The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
grand, liberal and useful: but being ridiculed by the profligate and the vicious, who rioted on the miseries of the people, he retired from public life.
1796. Steuben county erected in south western New York.
1797. Palma Nuova, a frontier town in Italy, evacuated by the archduke Charles, who had wrested it from the Venitians only ten days before. The French under Bernadotte and Serrurier, on entering it found 30,000 rations of bread, and a million quintals of flour.
1805. Bonaparte assumed the title of king of Italy.
1814. John Vint, editor of the Isle of Man Gazette, and a distinguished philanthropist, died.
1817. An earthquake in Spain, Portugal, and Sicily, destroyed whole villages.
1817. Charles Combe died; an eminent English physician and critic, and highly distinguished as a medalist.
1836. Abate Fea, a celebrated archæologist, died at Rome, aged 88. He is known as the translator of Winckelman.
1839. The Chinese imperial commissioner, Lin, issued a proclamation at Canton, ordering the foreign opium dealers to deliver up all the opium in their possession, to have it burnt and destroyed, and forbidding its importation to all eternity, under pain of death.
1840. Dr. Parish, favorably known to the medical world, died in Philadelphia.
1846. First steam boat arrived at Austin, Texas.
1846. William M. Crane, of the United States navy, died by his own hand.
1848. The emperor of Austria published by proclamation, at Milan, abolition of censorship, and a convention of the states. But the people wanting more, troubles began.
1854. A terrible gale at Albany, N. Y.; fifty houses unroofed, many chimneys and walls blown down, and great damage done.
1856. Henry Pottingen, lieutenant general in the East India company's service, died aged 67. He distinguished himself in the Afghanistan war, and settled the opium difficulty with the Chinese.
1856. The Cunard steamer Curlew, from Halifax, ran on a reef north of the Bermudas, and was lost, with a part of her mail.
MARCH 19.
720. BC The first eclipse of the moon on record (by Ptolemy) happened on this day.
478. BC The history of Herodotus terminates with the siege of Sestos.
235. Alexander Severus, emperor of Rome, murdered by his soldiers. He was a Phœnician by birth, led an exemplary life, and governed ably both in peace and war.
717. Chilperic, king of France, surprised in his camp, in the forest of Arden, by the duke of Austrasia, afterwards Charles Martel.
1355. Pressing for seamen to man the English navy, commenced in the reign of Edward III.
1521. Insurrection and massacre in the island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean sea.
1584. Iwan IV, Vassilivitz, first czar of Muscovy, died. He was denominated by the Russians the terrible, and by foreigners the tyrant.
1621. The complaint against lord Bacon for corruption, drawn up by Sir Edward Coke and others, presented to the house of lords. The chancellor was sick, but addressed a letter to his peers, requesting them not to prejudge his case from "any number of petitions against a judge that makes two thousand decrees and orders in a year; but that he may answer them according to the rules of justice, severally and respectively."
1626. Peter Coton, a French Jesuit, died. He was confessor to Henry IV, whose confidence he possessed, and it was a common expression that the king was good but that he had cotton in his ears. He was distinguished for eloquence and zeal.
1628. Patent for Massachusetts sold to Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young and "four other associates in the vicinity of Dorchester, England."
1631. The original patent of Connecticut made by Robert, earl of Warwick, to William, Viscount Say and Seal, Robert lord Brook and their associates.
1643. Battle of Hopton-Heath, between the forces of Charles I, and those of the parliament, in which the latter were defeated with the loss of a great part of their artillery.
1643. Spencer Compton, the friend of Charles I, killed at the battle of Hopton-Heath. He was the only son of William, first earl of Northampton; and refusing to accept quarter, was despatched by the parliament forces.
1687. Daniel Gookin died; for many years superintendent of the Indians in Massachusetts, whose interests he watched with so much zeal as to draw upon himself the abuse of the populace, whose outrages he constantly opposed. He published some historical collections of the Indians in New England.
1688. John Denham, one of the minor British poets, died. He was born at Dublin, in 1615, and first became known in 1641 by his tragedy of The Sophy. In 1643 appeared his first addition of Cooper's Hill, a justly celebrated poem, of which Dryden says, for majesty of style is, and ever will be, the standard of good writing.
1691. Col. Henry Stoughter published his commission from the Duke of York, appointing him governor of the province of New York.
1711. Thomas Ken, chaplain to Charles II of England, died. He survived several reigns, and in all, his firmness and consistency, added to his piety and learning, procured him respect and patronage.
1719. An extraordinary meteor seen from all parts of Great Britain about 8 o'clock in the evening. Its light exceeded that of the sun at noon-day. It exploded over the sea near the coast of Britany, at an altitude it is supposed of about 30 miles. It broke like a skyrocket into sparks of red fire, and was succeeded by a tremendous report.
1736. Nicholas Hawksmoor, died; an English architect of fame, pupil of Sir C. Wren.
1755. A cluster of houses in the village of Bergemoletto, near Piedmont, Italy, was overwhelmed by two vast bodies of snow that fell from the neighboring mountain. Three women, the only occupants of the houses at the time of the catastrophy, were dug out alive seven days after.
1759. Nicholas Verdier, a French anatomist, died. His character as an author and a man, are entitled to respect.
1781. Cornwallis retreated from Guilford court house, where he had defeated Greene on the 15th; leaving at the quaker meeting house all the wounded Americans he had taken, and about 70 wounded British officers.
1786. Hugh Pelliser, an English admiral, died. He was at the storming of Quebec; and at the battle of Ushant, 1778, on which occasion a dispute between him and admiral Keppel saved the French fleet from destruction.
1788. Francis Joseph Desbillons, a French Jesuit, died. He devoted many years to study, and at the abolition of his order published his Fables, and some other works, and left in manuscript a history of the Latin tongue.
1796. Stephen Storace, an English music composer, died. His productions are confined to the drama, and are remarkable for their spirit.
1797. Gradisca, a strong town in Austria, capitulated to the French under Bernadotte and Serrurier; 3,000 prisoners, 60 cannon and 8 standards fell into the hands of the French.
1801. Novalis, (the literary name assumed by Frederick Von Hardenberg,) died. He belonged to the religious society of Hernhutters.
1808. Charles IV, abdicated the throne of Spain in favor of his son Ferdinand VII.
1809. Gustavus Adolphus IV, the deposed king of Sweden, signed a