The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
a distinguished geographer, died at Paris. His maps are still of great authority.
1730. A fire which broke out in the archduchess's apartments at Brussels, consumed the palace, with the national records and state papers.
1745. Action in the Straits of Banca, (Sumatra) between the British ships Debtford and Preston, Com. Barnet, and three French company ships, in which the latter were captured.
1759. Birthday of Robert Burns.
1782. De Grasse attacked the van of the British fleet under Admiral Hood. The French were drawn from their anchorage ground, and by a masterly manœuvre the British succeeded in obtaining it.
1786. Charles Price, one of the most successful counterfeiters ever known, committed suicide in prison, London. He had continued to practice forgeries on the Bank of England to an incredible amount during six years, contriving all the while to elude the most cunning devices of the police to detect him, although the notes were traced in every quarter to have proceeded from one man, always disguised and always inaccessible.
1787. Battle with the insurgents under Shays, at Springfield, Mass., who retreated with the loss of 3 killed.
1791. George Selwyn, a noted English wit, died, aged 72.
1804. Jean Jacques Dessalines declared emperor of Hayti.
1807. Battle at Mohringen, in Prussian Poland, in which Bernadotte defeated the Russians under Pahlin and Salitzin, who lost 1200 killed and 300 prisoners.
1813. Concordat signed at Versailles, by which Napoleon allowed the pope to exercise the pontificate in France and Italy, in the same manner as his predecessors.
1834. Castle of St. Louis at Quebec, the residence of the British governor-general, destroyed by fire.
1836. General Paez gained a victory over the rebels at Venezuela near Porto Cabello.
1838. Earthquake in the eastern part of Europe. Seven severe shocks occurred during a few days, by which 300 houses were thrown down in the city of Bucharest, and 60 persons killed.
1841. The shock of an earthquake was felt in the city of New York and vicinity to such a degree as to excite considerable alarm.
1843. Edward Drummund, private secretary to Sir Robert Peel, was assassinated in the streets of London. For nearly 20 years he discharged duties second to those of a cabinet minister, because less conspicuous.
1845. Abigail Leonard died at Raynham, Mass., 101 years old. She was the fifth in descent from John Alden, who first landed from the Mayflower on the Plymouth rock.
1849. The usual convention of the two houses of congress declared that the people had elected Zachary Taylor their president and Millard Fillmore vice-president.
JANUARY 26.
477. Subterranean thunders were heard simultaneously from the Black to the Red sea, and the earth was convulsed without intermission for the space of six months after. In many places the air seemed to be on fire. Towns and large tracts of ground were swallowed up in Phrygia, during this convulsion, the particulars of which would seem incredible, were they not corroborated by contemporary historians.
1564. The pope confirmed by a bull the decrees of the Council of Trent.
1630. Henry Briggs, an English mathematician, died.
1679. Keel of the Griffin, the first vessel in the western waters, laid 6 miles west of Niagara falls, by La Salle.
1679. The invaluable library of Elias Ashmole destroyed by fire at his chambers in London, together with his collection of coins and other curious antiquities.
1681. Two Cameronian women hanged at Edinburgh for calling the king and bishops "perjured, bloody men."
1699. Peace of Carlowitz concluded between Leopold I of Austria, and Mustapha II sultan of Turkey, after fifteen years of hostility.
1721. Peter Daniel Huet, a celebrated French critic and classical scholar died. He was engaged twenty years in publishing an edition of the Latin classics, which extended to 62 vols.
1730. A leaden pot containing a human heart preserved in spirits dug up at Waverly in Surrey, England, supposed to have been there 700 years.
1733. A negro for an assault upon a white woman was burnt alive in New Jersey.
1737. All the prisoners for debt in White Chapel jail, England, were discharged by the executors of the will of the late Mr. Wright who paid their debts.
1769. John White, printer and publisher of the Newcastle Courant, died, aged 81. At his decease he was the oldest master printer in England.
1779. Arnold sentenced by court martial to be reprimanded by Gen. Washington.
1782. De Grasse with the French fleet, 29 sail, attacked the British under Hood, 22 sail, but was repulsed with the loss of 1000 killed and wounded. British loss trifling.
1787. The assembly of notables met at Paris, having been called together to assist the king, Louis XVI, and M. Calonne, to raise a revenue to meet the exigencies of the times. M. Calonne presented his new plan of reform and taxation, imposing a share of the burden upon the privileged classes: but as the assembly was composed of these classes they could not make up their minds to impose taxes upon themselves which had hitherto been borne by the lower classes. The assembly was called to help the king and his minister out of a dilemma, but plunged them deeper in trouble, and accelerated the revolution.
1793. The stadtholderate of Holland abolished, and the Batavian republic under the protection of France established.
1793. The senate of Venice acknowledged the French republic.
1795. The French national convention declared Marseilles in a state of siege.
1795. The assembly of the states of Holland met and chose Peter Paulus their president for the term of fifteen days.
1814. The Russians under Blücher passed the Marne and marched upon Troyes. Bonaparte at the same time entered Vitry.
1820. Henry Andrews, a self-taught English mathematician, died. For more than forty years he produced an almanac for a company of stationers under the name of Francis Moore, physician, and astonished the simple and ignorant by his marvelous predictions. His prophecies were as much laughed at by himself as by the worshipful company of stationers for whom he annually manufactured them in order to render their almanacs salable among the ignorant, with whom a lucky hit covered a multitude of blunders. A few years before his death he predicted that the people would soon know better than to be influenced by the prophecies which his employers required him to write. He did not live to see the publication of the British Almanac, which effected the downfall of Poor Robin (the title of one of his almanacs), which ceased to exist in 1828.
1823. Edward Jenner died, aged 74, celebrated for having introduced the practice of vaccination as a preventative of the small pox. He was the youngest son of a clergyman, born in England 1749. He commenced his investigations concerning the cow pox about the year 1776, and twenty years afterwards the practice was introduced into London hospitals. The success of this discovery procured him honorary titles, and a grant from parliament of £20,000.
1838. John O'Neil died at Havre de Grace, Md., distinguished for the resistance which he made at that place, to the British under admiral Cockburn, during the last war.
1839. Stephen Van Rensselaer died at Albany. He was born in the city of New York 1764, and graduated at Cambridge, Mass. He was the fifth in descent from Kilian Van Rensselaer, the original proprietor and patentee of the