AUGUST 1.
30 B. C. Defection of the entire fleet of Marc Antony, at Alexandria, which suddenly passed over to Octavius, afterwards Augustus Cæsar.
117. Marcus Ulpius Trajan, emperor of Rome, died. He admired and copied the virtues of Nerva, his predecessor, and reigned nearly twenty years in the hearts of his people, when Hadrian received his mantle.
432. Celestine I, pope, died. The doctrines of Nestorius were condemned by him.
643. Oswald, king of Northumberland, slain at Maserfield. Bede says he erected in the shape of a wooden cross the first altar to Christ among the Bernicians.
725. The old English tax called Peter's pence, was first laudably imposed by Ina, king of the west Saxons, for the support of an English college at Rome, but afterwards appropriated by the church for very different purposes.
1137. Louis VI, king of France, died. He was a wise and popular monarch, but during his reign, which continued nearly thirty years, the country was disturbed by external quarrels and internal factions.
1202. King John of England obtained a victory over his nephew Arthur, whom with his sister Eleanor he took prisoner.
1221. The convent belonging to Westminster abbey destroyed; which issued in several individuals being severely punished.
1464. Cosmo de Medicis, a Florentine merchant, died. He bestowed vast expense and attention in the promotion of learning, and presided over the commonwealth 34 years, with so much wisdom and popularity, as to acquire the title of Father of the People. (See [Oct. 4, 1434].)
1498. Columbus, on his third voyage, first set his foot upon the continent of America at Terra-Firma, mistaking it for an island. This was more than a year after the English expedition under the Cabots had reached its shores.
1560. The Scottish parliament assembled which overturned the Roman church in Caledonia, and established a new ecclesiastical system on a Calvinistic and presbyterian model.
1589. Henry III, of France, assassinated. He was a weak and vicious prince, during whose reign the country was desolated with factions and civil and religious wars. He was the last of the house of Valois.
1605. Edmund Anderson, an eminent English lawyer, died. He was one of the ablest and most learned of queen Elizabeth's judges; his law works are of great authority.
1625. The first parliament of Charles I, of England, on account of the plague, met at Oxford.
1714. Anne, queen of England, died, in the 50th year of her age.
1716. James Boileau, a celebrated French theologian, died; a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a man of great wit and learning.
1720. John Leake, a brave English admiral, died. He signalized himself in many important victories in different parts of the world.
1732. William Cosby arrived at New York as governor of that province and New Jersey.
1743. Richard Savage, an eminent English poet, died in prison, aged 46. His great natural abilities were over-balanced by vices and follies which rendered him an unhappy man.
1759. Battle of Minden; the British and German forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated the French, who met with great losses.
1766. France stipulated not to aid the Pretender if England would suffer a Romish bishop to be sent to Canada; it was acceded to.
1768. The merchants and traders of Boston entered into a non-importation agreement against Great Britain.
1769. Jean Chappe d'Auteroche, a French astronomer, died at California, whither he had gone to make an observation. He was distinguished for learning and abilities.
1770. Battle of Cahal; the Turkish
army of 150,000 defeated by 18,000 Russians under marshal Romanzow.
1772. A revolution was effected in Sweden by the army, and dissimulation of the crown.
1774. Dr. Priestly discovered dephlogisticated air, which has been called the birth day of pneumatic chemistry.
1780. The village of Canajoharie laid waste by the Indians.
1790. John Knox, the book seller, and the improver of the herring fisheries in Scotland, died.
1793. Action without the harbor of New York between the French frigate L'Ambuscade, and British frigate Boston. The battle was severe, and both vessels were greatly damaged; but the Boston would have been captured if she had not been enabled to retreat. The Ambuscade had 6 killed, 20 wounded. The British lost their captain and nearly all their officers killed. The crews of the two frigates were about the same, 350 each.
1798. Battle of the Nile; the French fleet of 13 sail and 4 frigates defeated by the British, 13 ships of 74s, and a 50 gun ship under Nelson. Nine of the French ships were taken and 2 burnt, and 2 of the frigates destroyed. Admiral Brueys was mortally wounded and blown up in the Orient, 120 guns and 1070 men. Of the French 3,105 were put on shore by cartel, and 5,225 perished.
1801. Jonathan Edwards, president of Union college, died; a man of uncommon powers of mind.
1803. William Woodfall, an English printer, died. He possessed a remarkably retentive memory, and was the first who gave a full and immediate detail of the proceedings of parliament.
1807. John Walker, the English lexicographer, died.
1819. James Forbes died; a civil servant in the East India company, and creditably known as the author of Oriental Memoirs, which were selected from a mass of manuscripts written during 17 years' residence in India, stated to occupy 52,000 folio pages, in 150 vols. The plates, from drawings of plants and animals made by the author, have rarely been surpassed in spirit and beauty.
1821. William Floyd, one of the signers, died.
1821. Elizabeth Inchbald, an English dramatic writer and actress, died. She possessed great beauty and talent, and an unsullied reputation; many of her pieces are still stock plays.
1829. Capture of Jambouli and destruction of the Turkish camp by a brigade of Hulans and Cossacks, after having defeated on the road a body of 15,000 Turks.
1834. Robert Morrison, an eminent English orientalist, at Canton, died. He was considered the best Chinese scholar in Europe. He translated the whole of the New Testament into Chinese, which was printed in 1813; but the great monument of his literary fame is his Dictionary of the Chinese Language, 6 vols. quarto.
1834. The slaves in the British colonies emancipated, and a temporary apprenticeship commenced.
1834. The bill admitting dissenters to the honors of the English universities, which had passed the house of commons, rejected in the house of lords by a majority of 102—a grand halt to the march of mind in England.
1838. John Rogers died; a distinguished naval officer, and senior commander in the American navy. He had been fifteen months a resident of the naval asylum, and the greater part of the time in close confinement as a confirmed lunatic.
1838. The entire emancipation of the negro apprentices in the islands of Jamaica, Barbadoes, Chevis, Montserrat, St. Christophers, St. Vincent and Tortola, took place, in compliance with the acts of the colonial legislatures.
1848. The city of Vera Cruz delivered up to the Mexicans by the United States; general Smith embarked for home.
1849. Henry A. Breckingham, known as the author of several historical sketches and other interesting reminiscences of the early days of the American colonies, died at Brooklyn, of cholera.
1849. Queen Victoria embarked at Cowes on her visit to Ireland.
1851. Harriet Lee, an English authoress, died, aged 95. Jointly with her sister Sophia, they were the authors of various works, chiefly novels or dramas. Harriet was almost the exclusive author of the Canterbury Tales, 5 vols., perhaps the best known of their labors.
1853. The Austrian government, in a circular addressed to the European courts, protested against the proceedings of Capt. Ingraham, in the port of Smyrna, in rescuing Martin Koszta, claiming to be a citizen of the United States.
1854. Kenneth Murchison formerly governor of Penang and Singapore, died in London, aged 60.
1854. The yellow fever became epidemic at New Orleans. It disappeared in November, when the number of deaths was 2441. There were 600 deaths in Savannah from the same disease.