APRIL 28.
1060 B. C. The 28th Jiar is kept as a fast by the Hebrews for the death of Samuel, which took place two years before the destruction of Saul.
492 B. C. Menenius Agrippa, a Roman patrician died; celebrated for appeasing a sedition by a fable of the belly and the limbs.
357. Constantius, the third and surviving son of Constantine the great, visited Rome for thirty days, when he displayed the magnificence of a triumph.
1489. Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, murdered.
1494. Joan Boughton, a widow, was burned for heresy; said to be the first female martyr of England.
1521. Cortez having constructed 13 brigantines with sails and oars, and transported them on the backs of 8000 Tlascalans, they were launched on this day in the lake of Mexico, with religious ceremonies under a discharge of the artillery and small arms, followed by the singing of Te Deum to the music of military instruments. They were provided with sails and twelve oars each, and a falconet, or small brass cannon. The final success of the enterprise was greatly indebted to these vessels.
1535. Albert Pio, a Spanish ecclesiastic buried with extraordinary pomp at Paris, in the church of the Cordeliers.
1552. The council of Trent was prorogued for two years; it did not assemble again until 1562.
1636. Julius Cæsar, an English statesman under Elizabeth, died. He was a man of great learning and integrity, charitable and benevolent.
1710. Thomas Betterton, an English, tragedian, died. He was a bookbinder previous to going upon the stage; and acquired a high degree of reputation as an actor.
1721. An order of the English council was issued to suppress Hellfire clubs.
1738. Shakspeare's tragedy of Julius Cæsar performed at Drury Lane theatre, for the purpose of raising a fund for the erection of a monument to his memory at Westminster.
1751. Thomas Gibson, an eminent English painter, died.
1752. Francis Oudin, a French Jesuit, died. He was professor of theology at Dijon, and an author.
1754. Washington attacked a French encampment at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela. The night was dark and rainy, and the enemy completely secure. His troops having surrounded the camp, fired and rushed upon the French, who immediately surrendered.
1760. Battle of Sillery, in Canada, between the British garrison at Quebec, 3000, under Gen. Murray, and the French under Levi, consisting of 10 battalions of regulars, 6000 Canadian militia, and a body of Indians. The British general finding himself in danger of being outflanked, retreated to his fortifications, with the loss of 1000 men. The French loss was still greater, and they reaped no essential advantage from the victory.
1772. The counts Struensee, and Brandt, the favorite of the king of Denmark, executed at Copenhagen. Their alleged crime was an intrigue with the queen of Denmark, princess Caroline Matilda, sister of George III, of England.
1779. Simon Barnard, a celebrated
aid-du-camp of Napoleon, and for some time chief of the engineer corps of the United States, was born at Dôle, in France.
1786. Gustavus, king of Sweden, read the eulogy of Creutz, the poet and statesman, who died a short time previous. Creutz signed with Franklin a treaty of amity between the United States and Sweden, 1783.
1788. Maryland, the 7th state in succession, adopted the constitution of the United States; votes 63 to 12.
1789. Mutiny on board the ship Bounty on her voyage from Otaheite, whither she had sailed to procure fruit trees to stock the West India islands. The vessel had on board 1015 plants of the bread fruit tree. Lieut. Bligh and 19 of the crew were compelled to go into an open boat; "they reached the island of Timor in June, after a perilous voyage of 1200 leagues."
1789. Thomas Hutchins, geographer-general of the United States, died. He was a native of New Jersey, and was in England at the commencement of the revolutionary war, where he refused some excellent offers, and was subsequently imprisoned and lost £12,000 on suspicion of holding correspondence with Franklin in Paris. He afterwards returned to America, served under Greene in South Carolina, and published several historical and geographical works, with charts and maps.
1793. Battle of Duren; the French defeated by the Austrians under Clairfait, with a loss of 2000, and their military chest, 12 cannon, and 13 ammunition wagons.
1796. Action off Lizard point, between the British ship Indefatigable, sir Edward Pellew, and French frigate La Virginia, 44 guns; the latter captured.
1796. Charette, the Vendean chief, executed at Nantes. This afforded General Hoche an opportunity to subdue the royalists in France.
1797. Robert Parker hanged for burglary at Knoxville, Tennessee.
1799. The French ambassadors were assassinated at Radstat. The infamy of this base action is shared by the French emigrants and Austrians.
1799. Battle of Adda, in Italy; the Russians under Suwarrow defeated the French under Serrurier, who, with his division, was taken prisoner.
1804. Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, in South America, taken by the British; the Dutch surrendered 2000 prisoners, 282 cannon, and several vessels.
1813. Spesutie island taken possession of by the British, situated near the head of Chesapeake.
1813. Privateer Yorktown, Capt. Riker, of New York, captured the British brig Avery, with a valuable cargo, and brought her safe to port.
1813. Michael Lavrionovitch Golenitcheff Kutusoff-Smolenski, the famous Russian field-marshal, died. He commanded the Russian army destined to oppose the invasion of Bonaparte in 1812.
1814. Bonaparte embarked for Elba from Frejus. He had landed at this place on his return from Egypt, when about to commence that astonishing career, which will be remembered in the history of Europe to the end of time; but which now, to all appearance, was about to terminate, and that at the very point from which it had started.
1851. Edward Codrington, a British admiral, died, aged 81. He distinguished himself under Howe and Nelson, but his name is chiefly renowned by the famous action of Navarino, where he had chief command.
1854. The American barque Hespar, bound for Antwerp, came in collision with the Bremen barque Favorite, for Baltimore, having 180 passengers on board, all of whom perished.
1854. William Henry Pagot, marquis of Anglesey, died, aged 86. He distinguished himself in several campaigns, especially in the Peninsular war, and was raised to the rank of field marshal.
1855. Giovanni Pianori, a hired bravo, attempted to shoot Louis Napoleon while riding in the Champs Elysees.
1856. The receipt of the ratification of the treaty of peace by all the foreign powers was announced officially in England, and a day of thanksgiving throughout the United Kingdom was appointed.
1857. Frederick Emerson, an eminent American instructor, died, aged 68. He was the author of a popular arithmetic used in the public schools.