The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
Duel at Paris between Gen. Bugeaud and M. Dulong, members of the chamber of deputies; Dulong was killed.
1855. Nicholas ordered the formation of a general militia of the Russian empire.
JANUARY 30.
422 BC A census of the inhabitants of Athens was taken, and reported the number of males to be 20,000.
405 BC Sophocles died at Athens.
1560. A phenomenon observed at London, called the burning spears, being one of the earliest records of that appearance now well known by the name of aurora borealis.
1601. Scipio Ammirati, an Italian historian, died. He wrote a history of Florence, published in 2 vols, folio.
1606. Everard Digby hanged, drawn and quartered at the west end of St. Paul's church, London. He was concerned in the gunpowder plot, having offered £1500 towards defraying the expenses of that dreadful affair. He also entertained Fawkes, who was to have executed it in his house, and was taken in open rebellion with other papists after the plot was detected and had miscarried.
1644. William Chillingworth died; celebrated for his skill as a religious controversialist, and a defender of protestantism against popery.
1647. King Charles I delivered up to parliament by the Scots for £200,000. Some think it unworthy of the nation.
1649. Charles I beheaded. He was born in Scotland 1600, and succeeded to the British throne 1625. His reign was signalized by a struggle with his parliaments, in procuring supplies, which finally ended in his execution. He was tried for treason against the people, and condemned with only three days' grace.
1660. William Oughtred, an English divine and mathematician, died, it is said, in consequence of excess of joy at the restoration of Charles II, whom he called Christ's anointed.
1661. The heads of Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw, and Henry Ireton set on poles at Westminster hall, and their bodies buried under the gallows at Tyburn, where their disinterred bodies had been hung.
1678. The expense of the equestrian statue of Charles I at Charing Cross, London, was defrayed with part of £70,000, voted for his funeral celebration.
1691. Pope Alexander III died, after a reign of only 15 months.
1735. George Granville, viscount Lansdowne, an eminent English poet, died. Having vainly endeavored to get employment in arms for the defence of James II, to whose cause he was warmly attached, he retired to private life, enjoying the company of his muse, which he employed in celebrating the reigning beauties of the age, in imitation of Waller.
1757. Calcutta retaken by Col. Clive.
1766. James Bartholomew Beccaria, an Italian physician and professor of natural philosophy, died. His writings are highly esteemed.
1766. Susanna Maria Cibber died. She was not only considered the best actress in England, but supposed by many to excel the celebrated Madame Clairon, of Paris, her contemporary.
1805. John Robinson, a celebrated Edinburgh mathematician, died.
1809. Assault upon Saragossa in Spain by the French under Junot, Lannes and Mortier. The Spaniards made a most desperate resistance; a corps of women even being formed for its defence. The houses were taken one by one; they were compelled to undermine upwards of 600 in order to get possession of them.
1810. Several meteoric stones fell in Caswell county, North Carolina.
1826. The mails were first carried over the Menai suspension bridge, which connects the island of Anglesey with the Welch shore.
1833. Joseph Bluydenburge died at Smithtown, L. I., aged 101, retaining the vigor of perfect health to the last week of his life.
1834. Attempt to assassinate the president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, made by Richard Lawrence.
1834. Rudolph Ackerman, who so much improved lithography, and the first to use gas-light in England, died.
1837. Explosion of the magazine of the French garrison at Bona in Algiers, containing 12,000 pounds of powder and 1 million musket cartridges. The commandant with 108 men were killed, and 102 wounded.
1837. The town of Jaffa in Palestine destroyed by an earthquake. Of 15,000 inhabitants, only 2,000 escaped burial in the ruins.
1837. Adam Azelius, the last remaining pupil of Linnæus, died; celebrated for his travels in Asia and Africa.
1841. The town of Mayaguez, Porto Rico, consisting of about 600 buildings, was consumed by fire. Loss estimated at from two to four millions of dollars.
1852. The king of Naples by decree confiscated the property of Neapolitan emigrants.
1855. Herman Knickerbacker died, aged 75; known as the prince of Schaghticoke, being the third in descent from the original settler there.
JANUARY 31.
1000 BC It is usual to fix the finishing of the temple of Hercules at Tyre on this day, and the death of Anchises, 183 years earlier.
1574. Birthday of Ben Jonson.
1578. Battle of Gemblours, in the Netherlands, by which the Spanish recovered their superiority in the Walloon provinces which were zealously catholic.
1606. Guido Fawkes executed. He was an officer in the Spanish service, concerned in the gunpowder plot, and discovered in the vault below the House of Lords, prepared to fire the train which was to involve the enemies of the catholic religion in one common ruin.
1616. Jacob Le Maire, a Dutchman, discovered cape Horn, the southern extremity of the American continent.
1686. In Norway, Courland and Pomerania, there fell a great quantity of a membraneous substance, friable, and blackish, somewhat like burnt paper. Baron Grotthus analyzed a portion of this substance, which has been preserved in a cabinet of natural history, and it is found to consist of silex, iron, lime, carbon, magnesia, a trace of chrome and sulphur, but not a particle of nickel.
1692. Massacre of Glencoe, Scotland. King William, whose chief virtue was not humanity, signed and countersigned the warrant, which was transmitted to the secretary for Scotland, who particularly charged the ministers of destruction to take no prisoners. The population was barbarously massacred, and the spot disemboweled of every social appearance.
1718. Ashton Lever died at Manchester, England. He was a collector of specimens in natural history, and possessed one of the finest museums in the world.
1750. The Student, a paper of much merit, issued at Oxford, England, appeared this day.
1754. The 1st number of the Connoisseur appeared, conducted by Coleman, Bonnell Thornton, Chesterfield and others.
1775. Capt. Cooke discovered Southern Thule, soon after Sandwich land which from the vast quantities of ice seen he conjectured might be a continent.
1737. The attorney general stated to the Irish parliament that an insurrection existed in the county of Kerry, the people having taken an oath to obey the laws of Captain Right (a fictitious name), and to starve the clergy.
1788. Charles Stuart, the pretender to the throne of England, died at Rome. He was the grandson of James II, born at Rome 1720. In 1745