APRIL 1.
168 B. C. Emylius Paulus passed from Brundusium to Corcyra (the modern Corfu) on his famous Macedonian expedition, and on the 6th, sacrificed at the shrine of Delphi.
1386. James Audley, an English warrior, died. He distinguished himself under Edward III in the wars with France, and on their return was liberally rewarded by his sovereign for the deeds of heroism he had displayed in the service.
1405. Tamerlane, chan of the Tartars, died. He is supposed to have been the son of a shepherd, and raised himself by his courage and prudence to the sovereignty of nearly three quarters of the world. He was preparing for the invasion of China when death put a stop to his career at the early age of 36.
1506. Erasmus was entertained at London by the great and learned men of the day.
1614. Henry de Montmorency, constable of France, died. He distinguished himself in several famous battles. Catharine de Medici found means to disgrace him, when he retired to Savoy, and made successful war upon his country. He lived to be promoted to the highest office under the king.
1672. Archibald Armstrong, privileged jester or fool of Charles V, died. There is a little book high priced and of little worth entitled Archibald's Jests.
1696. Père Gerbillon, the Jesuit missionary (see [May 30th]), accompanied the imperial Chinese army into Tartary, in the suite of the emperor, being his fifth journey into that country.
1696. John Bigg, an English hermit, died, aged 97. He begged pieces of leather, which he nailed to his clothes, till he became a truly grotesque figure. One of his shoes is preserved in the Bodleian museum, and is made up of about a thousand patches of leather.
1712. Lord Bolingbroke stated in parliament, that in the great contest, called "the glorious wars of Queen Anne," the duke of Marlborough had not lost a single battle, and yet the French had carried their point, the succession to the Spanish monarchy, the pretended cause for so great an enterprise. Dean Swift called this statement "a due donation for all fools day."
1720. John Leake, an English admiral, died. He fought against the far famed Van Tromp, but the battle at La Hogue most distinguished him.
1729. The grand jubilee began at Rome.
1732. John Burchard Mencke, a learned German author, died at Leipsic, where he had conducted the Acta Eruditorum 25 years, a valuable work begun by his father in 1682, and which established a correspondence with the learned men of Europe.
1764. An annular eclipse of the sun was observed at London.
1764. At Monmouth assizes a girl, aged 18, was burned for murdering her mistress. This was among the last punishments by burning in England.
1775. Col. Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer, began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, at a salt lick, 60 yards from the Kentucky river.
1779. John Langhorne, an English poet and divine, died. Besides poems, sermons and miscellanies, by which he is favorably known, the translation of Plutarch in common use bears his name.
1789. First meeting of congress under the federal constitution.
1794. The British under Sir John Jervis took the island of St. Helena.
1794. John Lewis Lombard, a German professor of artillery, died. He wrote several works on the movement of projectiles and the principles of gunnery.
1797. The French under Bernadotte entered Lauback, the capital of Carniola. At the same time Massena, commanding the advance guard of the French army,
attacked the imperialists in the defiles near Neumark; the strife being between the flower of the Austrian army and the French veterans of Italy, was most obstinately contested. The French, however, carried the day.
1799. Assault upon the works of St. Jean d'Acre, in Palestine. The French were repulsed with great loss.
1808. Russian ukase prohibiting the introduction of British goods into the Russian ports.
1810. State marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte with the archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria celebrated at St. Cloud. The emperor caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, with the singular device of Love bearing a thunderbolt.
1826. Isaac Milner, an English mathematician and theological writer, died. He was brought up to the weaving business, but occupied his leisure with the classics and mathematics. He was the tutor of Wilberforce and Pitt.
1832. War broke out between the Winnebago and other Indian tribes and the United States.
1832. The London Penny Magazine, under the superintendence of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, commenced.
1833. John Hooker Ashmun, professor of law in Harvard university, died. He had not attained his 33d year, yet he had gathered about him all the honors which are usually the harvest of a riper life.
1837. Robert Hawker, an English divine, died at Plymouth, England. In 1814 he published the holy scriptures in penny numbers for the use of the poor.
1843. John Armstrong, aged 84, died at Red Hook, N. Y. He was the author of the celebrated Newburgh Letters, and a prominent soldier in the war of the American revolution, and for some time secretary of war under President Madison.
1844. Peter S. Duponceau so favorably known as a scholar and statesman, died at Philadelphia, aged 84. In his 78th year he published his Dissertation on the Chinese Language.
1853. Santa Anna arrived at Vera Cruz, having been elected president of Mexico by the vote of 19 out of 25 states.
1856. Isaac McKeever, an American commodore, died at Norfolk, Va., where he commanded the navy yard.
1856. The Emperor Alexander published at St. Petersburg a proclamation announcing the signing of the treaty of peace with England, France and Turkey which terminated the struggle between Russia on the one side, and England, France and Turkey on the other, and prolonged the salvation of the latter country.