The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
The Neapolitan garrison of Reggio surrendered to the French.
1809. The French national ship l'Iris, 24 guns, captured by the British ship, l'Amiable.
1809. The Spanish junta in Seville issued orders to their troops to give no quarter to the French found in Spain.
1810. British ship Valiant of 74 guns captured the French frigate Cannoniere, 14 guns, with a cargo worth $800,000.
1810. The French destroyed the quicksilver mines at El Almoden del Azoque, near Seville.
1810. Guadaloupe surrendered to the British.
1813. The Spanish cortez abolished the inquisition.
1814. Bonaparte entered Troyes. Same day the Russians and Prussians bombarded Vitry, defended by the French under Gen. Montmartre.
1831. The duke of Nemours elected king of Belgium.
1832. George Crabbe died; one of the most popular of the modern British poets.
1832. Charles Victor de Bonstetten died, aged 87; a distinguished Swiss moralist, politician, metaphysician, geologist and traveler.
1836. Marie Letitia Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon, died. She was born at Ajaccio 1750; her maiden name Romolini; was one of the most beautiful women of Corsica; married, in the midst of civil discord, Charles Bonaparte, an officer who fought with Paoli; was left a widow 1785, having borne 13 children, of whom 5 sons and 3 daughters survived their father, and became celebrated. Madame Bonaparte was a woman of great force and energy of character.
1844. Continued cold weather in the northern parts of the United States. Long Island sound was frozen over a few miles above New York, and a canal, seven miles in length, was cut through the ice at Boston to allow the British steamer to go to sea.
1852. Battle of Santos Lugares, near Buenos Ayres, between the army of Urquiza, 30,000 men and 50 cannon, and Rosas, 25,000 men and 90 cannon. Rosas was defeated, and took refuge on board an English steamer. The city was saved from pillage by ships of war of all nations then in the harbor.
1856. Thermometer at 30° below zero in Kansas; and the cold extended over the United States, in some parts to a degree unknown before.
FEBRUARY 4.
211. Lucius Septimus Severus, emperor of Rome, died at York, England. His sons, Geta and Caracalla, were by this event recalled from Scotland, where they were debating with Fingal over heath and mountain, her ancient stubborn independence.
836. Egbert, the last king of the Saxon heptarchy, and the first of England, died.
856. Magnentius Maurus Rabanus, a learned German divine, died. His works on theology are numerous.
1194. Richard, Coeur de Lion, released from his imprisonment.
1536. The parliament of England abolished every thing relative to the pope's power in their realm.
1555. John Rogers, prebendary of St. Paul's, and the protomartyr, burned at Smithfield.
1607. James Menochius died; a civilian of Pavia, of distinguished abilities.
1644. A very large comet which had terrified the straight-bodied folks of New England with its prodigious length of tail, disappeared on this day, to their great relief.
1648. George Abbot, an English statesman and religious author, died. He was one of the judges who sat at the trial of Charles I, and signed his death warrant.
1660. Gen. Monk, famous as the restorer of Charles II, marched into London and recommended a government moderately presbyterian.
1665. The first number of the London Gazette appeared, published by Sir Roger l'Estrange.
1687. Francis de Crequi, marshal of France, died. He was distinguished for his military enterprises and heroic courage.
1692. Goree taken from the French by the English under Gen. Booker.
1693. Earthquake of Sicily, which swallowed up Catania and 1800 citizens.
1746. Robert Blair, a Scottish clergyman and poet, died. The only production of his, which we possess, is The Grave, a poem, striking and vigorous.
1749. John James Heidegger died at London. He was born in Switzerland, and came to England, where by his taste and judgment in operatic amusements, he was appointed to the management of the opera house and the masquerades. He was the ugliest featured man in the kingdom, but good-humored, benevolent and charitable.
1756. A mummy disinterred near Auvergne in France.
1762. Samuel Davies, an American divine, died, aged 36. He labored some years as a presbyterian pastor in Virginia, where the act of uniformity was enforced with great rigor, and was the founder of the first presbytery in that state. His sermons have passed through many editions on both sides of the Atlantic.
1774. Charles Marie de la Condamine died. He was possessed of a daring spirit, which led him to enter the army. But the restoration of peace cut off his hopes of promotion, and he traveled in Turkey and Asia. On his return to Paris, the academy were making arrangements to send a deputation to the equator for scientific purposes. The very desire of being connected with so perilous an undertaking made him an astronomer. The fatigues and hardships which he encountered in South-America, were heightened by the discord and jealousy which arose among his companions. He died while undergoing an operation for the removal of a malady contracted in Peru. He bore an excellent character, and left many valuable works.
1779. John Hamilton Mortimer, an eminent English historical painter, died.
1783. Cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, and final conclusion of the seven years' war of the revolution, which freed the American colonies from the claims of the mother country, and gave a new nation to the world.
1787. Jacob Wismer died, aged 103. He was a German by birth, came to America in Queen Anne's reign, and settled in Pennsylvania; here he married his third wife, with whom he lived 67 years, and left 170 descendants.
1790. Louis XVI took the oath to maintain the new constitution.
1793. An embargo laid on all French vessels in Great-Britain.
1794. The legislature of Massachusetts having repealed the law against theatrical amusements, the Federal street theatre was opened as a regular, lawful theatre, with Gustavus Vasa and Modern Antiques.
1796. British ship Aurora, one of Admiral Christian's fleet, having 160 men on board, who had kept her afloat three weeks by manual labor, was rescued by Capt. Hodges of the American ship Sedgley. The troops were principally Germans and offered Capt. Hodges 1000 guineas for his exertions in saving their lives, which he nobly refused.
1797. Earthquake at Quito, which threw down many valuable edifices, and destroyed several neighboring towns and plantations. A great number of persons were swallowed up.
1800. William Tasker died, aged 60. He was 30 years rector of a church, but deprived of its income by unmerited persecutions and litigations, until near the close of his life. The works which he published added to his reputation with the learned, but contributed nothing to his support, and he continued to struggle against poverty and oppression.
1804. Christian Joseph Jagemann, librarian to the duchess Amalia of Weimar, died. He was destined for the cloister, but escaped from the monastery, and became a distinguished writer on the fine arts and literature of Italy.
1804. The boats of the British