AUGUST 25.
383. Gratianus, emperor of Rome, assassinated at the age of 24. He was a powerful Christian ruler, but of an unfortunate turn of mind to conduct a government.
1170. Strongbow, under king Dermot, carried Dublin by storm.
1270. Louis IX, of France, died. He made two crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land, and died of a contagion off Tunis, in Africa.
1313. Henry VII, emperor of Germany, died. He entered Rome sword in hand, at a time when the country was distracted by the war of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, and was crowned by the pope.
1381. An eruption of Etna, which consumed all the olive yards around Catania.
1482. Margaret, of Anjou, queen of Henry VI, of England, died. She became conspicuous by her heroism in battle for the rescue of her husband, and being taken prisoner was ransomed with 50,000 crowns.
1576. The earl of Essex died in Ireland, suspected to be poisoned by the earl of Leicester, who married his widow.
1585. Sir Richard Grenville, planted the first English colony in America, on the island of Roanoke, consisting of 107 persons. This settlement was begun 17 years after the French had abandoned Florida, on the same coast, but far to the north of the settlements for which France and Spain had contended. The expedition was fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh, and consisted of 7 ships.
1654. Battle of Arras, in France; the Spaniards under Conti defeated by Turenne.
1675. Battle of Sugarloaf hill, a few miles above Hatfield, on the Connecticut river. The Hadley Indians had betrayed their conspiracy with Philip's party, by fleeing from their dwellings, were pursued by captains Lathrop and Beers, and overtaken at this place, where a skirmish took place, in which 9 or 10 of the English fell, and about 26 Indians.
1725. A Hungarian picture of this date has the following inscription: "John Roven, in the 172d year of his age, and Sarah, his wife, in the 164th year of her age. They have been married 147 years,
and both born and died at Stradovia. Their children, two sons and two daughters, yet live; the youngest son is 116 years of age."
1758. Battle of Zorndorf between the Prussians, 30,000, under Frederick the Great, and 50,000 Russians, under Fermor. The Russians were defeated, with the loss of 19,000 killed, and 3,000 taken, and 103 cannon. Prussian loss, 10,000 killed. This was the bloodiest and one of the most remarkable battles of the seven years' war.
1770. Thomas Chatterton, an English poet of astonishing genius, died at the age of 18, by taking poison, to escape hunger and misery.
1776. David Hume, the Scottish historian, died. His History of England is a work of great merit, and has long been the most popular work of the kind.
1782. A large foraging party of British attacked at Combahee, in South Carolina, by the Americans under general Gist and colonel Laurens, who captured a schooner. Laurens was mortally wounded, and died aged 27.
1788. Archbishop Sens, premier of France under Louis XVI, seeing the finances of the state utterly desperate, and fearing for the king and more for himself, retired from the administration, and left the monarch, while bankruptcy and famine threatened the kingdom, to manage as he might, amid the storms which the measures of the minister himself had provoked to the uttermost. He fled to Italy with the greatest expedition, after having sent his resignation to his unfortunate sovereign.
1789. Mary Washington, mother of the illustrious general, died at Fredericksburgh, Va., aged 82.
1796. Lafayette and other prisoners released from the castle of Olmutz, at the requisition of the French government.
1797. John Baptist Louvet de Couvray, a French advocate, died; distinguished as an actor in the revolution, and an author.
1799. John Arnold, eminent for his improvements in the mechanism of timekeepers, died. He was the inventor of the expansion balance and detached escapement, and was the first artist who applied the gold cylindrical spring to the balance of a timepiece.
1800. Elizabeth Montague died; an English lady of considerable literary celebrity.
1803. Tate Wilkinson died; an English comedian and manager, often noticed by the writers of his day.
1804. Fifth attack on Tripoli by the Americans under commodore Preble.
1805. John Skey Eustace, a distinguished officer of the revolution, died, aged 45. In 1794 he went to France, and commanded a division of the French army in Flanders.
1806. John Philip Palm, a Nuremberg bookseller, shot for a publication against Bonaparte.
1807. Edward Preble died; the brave and intrepid commodore of the American fleet, which in 1804 subdued Tripoli.
1808. Action between the British and Swedish squadron under admiral Hood, and the Russian squadron, in which the latter was defeated.
1810. The solemn inauguration of the column to the glory of the grande armée in the place Vendôme, Paris, took place on the 15th.
1812. The French raised the siege of Cadiz, which had long resisted their efforts. Among the artillery abandoned, was a large mortar, which had been employed in throwing shells the immense distance of three miles.
1814. Washington city evacuated by the British under major general Robert Ross and admiral Cockburn.
1819. James Watt, an eminent Scottish natural philosopher, died; celebrated for his improvements in the steam engine.
1822. William Herschel, the English astronomer, died. He discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, which sometimes bears his name.
1830. Insurrection of the Belgians commenced at Brussels. The populace attacked and destroyed several houses belonging to the most obnoxious individuals, and skirmishes followed between the inhabitants and the troops.
1834. Morris Evans died at Raleigh, N. C., aged 105.
1835. Earthquake in Natolia, by which 2,000 houses were destroyed in the city of Kaisarieh.
1836. Christian William Hufeland, an eminent Prussian physician and medical writer, died, aged 75. He was a popular lecturer, distinguished for his profound and extensive learning, and ingenious application of his theory to practice.
1837. The cholera raged at Rome, and was fatal to 300; the greatest number of deaths that occurred in any one day.
1849. The French admiral, de Tromelin, took possession of and dismantled the fortifications at Honolulu, Sandwich islands, the government having refused to comply with the demands of the admiral. He relinquished the possession three days after.
1854. The city of Troy, N. Y., visited by a destructive fire, which consumed more than a hundred houses and manufactories.