AUGUST.

AUGUST 1.

30 B. C. Defection of the entire fleet of Marc Antony, at Alexandria, which suddenly passed over to Octavius, afterwards Augustus Cæsar.

117. Marcus Ulpius Trajan, emperor of Rome, died. He admired and copied the virtues of Nerva, his predecessor, and reigned nearly twenty years in the hearts of his people, when Hadrian received his mantle.

432. Celestine I, pope, died. The doctrines of Nestorius were condemned by him.

643. Oswald, king of Northumberland, slain at Maserfield. Bede says he erected in the shape of a wooden cross the first altar to Christ among the Bernicians.

725. The old English tax called Peter's pence, was first laudably imposed by Ina, king of the west Saxons, for the support of an English college at Rome, but afterwards appropriated by the church for very different purposes.

1137. Louis VI, king of France, died. He was a wise and popular monarch, but during his reign, which continued nearly thirty years, the country was disturbed by external quarrels and internal factions.

1202. King John of England obtained a victory over his nephew Arthur, whom with his sister Eleanor he took prisoner.

1221. The convent belonging to Westminster abbey destroyed; which issued in several individuals being severely punished.

1464. Cosmo de Medicis, a Florentine merchant, died. He bestowed vast expense and attention in the promotion of learning, and presided over the commonwealth 34 years, with so much wisdom and popularity, as to acquire the title of Father of the People. (See Oct. 4, 1434.)

1498. Columbus, on his third voyage, first set his foot upon the continent of America at Terra-Firma, mistaking it for an island. This was more than a year after the English expedition under the Cabots had reached its shores.

1560. The Scottish parliament assembled which overturned the Roman church in Caledonia, and established a new ecclesiastical system on a Calvinistic and presbyterian model.

1589. Henry III, of France, assassinated. He was a weak and vicious prince, during whose reign the country was desolated with factions and civil and religious wars. He was the last of the house of Valois.

1605. Edmund Anderson, an eminent English lawyer, died. He was one of the ablest and most learned of queen Elizabeth's judges; his law works are of great authority.

1625. The first parliament of Charles I, of England, on account of the plague, met at Oxford.

1714. Anne, queen of England, died, in the 50th year of her age.

1716. James Boileau, a celebrated French theologian, died; a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a man of great wit and learning.

1720. John Leake, a brave English admiral, died. He signalized himself in many important victories in different parts of the world.

1732. William Cosby arrived at New York as governor of that province and New Jersey.

1743. Richard Savage, an eminent English poet, died in prison, aged 46. His great natural abilities were over-balanced by vices and follies which rendered him an unhappy man.

1759. Battle of Minden; the British and German forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated the French, who met with great losses.

1766. France stipulated not to aid the Pretender if England would suffer a Romish bishop to be sent to Canada; it was acceded to.

1768. The merchants and traders of Boston entered into a non-importation agreement against Great Britain.

1769. Jean Chappe d'Auteroche, a French astronomer, died at California, whither he had gone to make an observation. He was distinguished for learning and abilities.

1770. Battle of Cahal; the Turkish army of 150,000 defeated by 18,000 Russians under marshal Romanzow.

1772. A revolution was effected in Sweden by the army, and dissimulation of the crown.

1774. Dr. Priestly discovered dephlogisticated air, which has been called the birth day of pneumatic chemistry.

1780. The village of Canajoharie laid waste by the Indians.

1790. John Knox, the book seller, and the improver of the herring fisheries in Scotland, died.

1793. Action without the harbor of New York between the French frigate L'Ambuscade, and British frigate Boston. The battle was severe, and both vessels were greatly damaged; but the Boston would have been captured if she had not been enabled to retreat. The Ambuscade had 6 killed, 20 wounded. The British lost their captain and nearly all their officers killed. The crews of the two frigates were about the same, 350 each.

1798. Battle of the Nile; the French fleet of 13 sail and 4 frigates defeated by the British, 13 ships of 74s, and a 50 gun ship under Nelson. Nine of the French ships were taken and 2 burnt, and 2 of the frigates destroyed. Admiral Brueys was mortally wounded and blown up in the Orient, 120 guns and 1070 men. Of the French 3,105 were put on shore by cartel, and 5,225 perished.

1801. Jonathan Edwards, president of Union college, died; a man of uncommon powers of mind.

1803. William Woodfall, an English printer, died. He possessed a remarkably retentive memory, and was the first who gave a full and immediate detail of the proceedings of parliament.

1807. John Walker, the English lexicographer, died.

1819. James Forbes died; a civil servant in the East India company, and creditably known as the author of Oriental Memoirs, which were selected from a mass of manuscripts written during 17 years' residence in India, stated to occupy 52,000 folio pages, in 150 vols. The plates, from drawings of plants and animals made by the author, have rarely been surpassed in spirit and beauty.

1821. William Floyd, one of the signers, died.

1821. Elizabeth Inchbald, an English dramatic writer and actress, died. She possessed great beauty and talent, and an unsullied reputation; many of her pieces are still stock plays.

1829. Capture of Jambouli and destruction of the Turkish camp by a brigade of Hulans and Cossacks, after having defeated on the road a body of 15,000 Turks.

1834. Robert Morrison, an eminent English orientalist, at Canton, died. He was considered the best Chinese scholar in Europe. He translated the whole of the New Testament into Chinese, which was printed in 1813; but the great monument of his literary fame is his Dictionary of the Chinese Language, 6 vols. quarto.

1834. The slaves in the British colonies emancipated, and a temporary apprenticeship commenced.

1834. The bill admitting dissenters to the honors of the English universities, which had passed the house of commons, rejected in the house of lords by a majority of 102—a grand halt to the march of mind in England.

1838. John Rogers died; a distinguished naval officer, and senior commander in the American navy. He had been fifteen months a resident of the naval asylum, and the greater part of the time in close confinement as a confirmed lunatic.

1838. The entire emancipation of the negro apprentices in the islands of Jamaica, Barbadoes, Chevis, Montserrat, St. Christophers, St. Vincent and Tortola, took place, in compliance with the acts of the colonial legislatures.

1848. The city of Vera Cruz delivered up to the Mexicans by the United States; general Smith embarked for home.

1849. Henry A. Breckingham, known as the author of several historical sketches and other interesting reminiscences of the early days of the American colonies, died at Brooklyn, of cholera.

1849. Queen Victoria embarked at Cowes on her visit to Ireland.

1851. Harriet Lee, an English authoress, died, aged 95. Jointly with her sister Sophia, they were the authors of various works, chiefly novels or dramas. Harriet was almost the exclusive author of the Canterbury Tales, 5 vols., perhaps the best known of their labors.

1853. The Austrian government, in a circular addressed to the European courts, protested against the proceedings of Capt. Ingraham, in the port of Smyrna, in rescuing Martin Koszta, claiming to be a citizen of the United States.

1854. Kenneth Murchison formerly governor of Penang and Singapore, died in London, aged 60.

1854. The yellow fever became epidemic at New Orleans. It disappeared in November, when the number of deaths was 2441. There were 600 deaths in Savannah from the same disease.

AUGUST 2.

338 B. C. Battle of Cheronea, on the Cephisus, and defeat of the Athenians and Thebans by Philip of Macedon.

338 B. C. The army of Archidamus, the Spartan, overthrown in Lucania, and himself killed.

322 B. C. Joint victory of Antipater and Craterius, near the walls of Cranon, in Thessaly.

10. Three Roman legions under Varus cut off in Germany. "Quintilius Varus, give me my legions again," exclaimed the father of his country. Varus, however, had shared the fate of his legions.

44. King Agrippa (the Great), smitten with disease in the public theatre at Cæsarea, on the second day of the games exhibited in honor of Claudius.

1100. William II (Rufus), king of England, killed by an arrow. He possessed vigor, decision and policy, and acquired great wealth, by which he was enabled to purchase two French provinces. He founded Westminster hall.

1553. The peace of religion signed at Passau, on the Danube, between the confederates under Maurice of Saxony and the emperor Charles V, which established the protestant church in Germany.

1563. That great scourge, the plague, began in London.

1651. Cromwell, after a week's siege, erected the colors of the commonwealth on the walls of Perth.

1675. Brookfield destroyed by the Indians. This town was situated in the country of the Nipnets, whom Philip finally succeeded in engaging to himself in his plan of a general extermination of the English colonies. The inhabitants being alarmed had scarcely time to flee to the principal house in the village, before the savages came pouring in, and fired every other house. The whole number of people thus collected together was about seventy. They withstood the assaults of the Indians two days, who kept up the attack night and day, and endeavored to fire the house by means of poles with firebrands and rags dipped in brimstone tied to their ends. They also filled a cart with hemp and flax, and other combustibles, and having set it on fire thrust it backward with poles spliced together to a great length. A storm of rain defeated this last scheme; and several companies of soldiers came to the relief of the besieged so unexpectedly that the Indians, although they had surrounded the town to cut off assistance, were disheartened and fled.

1676. King Philip, the Wampanoag, surprised in his quarters by a party of the colonists under captain Church; 150 of his men were killed, his wife and sons were taken prisoners, and he narrowly escaped with his life.

1684. A treaty of peace concluded at Albany, between the colonists and the Five Nations, who, since the peace of 1761, had extended their arms southward, and conquered the country from the Mississippi to the borders of the plantations; involving Virginia and Maryland in the calamities of their Indian allies, whom they were unable to protect.

1689. Innocent XI died. He has been called the protestant pope.

1704. Battle of Blenheim, in Bavaria; the English and Austrians under the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene, obtained a famous victory over the French and Bavarians, who lost 12,000 killed and drowned, and 13,000 prisoners, including marshal Tallard. (13th by some authorities.)

1713. Mensen Alting, a Dutch writer, died; author of an excellent description of the Low Countries.

1732. Rip Van Dam, upon whom the government of the province of New York devolved, finished his administration, on the arrival of William Cosby, with a commission over New York and New Jersey.

1748. Attack on fort Massachusetts by 300 French and Indians. Captain Williams sallied with 30 men and drove the enemy before him, when an ambuscade arose and attempted to cut off his retreat to the fort. By a quick movement he regained the place, and returned their fire with so much spirit that the enemy withdrew, carrying off their dead and wounded.

1763. Battle of Nuncas Nullus; the English defeated the troops of Mir Cossim, 28,000, took all their artillery and 150 boats laden with grain and stores.

1770. The Russians under Romanzow, defeated the Turks with great slaughter on the Pruth.

1776. Matthew Maty, an English writer, died. He published at the Hague, during six years, the Journal Britannique, containing an account of the productions of the English press, in French.

1786. Margaret Nicholson, supposing herself to be queen of England, made an attempt to assassinate George III. She was afterwards confined as a lunatic.

1788. Thomas Gainsborough died; one of the most celebrated English landscape painters of the last century.

1793. Marie Antoinette, queen of France and daughter of an emperor, taken from the temple prison in the night, and removed to a cell in the Conciergerie, 8 feet square, and partly under ground. As a matter of favor she was permitted to take under her arm a small bundle of clothing.

1798. John Palmer, a popular English actor, died on the stage during a performance, immediately on uttering the words, "There is an other and a better world."

1802. Bonaparte declared consul of France for life.

1803. John Hoole, an ingenious English poet, died. He translated some of the best Italian poets, wrote three tragedies, and several other works.

1811. William Williams, one of the signers died, aged 81. He advanced money and obtained supplies for the army, and also contributed by his writings and speeches to arouse the spirit of freedom in his countrymen.

1813. Defence of fort Stephenson by 160 men with 1 six pounder, under Col. Croghan, then aged 21. The British, consisting of 500 regulars under Proctor, and about 800 Indians under Tecumseh, with 5 six pounders and 1 howitzer, were defeated with considerable loss.

1814. The remarkable steeple of Kelwinning, in Scotland, fell. It was built in 1140.

1815. Convention between the representatives of Great Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia, who declared Bonaparte to be the prisoner of the allies, and entrusted his custody especially to Great Britain.

1830. Charles X, of France, subscribed his abdication in favor of his grandson the young duke of Bordeaux.

1842. John Clifford, a lieutenant in the revolutionary army, died at Bethlehem, Hunterdon co., N. J., aged 94.

1843. Francis W. P. Greenwood, pastor of King's chapel, Boston, died at Dorchester, Mass., aged 50. He was also an accomplished scholar and naturalist.

1843. James Richards, professor of theology in the Auburn theological seminary, died, aged 75; an eminently useful man.

1849. Mehemet Ali, pacha of Egypt, died at Alexandria, aged 80. He was a powerful sovereign, and gave the sultan much trouble. He did more than any of his predecessors towards introducing improvements into his territories.

1849. Garibaldi, the Roman chief, escaped on board some fishing vessels at Cesenatico, on the Adriatic, accompanied by 300 followers. The remainder of his band surrendered to the Austrians.

1849. Stephen Longfellow, a New England lawyer of note, died at Portland, Me., aged 73. He was a member of the Hartford convention from Massachusetts, and distinguished for great acuteness and penetration. He compiled 16 volumes of the Massachusetts Reports, and 12 of the Maine, extending over a period of thirty years.

1852. Thomas Thomson, a Scottish author, died, aged 60. He was professor of chemistry in the university of Glasgow, and established a highly scientific reputation. In 1812 he began the Annals of Philosophy, in London, which he conducted ten years.

1852. A violent earthquake occurred at St. Jago de Cuba, causing a great destruction of property.

AUGUST 3.

479 B. C. The fatal battle of Platea, between Mardonius the Persian and Pausanius the Spartan general. The other sanguinary victory over the Persians, on the promontory of Mycale was achieved the same day, third of Boedromion.

431 B. C. An eclipse of the sun noticed by Thucydides, eight days after the first invasion of Attica under Archidamus, king of Sparta, at the head of 60,000 Peloponesian confederates, and whilst Pericles was in the act of embarking against Epidaurus, the sacred city.

678. A morning comet, shaped like a fiery pillar, seen in England. It was visible during three months, and caused the conversion of the South Saxons from paganism.

1274. Edward I landed in England from Palestine. He sailed from his winter mansion, Trepano, Sicily, on the 20th April, 1271.

1414. James I of Scotland conveyed from the tower to Windsor; there this bird of song was wired in for three years.

1460. James II (with the fiery face), king of Scotland, killed by the bursting of a gun, aged 29, after a reign of 24 years.

1492. Columbus embarked in the carack Santa Maria, with two other vessels and 120 persons, from the Isle of Saltes, against Palos, in Andalusia, to find a western continent.

1546. Stephen Dolet, a learned Frenchman, a painter and a bookseller, burnt at Lyons for atheism.

1554. The first letter in Europe known to have been sealed with sealing wax bears this date, and was written at London, addressed to the rheingrave Philip Francis von Daun, from his agent in England, Gerhard Hermann. The wax employed in sealing this letter is of a dark red color, very shining, and the impress bears the initials of the writer.

1554. Battle of Marciano; the troops of Cosmo de Medici, under Medicini, defeated the French under Peter Strozzi, a Florentine nobleman, who was wounded.

1592. The English earl of Cumberland captured a Spanish carack, Madre de Dios (Mother of God), valued at $150,000.

1612. John Bond, a learned English commentator on the Latin classics, died.

1645. Battle of Nordlingen; the allies under Merci, defeated by the French under Turenne, Conde and Grammont. Merci was killed and Grammont taken prisoner.

1672. John Francis Senaudt, a Dutch theological writer, died.

1692. Battle of Steenkerken; the English under William III defeated with great slaughter by the French.

1712. Joshua Barnes died; an eminent English critic and professor of Greek. He wrote the Life of Edward III, and several Latin and English poems.

1715. A cobbler of Highgate, London, was whipped from Holloway to that place for reflecting on the government.

1720. N. Heinsius, an eminent Dutch statesman, died. He was 30 years grand pensionary of Holland, and exerted the energy of his mind and the resources of his country to abridge the power of the French monarch.

1721. Grinlin Gibbon died, an eminent English sculptor and carver in ivory and wood. The place or country of his birth is not known. He was discovered by sir John Evelyn, who walking by accident near a poor solitary thatched cottage, had the curiosity to look in at the window, when he saw him carving a large cartoon or crucifix of Tintoret, a copy of which Evelyn himself had brought from Venice. His performances in marble and ivory were so very fine, that they often required to be defended by a glass case. Many of his flower pieces are light almost as fancy, and shake to the rattling of passing carriages. There is no instance before him, says Walpole, of a man who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with the free disorder natural to each species.

1732. The first stone laid of the bank of England.

1761. John Matthew Gesner, a German scholar and critic, died. He published several valuable editions of the classics.

1763. Thomas Godfrey, an American poet, died, aged 27. He was a watchmaker, and said to have been the real inventor of Hadley's quadrant.

1768. Thomas Secker, archbishop of Canterbury, died; whose lectures and sermons are masterly compositions.

1777. Fort Schuyler, at the head of the Mohawk river, invested by the British, about 1,800, under St. Leger. The garrison consisted of 600 continentals under general Gansevoort, who maintained their position till the British abandoned the siege and returned to Canada, leaving their tents standing; their artillery, and ammunition and provisions fell into the hands of the Americans.

1780. Stephen Bonnot de Condillac, a distinguished French philosopher, died. His works are characterized by great clearness and sagacity, and were published in 1798 in 35 volumes.

1783. A new eruption of the Skaptar Jokul, in Iceland, poured forth fresh floods of lava, which taking different directions from the others, filled the bed of a river, and formed a large lake. By this single eruption, 9,000 persons lost their lives, being nearly one-fifth of the whole population of the island. This volcano, which commenced on the 11th June, continued for two years, and the lava was not cooled in some places, when visited eleven years after.

1787. John Baynes, an English politician, died, aged 29. He was distinguished for his early attainments and devotion to the cause of liberty.

1788. Louis Francois Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, marechal of France, died, aged 93. He had the courage, the fortune and the talents of a great general, the sagacity, prudence and penetration of a great statesman; but with these and many amiable qualities he chose to be nothing but a common courtier.

1792. Richard Arkwright died; inventor of the spinning jenny, one of the most useful machines in the world. He was originally a barber, but his invention enabled him at his death to leave a property worth £500,000.

1797. Jeffrey Amherst, a celebrated English admiral, died. He assisted in the conquest of Canada.

1802. Henry, prince of Prussia, died. He distinguished himself at the head of several Prussian armies, and in time of peace was engaged in literary pursuits. On the death of his elder brother, he was excluded from the throne by his nephew, and resided in France.

1804. The United States squadron under Com. Preble, attacked the shipping and batteries of Tripoli. During the action the Constitution was much injured; 13 were wounded and 1 killed; 3 of the enemy's boats were captured and 3 sunk.

1805. Christopher Anstey, an ingenious English poet, died.

1806. Miranda, having received a reinforcement from the British, landed in the gulf of Paria, for the purpose of effecting a revolution.

1806. Michael Adanson, an eminent French naturalist, died, leaving an immense mass of manuscripts which he had collected with the view of publishing an encyclopedia. He passed several years in Africa making collections in natural history.

1812. Privateer schooner Atlas, of Philadelphia, captured in one hour British ships Pursuit, 16 guns, and Planter, 12 guns. The latter was recaptured.

1814. Fort Erie invested by the British, upwards of 5,000.

1814. 1,200 British crossed the Niagara, to attack Buffalo, but were repulsed by 250 riflemen under Morgan, and compelled to recross.

1814. Great disturbances in Spain, many members of the cortes arrested by order of the king.

1819. Barrow's straits rediscovered by Capt. Parry. He penetrated to Melville island. The lowest state of the thermometer was 55° below zero, Fahrenheit.

1823. Lazare Nicholas Marguerite Carnot, a distinguished French general, died. He possessed an uncommon talent for the mathematical and military sciences, and pursued a uniform and correct course in his politics, which enabled him to ride out the storm of the revolution, and the subsequent changes.

1848. Women's rights convention assembled at Rochester; demanded the rights of suffrage, property, preaching, teaching, &c., &c.

1849. Aaron K. Wooley, a Kentucky judge, died at Lexington, aged 49. He was a native of New Jersey, graduated at West Point, and studied law in Mississippi. He was some time state senator of Fayette county, Ky., and at the time of his death had been ten years professor of law in Transylvania university.

1849. General Oudinot surrendered the civil administration of the Papal states into the hands of the pope's three commissioners, who entered on the work of reaction.

1850. Jacob Jones, an American commodore, died at Philadelphia, aged 82. He stood nearly at the head of the list of post captains, two names only taking precedence. Capt. Jones, we believe, was a native of Delaware. He is one of the number who, in the war of 1812, contributed to establish the naval renown of our country. He fought in the Wasp one of the bloodiest naval battles in our history, and captured in 45 minutes the British brig-of-war Frolic of superior force, and under circumstances highly unfavorable to success. For this action the states of Delaware, Massachusetts and New York, each voted him a sword in commemoration of his gallantry, which was in no wise impaired by the subsequent capture of both the Wasp and the Frolic, when in a crippled condition, by a British 74. He was afterwards appointed to the Macedonian. Temperate himself, he deserves honorable mention as a promoter of temperance among his crew; many seamen were reclaimed by him.

1851. The steamer Pampero, with about 500 troops, composing the expedition against Cuba under general Lopez, left New Orleans at daybreak.

1854. Colonel Loring, a receiver of public moneys at Benicia, Cal., was murdered at the St. Nicholas hotel, New York, by Dr. Graham, of New Orleans.

1856. Edward Curtis, a prominent New York lawyer and politician, died. He was a native of Vermont, was graduated at Union college, and began his political career in 1834 in the New York common council. He was collector of the port under president Harrison.

1857. Eugene Sue, a celebrated French novelist, died, aged 49. The Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew, are known in all Europe and America.

AUGUST 4.

57 B. C. The decree recalling Cicero from banishment, which passed the full senate, consisting of 417 members, was ratified in the field of Mars, by a vote of all the centuries; it was nearly the last genuine public act of Roman liberty.

882. Louis III, of France, died. He shared the throne with his brother Carloman, and ably defended himself against his enemies.

1060. Henry I, of France, died in consequence of taking an improper medicine; highly respected as a good warrior and a benevolent man.

1265. Battle of Evesham; the earl of Leicester defeated and killed by the forces under prince Edward, and the king released from confinement. No quarter was given, and the aged king only received his life by an unwonted energy of mind; exclaiming to his antagonist, "Hold, fellow, I am Harry of Winchester."

1347. The conquest of Calais by the third Edward, after a siege of 11 months, when the six citizens, with halters round their necks, surrendered the keys of their independence. The condemned lives of these men, whose patriotism has scarcely ever been equaled, were spared through the tears and intercessions of Philippa. The inhabitants were removed and the city repeopled with English, in whose possession it remained more than two centuries. The pay of the army was as follows: the marines and archers on foot received 3d.; the black prince £1; and the bishop of Durham, with the earls, 6s. 8d. per day.

1496. Bartholomew Columbus, the admiral's brother, laid the foundation of St. Domingo.

1578. Battle of the three kings, in the west of Africa, which was invaded by Sebastian of Portugal, in which the Moors were victorious, but the three kings engaged in it lost their lives.

1583. Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed at St. Johns, Newfoundland, and took possession of it in the name of the queen of England.

1598. William Cecil, lord Burley, died. He was an eminent English statesman, memorable for his virtue and integrity, as well as his great abilities.

1609. Hudson discovered cape Cod, and under the supposition that it was an island, called it New Holland, in compliment to the country of his employers. The Dutch afterwards called it Staaten hoek. The Indians here were observed to have green tobacco, and pipes with clay bowls and copper stems.

1612. Hugh Broughton, an eminent Hebrew scholar, died. So classical was his Hebrew that a Jew predicted the turning of the whole Jewish race if the New Testament would be printed in such pure Hebrew.

1633. George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, died, aged 71. He rose from humble circumstances to great dignity.

1651. Stirling castle and town taken by Monk for Cromwell.

1666. A disastrous hurricane in the West Indies. Lord Francis Willoughby perished with his fleet of 15 sail. The poor fellows who escaped the wreck, were seized with exultation by the French.

1696. General Frontenac invaded the Onondaga country.

1713. William Cave, an eminent English scholar and divine, died. He published a great number of useful works.

1723. William Fleetwood, an English bishop, died. "His character was great in every respect."

1747. Michael Maittaire, a learned French critic and bibliographer, died. He edited many of the classical authors, with useful indexes, and wrote several important works.

1759. Crown point on lake Champlain, taken from the French by Gen. Amherst.

1774. Christopher Coudrette, a French ecclesiastic, died. His chief work was a history of the Jesuits; he was an opposer of that order, and of the pope's bull, unigenitus.

1781. Isaac Hayne, a patriot of the revolution, hanged at Charleston by order of the British lord Rawdon, an act, under the circumstances, extremely unjust and merciless, and which his lordship attempted to justify in a pamphlet.

1783. Captain John Darby, of the Astrea, arrived at Salem with the news of the ratification of the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain. He is said to have carried out the accounts of the first conflict at Lexington.

1789. Privileged classes abolished in France.

1792. John Burgoyne, a British general, died. He surrendered his whole army to general Gates at Saratoga, and returned to England. He was a member of parliament, and a successful dramatic author. (June 4, P. Cyc.)

1799. John Bacon, an English sculptor, died. He was apprenticed to a porcelain manufacturer, in which condition he devoted his leisure to statuary, and finally rose to great eminence in his profession.

1804. Adam Duncan, a gallant English admiral, died; celebrated for the victory he gained over the Dutch fleet at Camperdown, for which he was rewarded with a peerage.

1806. Miranda arrived at Coro an hour before day; the place was abandoned, and through mistake his troops fired on each other.

1808. French assaulted Saragossa in Spain, and penetrated into a part of the town.

1808. The commencement of Wellington's famous retreat into Portugal.

1814. United States troops under Col. Croghan attacked the British and Indians at fort Mackinaw, but were repulsed with the loss of 50 killed.

1815. Bonaparte delivered a written protest for the prince regent of England, against being sent to St. Helena.

1821. William Floyd, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, died at Western, New York.

1835. The Spanish ministry having suppressed the Jesuits and confiscated their property, a royal decree to this effect was signed. By this decree 900 convents were suppressed in Spain, and their property applied towards the payment of the debts of the state.

1836. The famous bell of Moscow, the largest in the world, raised from the ground, where it had laid a great many years. Its weight is about 440,000 pounds, is 21 feet in height and 23 in diameter.

1842. John Banin, a popular Irish novelist, died near Kilkenny, Ireland.

1846. Fisher Ames Harding, one of the editors of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, died at Detroit.

1848. Daniel Wadsworth, a gentleman of highly cultivated taste and benevolence, died at Hartford, Ct., aged 77.

1848. Capital punishment except in cases of martial law, abolished in the Prussian assembly, also in the German parliament at Frankfort.

1851. At Leon, Nicaragua, Gen. Munoz, late minister of war, with a small body of troops, took prisoners president Pineda and most of his cabinet, sent them to a port in Tigre islands, and elected Justo Albuanez president.

1852. Alfred D'Orsay, the mirror of fashion, letters and art, died in Paris, aged 54.

1854. A severe battle was fought between the Chippewa and Sioux Indians.

1854. Bailey Washington, a surgeon in the navy, died at Washington, aged 67. He was a relative of general Washington, and entered the navy in 1810 as surgeon. He was with the Enterprise when she captured the Boxer, and was fleet surgeon under Rogers, Elliot and Patterson, in the Mediterranean.

1854. Jose Barundia, minister from Honduras, died at New York, aged 70. He was elected to the presidency of the confederation of Central America, when he adopted many of the laws of the United States, and devoted his salary to the promotion of public schools. He was the prime mover of the liberal party, and the first to raise the standard of rebellion against the Spanish government.

1857. Joshua Forman, founder of the city of Syracuse in New York, died in Rutherfordton, N. C., aged 71. He was one of the early promoters of the Erie canal, and first judge of the county of Onondaga, from which he removed about twenty years before his death.

AUGUST 5.

57 B. C. Cicero landed from Durazzo at Brundusium, and was met there by his excellent daughter Tullia, on the 20th anniversary of her birthday.

1100. Inauguration of Henry I, of England, who instantly granted a charter to the nation, restoring the laws of Edward the Confessor to the same state in which they had been settled by the Conqueror; and drove from his court the effœminati with their enormous and disgusting train.

1391. Charles VI, of France, surnamed the Well-beloved, seized by a mental distemper, which, as it deprived him of the sovereign authority, afterwards led, in bad hands to the ruin of his kingdom.

1407. Robert Knolles, so famed in the French wars of Edward III, died at Scenethorp, Norfolk, but was buried at White Friars church, London, which he had built.

1501. Reginald Bray, an English architect, died. He was also a distinguished warrior and statesman, and in the latter capacity acquired the title of "the father of his country."

1604. By royal proclamation this 5th day of August was appointed a holiday in celebration of king James's delivery from the conspiracy of the Gowries.

1633. George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, died. He assisted in the translation of the Bible, being one of the eight divines to whom it was committed.

1704. Sanguinary battle at Hochstädt, in which the French, &c., were defeated by the confederates under Marlborough.

1717. Battle of Peterwaradein; the Turks defeated by the Austrians under prince Eugene, with great loss. (1716?)

1754. James Gibbs, an ingenious English architect, died; leaving a handsome property to public charities.

1759. Leipsic taken by the Austrians.

1778. The British burnt and destroyed their fleet off Rhode island on the appearance of the French fleet under count d'Estaing.

1781. Action off the Dogger bank, between the British fleet, 6 ships, 4 frigates and a cutter, under admiral Parker, and the Dutch, 8 ships, 10 frigates and 5 sloops, under admiral Zoutman. Both fleets were greatly damaged; the Dutch retired to the Texel; the British did not follow them.

1792. Lafayette accused of treason before the national assembly. He had previously been burnt in effigy in the Palais royal by the Jacobins.

1792. Frederic North, earl of Guildford, better known as Lord North, died, aged 60. As adviser to George III in the American war, he became and continued to his death unpopular.

1796. Battle of Castiglione, between the French under Bonaparte and the imperialists under Wurmzer. The latter were defeated, with the loss of 500 killed, 2,000 captured, and 8 cannon.

1799. Richard Howe, a celebrated English admiral, died. He entered the navy at the age of 14; rose through the usual gradations to the highest rank, distinguished himself on many occasions, and died at the age of 75.

1812. Battle of Brownstown; the British regulars and Indians attacked the United States troops, 150 men, under Van Horne.

1813. American privateer Decatur, 13 guns, captured British schooner Dominica, 16 guns, by boarding.

1814. Division of the Scheldt fleet, in virtue of the treaty of Paris, between France and the allies.

1815. Massacre of the protestants at Nismes, in France; these enormities continued nine days.

1816. First state election held in Indiana.

1833. George Gibbs died near New York. He was a practical mineralogist, and the collector of the extensive cabinet of minerals in Yale college.

1835. Thomas McCrie, a Scottish divine and ecclesiastical antiquary, died. He was distinguished for his patient research, candor and ability as a historian, and produced several works which have a high reputation.

1835. G. S. Newton, an eminent painter, died in England. He was a native of Halifax, N. S., became distinguished in his profession, and produced a number of works which are highly esteemed.

1839. The city of Cabul, Afghanistan, taken by the British, and the war in that country brought to an end.

1840. The city and island of Chusan, belonging to China, captured after a short resistance, by the British under brigadier general Burrell. The Chinese lost 25 killed; the British none.

1846. John Ward (Father of the City) died at St. Johns, New Brunswick, aged 92. He was born near New York, and adhering to the British interest, entered the army in 1776, and was frequently in action. At the peace of 1783, he embarked with his regiment, the Loyal Americans, to New Brunswick, where the corps was disbanded. He then embarked in commercial pursuits, and at the time of his death was the senior half pay officer, as well as the oldest merchant in the province. He filled several civil offices, and sustained an estimable character.

1849. The number of births in Connecticut for the year ending this day was 7,373; marriages 2,757; deaths 5,016.

AUGUST 6.

1577. Queen Elizabeth granted a license to John Day, and Richard Day, his son, during their lives, and that of the longest liver, to print the Psalms of David in metre.

1580. Andrea Palladio, a very distinguished Italian architect, died; many specimens of his designs yet remain.

1585. Davis, the navigator, reached the strait which bears his name, and cast anchor in Exeter bay, "beneath that brave mount, the cliffs whereof were orient as gold."

1637. Benjamin Jonson, the English poet and dramatist, died, aged 63. He was a bricklayer at the outset of life; but his inclinations turned to the building of monuments more imperishable than those of brick and stone. (16th, N. S.)

1638. Birthday of Nicholas Malebranche, a distinguished French philosopher. His works were highly esteemed for their genius and style; and for his manners, which were amiable and simple, he was greatly venerated.

1660. Don Diego Velasquez de Silva died; a distinguished Spanish painter.

1662. Metacom, sachem of Pokanoket, afterwards celebrated under the English title of king Philip, made his appearance at the court of Plymouth, and solicited the continuance of the amity and friendship which had subsisted between the governor of Plymouth and his father and brother; and promised for himself and his successors to remain subjects of the king of England.

1674. Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York, died. He is buried at Seekonk, Mass.

1695. Francis de Harlay died; archbishop of Paris, the favorite of Louis XIV.

1701. Ulric Obrecht, a learned German critic and Latin historian, died. So extensive and various was his learning that he has been styled "the epitome of human science."

1706. John Baptist du Hamel died; a celebrated French philosopher and divine.

1725. Thomas Rawlinson (Tom Folio), an English antiquary, died. The sale of his collection of books and manuscripts, which were put up at auction after his death, occupied several weeks.

1745. David Wilkins died; an English librarian and antiquary, and a learned author.

1756. Eugene Aram, a self-taught English scholar, executed near York, for murder, and hung in chains on Knaresborough forest. He was a man of consummate abilities and wonderful erudition, but appears to have been a victim to covetousness.

1777. General Herkimer, marching with the forces of Tryon county to relieve Gen. Gansevoort at fort Schuyler, was ambushed by a strong detachment of British and Indians, and defeated with the loss of 400. The Indians lost several of their great chiefs and 70 warriors.

1778. Sieur Gerard, ambassador from France, introduced to congress. He was the first ambassador from any nation to the United States.

1780. Battle of Hanging-rock; 600 Americans under Sumpter attacked and defeated the British, consisting of the prince of Wales' regiment and a large body of tories. The regiment was almost entirely destroyed; from 278 it was reduced to 9 men.

1788. The last lit de justice in France, assembled at Versailles, by Louis XVI, to enforce upon the parliament of Paris the adoption of the obnoxious taxes proposed by Calonne.

1796. Battle of Roveredo; the French under Bonaparte defeated the Austrians under Wurmzer, after an action of 16 hours, and entered Trent. Austrian loss 6,000 men.

1796. James Pettit Andrews died; author of several English histories and other works of merit.

1799. Marie Eliezer Block, an able German naturalist, died. He was of obscure parentage, and self-taught. Besides other valuable works on natural history and medicine, he published a History of Fishes, 6 vols. folio, colored plates.

1806. Francis II, emperor of Germany and king of Rome, resigned his titles and annexed his possessions in Germany to the Austrian empire. The millenium of the empire, founded by Charlemagne, fell upon the holiday of Christmas, 1800.

1815. Commodore Decatur arrived with his fleet off Tripoli.

1817. Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, a French statesman, died. He was distinguished for his knowledge and talents, as well as his excellent character and principles. On the return of Bonaparte from Elba he came to America, where he died.

1818. David Ferguson, a Scottish soldier, died at Dunkirk, aged 124, very much respected and beloved.

1824. Battle of Junin, in Peru; the royalists defeated by the united Peruvian and Colombian forces, under Bolivar. The combatants fought hand to hand, with lance and sabre, those engaged being cavalry only.

1840. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, son of the late king of Holland, accompanied by about 60 men, made an attempt to effect an hostile descent upon France. The party landed about two leagues from Boulogne, directed their march to that city, and were soon taken prisoners. The prince was soon after placed in the castle of Ham.

1843. The Thousand Years' Jubilee celebrated in Germany, in commemoration of the settlement by which the empire was divided between the three brothers, sons of Philip the Devout. The festival occurred on Sunday, and was very generally and appropriately celebrated, more particularly in the Prussian states.

1846. A revolution took place again in Mexico, in favor of the exiled Santa Anna. The troops in Vera Cruz and its vicinity first declared in his favor, and were soon followed by those at the capital, who deposed and imprisoned general Paredes, the president of the republic, and proclaimed Santa Anna, and the constitution of 1824.

1849. A treaty of peace was signed between Austria and Piedmont.

1851. An eruption having taken place in the volcanic mountains of Martinique, columns of smoke were seen to issue from eight distinct craters.

1855. A riot at Louisville, Ky., between the Americans and foreigners; several were killed on both sides, and rows of houses belonging to the foreign population were torn down and burnt.

AUGUST 7.

480 B. C. The immortal battle in the pass of Thermopylæ is placed upon this day; when Leonidas with 300 Spartans withstood the army of Xerxes. There was a skirmish also with the Grecian fleet at Artemisium. Diodorus fixes the victory of Gelon, under the walls of Himera, in Sicily, upon the same day.

445 B. C. Dedication of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, on the 7th of Elul, in the 21st year of Artaxerxes.

44. Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, died suddenly upon his throne. He was a great builder, whose expenses exceeded his income, for his generosity was boundless, saith Josephus. He persecuted the Christians, and was one of those scourges of mankind who have been cut off with their vices.

461. Julius Valerius Majorian, emperor of Rome, assassinated. He was successful in his war with the Vandals, and universally respected for his virtues.

1106. Henry IV, emperor of Germany, died. He was a brave, but unfortunate prince, who, having humbled his enemies in 66 battles, was finally dethroned and reduced to indigence by his own sons.

1485. Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, landed at Milford haven from Normandy, for the invasion of England, with 2,000 men.

1588. The Spanish armada, becalmed before Dunkirk, completely discomfited by the appearance of eight ships filled with pitch, sulphur and other combustibles, and having been set on fire as the breeze sprung up were directed by the English admiral against the different divisions of the Spanish fleet. The darkness of the night lent terror to the awful appearance of the approaching flames; and the crews, anxious only for their own preservation, weighed anchor or cut their cables, and suffered their ships to drive before the wind. In this confusion many of them ran afoul of one another, and several of them received such damage as to be unfit for future use.

1613. Dorchester, in England, destroyed by fire.

1667. John Wilson, first minister of Boston, died. He came over with governor Winthrop, 1630, and was ordained under a tree in Charlestown.

1679. La Salle sailed from the foot of lake Erie in the first vessel built upon that lake, with a crew of thirty men. His vessel was lost on its return from Mackinaw with its crew of six men, and a cargo of peltries, valued at fifty thousand francs.

1771. John Daniel Schoepflin, an eminent German philosopher, historiographer and antiquary, died. His reputation was so great, that his residence was solicited by the sovereigns of different countries.

1793. The first patient of yellow fever in Philadelphia, which raged there with great fury this year, died on this day. The number that died of the disease during its prevalence was about 3,500.

1804. Second attack on Tripoli by the United States squadron under Com. Preble. One of the prizes previously taken was blown up by the passage of a red hot ball through her magazine.

1806. Elizabeth Smith, an accomplished English lady, died. She understood most of the learned languages, and had a knowledge of the sciences.

1807. Ignatius Mouradgea d'Ohsson, an Armenian diplomatist, died. He was in the service of the Swedish embassy at Constantinople, where he conceived the plan of a work on the Ottoman empire. It was completed, after a labor of 45 years, in 7 vols., and published at Paris.

1812. United States frigate Essex captured British king's brig George.

1819. Battle of Bojaca; the revolutionists of Venezuela and New Granada, under Bolivar, totally defeated the Spaniards, whose destruction was so complete that the viceroy fled, leaving the public treasure a prey to the conquerors. This battle decided the independence of New Granada.

1820. Eliza Bacciocchi, sister of Bonaparte, died. She married a captain in the army, who on the conquest of Italy was created prince of Lucca and Piombino; but she was the actual sovereign, and when she reviewed the troops, her husband discharged the office of aid-de-camp.

1821. Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, wife of George IV, of England, died, aged 53. She was abandoned by her husband, then prince of Wales, soon after their marriage, and the nation was repeatedly agitated by their disputes, for more than 20 years.

1830. The throne of France declared vacant by the chamber of deputies; after making various important modifications in the charter, they called to the throne Louis Phillippe, and his male descendants for ever.

1848. The great comet, whose revolution occupies 292 years, passed its perihelion in July, and was first seen on this day by a gentleman in Altona.

1854. The Turks entered Bucharest, which the Russians had previously evacuated.

1855. A severe and bloody riot occurred at St. Louis, Missouri, between the Irish and Americans, which continued for 48 hours, and resulted in the death of 10 persons, and the severe injury of 30 more.

1855. While two companies of militia were conducting to jail a prisoner named Debar, for the murder of a negro, at Milwaukie, the mob seized him and killed him without resistance.

1855. Richard Sheepshanks, a British astronomer, died, aged 61. He made great efforts in determining the latitude and longitude of places in England and Ireland, and contributed a series of papers to the Penny Cyclopedia on the science of astronomy.

AUGUST 8.

70. Capture of Jerusalem by Titus, the 8th day of the month Gorpieus, (Elul) upon his daughter's birthday.

1419. Peter d'Ailly, a French ecclesiastic, died. He was of an obscure family, and rose by his merit to the office of cardinal.

1503. Alexander VI (Roderick Borgia), pope, died. He was of infamous notoriety before his elevation to the pontificate, and is supposed to have been poisoned by a draught which he had prepared for some of his guests.

1540. Nuptials of Henry VIII and Catharine Howard, his fifth spouse. By "a notable appearance of honor, cleanness and maidenly behavior," she won the heart of old Harry, whose marriage with Anne of Cleves was annulled the 9th of July previous.

1588. Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York, died. He assisted in the translation of what is called the Bishop's Bible, and was one of the nine divines appointed by Elizabeth to dispute with nine catholics before the parliament.

1588. The English fleet under lord Howard attacked the Spanish armada. The engagement began at 4 o'clock in the morning and continued till 6 at night, and resulted in a total defeat of the armada. The Spanish admiral, apprehending the entire destruction of his fleet, resolved to sail northwards and make the circuit of the British isles. When he had rounded the Orkneys, the fleet was dispersed by a storm; horses, mules and baggage were thrown overboard to lighten the ships, some of which were wrecked, some sunk in the North sea, others wrecked on the coast of Scotland, and more than thirty were driven by another storm upon the coast of Ireland, where many of the crews were barbarously murdered. The duke of Medina finally reached Santardu with sixty-five sail in a shattered condition, out of 150 sail of noble vessels which entered the British channel, many of them of the largest class.

1641. Though Sabbath, both houses of the English parliament sat to prevent the king from going to Scotland.

1776. Force of the northern American army, under Washington, 10,514 fit for duty, 3,668 sick, 2,946 on command, 97 on furlough—total, 17,225. The small pox was committing great ravages at this time, 5,500 having died of it since April; inoculation being prohibited in general orders.

1778. Fort Boonesborough invested by 450 Canadians and Indians. The fort was garrisoned by 50 men, who defended it with great spirit against every stratagem till the 20th, when the siege was abandoned, and its capture never again attempted.

1780. The combined fleets of France and Spain captured five East Indiamen and fifty merchant ships bound for the West Indies.

1792. John Leake, an English physician, died; founder of the Westminster lying-in hospital, and an esteemed author.

1794. The entrenchments of Pellingen, a series of redoubts raised by the Austrians in the most advantageous situations, in order to cover Treves, were carried by the French.

1804. Robert Macfarlane, a Scottish miscellaneous writer, died. He translated Ossian into Latin.

1805. Richard Worsley, governor of the isle of Wight, died. During a tour in Europe he made a fine collection of statues and antiques, of which he published a description.

1808. John Broome, lieutenant-governor of the state of New York, died, and was buried in the presbyterian church yard in Wall street, in the city of New York.

1811. British under admiral Stopford took Batavia and a great part of the island of Java.

1812. The United States troops under general Hull evacuated Canada and entered Detroit.

1814. First meeting of the British and American commissioners at Ghent, to treat for peace.

1816. The meetings of freemasons and other secret societies prohibited by the king of Naples under penalty of banishment, fine and imprisonment.

1827. George Canning, an eminent English statesman, died. He was of humble origin, but rose to the premiership by his great talents, and sustained himself against a powerful opposition.

1828. Frederic Bouterwek, a German litterateur, died; author of Geschichte der neueren Poesie und Beredsamkeit, containing separate critical histories of the belles-lettres of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England and Germany, from the revival of letters to the close of the 18th century, 12 vols.

1836. Frederick Carl Ludwig Sickler died at Heldburghausen; an eminent archæologist, and author of various learned works on archæology, antiquities and philology.

1838. The Chilian squadron of 32 vessels landed 5000 men at Ancon, and demanded two millions of dollars, which not being granted, they advanced and took Callao and Lima, after an action in which 2000 were killed. Gomarra was proclaimed president, and Orbegozo fled to the mountains. (See July 26.)

1840. Charles Ottfried Muller, of Gottingen, died at Athens, from an illness brought on by fatigue and exposure in copying inscriptions, and making excavations at Delphi. The object of his investigation was connected with a great work on which he was engaged, upon the general history of Greece. He was buried on the summit of a little hill above the academy. (July 31.)

1851. Samuel Emerson, an eminent physician, died at Kennebunk, Me., aged 87.

1853. A strike at Stockport, England, for an advance of ten per cent in wages, ceased, 20,000 workmen resumed their labors, having accomplished their object.

1856. Mrs. Matthews (madame Vestris), long a celebrated dancer and pantomimist, died in England, aged 59. Her maiden name was Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi; she married Armand Vestris in 1813, and it was under this name that she was well known in Europe and America. She married Matthews in 1838.

AUGUST 9.

357 B. C. An eclipse of the moon which preceded the departure of Dion from Zacynthus (Zante) upon his celebrated expedition against the tyrant Dionysius the Younger. He entered Syracuse with his little band of 800 veterans in September, and in three days became master of the empire. The deaths of Democritus and Hippocrates, each 104 years old, and of Timotheus, the Milesian poet and musician, took place in that year.

378. The great and disastrous battle of Adrianople, second only to that of Cannæ, in which the Roman legions under Valens, were for the first time defeated by the Cythian Goths. The wounded emperor was removed to a cottage, which was fired, and he perished in the flames.

1342. Sir Walter Manny raised the siege of Hennebon in Brittany, so nervously and heroically defended by Jane, countess of Montford, against the power of France.

1611. John Blagrave died; an early English mathematician of considerable eminence and a laborious author on his favorite science.

1634. Noy, attorney-general to Charles I of England, died at London. He is supposed to have devised the plan of levying ship money, which went into operation the day after his death.

1641. David Baker, an English Benedictine monk and ecclesiastical historian, died. He collected the records of the ancient congregation of the black or Benedictine monks in England, 6 vols. folio, and his religious treatises filled 9 folio vols. in manuscript.

1694. Anthony Arnauld, a French theological and philosophical writer, died. He was one of the most learned men of his age, and did much for the improvement of morality in the catholic church. His works were printed in more than 100 volumes of various sizes.

1710. French and Spaniards defeated at Saragossa, with the loss of 5,000 killed, 7,000 prisoners, and all their artillery, and the allies entered the city.

1718. Action off cape Passaro, between the British fleet, 20 sail, admiral Byng, and the Spanish fleet, 27 sail of the line. The Spaniards were defeated with the loss of 21 of their ships, either taken or destroyed.

1719. Dominico de Angelis, an Italian scholar, died. He made the tour of France and Spain, and was everywhere received with honor by the learned.

1720. Samuel Ockley, an English divine, died; a very learned man, and well skilled in oriental literature.

1744. John Bridges, duke of Chandos, died. Few particulars are known of this peer, except of his munificence. The earlier part of his manhood was spent in reflection and observation; his middle age in business, honorable and useful; and his advanced years in deeds of benevolence. He erected the princely seat of Canons, near London, where he lived in a splendor to which no other subject had ever aspired. His liberality was equaled only by his generous forgiveness of injuries. Pope made him the subject of his satire, which Hogarth punished by representing the poet on a scaffold whitewashing Burlington house, and bespattering the duke of Chandos's carriage as it passed. Yet Pope's verse respecting the short-lived magnificence of Canons was prophetic:

Three years after his death the stately mansion was sold by auction, piecemeal, such was the rage to buy something at Canons. Its site was soon an arable.

1746. Battle of Rotto Fredo, between the allies and the Austrians; the former defeated with the loss of 8,000; Austrian loss about half that number.

1748. Alexander Blackwell, a Scottish physician, beheaded in Sweden, on suspicion of treason. His wife, to support him in prison, published a Herbal in two vols. folio, containing 500 plates, drawn, engraved and colored by herself.

1757. Fort William Henry with a garrison of about 2600 men under Col. Monroe, capitulated to Montcalm, who had invested the fort with an army of 11,500. The garrison was to be allowed the honors of war, and protected from the Indians; but with the characteristic perfidy of the French in all these colonial wars, the Indians were allowed to pillage and massacre the defenceless soldiers, so that their baggage was lost and 1500 slain or made prisoners.

1759. Birthday of Jean Baptist Annibal Aubert Dubayet, in Louisiana. He served in the American army during the war of independence, and went to France on the breaking out of the revolution there. He was appointed minister of war, and the next year ambassador to Constantinople, where he died.

1775. Captain Linzee, of the British sloop of war Falcon, attempted to take an American schooner in Gloucester harbor, cape Ann, in two barges, a whale boat, schooner and cutter, all of which were captured by the Americans; in consequence of which he bombarded the town. American loss 1 killed, 2 wounded.

1778. General Greene's army crossed over from Tiverton to the north end of Rhode Island.

1778. Lord Howe's fleet arrived off Newport, in quest of count d'Estaing, who put to sea the next morning.

1782. De la Perouse, with a considerable French military and naval force, took fort Prince of Wales, at Hudson's bay, and soon after forts York and Severn; the settlements and forts were destroyed.

1787. The ship Columbia, captain Gray, and sloop Washington sailed from Boston for the north west coast of America and China. They returned in 1790, being the first American vessels that circumnavigated the globe.

1793. Alexis Brulard de Genlis, marquis de Sillery, a French general, guillotined at Paris. He was a deputy to the states-general, and an avowed enemy to the king, on whose trial he voted for detaining the royal family until the peace, and for their perpetual banishment after that event.

1796. Elba surrendered to the British under commodore Nelson.

1804. Robert Potter, an English prelate, died; known by his elegant translations of Æschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, the three great dramatists of ancient Greece.

1805. Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike commenced his voyage to the sources of the Missouri river, with a party of 22; they were taken by the Spaniards, and returned the next year.

1808. Romana, with 10,000 Spanish troops, deserted the French army under Bernadotte, and were conveyed to Spain in British transports.

1809. The president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, received official information of the non-ratification of the British treaty, and suspended all intercourse with that country.

1811. Battle of Baza; the Spaniards under Blake defeated by the French under Soult; of 20,000 Spaniards not more than 7,000 rallied again.

1812. Battle of Magauga; the British and Indians under major Muir and Tecumseh, defeated by the United States troops under general Miller, and driven into Brownstown, whence they escaped to Malden in boats. American loss 10 killed, 8 wounded.

1814. Bombardment of Stonington, by the British, commenced. It continued three days. British loss 21 killed, 50 wounded; American loss 6 wounded.

1815. Commodore Decatur settled the differences between the United States and the dey of Tripoli. The dey made restitution of property and prisoners.

1815. The British ship Northumberland, 74 guns, admiral Cockburn, sailed from Torbay with the exiled Napoleon for St. Helena.

1818. Captain Ross discovered the Esquimaux tribe of Indians, situated at the north east corner of Baffin's bay, extending on the sea shore 120 miles, and not exceeding 20 miles in breadth, and bounded on the south by an immense barrier of mountains, covered with ice. They seemed utterly ignorant of other nations to the south, whence they are supposed to be the original race. They are destitute of boats, and furnish an unique instance of a fishing tribe unacquainted with the art of floating on the water.

1824. Joseph Nightingale, an English dissenting minister, died. He possessed great literary talent, and published many excellent works.

1839. Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, nearly destroyed by fire; 3700 houses burnt.

1841. The steam boat Erie, on her passage from Buffalo to Chicago, took fire and was totally destroyed. Of 200 persons on board, principally Swiss and German emigrants, only 28 were saved. The boat was valued at $75,000; merchandise $20,000; specie $180,000.

1842. Treaty establishing the boundary line between the United States and Canada across the state of Maine; the British acquiring thereby a good portion of the latter state that of right belonged to the United States.

1844. Imprisonment for debt abolished in England; the act taking effect on this day.

1853. Samuel Jones, a New York jurist, died, aged 80.

1855. Santa Anna left the city of Mexico with 2600 men, under pretence of putting down the revolution at Vera Cruz; but signed an abdication at Perote, and sailed to Havana. On his departure a mob destroyed a large number of houses.

AUGUST 10.

353. Magnentius, emperor of Rome, killed. He was a German, and rose from a private soldier to the throne.

1506. The island of Madagascar discovered by the Portuguese.

1519. Ferdinand Magellan sailed from Seville with 5 ships and 234 men, on his voyage of discovery, which was continued round the world.

1543. The Turks under Barbarossa and the French under count d'Enguein assaulted Nice, but were repulsed by Montford, a Savoyard gentleman, and obliged finally to raise the siege.

1557. Battle of St. Quintin; the French under Montmorency defeated by the allies under Phillibert of Savoy and the earl of Pembroke. The duke d'Enguein, 600 gentlemen and 4,000 French were killed; several dukes and many other officers of distinction, 300 gentlemen and 4,000 men were taken prisoners, and all their standards, cannon and ammunition fell into the hands of the victors.

1607. James Menochius died; an Italian author of great repute in his day.

1630. Staten Island was purchased of the Indians by Michael Pauw, a Dutch subject. It was the favorite spot of the primitive settlers. The Indians sold it twice afterwards.

1633. Anthony Munday, an English dramatic author, died.

1637. Edward King, a young English poet, drowned. His death gave rise to the beautiful poem of Lycidias, by Milton, his friend.

1653. Martin Harpertzoon van Tromp, a Dutch admiral, killed in an engagement with the English fleet off the Texel. He entered the navy at the age of 8, and rose from the lowest station to the chief command. This brave man refused all titles except that of father of the sailors. (July 31, O. S.)

1665. The French West India company, purchased of the order of Malta, the islands of St. Christopher, St. Cruz and St. Bartholomew, for 500,000 livres turnois.

1669. Henrietta Maria, queen dowager to Charles I, died at St. Colombe, near Paris, in France.

1672. John De Witt, the famous pensionary of Holland, killed by a mob. "He was the zealous patron of the glory and liberty of his native country; the greatest genius of his time; the ablest politician in war as well as peace; the Atlas of the commonwealth."

1674. Hugh Paulin Cressy, an English divine, died. He became a catholic, was much respected, and published some valuable works, particularly an able ecclesiastical history.

1675. Corner stone for the foundation of the royal observatory was laid at Greenwich, England. The edifice was erected by Charles II, under the superintendence of sir Christopher Wren, and Flamsteed appointed astronomer-royal.

1675. Peter Bales, an early and eminent English writing master, finished a performance which contained the Lord's prayer, the creed, the decalogue, two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, the date, and the year of the reign of Elizabeth, within the circle of a penny, and so accurately wrought as to be plainly legible. It was enchased in a ring of gold, and presented to the queen.

1686. John Baptist Cotelerius, a learned Frenchman, died. He published the works of all the fathers in the apostolic age, with learned notes.

1702. Lord Cutts carried, sword in hand, fort St. Michael, at Venlo, before any breach had been made. This was considered one of the greatest exploits during the wars of queen Anne.

1709. Lewis Anthony Prosper Herissant died; an eminent French poet and physician.

1723. William Dubois, cardinal and prime minister of France, died. He rose from an apothecary's shop to rank, power, and immense wealth.

1749. Thomas Topham, an Englishman of remarkable strength, died. One of his feats was that of throwing his horse over the turnpike gate. He possessed the strength of six ordinary men.

1757. Benjamin Hoadley, an English physician, died; distinguished by several able professional works, and a popular comedy, the Suspicious Husband.

1759. Ferdinand VI (the Wise), of Spain, died.

1760. Oswegatchie taken by the British.

1779. A destructive eruption of mount Vesuvius commenced and lasted several days. The country for several miles round was covered with lava.

1783. East India company's ship Antelope, wrecked on the coast of Oorolong, and the crew protected and aided by the king of the Pelew islands.

1790. Captain John Gore, who circumnavigated the earth three times, on the third conducting home the ships after the death of Cooke and Clark, died, a captain in Greenwich hospital.

1791. William Cunningham, captain of the British provost in Boston and New York during the revolutionary war, executed in England for forgery. He confessed to have starved more than 2,000 American prisoners in New York, by stopping their rations, which he sold; and to have hanged upwards of 270 in a private manner.

1792. The alarm bells rung in every part of the city of Paris, and the drums beat to arms, when an immense multitude attacked the palace of the Tuilleries. The Swiss guard at first repelled the populace; but the assailants redoubling their efforts, the palace was carried by storm, the apartments, the passages and courts soon streamed with blood. The king, the queen, and the royal family, fled for refuge to the national assembly. Of the besiegers 3,740 were killed, and 852 of those in the palace. The Swiss guards, who heroically defended the king, were inhumanly butchered by the Marsellois.

1792. Louis Bougainville, the French navigator, massacred at Paris. His discoveries were of importance to the French, but neither his services nor his virtues could shield him against the fury of the mob.

1793. Destruction of the tombs of the kings of France, at St. Denis, by order of the national convention. The body of marshal Turenne, deposited there 1675, was found apparently as fresh as ever.

1794. Calvi, in Corsica, surrendered to the British, lord Hood, with the whole of his army, after a siege of 51 days.

1796. Battle of Bassano, in Italy; Bonaparte defeated the Austrians under Wurmzer, took 5,000 prisoners, 25 cannon, &c.

1802. The sea at Teignmouth and coast of Devonshire, England, rose and fell several times two feet in ten minutes.

1812. The Russians under Witgenstein attacked the French under Oudinot near Klaistitzy. The action continued into the following day, when the French were defeated with the loss of 5,000 killed, 3,000 prisoners, 2 cannon, and all their ammunition wagons.

1813. Partial action in the night, on lake Ontario, between the United States commodore Chauncy, and British commodore Yeo. The latter succeeded in capturing schooners Julia, 3 guns, and Growler, 5 guns.

1814. William Cowdroy, proprietor, editor and printer of the Manchester Gazette, died. Some of his best editorials were set in type without writing.

1821. Missouri became one of the members of the United States confederacy.

1821. The remains of the ill-fated Maj. Andre disinterred and taken to England.

1838. A papal decree issued at Rome by the congregation of the supreme inquisition, forbidding the introduction of infant schools into the pontifical states.

1843. Robert Adrian, a skillful mathematician, and for some time professor in Columbia college, N. Y., died in his 68th year.

1851. M. Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype, died near Paris, aged 63. His peculiar process was published by him in the autumn of 1839, and the French government awarded him a pension of 6,000 francs for his discovery.

1854. Frederick Augustus, king of Saxony, died at Munich, aged 57. His carriage was overturned as he rode into the city, and he was killed by a kick from one of the horses.

1854. A fire destroyed 180 houses at Varna, in Turkey, and destroyed vast quantities of stores belonging to the allies.

1854. A violent tornado swept along the track of the Cleveland and Pittsburg rail road, between Bedford and Macedonia, covering the track with large uprooted trees, and causing great obstruction to the trains upon the road.

1855. Delegates met at the city of Mexico, and chose general Carrera president for six months, and ordained the freedom of the press.

1856. Last island, a summer resort in the gulph of Mexico, was destroyed by a terrible storm of three days' duration. The island was entirely submerged, the houses swallowed up, and 173 persons lost.

1856. James Murdock, an eminent American linguist and theologian, died, aged 80. He studied under president Dwight in 1802, and after preaching sometime became a teacher, and finally an author and translator.

AUGUST 11.

50. The first of the month Thoth, in the movable Egyptian year, corresponded, as Pliny intimates, with this Julian day (798 of the era of Narbonasser); and with the 30th July, A. D. 97 (845 era Narb.), in the Greek month Metagitnion, as we collect from Plutarch.

1332. Battle of Gladsmuir, near St. Johnstown, in which David of Scotland was defeated by Baliol.

1454. Nicholas de Cusa, an Italian cardinal, died. He rose from extreme indigence and obscurity by his own merit, to great dignity and fame. His talents and learning were extraordinary; for besides his profound knowledge of law and divinity, he was distinguished as a natural philosopher and geometrician.

1576. Martin Frobisher entered the strait bearing his name.

1607. A party of English under George Popham landed at the mouth of the Sagadahock or Kennebec river. It consisted of 100 men, with ordinance and all provisions necessary until they might receive farther supplies. Only 45 remained, who built a store house on Parker's island, and fortified it.

1642. Johannes Megapolensis, the first minister at Albany, arrived from Holland to take charge of his church.

1654. Virgilio Malvezzi, an Italian author, died. He quitted the law to enter the Spanish service, at arms, and wrote in both languages.

1673. Sanguinary engagement off the Texel between the combined English and French fleets under Rupert and d'Estrees, and the Dutch under De Ruyter and Cornelius Tromp. Both sides claimed the victory. Admiral Sprague was drowned, his boat being sunk by a cannon shot.

1693. The Indians of New Hampshire sued for peace, after a long and bloody warfare with the English colonists, incited by the French.

1718. Action off the coast of Sicily, between the British fleet, admiral Byng, and the Spanish fleet, under Castanats; the latter lost 21 ships, captured and sunk.

1744. Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, bequeathed to William Pitt £10,000, "upon account of his merit in the noble defence he had made for the support of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his country."

1766. Ann Sowerby was burnt at York, England, for poisoning her husband; one of the last relics of this mode of capital punishment.

1768. Peter Collinson died; an eminent English botanist and natural historian.

1772. A charged cloud at Java destroyed 2,000 persons.

1778. Augustus Montague Toplady died; an eminent English Calvinistic divine and theological writer.

1781. The British took into New York the American frigate Trumbull. Congress had then but two frigates left.

1782. British evacuated Savannah.

1787. First bishop appointed for Nova Scotia. First bishops in England, 694; Denmark, 939; form of consecrating bishops in England ordained, 1549; the office abolished by parliament, 1646; restored, 1660; first episcopal bishop in America, 1784; first catholic, 1789.

1794. Battle of Wilna; the Poles defeated by the Russians, and the town taken by assault.

1809. Battle near Almonacid; the Spaniards defeated by the French under Joseph Bonaparte, and compelled to retreat, after nine hours' hard fighting.

1810. Severe earthquake at St. Michaels, one of the Azores, which continued two days; 22 houses swallowed up.

1813. Henry James Pye, an English poet, died. Having ruined his fortune, he was gratified with the office of poet laureate, and left many poems, original and translated.

1818. Nikolai I. Novikov, sometimes called the Franklin of Russia, died, aged 74. Certain it is that by his activity and taste he contributed not a little to the improvement of Russian literature.

1822. Samuel Auchmuty, commander-in-chief of the British forces in Ireland, died. He was a native of New York, who took the side of the British in the revolutionary contest, and held various honorable and lucrative stations under the British government.

1831. Barbadoes destroyed by a hurricane. It commenced at 3 P. M., and continued two hours; 5,000 persons perished; the houses were mostly destroyed, and the face of the country changed to a desert; neither trees nor vegetables were left standing.

1834. The Ursuline convent at Charlestown, Mass., destroyed by a protestant mob. The house was occupied by females, who were driven to seek shelter where they could find it, in the midst of night, while their valuables to a large amount were plundered.

1849. General Görgey, to whom the Hungarian diet had confided its powers, surrendered his army to the Russian general, Rudiger, at Vilagos, and the conquest of Hungary was consumated.

1849. A proclamation was issued by the president of the United States, warning all citizens against connecting themselves with an armed expedition believed to be fitting out with the intention to invade the island of Cuba, or some of the provinces of Mexico.

1853. John Downes, an American commodore, died at Charlestown, Mass., aged 69. He entered the navy in 1802, was in active service during the war of 1812, and commanded the Potomac, which bombarded the piratical town of Quallah Battoo, in reprisal for injuries done American sailors by the Malay pirates.

1853. Great heat from this day to the 14th throughout the United States, and Canada; the thermometer everywhere ranging at about 100° Fahrenheit; 200 deaths in New York on the last of these days, and the total deaths of the four days from that cause exceeded 400.

1855. Samuel J. Peters died at New Orleans, aged 54. He held various offices, and the city owed much of its prosperity to his energy and enterprise.

AUGUST 12.

403 B. C. Act of amnesty, which restored the Athenian democracy, between Thrasybulus and the decemvirate, in the archonship of Euclides, 12th of Boedromion—the year when Thucydides returned from exile.

243 B. C. Liberation of Corinth, by Aratus, in his 2d prætorship.

1099. Battle of Ascalon; the Saracens under the sultan of Egypt defeated by Godfrey de Bouillon, and totally overthrown.

1204. Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, disposed of the isle of Candia, with the ruins of a hundred cities, to the Venitians, for 10,000 marks.

1241. Gregory IX, pope, died. He incited the European powers to undertake a crusade, which was joined by Frederick of Germany, who had been twice excommunicated.

1332. Battle of Duplin moor; Edward Baliol defeated the Scots with terrible slaughter. Donald, earl of Mar, the new regent, fell with the host.

1417. Henry V, by a letter to his chancellor, dated Tonques, in Normandy, gave directions for the sealing annuities of £6 13s. 4d. each, to seventeen masters of the "grete shippes, carracks, barges and balyngers," belonging to the royal navy.

1560. Thomas Phaer, an English physician, died. He published various medical works, chiefly compiled from the French, and translated a part of the Æneid.

1577. Thomas Smith died; a learned English statesman, historian, and critic, and secretary of state under Edward VI, and Elizabeth.

1606. Henry Challons sailed in a ship of 50 tons to make farther discoveries on the coast of North Virginia, and if it should appear expedient to leave as many men as he could spare in the country. He was fitted out by lord chief-justice Popham, sir Ferdinando Gorges and others of the Plymouth company.

1652. Cardinal Mazarine exiled the second time from France.

1652. An act of the protectorate for the settlement of Ireland.

1662. Charles Seymour, "the proud duke of Somerset," died. He was in office under several successive sovereigns.

1676. King Philip (or Metacom), killed at Mount Hope, in Rhode Island, whither he had been driven by the English, as a last refuge. One of his confederates proposing peace, so irritated Philip that he killed him. A brother of the murdered Indian repaired to the English camp, and offered to lead them to Philip's retreat. Captain Church set out with a small body of men, accompanied by a few friendly Indians, and attacked the chief in his den. He formed his men in extended order, placing an Englishman and an indian together, with orders to fire on any who should attempt to escape. At the dawn of day the sentinels alarmed the camp, when Philip seized his arms and attempted to escape; as he approached two of Church's guards, the Englishman leveled his gun, which missed fire; the Indian sent two balls through his body, one of which piercing his heart, laid him dead upon the spot. When the battle was over, the English repaired to the place where he lay. He had fallen on his face in a muddy spot of the ground, from which he was drawn; the head was taken off and the body left to be devoured by wild beasts. Thus fell a powerful chief, and a ferocious savage. It was then hailed with joy as the extinction of a virulent and implacable enemy; but is now often viewed as the fall of a great statesman and a mighty prince, who died in defence of his just rights. This was a war of extermination; it was a general rising of the Indians, under a powerful and sagacious warrior, against the English, not a vestige of whom would have been left had they been victorious. As it was, several of the tribes were annihilated; a miserable remnant of the others incorporated themselves with distant and strange nations. In this short but tremendous war, about 600 of the white inhabitants, composing its principal strength, were either killed in battle or murdered; 12 towns entirely destroyed, and 600 dwellings burnt. The English triumphed, indeed, but the ravages of the enemy left them in a deplorable condition.

1689. Innocent XI (Benedict Odescalchi), pope, died. He effected several important and useful measures and reformations during his reign.

1712. The first stamp on English newspapers used this day.

1715. Nahum Tate, an English dramatic writer and poet, died. He succeeded Shadwell as poet laureate, and assisted in a version of the Psalms.

1724. Battle of Norridgewock, in New Hampshire, and death of Ralle. He was a Jesuit, and a principal agent in instigating the Indians against the English colonies; had resided at this place twenty-six years, and become thoroughly acquainted with the country. An expedition was fitted out to destroy his den. The place was attacked by 240 men, and carried. Ralle was found in his cabin firing upon the English; orders had been given to take him alive, if possible; but refusing to ask quarter he was shot down. Eighty were killed, among which were some of the most noted warriors of the tribe, and the remnant scattered. Ralle was a man of extensive learning, and of great service to the French; he wrote a dictionary of the Norridgewock language, which was taken, and is deposited in Harvard library. He was sent out as a missionary, had acquired the languages of nearly all the tribes in America, and spent thirty-seven years among them.

1728. William Sherard (Sherwood), an eminent English botanist and antiquarian, died. He spent the greater part of his life, abroad, in the pursuit of his favorite studies, and founded a professorship of botany at Oxford.

1759. Battle of Kunersdorf; the Prussians under Frederick II defeated with great loss by the Russians and Austrians. The allies by their own confession lost 24,000 men, says Gillies (Smollet says 10,000); the Prussians fought desperately and left 20,000 dead on the field, among whom were several generals. The king had two horses killed under him, and his clothes perforated by several balls. He lost his whole train of artillery.

1759. Ewald Christian de Kleist, a Prussian general and poet, killed at the battle of Kunersdorf.

1765. The great mogul constituted the East India company receivers of all the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa.

1778. The French fleet under count d'Estaing dispersed in a gale off Rhode Island, and much damaged.

1778. Robert Goadby died; an English printer and bookseller, and author of several useful publications.

1801. Thomas Hastings, author of the Wars of Westminster, and other political papers, died. He was an itinerant bookseller.

1803. Agra taken by the British under the duke of Wellington. Among the trophies was an immense gun, 25 feet long, said to have carried shot into the camp of the British, though out of the range of all ordinary weapons, also a howitzer 14 feet long and 22 inches calibre, throwing a shot of 1,494 lbs.

1805. Capt. Lewis arrived at the head of the Missouri river, and having crossed the mountain this day struck the waters of the Columbia, in the Shoshone country, which he named Lewis's river.

1806. Spaniards recaptured Buenos Ayres, and made the British troops there prisoners.

1811. Miranda reduced New Valentia, in South America.

1812. Lord Wellington entered Madrid, Joseph Bonaparte having evacuated it the day before.

1812. Sanguinary battle on the heights, near Kobrine, between the allied French, Austrian and Saxon army, under Schwartzenberg, and the Russians under Tormozoff. The latter retired with the loss of 4,000; loss of the allies 5,000. Many officers of rank were wounded on both sides.

1813. Samuel Osgood, an officer of the revolution, and for a time postmaster-general, died, aged 65. He published several works of a religious character.

1814. Lodowick Morgan, major 1st U. S. rifle regiment, killed, with 10 of his men, in an attack on the British near fort Erie.

1822. Robert Stuart, lord Castlereagh, premier of England, committed suicide by opening the jugular vein with a penknife.

1828. William Blake, an English painter, died. He is described as a gentle visionary in shapes and fancies, and airy somethings upon paper.

1830. First American rail road, Mohawk and Hudson, between Albany and Schenectady, completed.

1849. Albert Gallatin, a statesman and scholar, died at Astoria, N. Y., aged 88. He was a native of Switzerland, and emigrated to America in 1780. He settled in Pennsylvania, and became soon a prominent member of the legislature, and then of congress. He was secretary of state under Jefferson, and spent many years abroad as American minister.

1851. The steamer Prometheus arrived in New York from San Juan, the Atlantic terminus of the Nicaragua route, now for the first time opened.

1854. Lord Jocelyn died in London, aged 38; military secretary of the Chinese expedition, and author of Six Months in China.

AUGUST 13.

582. Tiberius II, emperor of Constantinople, died. His character was conspicuous for humanity, justice, temperance and fortitude.

587. Radegonde, the queen of Clotaire of France, died. At the age of 18 she renounced paganism, and was celebrated for her personal charms, and devotedness to religious duties.

875. Louis II, king of France and emperor of Germany, died. He was a brave and virtuous monarch.

1415. Henry V of England sailed for the conquest of France with a fleet of about 1,300 vessels, and landed his force at Harfleur on the second day following, consisting of 24,000 foot and 6,500 cavalry.

1482. Sixtus IV (Francis Albecola), pope, died. He was the son of a fisherman at Geneva, became professor of divinity at Padua, and rose by degrees to the papal chair.

1521. Cortez retook the city of Mexico, assisted by 10,000 Tlascalans, and an innumerable host of other Indian allies from the neighboring nations, whom he had attached to his service. It was not, however, till after seventy-five days of fierce and almost daily fighting, that he accomplished his victory. On no occasion did native Americans so bravely oppose European troops; but the superior discipline of the Spaniards carried the day: and thus a daring adventurer, regarded and treated by his countrymen as a rebel, after a bloody struggle, gained possession of a country which for more than three centuries formed one of the brightest gems in the Castilian crown. It is computed that during this siege 100,000 Mexicans were slain and 50,000 died of sickness and famine. The inhabitants being ordered to leave the city without arms or baggage, the three roads leading from it were full of men, women and children, in the most wretched condition, for three days and nights, seeking an asylum in the open country. The city contained at this time 50,000 houses. Sixty dangerous battles were fought in which 100 Spaniards were killed, or taken and sacrificed, and some thousands of the allies slain.

1535. Hippolyto de Medicis, an Italian cardinal, died. He possessed great talents as a negotiator and military man.

1553. The chaplain of bishop Bonner preached a sermon at St. Paul's abusing the administration of the late Edward, whereupon the people very much abused him; but he was rescued by two protestant ministers.

1587. Manteo, a friendly Indian, who had been to England, was baptized, according to a previous order of sir Walter Raleigh, and in reward of his faithful service to the English, was called lord of Roanoke and Desamonguepeuk.

1636. De Vries, who had been two years on the coast of America, with a view to settling a colony, entered on his diary this day, that he requested Wouter Van Twiller to put Staten island down to his name, intending to form a colony there, which was done, and two days after he sailed on his return to Holland.

1660. A proclamation was issued by Charles II against dueling.

1667. Jeremy Taylor died; an eminent English theological writer and controversialist.

1704. Battle off Malaga, between the British fleet of 33 ships of the line and several frigates, admiral Rooke and Cloudesley Shovel, and the French fleet of 54 ships and 24 galleys. The action continued all day, and at night the French bore off. No vessels were taken by either.

1743. Francis Peck died; an eminent English antiquary, biographer and critic.

1762. Cuba surrendered to the British. The booty was great; £3,000,000 in specie, large quantities of goods and munitions of war, 9 ships of the line and 4 frigates. It was exchanged into the hands of the Spanish again the next year for the Floridas.

1775. Washington informed congress that the whole stock of powder in New England amounted to no more than 9,927 pounds, about 9 rounds to a man. Although this information was communicated to the British by a deserter, they could not believe it possible that the Americans possessed such consummate assurance as to continue to invest them in Boston, while so destitute of ammunition.

1778. The Languedoc of 90 guns, count d'Estaing's flag ship, having lost her rudder and masts in the storm of the day before, was attacked by the British ship Renown, 50 guns, which was beaten off. At the same time a British ship of 50 guns attacked another of d'Estaing's ships, of 80 guns, having only her mainmast standing, but was also beat off.

1782. Henry Lewis du Hamel died at Paris; eminent for his knowledge of mechanics, agriculture and commerce.

1786. Gilbert Stuart, an eminent Scottish historian, died.

1794. Battle of Bellegarde, between the French and Spanish. The action was a severe one; both claimed the victory.

1806. Miranda abandoned his conquests on the Spanish main, and sailed to Aruba.

1808. The French in the night raised the siege of Saragossa, in Spain. It had been most nobly defended since July 2d, by general Palafox and the countess de Burita, who raised a company of ladies, that exposed themselves to the greatest personal dangers and fatigues.

1810. James Francis Menon, a French general and politician, died. He was in the employ of the national convention and of Bonaparte.

1812. The British sloop of war Alert, attacked the United States frigate Essex, captain Porter, and after an action of eight minutes struck her colors with seven feet of water in her hold, much cut to pieces and three men wounded. The Alert had been sent out to capture the Hornet, and mounted twenty 18 lb. carronades, and had 130 men.

1817. John Beale, aged 87, a member of the society of Friends, died at his residence in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the same house in which he was born, having never resided in any other.

1819. Just after a brilliant meteor a mass of gelatinous and very fetid matter fell at Amherst, Mass.

1822. An earthquake devastated the greater part of Syria. It began about half past nine in the evening, and in ten or twelve seconds, Aleppo, Antioch, and every village and detached cottage in the pashalic of Aleppo, and several towns in the adjoining territories, were entirely ruined. There were 20,000 people destroyed by it, and as many more maimed or wounded.

1826. Laennec died; author of the Auscultation System of Ascertaining Diseases of the Lungs.

1838. John Farmer, an American archæologist, died. He published several works relating to the early history of the country, which evince great patience and industry, and bring to light many important facts which would have perished otherwise. For some time previous to his death he was engaged in arranging the state papers in the public offices at Concord, containing the old province and council records, and revolutionary papers. By supplying omissions, transcribing papers that were scarcely legible, and having them arranged and bound, the state of New Hampshire has a very complete set of its early records.

1841. J. B. Richsonville, principal chief of the Miami nation, died near fort Wayne, Indiana, aged 80. He is said to have left $200,000 in specie, besides immense quantities of valuable real estate.

1842. Thomas P. Emmet, son of Thomas Addis Emmet, and a contributor to Silliman's Journal, died in New York, aged 47.

1851. The people of Litchfield county, Connecticut, celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of its settlement.

1854. General Paixhans died at his estate of Jouy-aux-Arches, near Metz, aged 72. He was renowned by his connection with the artillery, and especially with the celebrated gun which bears his name.

1854. At Marysville, Kentucky, a powder magazine, containing 800 kegs, was fired, and the explosion caused the entire destruction of 13 houses, involving a great loss of property.

AUGUST 14.

394 B. C. An eclipse of the sun noticed by Xenophon, which just preceded the battle of Coronea, where Agesilaus stood his ground against the Greek confederates. Xenophon, who fought under the Spartan, describes it as the most desperate conflict in his time.

376 B. C. Chabras defeated the Lacedæmonian fleet off Naxos, full moon of Boedromion. The youth Phocion here distinguished himself.

1211. Llewellyn, prince of Wales, made his submission to king John of England, and delivered 28 hostages at the foot of Snowdon, for his good faith. These young noblemen were hanged the ensuing year.

1248. The great cathedral of Cologne commenced. It was prosecuted at intervals during 200 years, and then suspended 400 years. It was taken up again with new vigor in 1842, and became a popular enterprise of the day to strive for its completion.

1433. John I, king of Portugal, died. It was under his reign that the Portuguese began their famous discoveries.

1457. John Faust and Peter Schoeffer published at Mainz the Psalter, supposed to be the first printed book of any magnitude, on record.

1464. Pius II (Æneas Sylvius), pope, died; celebrated for his wise and witty sayings.

1613. John Harrington, an English nobleman, died, aged 22. He was distinguished for the talents and genius which he displayed at a very early age.

1621. An army of fourteen men sent out from Plymouth colony to awe the Indians. Corbitant, a petty chief, had seized Squanto, a friendly Indian, and threatened Massasoit; the menaces of revenge in case of any disturbances, are said to have settled all difficulties.

1678. Three days after the conclusion of a peace between France and Holland, the prince of Orange fell upon the marshal of Luxemburg, by which 4,000 lives were sacrificed.

1681. The Scottish parliament adopted a resolution asserting that difference in religion does not bar the right of succession, or make void the magistrate's just and lawful authority.

1711. Sir Hoveden Walker, with the British and colonial fleet intended to invade Canada, arrived at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. A succession of untoward winds and accidents rendered it necessary to put back soon after, without accomplishing any thing.

1756. Fort Oswego capitulated to the French under Montcalm. It was commanded by colonel Mercer with 1,400 men. Montcalm besieged it with an army of 5,000. Colonel Mercer was killed by a cannon ball on the 13th, and there being no probability of aid, the fort surrendered on condition that they should be exempted from plunder, conducted to Montreal, and treated with humanity. The terms were agreed to, the garrison marched out, and the fort was demolished.

1761. Action between British ships Bellona and Brilliant, and one French ship and three frigates. The Frenchmen were captured with the loss of 240 killed and 110 wounded; British loss 6 killed, 28 wounded.

1775. The celebrated Liberty Tree of Boston consecrated, by exposing on it the effigies of the men who had rendered themselves odious by their agency in procuring the passage of the stamp act. A copper plate 30 inches by 42 was fixed upon it, bearing the inscription in golden letters—The Tree of Liberty, Aug. 14, 1765. Ten years afterwards the British cut it down, at which time it had been planted 119 years. They left nothing but the stump above ground—the root they could not exterminate. It produced fourteen cords of wood. One of the party engaged in demolishing it lost his life.