APRIL 13.
58 B. C. Julius Cæsar finished his famous wall of entrenchment, 16 feet in height and 17 miles in length, from Geneva to St. Claude; being a labor of only 6 days.
1436. Paris surrendered to the French under Charles VII, having been almost 14 years in the possession of the English.
1517. Cairo taken by the Turks under Selim, after a gallant resistance, and 50,000 of its inhabitants barbarously massacred. The sultan was hanged on one of the gates, Egypt was reduced to a province, and the power of the Mamelukes crushed, who for more than 260 years had swayed the land.
1584. An expedition fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh took possession of Wowoken, on the coast of America, since called Virginia. A colony was left there, but they were cut off by the Indians, and every one put to death.
1598. Henry IV of France published at Nantes the memorable edict of toleration; it was revoked 1685, by Louis XIV.
1605. Boris Godoonoff, czar of Moscow, died. He was called to the throne by acclamation, on the death of Fedor, the last of the dynasty of Ruric. In abilities and vigor of character, he resembled Peter the great; and might be called one of the greatest of princes, was not his name tarnished by a crime that led his way to the throne.
1638. Henry, duke of Rohan, a French warrior and historian, died. He signalized himself under Henry IV, both in the field and in the cabinet, but the jealousy of Richelieu drove him to Geneva. He joined the duke of Saxe Weimar against the imperialists, and was wounded in the battle, of which he died.
1640. The English parliament again met by royal mandate, after a refusal on the part of the king to call one for 12 years.
1641. Richard Montague, a learned English prelate, died. He published several controversial works.
1684. Nicolao Antonio, a Spanish author, died. He published an account of all the Spanish writers, in 4 vols. folio, entitled Bibliotheca Hispania. He spent his income, which was large, in acts of charity, and in collecting a library, which at his death, amounted to 30,000 volumes.
1686. Antonio de Solis, a Spanish author of note, died, aged 76. He was appointed historiographer of the Indies, and wrote the Conquest of Mexico, on which his fame as an author principally rests.
1699. Birthday of Maria Catharina Walter, in Germany. She died in Philadelphia, 1802, aged over 103, having lived in three centuries.
1722. Charles Leslie, an Irish theologian, died. He was a magistrate under James II, and respected for his talents and integrity. His writings were numerous, and sought for with avidity.
1726. Velasco Y. Palomino, a highly admired Spanish painter, died at Madrid.
1742. Oliver Reylof died at Ghent, eminent as a Latin poet.
1743. Christopher Pitt, an English poet, died. His translation of Virgil's Æneid is said to be superior to Dryden's.
1759. George Frederick Handel, the illustrious German musical composer, died at London, aged 75. His grand oratorio, the Messiah, appeared in 1741.
1759. Battle of Bergen, in which the duke of Broglio defeated the allies under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who lost 2,000 men and the Hanoverian prince Ysemberg.
1777. Battle of Boundbrook, New Jersey, in which 500 Americans under Gen. Lincoln were attacked by 2000 British under Cornwallis, and effected a retreat with the loss of 60.
1782. Third action off Ceylon, between the British under Admiral Hughes, and the French under Suffrein; latter defeated.
1787. Board of regents of the university of the state of New York established.
1788. Great riot in New York, occasioned by the imprudent manner in which the physicians procured subjects from the burying grounds; several lives lost.
1794. Peter Gaspard Chaumette, a French revolutionist, executed. He was the son of a cobbler, displayed great courage at the taking of the Bastile, and became one of the most sanguinary and reckless characters of the time, till his career was arrested by the guillotine.
1795. Riots in England on account of the high prices of food.
1796. Battle in the defiles of Millesimo, Italy, in which the French under Augereau and Joubert defeated the imperialists, who retreated to the mountains of Cossaria.
1799. Schaffhausen, on the Rhine in Switzerland, taken by the imperialists.
1801. The canal at Alexandria, Egypt, cut by the British, and the country inundated.
1804. Makey, a Malay settlement on the coast of Sumatra, destroyed by the British.
1807. Robert Heron, an erudite and popular writer, died. By unwearied industry he raised himself from an obscure to a prominent situation in society.
1813. Battle of Castilla, in Spain; the British under Sir John Murray, defeated the French under Suchet.
1815. The bill for the construction of the Erie canal from the Hudson river to lake Erie, passed the house of assembly, 84 to 15.
1818. Thomas Hatchcock died in Richmond county, North Carolina, aged 125, leaving a son aged 93 and another 16, and a great progeny besides.
1827. Hugh Clapperton, a Scottish traveler, died. He was employed by the British to explore the interior of Africa, and died at Sackatoo, on his second journey thither.
1832. Shadrach Bond, first governor of Illinois, died at Kaskaskia.
1839. Robert Hillhouse, an English poet, died. He was a stocking-weaver of Nottingham, and had no advantages of education but such as were afforded by Sunday schools. His works "will insure his celebrity as a poet of no mean grade."
1850. Pope Pius IX returned to Rome.
1853. William R. King, vice-president of the United States, died. He was for many years a diplomat abroad, and his career furnished a remarkable instance of the eminent and deserved success of probity, fidelity, industry, gentlemanly spirit and bearing, and inflexible honor.
1855. Henry Thomas de la Beche, an eminent English geologist, died, aged 59. He was the author of many geological works, and director-general of the geological survey of the united kingdom, and was knighted in 1848, in recognition of his valued and long-continued services.
1856. Philadelphia visited by a tornado, 150 houses unroofed.