JULY 21.
1756 A. M. The window of the ark opened 40 days after the appearance of the tops of the mountains, 1st of 10th month, (June 11). See [Nov. 2].
330 B. C. Darius III (Codomanus), the last king of the ancient Persian empire, assassinated. He was conquered by Alexander the Great, and treacherously slain by Bessus, governor of Bactria, his own general, who hoped to succeed to the sovereignty. With his death the Persian empire became extinct, after a lapse of 228 years from its establishment by Cyrus.
365. A memorable earthquake which
shook the greatest part of the Roman world, and deluged the lower shores of the Mediterranean. The city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, in which 50,000 inhabitants lost their lives in that inundation.
1403. Battle of Shrewsbury, between Henry IV and Henry Percy (Hotspur). Their numbers were matched and the mutual slaughter was immense; several earls, 2,300 gentlemen, and 6,000 privates were slain. Hotspur was brained by an English cloth yard, and his rival in execution, Douglas, was taken prisoner. But for the disparity in prudence, the dynasty upon the English throne would probably have been reversed. (20th? 22d?)
1575. Francis Marullo, or Maurolico, abbot of Messina and an eminent astronomer, died. Owing to the illiberality of the age in which he lived much of his treatise on comets was suppressed.
1586. Thomas Cavendish sailed upon an American expedition, at his own expense, in three ships, with 123 persons, victualed for 2 years, and circumnavigated the earth. It was the second English voyage round the world, and was effected in two years and two months, with the loss of two of his ships. On his voyage he pillaged and burnt several Spanish settlements on the west coast of America.
1667. Treaty of Breda, between the English, French and Dutch, when New York was exchanged for Surinam, and Antigua and Montserrat restored to the British.
1601. Peter Airault died; a magistrate of Paris of great integrity and firmness, by which he acquired the title of the rock of the accused.
1637. Daniel Sennertus, a learned German physician, died. He was the son of a shoemaker, rose to great celebrity, and was one of the first to introduce the study of chemistry among his pupils.
1683. William Russel, duke of Bedford, executed. This was one of the arbitrary measures of the reign of Charles II. An attempt was afterwards made to satisfy the ends of justice in this affair by seeking out the instigators of the deed, and restoring his family to their privileges and estates.
1688. James Butler, duke of Ormond, died; a celebrated statesman and warrior in the reign of Charles II, to whose restoration he materially contributed.
1772. Peter Barral, a French ecclesiastic, died. He distinguished himself by the production of several useful works, and among them a historical dictionary.
1773. Pope Clement XIV signed the famous bull which pronounced the extinction of the society of Jesuits.
1788. Gaetano Filangieri died at Naples; one of the most celebrated political economists of the last century.
1789. M. Foulon and his son-in-law, Berthier, massacred at Paris; they are numbered as the 8th and 9th victims of the revolution.
1796. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, died. In the humble employment of a ploughman, he discovered a most extraordinary genius, which has given to his productions an enduring fame.
1797. Peter Thelluson, a Swiss resident in London, died. He accumulated an immense property, the bulk of which he left to be funded till it should amount to £140,000,000, when, if he should have no lineal descendants, it was to be applied to the sinking fund of Great Britain.
1798. Battle of the Pyramids in Egypt. Murad with 22 other beys were defeated by the French under Bonaparte, with the loss of 40 cannon, 40 camels, and their whole baggage and provisions. Cairo surrendered to the king of fire, as the Mamelukes termed the combative Corsican, and the whole of Lower Egypt submitted to his arms.
1814. The inquisition reestablished in Spain by Ferdinand. It had been suspended during the reign of Bonaparte.
1815. Harriet Ackland died in England, aged 66. Her husband was wounded and taken prisoner at Saratoga in 1777, and the interest felt for her on the occasion, and the hardships and dangers she encountered have made her the subject of history.
1827. Archibald Constable, if not the most fortunate by far the most eminent publisher that ever adorned the Scottish capital, died. He directed the printing and publishing of the Edinburgh Review, &c.
1831. Leopold, king of Belgium, made his entry into Brussels, and took the oath of the constitution.
1832. The sultan of Turkey gave his assent to the extension of the Greek frontier, as required by the London conference, from the gulf of Arta to that of Volo, and recognized the independence of the Greek states.
1838. John Maelzel, an ingenious German mechanist, died. He visited many countries of Europe and America with Kempelin's automaton chess-player, which he improved by giving it the powers of speech. He also invented several automata of surprising powers, which are familiar throughout the country.
1848. The cities of Dublin and Waterford proclaimed by the lord lieutenant of Ireland to be under the coercion act.
1849. Elizabeth Dodd died at Stephens, New Brunswick, aged 111.
1849. Ebenezer Mack, long and favorably known as a distinguished printer and the conductor of the largest book establishment in western New York, died at Ithaca.
1853. Thomas P. Moore died at Harrodsburg, Ky., aged 57; an officer in the war of 1812, member of congress, minister to Colombia in 1829, and lieutenant-colonel in the regular army in Mexico.
1855. The fortress of Frederickshamm was attacked by the allied fleet, and its garrison driven out.