Part 55

1313. RALPH DE BALDOCK, bishop of London, died. He wrote a history of British affairs, now lost, and was a virtuous and charitable prelate, and a man of learning and judgment.

1322. BRUCE, after ravaging the western marches in England during 24 days, returned home with his wagons filled with plunder.

1411. Battle between the Gaelic and Lowland Scottish factions, led by the earl of Mar, and Donald of the Isles. This battle was of the highest importance, since it decided the superiority of the more civilized regions of Scotland over those inhabited by the Celtic tribes, who remained almost as savage as their forefathers, the Dulriads.

1520. HENRY STEPHENS, a celebrated French printer, the founder of the family of that name, died at Lyons.

1527. FRANCISCO ALVAREZ, a Spanish traveler, returned from an expedition to Africa. He accompanied an embassy from the king of Portugal to David, king of Abyssinia, in 1515. The expedition met with many obstacles, and did not arrive till 1520. He published an account of his travels at Lisbon, 1540, a work of great fidelity and merit.

1567. Queen MARY, a prisoner in Lochleven castle, subscribed the instrument by which she resigned the Scottish crown in favor of her son, James VI, afterwards king of England.

1590. STEPHEN TABOUROT (_sieur des accords_), a French writer, died.

1595. ANDREW DE BRANCAS DE VILLARS, a French general, murdered. He espoused the interests of the league against Henry IV, but afterwards abandoned it, was taken prisoner and despatched.

1595. CHARLES DE LORAINE D'AUMALE, a French nobleman, broken on the wheel at Paris, _in effigy_. After the assassination of the duke of Guise, he became the head of the league against the Calvinists, and secretly aimed at the throne. He even took possession of Paris, sent the members of the parliament to the Bastile, and compelled the king to fly. But meeting with reverses, he joined the Spaniards, was outlawed, and the parliament being unable to take him, executed their sentence upon his effigy. He resided principally in Flanders, till his death, which took place at Brussels, 1631, at the age of 77.

1609. The expedition under Somers, (see June 2,) overtaken by a tremendous tempest. The admiral ship was severed from the rest "by the _tail_ of a mighty hurricane," but at length after having _drank to one another_, "as taking their last leaves, intending to commit themselves to the mercy of the sea, most luckily the ship was driven and _jammed between two rocks_."

1712. Battle of Denain; the French under Villars defeated the allies under Albemarle, who was taken, together with four German princes, and many other prisoners.

1722. The wearing of broadswords prohibited in Edinburgh.

1744. ALPHONSO DE VIGNOLES, a French protestant, died. He retired to Prussia on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, where he was patronized by the king, and wrote several learned works.

1755. ELISHA WILLIAMS, president of Yale college, died; esteemed for his learning and great moral worth.

1756. GEORGE VERTUE, an English engraver and antiquary, died.

1758. JOHN DYER, an English poet, died. In 1727 he published the poem of _Grongar Hill_, and soon after he went to Italy to delineate the antiquities of that country, under the title of the _Ruins of Rome_, a poem which places him high on the scale of merit as a writer.

1759. Battle of Niagara. The English under sir William Johnson defeated the French and Indians with great slaughter, and took fort Niagara. The loss of this fortress effectually cut off all communication between Canada and Louisiana.

1768. NATHANIEL LARDNER, an eminent English divine, died. His literary labors, which have been published in 11 vols., were translated into various languages abroad, and procured him great distinction at home.

1779. An expedition fitted out by Massachusetts to take a British post at Penobscot, totally defeated by the unexpected arrival of the British fleet. The troops were dispersed in all directions, and found their way home with difficulty; 19 vessels were taken or destroyed, and 24 transports burnt.

1797. Unsuccessful attack of the British upon Santa Cruz, Teneriffe. Lord Nelson lost his right arm.

1804. ADOLPHUS CHARLES ADAM, afterwards a distinguished musical performer, born at Paris.

1813. An attempt made by several United States officers to blow up the British ship Plantagenet, in Lynnhaven bay, with a torpedo. It exploded without effecting their purpose, though so near the vessel as to injure it.

1817. About mid-day, after a loud detonation, the lake Canterno, or Porciano, in Italy, totally disappeared. A large opening was discovered in the bottom, through which the waters were supposed to have escaped into the sinuosities of the neighboring mountains.

1822. ERNEST THEODORE WILLIAM HOFFMAN, a Prussian novelist, died. He possessed much imagination and talent, but was an irregular and unhappy man.

1830. The thermometer at noon in Boston stood at 95°, at sundown at 50°, and fires were made.

1833. Lisbon surrendered to the army of don Pedro, under the duke of Terceira.

1848. An intended insurrection at Cuba; the government becoming apprised of it, general Lopez, the head conspirator, escaped to the United States.

1849. JOHN L. LAWRENCE died, aged about 67. He was one of the secretaries who assisted at the treaty of Ghent; well known in the councils and commerce of the state, and at the time of his death comptroller of the city of New York.

1853. HEZEKIAH C. SEYMOUR, engineer in chief of the state of New York, died at Piermont, aged 42. His name is prominently associated with the New York and Erie rail road, and with the Ontario, Huron, and lake Simcoe rail road in Canada.

1854. HENRY KING, a British general, died, aged 77. He had been a soldier for sixty years, serving in the West Indies, Egypt, Walcheren, and the Peninsula. In Egypt he lost a leg, but that did not prevent him from subsequently taking part in the war.

1854. The American fishing vessel Ellen Morrill, was captured by the British cruisers, and carried into the port of Bathurst, causing much excitement among the fishermen.

1855. Violent and repeated shocks of an earthquake destroyed the Swiss villages of St. Nicholas and Viege, during this and the preceding day.

JULY 25.

306. CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, emperor of Rome, died at York palace, and was succeeded the same day by his son Constantine the Great.

811. NICEPHORUS I, emperor of Rome, died. He was chancellor of the eastern empire, and seized the throne 807, banishing the empress Irene to Mitylene. He overcame all opposition from his own subjects, but was vanquished by the Bulgarians, and fell in battle.

1139. Battle of Aurique, in Portugal; Alphonse I vanquished five Moorish kings and their barbaric heads were emblazoned in the arms of the monarchy.

1214. Battle of Bouvines, in France, in which the forces of Otho were overthrown by Philip Augustus, and peace restored.

1261. The Greek emperor, MICHAEL PALÆOLOGUS, expelled the Latins from Constantinople, who had taken possession of it nearly 60 years previous.

1441. ROGER BOLINGBROKE, chaplain to the duke of Gloucester, having been convicted of necromancy, was exposed, with his instruments, to the public finger, at St. Paul's, in London.

1471. THOMAS A KEMPIS (_Thomas Hammerken of Kempen_), a famous German theologian, died, aged 92. He displayed great piety and devotion, and instead of confining himself to transcribing books of devotion, like the rest of his brethren, composed works of divinity himself, one of which, _De Imitatione Christi_, has been translated into nearly all languages in the world.

1505. PHILIP BEROLDUS, a French professor of belles-letters, died. He was extremely dissipated in youth, but reformed after marriage, and produced several works, in prose and verse. He was a man of great learning for that age, and is noted for his valuable edition of the classics.

1535. CHARLES V, emperor of Germany, having assembled a powerful fleet, landed at Tunis, and carried by assault the fortress of Goletta. This gave him possession of Barbarossa's fleet of 87 galleys and 300 cannon. Having reinstated Muley Hassan and liberated more than 20,000 slaves, he returned to Europe.

1554. Queen MARY of England married to Philip of Spain at Winchester.

1564. FERDINAND I, emperor of Germany, died. He became king of Hungary and Bohemia 1527, and was elected king of the Romans 1531. On the abdication of his brother, Charles V, he succeeded to the empire, and governed with great moderation and prudence.

1593. HENRY IV, of France, formally renounced the protestant faith at St. Denys, rather than perish by the hand of an assassin.

1603. King JAMES and his queen crowned at Westminster by archbishop Whitgift.

1653. The assembly of the Scottish church being met at Edinburgh were dismissed by Cotterel for not having the authority of the parliament of England, and commanded that not three of them should be seen together.

1659. The pope, ALEXANDER VII, acknowledged by a papal brief, the king of France sovereign of the conquests and colonies which his subjects had made in the American isles. Hitherto the court of Rome had preserved inviolate the _universal grant_ of that infamous man, pope Alexander VI, in 1493, to his catholic majesty, the king of Spain. (See May 3.)

1666. Engagement at the mouth of the Thames, between the English fleet under Rupert and Albemarle, and the Dutch under Van Tromp and De Ruyter. Each fleet consisted of about 80 sail. Three Dutch admirals were killed.

1722. New England declared war against the Indians. The small pox at that time was waging a war with both.

1724. A violent persecution of the protestants began in France.

1757. The duke of Cumberland defeated by d'Estrees at Hastenbeck.

1759. General JOHNSON took fort Niagara in America.

1790. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, governor of New Jersey, died. He was a member of the New York bar, and a warm advocate of the rights of the colonies. He removed to New Jersey, and on the deposition of the royal governor, Franklin, he was elected to fill his place, which he held till the time of his death.

1790. JOHN BERNARD BASEDOW died; at one time professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres, at Soroe in Denmark, from which he was expelled for some irreverent remarks on religion. He was the son of a barber at Hamburg, and acquired a reputation for learning and ability.

1794. FREDERICK VON DER TRENCK, a Prussian baron, guillotined at Paris. For some imprudent conduct he excited the indignation of the authorities, and was imprisoned a long time at Magdeburg. He finally escaped to France, where he became obnoxious to the guardians of the state, and suffered death at the age of 70. The account of his imprisonment and adventures, written by himself, and highly spiced with romance, is translated into English.

1795. WILLIAM ROMAINE, an eminent English divine, died; author of many valuable theological works.

1799. Battle of Aboukir, in Egypt, between the French under Bonaparte, and the Turks, Arabs and Mamelukes, under Mustapha. The Egyptians were defeated, with the loss of their general and 200 taken prisoners, with all their equipage and 20 cannon; 2,000 dead on the field, and about 10,000 driven into the sea and drowned.

1804. GEORGES and 11 of his companions guillotined at Paris for a conspiracy against Bonaparte.

1804. The American squadron, consisting of the Constitution frigate, 3 brigs, 3 schooners, 2 bomb and 6 gun boats, arrived in sight of Tripoli.

1812. Battle of Ostrovna; the Russians under Ostermann Tolstoy defeated by the French. The battle continued two days; the loss was about 4,000 on each side.

1814. Battle of Bridgewater, (alias Lundy's Lane,) near Niagara falls, between the British under Riall, and the Americans under Brown. It was a sanguinary action, and for the numbers engaged, perhaps unequaled in modern warfare; in which both the senior generals were wounded. British loss 878 killed and wounded and missing; American loss 860 do. The battle commenced at 5 P. M., and ended at 12 in the defeat of the British, 2,700 veteran regulars, exclusive of a large body of Indians.

1814. CHARLES DIBDIN, a celebrated English song writer and dramatist, died. His songs amount to upwards of 1,200; he has scarcely an equal in the number and merit of this species of composition.

1824. WILLIAM SHARP, an eminent English engraver, died. He rose to distinction in his art by his own unassisted exertions, but was in other respects a very simple character. His works are numerous and held in high estimation.

1830. CHARLES X of France ordained that the liberty of the periodical press was suspended, and five days after was himself suspended from the throne.

1833. JAMES MARTIN, a soldier of the revolution, died at Knoxville, Tenn., aged 106.

1834. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, an eminent English poet, metaphysician and theologian, died. As a poet and author he was popular, but his conversational powers captivated the most learned men of his time, who visited him to enjoy his conversation. Two volumes of his _Table Talk_ were published after his death.

1840. A couple of officers belonging to the United States exploring expedition having gone on shore at Malolo, one of the Fejee islands, were murdered by the natives. Lieut. Wilkes immediately attacked and burnt the town and fort, killed upwards of 70 of the natives, destroyed the plantations and laid the island waste.

1840. ANDREW LAUGHLIN died at Devrock, Ireland, aged 110. He saw five sovereigns successively ascend the British throne. The faculties of his mind were unimpaired until the last few months of his life.

1852. Baron GOURGAUD, a distinguished French general, died at Paris, aged 69. He entered the French service in 1801, was engaged in most of the great battles of Napoleon, including Waterloo; attended the emperor to St. Helena, and was afterwards near being involved in a duel with Walter Scott, through his fervid zeal for his master.

1852. WILLIAM SCROOP, an eminent English naturalist, died at London, aged 81.

1852. JAMES SPENCER CANNON, a talented minister of the Dutch reformed church, died at New Brunswick, N. J., aged 60. He was 26 years professor of metaphysics in Rutgers college, and of pastoral theology and ecclesiastical history in the Theological seminary at that place, and was distinguished for strong and original powers of mind, urbanity of manners, and fervent piety.

JULY 26.

46 B. C. JULIUS CÆSAR, arrived at Rome from Utica, celebrated the fourfold triumph in a quadriga of white horses, for the victories over the Gauls, over Ptolemy in Egypt, over Pharnaces in Pontus, and over Juba in Africa; entertained the people with naumachian and pentachlic or circensian games during 40 days; rewarded and feasted them at 22,000 tables; was declared consul the fourth time, and dictator for ten years; and to place him on the summit of human glory, his statue was erected in the capitol opposite to that of Jupiter, with the globe at his feet. He commenced in this year his reformation of the calendar, called, from the long intercalation, the year of confusion.

40. PETRONIUS, in his account of Trimalchio, has preserved a _Roman newspaper_, (diurna acta) for this day. "On the 26th July 30 boys and 40 girls were born at Trimalchio's estate at Cuma. At the same time a slave was put to death for uttering disrespectful words of his master. The same day a fire broke out in Pompey's gardens, which began in the night, in the steward's apartments."

1346. The English under Edward III, captured the opulent city of Caen, in France, and pillaged the country around.

1469. Battle of Banbury (or Hedgecote), in which the royalists under Pembroke were defeated by the Yorkshire rebels. Pembroke was taken and put to death, and earl Rivers beheaded.

1470. Post office first established in Paris.

1471. PAUL II (PETER BARBO), pope of Rome, died. He was a Venetian noble, and on coming to the throne gratified the cardinals with the purple habit, the red silk cap, and the mitre, which had hitherto been worn only by the sovereign pontiff.

1546. Emperor CHARLES V and pope PAUL III secretly leagued against the protestants.

1560. JAMES BONFADIUS, a polite writer of Italy, executed. He incurred the enmity of some powerful families at Geneva by the freedom of his remarks in his writings, who wrought his ruin.

1581. PHILIP excluded by edict from all sovereignty over the united provinces of the Netherlands.

1592. ARMAND GONRAULT DE BIRON, marechal of France, killed. From the humble rank of a page he rose through all the gradations of the army, to the highest dignity under the sovereign. He distinguished himself in the service, and was killed by a cannon ball at the siege of Epernai.

1630. CHARLES EMANUEL (_the Great_), duke of Savoy, died; an ambitious prince and brave warrior.

1653. "This day," says Dugdalo, "the fair bell called _Jesus's bell_, at Litchfield, was knocked in pieces by a presbyterian _pewterer_, who was the chief officer for demolishing the Cathedral."

1659. The island of Montreal invaded by 1200 Indians, who burned all the plantations, and made a terrible massacre of men, women and children, upon whom they committed every barbarity. "Ils ouvrirent le sein des femmes enceintes," says Charlevoix, "pour en arracher le fruit qu'elles portoient, ils mirent des enfans tout vivants à la broche, et contraignirent les mères de les tourner pour les faire rôtir." They killed 1000 and took 26, who were afterwards burnt.

1680. JOHN WILMOT, earl of Rochester, died; a dissolute English nobleman of the reign of Charles II, and the favorite companion of the king. He was a poet, and one of the greatest wits of the day.

1687. A party of French built fort Niagara.

1691. RICHARD INGOLSBY, captain of an independent company, was sworn into the office of president of the council of New York, or as lieutenant-governor, on the decease of Sloughter, instead of the administration coming to Dudley, as of right it should.

1738. WILLIAM THOMAS, an English divine, died; distinguished as a man of letters and an antiquary.

1758. Louisbourg, which had been restored to the French by treaty, was again taken by the British under admiral Boscawen and lieutenant-general Amherst, and its fortifications have since been demolished.

1759. Ticonderoga abandoned by the French, and occupied by the British under general Amherst.

1766. WALLIS, the navigator, sailed on his great voyage.

1772. JOHN GRÆME died; a Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer of considerable merit.

1775. Maryland convention met at Annapolis, and resolved to support the measures of Congress. They also ordered $266,666 in bills of credit to be struck, and that 40 companies of minute men should be raised.

1775. Congress first established a post office: the route extended from Falmouth, New England, to Savannah, Georgia, and Franklin was appointed post master.

1788. The printing office of Thomas Greenleaf, in New York, was much damaged and his types taken away by a mob. When the two great political

## parties were forming, subsequent to the organization of the government,

that which opposed the administration attacked the measures of Washington with a great degree of virulence in Greenleaf's paper. He was opposed to the federal constitution.

1788. New York adopted the constitution of the United States, recommending amendments. Ten states had already given their assent to it, nine being required before it could be adopted by congress.

1789. Lafayette added to his cockade the white of the royal arms, declaring at the same time that the tri-color should go round the world.

1793. STANISLAUS CLERMONT TONNERE, a French nobleman, massacred at Paris for his opposition to the Jacobin club.

1798. A remarkable mirage was seen at Hastings, England. The French coast distant 50 miles was at 5 P. M. brought close to the feet of the observers.

1803. An iron railway from Wandsworth to Croydon, in England, was opened to the public for the conveyance of goods.

1803. British ship Thunderer, captain Bedford, captured the French privateer Venus, of Bordeaux, pierced for 28 guns, but mounting only 16.

1806. British frigate Greyhound and sloop Harrier captured off Macassar the Dutch frigate Pallas, 36 guns, and two large East Indiamen, laden with spices.

1812. Battle of Kobrine; the Saxons under general Klingel, defeated by the Russians, and himself, together with 70 officers, 2500 men, &c., captured; Russian loss 1000.

1814. The Americans under general Ripley and P. B. Porter burnt Bridgewater mills and bridge, and the British barracks there.

1830. CHARLES X, of France, issued three ordinances, dissolving the newly elected chamber of deputies, suppressing the liberty of the press, and altering the law of election. This gave rise to a revolution which terminated in his dethronement, and the elevation of Louis Philippe.

1838. The Bolivian troops under Moran having left Lima on the previous day, Nieto and Orbegozo entered the city with about 2000 men and declared the constitution of 1835, Orbegozo being named provisional dictator.

1847. JOB DURFEE, a jurist of Rhode Island, and author of _What cheer; or Roger Williams in exile, &c._, died at Tiverton.

1848. FRANCIS R. SHUNK, governor of Pennsylvania, died, aged 60.

1848. After several days of hard fighting, the Piedmontese under Charles Albert were totally defeated by the Austrians under Radetsky, and retreated to Milan.

1852. The Irishmen in New York made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Thomas Kaine, in the custody of the United States marshal, and claimed by the British government, under the treaty, as a fugitive from justice.

1855. The pope declared the laws which had been enacted in Piedmont, to the detriment of religion and the power and liberty of the church, to be void and of no effect; and that all who supported them incurred the greater excommunication; also that the recent laws in Spain concerning the church property to be null and void.

1856. The boiler of the steam boat Empire State, exploded on the passage from Fall river to New York, killing and wounding several passengers.

JULY 27.

1139. The country of Portugal erected into a monarchy.

1276. JAMES I (_the Warrior_), of Arragon, died. He conquered several Moorish kingdoms, and added them to his dominions, and supported himself against the encroachments of the papal power.

1586. Sir FRANCIS DRAKE arrived in England from a western expedition, accompanied by Lane, the commander of Raleigh's Virginian colony, who now first brought from his settlement, tobacco into England: that which sir John Hawkins brought home in 1565 was considered a medicinal drug merely, and as Stow observes, _all men wondered what it meant_.

1597. JACOB HUYCK, translator of the first authorized version of the catholic Bible, printed in Cracow, died there, aged 57.

1627. THOMAS GOFF, an English divine, died. He wrote among various other things, four tragedies.

1661. Schenectady purchased from the Indians.

1663. A bill for the better observation of the Sabbath, was stolen from the clerk's table in the English house of commons, ere it had received the assent of the king.

1675. HENRY DE LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE, viscomte de Turenne, the renowned French general, killed by a cannon shot at the village of Saltzbach, in Germany. He was preparing for a great battle with the Austrians under Montecuculli.

1694. The charter of the bank of England for 12 years, determinable upon one year's notice, signed by the dynarchs, William and Mary.

1704. STANISLAUS LECZINSKI elected king of Poland.

1706. The legislative union of England and Scotland completed; one of the most important events of the reign of queen Anne.

1712. A disgraceful quarrel between the French and Dutch plenipotentiaries at Utrecht.