The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
mathematician and natural philosopher, died. He graduated at Harvard college, and by singular industry made great acquisitions in almost every branch of learning. In 1739 he was elected president of Yale college, and continued in that office till the year before his death. He constructed the first orrery in America.
1779. Lafayette embarked at Boston, in the frigate Alliance, for France.
1779. The Mirror, appeared at Edinburgh, to which Mackenzie the novelist was a principal contributor.
1782. The Bank of North America opened for business in Philadelphia. It was the first bank regularly established in America.
1785. Mr. Blanchard, the æronaut, accompanied by Mr. Jeffries, an American gentleman, made the bold attempt to cross the British channel, from Dover to Calais, in a balloon filled with inflammable air, then beginning to be used. They left the English coast at 10 o'clock, and at half-past two, reached the French side, a distance of twenty-three miles.
1798. The French army under General Menard, entered Switzerland with a design to revolutionize the cantons after the model of the French republic.
1806. Paulinus, better known as John Philip Werdin, died at Rome. He was one of the first Europeans who acquired a knowledge of the Sanscrit language.
1807. British order in council prohibiting neutrals from trading from one port of France or her allies to another, or to any other where Great Britain was refused that privilege.
1811. Ship Rapid, of Boston, Capt. Dorr, with $280,000 on board, totally lost off the coast of New Holland; captain and crew saved.
1812. Joseph Dennie, an American editor, died. He was born at Boston 1768, and educated for the bar; but his literary taste and habits interfered with his profession, which he resigned and established at Boston a weekly paper called The Tablet; and subsequently edited the Farmer's Museum at Walpole, in which he published a series of popular essays under the signature of The Lay Preacher. He was afterwards editor of the Port Folio at Philadelphia, where his superior endowments would have procured him an independence, but for some unfortunate propensities which deprived him of health and happiness.
1817. First paper in Chautauque co., N. Y.
1822. Liberia in Africa colonized under the direction of Dr. Ayres. Cape Montserado with a large tract of adjoining country was purchased of the natives by the American colonization society, and a settlement commenced by 28 colonists; in six years the number had increased to 1200 under the care of Ashmun.
1830. Thomas Lawrence, a distinguished English portrait painter, died. By industry and force of talent he rose in his profession, till on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds he was made painter to the king, and in 1815 was knighted. His income for the last twenty years of his life was from 10,000 to 20,000 pounds; but he died poor, owing to his purchasing the best productions at the most extravagant prices.
1841. Louis Edward Bignon, Napoleon Bonaparte's historian, died.
1843. Mrs. Wingate, died at Stratham, N. H., aged nearly 101 years.
1850. John H. Kyan, a native of England, and inventor of Kyanized wood, died at New York.
1850. Samuel Miller, an eminent American theologian and sometime president of Princeton college, died, aged 91.
JANUARY 8.
1167. Edgar, king of Scotland, died, and was succeeded by his younger brother, Alexander I.
1536. Catharine of Arragon, died; queen of Henry VIII and mother of Mary, queen of England.
1642. Galileo Galilei, the astronomer, died, aged 78.
1676. French Admiral Duquesne defeated the Dutch and Spanish fleets under De Ruyter, who had both legs shattered.
1704. Laurentio Bellini, a Florentine anatomist, died, aged 61. He was held in great estimation by prince and pontiff. His theory and practice are out of date now, and his works also, in consequence of the vast improvements in medicine and surgery since his day.
1775. John Baskerville, an English printer and type founder, of rare celebrity, died. As a philanthropist he was also well known to large circles.
1777. British evacuated Elizabethtown, N. J.; Gen. Maxwell fell on their rear, and took 70 prisoners and a schooner loaded with baggage.
1780. British Admiral Rodney captured 22 sail of Spanish ships. One of these, the Guipuscaio, of 64 guns, was named the Prince William, from a son of George III who was in the action.
1784. Whitestown, N. Y., settled about this time.
1795. French ship Esperance, 22 guns, captured off Cape Henry by British ship Argonaut, Capt. Ball.
1796. Samuel Huntingdon, governor of Connecticut, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, died aged 64.
1796. French took by surprise the British camp at Mount William, island of St. Vincent, West Indies. British lost 54 killed, Brig. Gen. Strutt and 109 wounded, and 200 missing.
1799. French privateer cutter La Rancune, from St. Maloes, captured, by the British cutter Pigmy, Capt. Shepheard, who at the same time recaptured two British brigs, prizes to La Rancune.
1815. Battle of New Orleans. The city was attacked by the British under Packenham, consisting of 15,000 disciplined troops, and was defended by 6000 militia and volunteers, under Gen. Jackson, prepared to die in its defence. The result was a brilliant victory over the British. Packenham was killed, and 5,000 men surrendered—the rest fled to their vessels. The loss of the Americans was trifling, 13 killed and wounded, that of the British 2,600.
1815. Total loss of the Americans in this war up to the last battle, 1344 killed, 2673 wounded, 651 missing, 1351 taken prisoners.
1817. Two shocks of earthquake at Charleston, S. C, and at Savannah, Ga.
1825. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, died.
1848. The lives of thirty persons lost by the bursting of the boilers of the steamer Blue Ridge on the Ohio river. The boilers had been in use nine years.
1849. The pope threatened all who should take part in electing a new assembly, with excommunication.
1850. First ship in the United States dry dock at Brooklyn.
1853. Charles Humphrey Atherton, an eminent New Hampshire lawyer, died, aged 79.
1854. William Carr Berresford, a distinguished British field officer and nobleman, died, aged 85.
1854. Metropolitan hall and Lafarge hotel, two of the finest buildings in New York destroyed by fire.
JANUARY 9.
1514. Anne of Bretagne, queen of France died, aged 37.
1584. William Carter, a daring London printer, hanged, boweled, and quartered at Tyburn, for printing lewd pamphlets, popish and others, and particularly a Treatise on Schisme.
1596. Francis Drake, the English navigator, died. He served with distinction under his relative Sir J. Hawkins; and having lost all his property in an action with the Spaniards, he conceived an inveterate hatred against them. He signalized himself in the destruction of the Spanish Armada; and finally died on the coast of America in a war against the Spanish settlements. He made the first voyage round the world. To him