AUGUST 23.
634. Abdallah Atik Ben Abi Kohafah, better known as Abu Bekr, died. He was the first caliph or successor of Mohammed in the government of the faithful. He enlarged the empire, and caused the precepts of the prophet to be collected in a volume, called Al Koran, which is the sacred and classical book of the Mohammedans.
1305. William Wallace, "the peerless knight of Ellerslie," at the age of about 35, executed on Tower hill, and his head set up on London bridge, to the public gaze.
1350. Philip de Valois, king of France, died. His crown was disputed by Edward VIII of England, which gave rise to a disastrous war.
1400. Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, burnt by the armies of Henry IV of England.
1481. Thomas Littleton died; a celebrated English judge in the time of Edward IV, and author of a treatise on tenures or titles, by which all estates were anciently held in England.
1500. Don Francisco de Bobadilla arrived at St. Domingo, a royal commissioner to inquire into the conduct of Columbus.
1532. William Warham, bishop of Canterbury, died; some time chancellor of England, from which office he was removed to make room for Wolsey.
1622. The Certain News of the Present Week is the title of a small quarto of 18 pages published this day in London, supposed to be the first weekly newspaper in England.
1628. George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, a noted English statesman, assassinated, at the age of 36.
1630. The first court of assistants held at Charlestown, Mass. They determined that ministers should be settled, houses built and salaries raised for them at the
public expense. They settled the price of mechanical labor; carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers and thatchers, should take no more than 2s. a day, under a penalty of 10s. to giver and taker. At this court Edward Palmer was sentenced for extortion, in charging 2l. 13s. 4d. for the wood work of Boston stocks, to sit in them one hour and pay a fine of five pounds.
1642. John George Wirsungus, an Italian anatomist, assassinated. He was professor of anatomy at Padua, where he discovered and explained the pancreatic duct.
1679. William Owtram died; an eminent English preacher and scholar in the reign of Charles II.
1686. Buda, the capital of Hungary, after being in possession of the Turks for 145 years, was taken by the imperialists.
1693. The first printing executed in New York, was a proclamation of governor Fletcher bearing this date.
1719. Henry Clements, an eminent bookseller in London, died. His death was memorable on account of the occasion it furnished for the publication of his funeral sermon, entitled the Christian's Support under the Loss of Friends.
1720. James Vergier, a French poet, assassinated at Paris. He possessed great talents; but dissipation and licentiousness were unfortunately his distinguishing characteristics.
1723. Increase Mather died; a New England clergyman during the witchcraft delusion, which he labored to mitigate. It is said that he usually spent 16 hours a day in study; the number of his publications was 85, the number of his years 84. (His tomb stone says Aug. 27.)
1727. Hosier, the English admiral, died off Porto Bello. He had been sent out the year previous with 7 ships of war to intercept the Spanish galleons. On his arrival the galleons unloaded their treasure, and to prevent them from sailing the fleet lay off that pestilential coast until both the ships and their crews were desolated. Glover, author of a little poem called Admiral Hosier's Ghost, represents the number of dead at 3,000.
1756. Foundation stone of Columbia college laid at New York.
1782. Henry Lewis du Hamel died at Paris; eminent for his knowledge of mechanics, agriculture and commerce.
1782. Cape River fort surprised and carried by assault by the British captain Campbell with 150 negroes. He lost but 2 killed; Spanish loss 65 killed, 9 taken, mostly wounded.
1789. Silas Deane, minister of the United States to France in 1776, died in England in extreme poverty.
1793. Massacre of the French in St. Domingo.
1793. The British took Pondicherry from the French.
1795. French convention decreed that all assemblies known by the name of clubs or popular societies in France, should be suppressed immediately, their places of meeting shut up, and the keys delivered to the secretary of the town house.
1795. William Bradford died at Philadelphia, aged 39; some time attorney general of the United States, and known as an author and poet.
1804. Tripoli bombarded the third time by the American commodore Preble, from 2 P. M., until daylight the next morning, without much effect.
1806. Charles Augustin de Coulomb, a French engineer, died. He is noted for his brilliant experiments and discoveries in electricity and magnetism.
1813. Battle of Gross-Beeren, near Berlin in Prussia; the French under Oudinot, about 80,000, defeated with considerable loss.
1813. Alexander Wilson, the naturalist, died at Philadelphia; author of the American Ornithology, 7 vols. 4to, a work of great accuracy and comprehensiveness.
1818. First steamer from Buffalo to Detroit.
1820. Oliver Hazard Perry, a distinguished American naval officer, died at Trinidad of yellow fever, on the anniversary of his birth day, which was the 23d August, 1785. His victory on lake Erie over a British force superior in men and guns to his own, has given his name a permanent place in the history of his country.
1826. Koller, an Austrian general, died. He accompanied Napoleon, where he had to protect him against the rabble infuriated by priests and ultras, which was done by an exchange of garments. He left a valuable collection of antiques.
1835. Isaac Pococke died; one of the most successful dramatic writers of his day.
1835. Massacre at Para in Brazil by the Indians. The attack commenced on the 14th. The United States consul barely escaped with his life. It is supposed that the slaughter must have been immense, and a more complete sack of any city probably never took place.
1850. Charles Dyer, a midshipman in the United States navy, was drowned at Pensacola, in nobly attempting to save the crew of a vessel in distress. Alexander Hale, assistant engineer in the service and a graduate of Yale college, lost his life also in the same cause.
1855. Henry Lawson, an English astronomer, died at Bath, aged 81.