DECEMBER 19.
69. The Roman capitol burnt by Vitellius.
1567. The Burghley papers state from the diocesan's certificate, that there were
then in London and its immediate vicinity, 3,838 Dutchmen, 720 Frenchmen, 137 Italians, 10 Venitians, 56 Spaniards, 25 Portuguese, 2 Grecians, 2 Blackmores, 1 Dane, and but 58 Scots.
1675. Attack on Narragansett, by the united forces of the New England colonies. The English having gained an entrance, and withstood the first fire of the Indians, poured in amain, and made such havoc with their enemies that they soon had possession of every part of the fort. The wigwams to the number of five or six hundred were fired. The loss of the Indians on this occasion was by their own account 1000 fighting men; the loss of old men, women and children could not be estimated, as they mostly perished in the flames. The loss of the English was 80 killed. The blow was irreparable to the Indians, who were deprived of their homes and provisions.
1728. White Kennet, an English prelate, died. He was an eloquent and popular preacher, and made a valuable collection of manuscripts.
1745. The avails of three nights' acting the Beggar's Opera, amounting to £600, given to encourage king George's army against France and the rebels.
1753. Styan Thirlby, an ingenious and learned English critic, died. He edited the works of Justin Martyr.
1777. Washington moved his troops from the Swedes ford to Valley Forge 16 miles from Philadelphia, where he hutted them. They were in great want of shoes and stockings. At one time his army was without bread four days; on the fifth day two regiments refused to perform duty, but finally returned to order on the prudent conduct and persuasion of Washington.
1793. The princess royal of France, the only remaining member of the family of the unhappy Louis XVI, was exchanged for the marquis Lafayette.
1793. The French troops entered Toulon, when such of the inhabitants as had favored the allies either put an end to their own existence or perished by the guillotine or musket.
1799. Charles Joseph Panckoucke, an eminent Parisian printer, died. He acquired great celebrity as an author and a man of letters, as well as by the excellence of his printing.
1806. Elizabeth Carter, a contributor to the Rambler, and a good Latin and Greek scholar, died at London.
1807. Frederick Melchoir, baron de Grimm, died. He is indebted for his fame to a correspondence with the duke of Saxe Gotha, from Paris, which was published in 16 vols.
1813. David Hartley, an English philanthropist, died. He is distinguished also as a politician and a projector. In parliament he steadily opposed the war with the colonies, and was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with Dr. Franklin at Paris.
1813. Fort Niagara captured by the British, who took the Americans by surprise. In the fort were 250 men and 25 cannon.
1813. Lewistown and Tuscarora village, near fort Schlosser, were burnt by the Indians.
1815. Benjamin Smith Barton, an eminent physician of Philadelphia, died. He held the professorships of natural history and botany, afterwards of materia medica, and succeeded Dr. Rush in theory and practice of medicine.
1831. The national assembly of Greece met at Argos, but in consequence of sedition was soon obliged to remove to Napoli.
1840. Felix Grundy, long a distinguished senator of the United States from Tennessee, died. He was a zealous supporter of the measures of general Jackson's administration.
1842. John Uncas, the last male descendant of the Mohegan chief of that name, died, aged 89, and was buried in the royal burying ground of the Mohegans in Connecticut.
1845. Charles Bowen, with his wife and oldest child, drowned by the sinking of the steamer Bellozane in the Mississippi. He was for many years publisher of the North American Review, the American Almanac, Token, &c., in Boston.
1851. J. M. William Turner, an unrivaled English landscape painter, died at Chelsea, aged 76. He was a man of miserly habits and great eccentricities.
1852. Sacramento in California inundated; the city submerged by the breaking through of a levee.