discovery of the power of powder is attributed to Berthold Schwartz, a monk of Mayence, about 1300, though it is said to have been known in India very early, and obtained from them by the Arabians, who employed it in a battle near Mecca in 690. The use of gunpowder at the battles of Cressy and Poitiers in 1346 is questioned. Rabelais says that the art of printing was invented about the same time by divine inspiration, as a match for the devil's suggestion of artillery.

1480. William Caxton, the first English printer, finished the Cordial in folio. The fact is thus set forth in his own words: "The Book named Cordyale: or Memorare Novissima: which treateth of The foure last Thinges. Began on the morn after the Purification of our blessid Lady (2d Feb. 1478), &c. And finisshed on the even of thannciacion of our said blessid Lady, fallying on the Wednesdaye the xxiiij daye of Marche In the xix yere of Kyng Edwarde the fourthe."

1520. Sanzio Raphael, an illustrious Italian painter and architect, died. He is by general consent called the prince of modern painters, and was probably the best painter the world ever produced.

1636. James Callot, an eminent French engraver, died. He carried the art to a greater state of perfection than any other before him, and attained all that it then seemed possible for human industry to reach.

1638. William Kieft arrived at New Amsterdam as governor of the colony.

1663. At Laucha, near Naumburg, in Prussia, there fell a great quantity of a fibrous substance, represented as resembling blue silk.

1676. The Indians attacked Rehoboth, Mass., and burnt 40 houses and about 30 barns.

1677. Wentzel Hollar, a Bohemian engraver, died. His talents were noticed by Arundel, the English ambassador, by whom he was induced to visit England, where he executed a great number of portraits and views; but though his graver gave celebrity to so many, he was himself the victim of want, and was barely permitted by his creditors to die on his own bed.

1678. James Dixwell, one of the regicides, died at New Haven, Conn.

1678. Claudius Francis Milliet Dechales, a French mathematician, died. His works, published in 3 vols. folio, are a complete course of mathematics.

1741. The British Capt. Knowles destroyed the batteries at Passa Cavallo, Carthagena.

1745. Ventilators, invented by the Rev. Dr. Hales, ordered by the council of England to be introduced into Newgate.

1757. Robert Francis Damiens executed at Paris for an attempt to assassinate Louis XV. He was the son of a poor farmer, and from his vicious inclinations acquired the title of Robert le Diable. As the king was getting into his carriage at Versailles, surrounded by his train, Damiens stabbed him in the right side with a knife. He was seized, tried and condemned to a death of torture. Being drawn on a sledge to the Place de Greve, he there had the flesh of his thighs and arms torn off with red hot pincers, and the hand which held the knife cut off. Afterwards his body was drawn and quartered by four horses, his members and corpse burnt and the ashes thrown into the air.

1758. Action in the North Sea between 2 French and 2 British frigates; one of the former escaped, the other was captured with 40 guns and 340 men.

1760. Margaret Woffington, an eminent Irish actress, died. Her talents and good sense were greatly aided by extraordinary beauty of features and form.

1778. Louis XVI issued letters of marque and reprisal against England.

1783. A hill 500 feet in height was carried four miles from its site by the great Calabrian earthquake.

1791. Honore Gabriel Riquetti, count de Mirabeau, the distinguished French revolutionist but debauched man, died. The French directory decreed a public mourning of eight days; and all the places of amusement in Paris were shut on the day of his death.

1794. J. B. V. Guillotine was beheaded at Lyons. There is some mistake about this event; the authority from which it is derived stating that he was the inventor of the guillotine. (See March 20, and April 25, 1792; also May 26, 1814.)

1794. John Anthony Nicholas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, died. His mathematical essays at an early age procured him a seat in the academy of sciences, of which he was afterwards elected secretary. He published the lives of several eminent men of his day, and was an active contributor to the famous Encyclopedie. He unfortunately took part in the revolution, and failing to keep pace with the ultra views of the Robespierre party, was proscribed, and died in prison either from want or by his own hand.

1801. Ralph Abercromby died. He rose from a common soldier, through all the gradations, to the highest rank in the army; was appointed commander in chief of the expedition to Egypt, and landed after a severe contest at Aboukir bay. He was wounded and unhorsed at the battle of Alexandria, notwithstanding which he disarmed his antagonist, and kept the field during the day and was victorious. He was conveyed on board the admiral's ship where he lingered a few days, and died. He was buried beneath the castle of St. Elmo, in Malta.

1802. The planet Pallas discovered by Dr. Olbers, at Bremen. Its revolution round the sun occupies 4 years, 7 months and 11 days.

1805. The county of Jefferson, in northern New York, erected.

1811. A hereditary monarchy established in Hayti, and Christophe declared king, by the title of Henry I.

1814. Action in the neutral port of Valparaiso between the United States frigate Essex, Capt. Porter, 52 guns, 255 men, and the British ship Phebe and sloop of war Cherub, in all 81 guns and 500 men. After a most sanguinary conflict of more than 2 hours, the Essex was captured, with the loss of 58 killed.

1818. Alexander Sabes Petion, president of Hayti, died. He joined the revolution at the age of 20, and when the blacks had succeeded in gaining their independence, he was appointed governor of the western province, and in 1807 elected president.

1836. Richard Valpy, an eminent Greek and Latin scholar, died, aged 82, at Kensington, England.

1838. Thomas Morton, one of the most successful of modern dramatists, died at London, aged 74.

1849. The king of Prussia elected emperor by the German parliament at Frankfort. He did not accept.

1852. John Haviland, an eminent architect, died at Washington, aged 60. He was born in England, and commenced his career in Russia. He came to this country highly recommended by J. Q. Adams, and constructed many public works. He paid especial attention to the construction of jails and prisons.

1853. A peace address signed by 4000 English merchants, bankers and traders, presented to Napoleon III at the Tuilleries.

1854. War formally declared against Russia by Great Britain and France.

1855. The United States marshal at Philadelphia arrested 12 men who had enlisted in that city for a foreign legion.