The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
JANUARY 12.
400. BC Xenophon, with the 10,000, forced a passage through the defiles of Armenia.
1519. Maximilian I, emperor of Germany, died. He was elected king of the Romans 1486, and ascended the imperial throne 1493. Under him the Turks were checked in their enterprises against Germany, and repelled from his hereditary territories.
1598. The Marquis De la Roche received from Henry IV a commission to conquer Canada. He sailed from France with a colony of convicts from the prisons. He landed them on the Isle of Sable, and sailed for Acadie, from whence he returned to France. The survivors of the colony, twelve in number, were taken off seven years afterwards, and presented to the king in their sealskin clothes and long beards. He gave them fifty crowns each and pardoned their offences.
1640. An engagement of four days' duration near the Island Tamaraca, Brazils, between the Dutch and Portuguese, in which the latter were defeated and the Dutch admiral killed.
1678. A remarkable darkness at noon in England.
1777. General Mercer died of the wounds of the battle of Princeton.
1781. The states general of Holland issued letters of marque and reprisal against England.
1793. Arthur Lee, a distinguished American statesman, died at Urbana, Va. The long and faithful services which he rendered his country during his arduous struggles for independence, in the alternate character of ambassador and statesman, are universally known and acknowledged.
1794. John George Adam Forster died, aged 40. He was of Scotch descent, born in Prussia, studied at St. Petersburg, taught German and French in England, accompanied Cook in his voyage round the world, accepted the professorship of natural history at Hesse Cassel, was appointed historiographer of a Russian expedition round the world; this project being frustrated by the Turkish war, he went to Germany, and residing at Mentz when the French took that city 1792, was sent by the republicans to request a union of that city with France. During his absence the Prussians retook the city, by which he lost all his property, including his books and papers, and died soon after. The Germans number him among their classical writers.
1795. In consequence of a great thaw, the communication of the main army of the French under Pichegru and the four divisions that crossed the Waal the day before on the ice, was totally interrupted during two days.
1795. Mr. Pitt recommended in the British parliament that a premium be given by government to large families.
1805. British frigate Doris, Capt. Campbell, lost on the Diamond rock, Quiberon bay. The crew saved themselves and blew up the frigate.
1805. The thermometer at Danbury, Ct., stood at 19° below zero; being the coldest weather known there since 1780.
1807. A fatal explosion at Leyden, in Holland. A vessel containing 40,000 pounds of powder, moored before the house of Prof. Rau, exploded with a tremendous crash. Upwards of 200 houses were overthrown, besides churches and public buildings, 150 persons killed and 2000 wounded.
1809. Cayenne surrendered by the French, to the British and the Portuguese under Capt. Yeo.
1815. National fast in the United States.
JANUARY 13.
857. Ethelwulf, son of Egbert, sometimes styled the first king of England, died. In his reign the tax called Peter's pence was levied.
1399. The Tartars, under Tamerlane, pillaged the imperial city of Delhi, and two days after wantonly massacred the entire Indian population.
1400. Richard II of England murdered. He came to the throne at the age of 11, and after a turbulent reign of 22 years, was deposed and imprisoned.
1404. It was enacted at this short parliament of Henry's that no chemist shall use his craft to multiply gold or silver.
1560. John de Lasci, a learned Pole, died.
1618. Galileo discovered the fourth satellite of Jupiter.
1669. John Bochius, a Dutch poet, died. He excelled in Latin, and is called the Virgil of the Low Countries.
1691. George Fox, founder of the sect of quakers, died, aged 67. His father was a poor weaver, and George was apprenticed to a shoemaker; but he left his employment and wandered about the country in a leather doublet, and finally set up as a teacher. He visited different countries, and had the satisfaction to see his tenets taking deep root in his life time.
1705. A house in London where fireworks were manufactured, blew up, and destroyed 120 houses, and killed 50 persons.
1711. The last No. of the Tatler appeared (No. 271).
1715. Great fire in Thames street, London; many lives lost.
1716. Elizabeth Patch died at Salem; the first female born in the old colony of Massachusetts.
1717. Maria Sybilla Merian, the distinguished painter, and writer on entomology, died at Amsterdam.
1738. The famous convention of Pardo signed.
1759. Execution of the conspirators against the life of the king of Portugal. The whole family of the Marquis Tavora was executed, and the name suppressed for ever.
1797. British ships Indefatigable, 44 guns, and Amazon, 42 guns, had a night action of six hours, in the bay of Audierne, with the French 74 gun ship Les Droits des Hommes, 1600 men; the latter was driven on shore, and the crew made prisoners; Gen. Renier and 750 men were lost in the action. The Amazon was also lost in the action.
1798. Lieut. Lord Camelford shot Lieut. Charles Peterson, at English harbor, Antigua, for disobedience of orders, was afterwards tried and acquitted.
1798. The Swiss cantons armed against France.
1809. The French under Marshal Victor defeated the Spanish under Castanos at Cuenca.
1811. The British merchant ship Cumberland, Captain Barrat, beat off 4 French privateers, and took 170 men who had boarded her.
1814. British and Prussians repulsed in an attack on Antwerp; part of the suburbs were burnt.
1814. The emperor of Russia and king of Prussia crossed the Rhine to invade France; the emperor of Austria, who had arrived the evening before at Cassel, went out to meet them, and they entered Basil, in Switzerland.
1814. General thanksgiving throughout Great Britain for the successes gained over Bonaparte.
1814. Capt. Barrie of the British ship Dragon, took the fort on Point Peter and the tower of St. Mary's, in Georgia; they afterwards destroyed the fort.
1817. The ship Georgianna, of Norfolk, experienced a tremendous shock in the Gulf stream supposed to be by earthquake; the day was calm.
1822. Johann Gottlieb Schneider, a German philologist and naturalist, died, aged 72; a voluminous author.
1836. Karl Chr. Traug. Tauchnitz, an eminent German printer, died, aged 75. At the age of 35 he commenced business for himself with a single press; but his establishment soon became very extensive, including a letter foundry and book store. He was most indefatigable in improving and perfecting whatever he undertook, as his publications attest. His founts of oriental type were unsurpassed in Germany.
1838. Chancellor Eldon died.
1840. Steam boat Lexington