DECEMBER 23.
486 B. C. The accession of Xerxes the magnificent to the Persian throne, Nar. Era, 263. When Darius Hystaspes, his father, was cut off, he had reigned 36 years, from the thoth of N. E. 227, corresponding with the first day of January B. C. 521. The year 485, in which he died, is remarkable for two facts, the conquest of Syracuse under Gelon, and a comic work by Epicharmus, who added the Greek letters chi and theta to his native alphabet.
176. Marcus Antoninus entered Rome in triumph, after his German victories on the Danube, accompanied by his monstrous son Commodus.
400. Naval battle of the Hellespont, and defeat of Gainas the barbarian; who was despatched in Thrace.
558. Childebert I, king of France, died. His great military exploit was the defeat of the king of Burgundy.
679. Dagobert II, king of Austrasia, assassinated.
1588. Henry de Lorraine, duke of Guise, assassinated by order of the king. He was a turbulent and seditious subject of Henry III, of France.
1620. The Plymouth settlers having fixed upon a place for a town, on a high ground facing the bay, where the land was cleared and the water excellent, as many as could conveniently went on shore, and felled and carried timber to the spot designated for the erection of a building for common use.
1622. Redemptus Barenzano, a Piedmontese monk, died. He was professor of philosophy at Anneci, and a correspondent of the great Bacon.
1631. Michael Drayton, an English poet, died. His works which were numerous, and of great merit, were collected in 1748 in one volume folio.
1632. John Cotton, the first minister of Boston, died. He was a good scholar and a pious, able and benevolent man.
1688. James II, king of England, escaped from England to Calais, in France, and was declared to have abdicated his throne.
1715. The Freeholder, first No., appeared, in a great degree political. In this work the labors of Addison as an essayist were brought to a close.
1721. William Musgrave died; an eminent English physician and antiquary, and secretary of the Royal society.
1747. The colonial house and records at Boston destroyed by fire.
1757. British privateer Terrible, captain William Death, of 26 guns and 200 men, captured a large French ship, after an obstinate battle, in which he lost his brother and 16 men killed. A few days after he fell in with the privateer Vengeance, 36 guns and 360 men, who recaptured the prize, and having manned her, both ships bore down on the Terrible, whose main was shot away by the first broadside. After a desperate engagement, in which the French captain and his second were killed, with two-thirds of his company, the Terrible was boarded, when no more than 26 persons were found alive, 16 of whom had lost a leg or an arm, and the other 10 were badly wounded. The ship itself was so shattered that it could scarcely be kept above water. There was a strange combination of names in this affair; the Terrible was equipped at Execution dock; was commanded by Death, who had Devil for his lieutenant and Ghost for surgeon.
1777. Washington had 2,898 men unfit for duty, "owing to their being barefooted and otherwise naked." His whole force fit for duty amounted to 8,200.
1783. Samuel Cooper, one of the most celebrated divines and politicians of New England, died.
1783. General Washington delivered up his commission to congress at Annapolis.
1789. Charles Michael de l'Epee, a celebrated French teacher of the deaf and dumb, died. He devoted his time and money to the education of indigent mutes. Sacrificing his own comfort to promote theirs. Some of his pupils obtained academical prizes by poetical and literary works.
1804. Battle of Biezun; the French under Grouchy defeated 8,000 Prussians, and took 500 prisoners and 5 cannon.
1814. Battle at Villaret's plantation, near New Orleans, between 2000 Americans under general Jackson and about 4000 British under general Keene. American loss 213; British loss 305.
1816. Bible societies prohibited in Hungary.
1825. Samuel Parkes, an English chemist, died. He was no less distinguished for his benevolence than for his ardor, diligence and perseverance in the pursuit of science.
1832. Civil war in Mexico terminated by a convention at Zalaveta, of delegates from the armies of Bustamente and Santa Anna.
1846. James Stevenson, one of the oldest of the Seneca chiefs, and a friend of Red Jacket, died on the Cattaraugus reservation, aged 81. He was the son of an English officer, who vainly tried to persuade his beautiful Indian wife to accompany him to England.
1854. Simoda, Japan, destroyed by an earthquake. A wave from the bay overflowed the town, and on its return left but 16 buildings out of a thousand standing.