APRIL 26.
871. Ethelred I defeated the Danes, but died of his wounds. In his reign a great plague occurred.
1478. Lorenzo de Medici, duke of Florence, rescued by the populace from the hands of assassins. His brother Julian was less fortunate; he fell beneath their daggers. The duke was conducted back to his palace by the multitude with every demonstration of regard, while the archbishop, who became the tool of the pope for executing this foul and impious conspiracy, was suspended in his pontifical robes from the window of his own sanctuary.
1566. Diana de Poitiers, duchess of Valentinois, died. She captivated the heart of the king of France, Henry II, and for many years remained sole mistress, not only of his affections, but of the kingdom. Her unusual powers of mind, and firmness and dignity, constituted her the fittest sovereign of the two.
1595. Michael Neander, a learned German protestant, died. He was rector of the university of Ilfeldt 40 years, and published several learned works.
1607. Christopher Newport, with three vessels and 100 emigrants, forming the first permanent English colony, stood into Chesapeake bay, "which seemed to invite his entrance."
1616. John Somers, an English statesman, died. He was a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views, and justly celebrated as a man of learning, eloquent and refined.
1665. The great plague of this and the subsequent year broke out at St. Giles, London.
1726. Jeremy Collier, an English divine, died. In 1698 he made an attempt to reform the stage, which engaged him in a controversy, and exposed him to the satire of the wits of the day; but after a ten years' struggle he accomplished his object, and actually produced an amendment.
1734. John Baptist Morvan de Bellegarde, a French Jesuit, died. He was
expelled from the order at Nantes, for being a Cartesian.
1777. Danbury, Conn., burnt, and the military stores destroyed, by a detachment of 2,000 British under Tyron. The place was guarded by 100 soldiers, who retired to await reinforcements. Eighteen houses, 800 barrels of flour, 800 barrels of pork and beef, 2,000 bushels of grain, and 1,700 tents were destroyed. The enemy were pursued and annoyed by a few hundred of the citizens under Wooster and Arnold; the former was killed.
1783. Eyre Coots, a celebrated commander of the East India Company's forces, died. He gained great renown by his victories over Hyder Ally; in one of which, near Porto Novo, with 10,000 men he defeated Hyder's army of 150,000.
1794. The Vendeans under Charette defeated by the French.
1794. Battle of Prisches; Austrians defeated by the French.
1794. Grand attack of the French upon the allies, from Trevers to the sea.
1805. William Woodville died; a distinguished English physician and medical writer.
1807. The planet Vesta observed in England by Groombridge, an ingenious and active astronomer, who had successfully devoted his leisure and fortune to the advancement of astronomy.
1815. Carsten Neibuhr, a Danish traveler, died, aged 82. He was employed by the Danish government in 1761, with four other learned men, to explore Arabia; was the only one of the company who returned, after an absence of six years, and was liberally rewarded. His publications were, Travels in Arabia and Description of Arabia.
1816. George Hardinge, an eminent English lawyer, died. He rose rapidly in his profession, became council for the East India Company, and attorney-general to the queen, and had a seat in parliament. His speeches and writings were numerous.
1831. Imprisonment for debt abolished in the state of New York.
1835 Henry Kater died at London. His experiments on the pendulum and Geodesic surveys rendered him famous.
1836. St. Jean d'Arc, in Palestine, surrendered to the Egyptian troops under Ibrahim Pasha. The governor of the fortress was provided with a safe residence in Egypt, and an annual pension of 75,000 piasters.
1837. The trial of Meunier for an attempt to assassinate the king of the French, terminated in his conviction. His sentence was commuted to perpetual banishment.
1838. Battle near Brugos, between Gen. Espartero and the Carlists under Negri, in which the latter were defeated, with the loss of 2,000 prisoners, their baggage and artillery.
1840. Bacchus, a negro slave, died at Friedland, in Virginia, aged 110. He had been in the family of his last owner more than 40 years; was employed as a teamster during the war of the revolution; and was in attendance with his team at the glorious and final siege of Yorktown. He saw Gen. Braddock as he passed on to his defeat, and could give a succinct account of that sanguinary action. The evening previous to his death he was walking about the farm, in the full possession of all his faculties of mind and body.
1840. John Thornton Kirkland, president of Harvard university, died, aged 70. His father was more than 40 years a missionary among the Oneida Indians, during which he was born at Little Falls, 1770. His rank was with the most eminent among the constant and serviceable friends of good principles, good learning and good men. Some of his productions will continue to be esteemed among the gems of our literature.
1843. Hodijah Baylies died; a soldier of the revolutionary war, and for some time an aid to Gen. Washington. Like others of that noble band, he too was a distinguished civilian.
1853. Russell Jarvis died in New York, aged 63; widely known as a politician, and co-editor with Duff Green, of the United States Telegraph, at Washington.
1854. A day of humiliation was observed throughout England; divine service was performed in all the places of public worship, and collections taken for the benefit of the wives and children of the soldiers engaged in the war of the east.
1854. Gabriel Rosetti, an Italian poet and painter, died, aged 71. Setting up for a reformer, he was obliged to fly to England, where he spent the remainder of his days in teaching Italian.
1854. Henry T. Cochrane, a Scottish jurist, died; known as the biographer of his friend Lord Jeffrey.
1855. The emperor and empress of the French, having visited the queen of England, returned to France on this day.