The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
peers to be useless and dangerous, and accordingly that branch of the legislature and the office of king, were abolished by two brief resolutions.
1685. Charles II, king of England, died. At the time of the death of his father he was a refugee at the Hague, on which he immediately assumed the royal title. In 1660 he entered London amidst the universal acclamations of the people. He was a confirmed sensualist and voluptuary, says Lardner, and owing to the example of him and his court, his reign was the era of the most dissolute manners that ever prevailed in England. His career was terminated by a fit of apoplexy, at the age of 55. It was during this reign that the great plague and the great fire of London occurred. He was the twenty-sixth king of England.
1693. A party of about 700 French and Indians fell upon the Mohawk villages near Schenectady, and took about 300 prisoners in the English interest, without doing much other damage. They were pursued by Col. Schuyler with a party from Albany, and several skirmishes ensued. The French escaped by crossing the north branch of the Hudson, on a cake of ice. They lost in this enterprise 80 men killed, and were reduced to great want before they got home.
1696. A plot to assassinate William III of England, was discovered.
1736. Earthquake in New England.
1738. Joseph Mitchell, a Scotch dramatic poet, died.
1740. Clement XII (Laurence Corsini), pope of Rome, died. He was very popular, and corrected many abuses in the church.
1755. Maurice Johnson, a noted English antiquary, died.
1756. Birthday of Aaron Burr, at Newark, N. J. His father was the Rev. William Burr, second president of New Jersey college at Princeton, and his mother a daughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, third president of that institution. His wife is well known.
1777. Great Britain granted letters of marque and reprisal against America.
1778. The French avowed the independence of the United States, by concluding a treaty of defensive alliance with them.
1778. New York acceded to the confederation.
1783. Launcelot Brown died. He invented a new system of horticulture, and carried ornamental gardening to a high degree of perfection. Many delightful places of resort in England will stand for ages as memorials of his superior taste and abilities.
1783. The first ship which displayed the thirteen stripes in any British port, was recorded at the London custom house. She was loaded with 587 butts whale oil, belonged to the island of Nantucket, and was manned wholly with American seamen.
1788. Massachusetts adopted the constitution of the United States, being the 6th state which ratified that instrument. The vote stood 187 to 168.
1792. The city of Morocco, which had shut its gates against the emperor Muley Yazid, was attacked by his forces and carried. The greatest excesses were committed by the soldiery, against friends as well as foes, and the Jews were as usual given up to be plundered. (See 12th and 16th.)
1796. The state of Vermont adopted its constitution.
1798. The bank of England subscribed £200,000 to assist government to repel the threatened invasion. By the assistance of manufacturers, &c., this sum was increased to £1,500,000.
1799. British ship Arago, Capt. Bowen, captured off Mahon, at midnight, the Spanish frigate Santa Teresa, 42 guns and 350 men.
1800. The duke of Orleans (Louis Phillip, afterwards king,) asked pardon of Louis XVIII, and swore that he was ready to shed the last drop of his blood in his service. He was graciously received.
1803. Giambattista Casti, a Florentine historian, died, aged 82. His works are full of wit and originality, and some of them have been translated into English.
1804. Joseph Priestly died. He was the son of a Calvinistic clothier, in whose rigid principles he was educated. His heresy ripened into unitarianism. His publications had already made him extensively known, when in 1766 he became acquainted with Franklin, by whom he was encouraged to compose a work on electricity. This was followed by several scientific works, till in 1794, on the anniversary of the capture of the Bastile, the mob at Birmingham, where he then resided, proceeded to his house, which, with his library, manuscripts and apparatus, fell a prey to the flames. Finally, goaded by party enmity, he sought an asylum in the United States, and took up his residence at Northumberland, Pa. Here his devotion to his favorite pursuits brought on a disease, which hastened the end of his existence, in the 71st year of his age. His works amount to about 70 volumes, octavo.
1806. Action between the British fleet under Admiral Duckworth, and the French under Lessiegues, off St. Domingo, which resulted in the destruction of the latter, consisting of four large ships of war.
1807. The French under Murat, defeated the Prussians under Hoff, in Prussian Poland.
1811. The prince regent of Great Britain took the oath prescribed by the regency act, and was installed.
1813. The United States government ordered all alien enemies to report themselves to the marshals of the districts in which they resided.
1814. Lord Castlereagh, with other diplomatic characters, met at Chartillon-sur-Seine, for the negotiation of peace.
1815. Full pardon granted to the Barratarian pirates by the president of the United States, in consequence of their fidelity and courage in the defence of New Orleans.
1832. The crew of the United States frigate Potomac, made an attack upon Qualla Battoo, in Sumatra. The town was destroyed and 150 Malays killed; loss of the Potomac 2 killed, 14 wounded.
1833. Pierre-Andre Latreille, a French naturalist, died at Paris. He particularly distinguished himself in entomology.
1834. The celebrated and enterprising traveler, Lander, died of a shot wound in Africa.
1853. President Cavallos resigned, and Gen. Lombardini chosen president of Mexico with dictatorial powers.
1853. The insurrection of Mazzini at Milan, which was unsuccessful.
1853. William Peter, British consul at Philadelphia, died. He translated the Prometheus of Æschylus, was an accomplished scholar and talented poet.
FEBRUARY 7.
1451. BC The Jews place the death of Moses on this day.
1642. William Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, died; one of the most exemplary prelates of the 17th century. He was so greatly respected even by the papists, that when the Irish rebellion of 1641 broke out, his was for some time the only English house in the county that stood unviolated. But refusing to submit to the orders of the council of state, interfering with his religious duties, he was thrown into prison, and his death was occasioned by the rigors of confinement. He translated the old testament into Irish.
1674. Margaret Lucas, dutchess of Newcastle, died; authoress of plays, poems, letters, essays, and philosophical fancies, filling 12 folio volumes, and the biography of her husband, William Cavendish, earl of Newcastle. She was a very singular character, and has been both ridiculed and extolled by the best English authors.
1693. Paul Pelisson Fontanier died. He gave a history of the French academy from its establishment.
1778. Daniel Boone, the first settler of Kentucky, taken by the French and Indians near the Blue licks. This was the second time he had fallen into the hands of the Indians. He made his escape about ten days after, and reached