APRIL 16.
29 B. C. Octavius Cæsar entered Rome and celebrated the grand triple triumph of nine days, for his victories at Dalmatia, at Actium and Alexandria, and shut the gates of the temple of Janus Quirinus the second time. This is also the anniversary of his being saluted Emperor. The city at this time was 50 miles in circumference, containing 4,000,000 inhabitants, and the annual revenue of the state amounted to about $180,000,000,000!
66. The massacre and crucifixion of 3600 Jews took place at Jerusalem, on the 16th Artemisius, (Jiar) under the procuratorship of Gessius Horus.
1546. Paul III excommunicated the bishop of Cologne for heresy in countenancing Lutheranism. The bishop resigned rather than expose his people to the miseries of war.
1548. Evening prayer began to be read in English in king Edward VI's chapel.
1551. A pestilence broke out at Shrewsbury, in England. It reached London in July, and the weekly mortality was upwards of 700. It ravaged the eastern and northern parts of the kingdom till September, when it stopped suddenly.
1564. Birthday of William Shakspeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon.
1629. The lord treasurer's warrant issued, giving liberty for 60 women and maids, 26 children, and 300 men, with victuals, arms, apparel and tools, 140 cattle, some horses, sheep and goats, to go to America. They sailed in 6 ships, and landed at Naumkeak, in Massachusetts, now Salem, a name which was chosen in place of the aboriginal one, as expressive of the peaceful asylum they found in the American wilderness.
1634. Of seven sailors left by the Dutch on the coast of Greenland, for the purpose of establishing a wintering place, the first one died. These sailors were amply supplied with every article of clothing, provisions and utensils thought necessary or useful in such a situation. A journal was
kept by them, by which it appears that on the ninth October they began to make a constant fire to sit by; and soon after it was remarked that they experienced a considerable change in their bodies, with giddiness in their heads. At the time of the death of this man, they were all disabled but one person. This poor wretch continued the journal till the last day of April, when they were praying for a speedy release from their miseries. On the return of their countrymen in the spring, they were all found dead. (See [Jan. 14th] for a similar event.)
1639. William Kieft having become governor of New Netherland, took the affidavit of sundry persons to the effect that under the administration of his predecessor the public interests had been neglected, and the fortifications allowed to go to decay.
1644. William Brewster, one of the leading members of the Plymouth colony, died. He possessed a large property in England, which he lost in escaping from ecclesiastical tyranny, and supported himself in Holland by teaching a school.
1662. Three of the judges who condemned Charles I, namely Miles Corbet, John Ohey and John Barstead, were arrested in Holland, and sent to England for execution.
1681. The province of New Jersey offered for sale, at about $25,000. An original letter is still in existence, from the earl of Bath to lord Norbury, since sold by auction as a curious manuscript, containing a proposal for the sale, in which it is represented as "a country almost as large as England, belonging to the late George Carteret."
1689. Aphara Behn (alias Astrea) an English authoress, died. At Surinam, where her family resided, she became acquainted with the African prince Oroonooko, on whose story she founded a novel, which Southey has dramatized. Her works consist of novels, poems and 17 plays.
1743. Cornelius Van Bynkershoek, an eminent Dutch lawyer, died. He published several law works, which display great talents and research, and is characterized as "one of the most learned among modern civilians."
1746. Battle of Culloden, which terminated the Scottish rebellion. The forces of the pretender were defeated, with the loss of 1,200 slain, by the English under the duke of Cumberland, second son of George II, and the pretender himself compelled to flee to France.
1781. Naval action in the harbor of St. Jago, Cape de Verde, between the British fleet under Johnstone, and the French under admiral Suffrein, in which the latter were compelled to retire with considerable loss.
1788. George Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon, died. He was the greatest naturalist of the 18th century. His Natural History, to which he devoted fifty years of his life, was published in 36 vols. and opened a new science to the world.
1796. Samuel Pinnock, a negro, died at Kingston, Jamaica, aged 125.
1796. Battle of Cera; the entrenched Piedmontese camp attacked by the French under Augereau and Joubert; the former fought all day, and then evacuated their camp.
1799. Battle of Esdrelon and Mount Tabor; the Syrian army defeated by Bonaparte, with the loss of 5,000 men.
1811. A plantation at Port-Royal mountains, Jamaica, on which were about thirty acres of coffee, sunk down and disappeared, so that only the ridge of the house was discernible.
1812. Hugh White, founder of Whitestown, near Utica, New York, died.
1813. Part of the British squadron anchored off Petapsco river, within sight of Baltimore.
1814. Charles Philip, count d'Artois, declared the Capetan, or French monarchy, to be re-established.
1820. Arthur Young, a celebrated English agriculturist, died. He traveled extensively in Great Britain and on the continent with a view to the improvement of husbandry. Besides his works on agriculture he published his tours.
1823. William Aspinwall, an American physician, died, aged 80. He was a surgeon in the revolutionary army, and was famous for his skill in the treatment of smallpox. He erected hospitals, where he received patients to be inoculated for the disease; but on becoming convinced of the efficacy of vaccination, he closed them.
1830. Earthquake in Central America; several towns destroyed.
1831. National congress of Belgium dissolved.
1832. Muzio Clementino, the father of pianoforte music, died in England. He was born at Rome, 1752, and practiced in his profession as a musician with great applause in the principal cities of Europe.
1840. William Pitts, an eminent sculptor, died at London, aged 50.
1847. John Burnham, aged 93, and his wife, Mehitable, aged 90, died in Essex, Mass., and were buried in one grave. Two days previous Benjamin Burnham, aged 92, died at the same place. They were the three oldest inhabitants of that town.
1854. The city of San Salvador was wholly destroyed by an earthquake, causing the loss, in less than one minute, of
more than 200 lives, and four millions worth of property.
1854. The ship Powhatan, from Havre for New York, having on board 311 emigrants, went ashore in a gale on Long Beach, near Egg Harbor, was totally wrecked, and not a single passenger was saved.
1856. Thacher Magoun, a noted American ship builder, died, aged 81. He laid the first keel of a ship at Midford, Mass., in 1802, and during half a century built a fleet.