The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. Joel Munsell
Henry Klaproth, a German chemist and philosopher, died. He was born at Wernigerode 1743 and followed the profession of an apothecary till 1788, when he became chemist to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin.
1817. The new Bank of the United States opened at Carpenter's hall, Philadelphia; Wm. Jones president, Jonathan Smith cashier.
1818. William Harrod, an eccentric bookseller in Leicestershire, died.
1823. The French language abolished in the law courts of Holland, where it had long been in use, and was prevalent in society.
1825. Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the South American republics.
1835. Charles Lamb died. He was the author of the beautiful stories of Elia, which are universally admired. His exquisite humor, fancy, feeling and wit, have given an endurable character to his essays. The bettering of the condition of mankind was his great aim, and he was in the esteem of every philanthropist.
1835. First daily paper in Buffalo, New York.
1837. Samuel Hulse died at Chelsea Hospital, England, of which he had been governor since 1820, aged 90. He entered the British army in the year 1761, and at the time of his death had been upwards of three quarters of a century in the military service, and was then field marshal.
1837. Saphet in the Holy Land nearly destroyed by an earthquake. It is said that this and a subsequent shock were both predicted by a Walachian almanac maker.
1848. Girard college opened with appropriate ceremonies at Philadelphia.
1848. The state of Maryland repudiated repudiation, and resumed payment of interest on her debt at the Chesapeake bank, Baltimore.
1852. Frederick Philips Robinson, an American officer, died, aged 89; he had been scarcely less than 75 years in the military ranks.
1854. Great fire at Constantinople destroyed 400 houses; among which were those of the Greek patriarch, and the patriarch of Jerusalem.
JANUARY 2.
17. Titus Livius died at Padua. His history of Rome, to which he devoted twenty years, rendered him so celebrated, that a Spaniard is said to have gone from Cadiz to Rome for the purpose merely of seeing him. His history was written in 140 books, of which only 35 are extant. Five of these were discovered at Worms 1731, and some fragments are said to have been since found at Herculaneum. Few particulars of his life are known, but his fame was great even while he lived, and his history has made him immortal.
17. Publius Ovidus Naso, the Roman poet, died in exile at Tomos (a town on the inhospitable coast of the Black sea), aged 60. He exhibited an unconquerable predilection for poetry, and the ease and the enjoyments of life, which his fortune placed within his power. He traveled in Greece and Asia which added to his accomplishments; his works were adapted to the public taste, and he was esteemed by the learned: Horace and Virgil were his friends, and he was a welcome visitor at the court of Augustus. Until his fiftieth year he appears to have lived almost solely for poetry and pleasure. He might have hoped to pass the remaining years of his life in peace, under the shadow of his laurels, but he was suddenly banished by Augustus, for some unknown cause. His Metamorphoses, and Art of Love are often republished in our language. He painted nature with a masterly hand, and his genius imparted elegance to vulgarity; but impurity defiles the sweetness of his numbers, and his finest productions are sullied with licentiousness.
1547. Conspiracy of Genoa, headed by John Lewis Fiesco; his being drowned in the night, occasioned the failure of the scheme, in the very moment of success.
1604. The Jesuits reinstated in France.
1731. A reprieve sent to a prisoner at Newgate on condition he would suffer Mr. Chiselden to make an experiment on the tympanum of his ear. The experiment was never performed.
1741. John Barber, printer to the city of London, and the first printer that rose to the rank of mayor, died.
1757. Calcutta retaken by the English and permitted to be fortified by the subah.
1758. The Whitefield methodists observed this day in thanksgiving for the victories of the king of Prussia in favor of England.
1759. The French surprised and captured Frankfort on the Maine.
1766. James Edward Francis Stuart, the Pretender, died. He was the eldest son of James II, born at London 1688. He was five months old when his father was dethroned, and the royal family fled to France. His elder sister Anne afterwards came to the throne, and some effort was made to secure his own succession; but it does not appear that he entered into the project with much spirit.
1771. Lewis Cæsar, count d'Estrees, marshal of France, and minister of state, died aged 76. He distinguished himself in the war against Spain, and afterwards in 1741, wherein his bravery was conspicuous and his services meritorious. In 1756 he was placed at the head of the French forces in Germany, but was superceded by Richelieu through intrigue.
1774. The coffin of Edward I opened by a deputation from the society of antiquarians, after it had been buried 467 years. In a coffin of yellow stone they found the royal body in perfect preservation, enclosed in two wrappers; one of them was gold tissue, strongly waxed and fresh; the other and outermost considerably decayed. The corpse was habited in a rich mantle of purple lined with white and adorned with ornaments of gilt metal, studded with red and blue stones and pearls. Two similar ornaments lay on the hands. The mantle was fastened on the right shoulder by a magnificent fibula of the same metal, with the same stones and pearls. His face had over it a silken covering, so fine, and so closely fitted to it, as to preserve the features entire. Round his temples was a gilt coronet of fleur de lys. In his hands, which were also entire, were two sceptres of gilt metal; that in the right surmounted by a cross fleure, that in the left by three clusters of oak leaves, and a dove on a globe. The feet enveloped in the mantle and other coverings were sound and the toes distinct. Its length was 6 feet 2 inches.
1777. Cannonading at Trenton; the British repulsed in their attempt to cross Sanpink creek bridge. In the night Gen. Washington retired leaving his fires burning.
1780. The Dutch admiral, Count Byland, refusing to permit the British admiral, Fielding, to search his convoy, an action ensued, and the Dutch ships, two of the line and two frigates, surrendered; after detaining seven of the convoy, the Dutch admiral had permission to proceed; but he refused without the whole of his charge, and therefore sailed into Spithead.
1788. Georgia ratified the Constitution of the United States, without amendment, being the fourth state to do so.
1795. Josiah Wedgewood, the inventor of the scale that bears his name in the thermometer for determining the different degrees of metallic heat, died at his residence in England.
1801. John Gasper Christian Lavater died. He was born at Zurich, in Switzerland, where his father was a physician of skill and reputation. In 1763 he traveled in Germany; in 1767 appeared as a poet; and in 1769 as a preacher of much popularity. All his activity was devoted to religion until he undertook his work on physiognomy. This great work in 4 vols. quarto, in which he had collected the features of distinguished persons from all parts of the world, made him known throughout Europe. He published several other works, and became so popular that his journeys resembled triumphs. On the capture of Zurich by Massena, he received a shot while assisting the wounded in the street, which although he lived more than a year, and wrote several works, was the cause of his death.
1809. Two French ships of war and eleven victualers, proceeding to Barcelona, were captured in the port of Caldagues by the British under Lord Cochrane.
1809. Penguin island, at the cape of Good Hope, sank, and is now only known to mariners by name.
1810.