JULY 25.
306. Constantius Chlorus, emperor of Rome, died at York palace, and was succeeded the same day by his son Constantine the Great.
811. Nicephorus I, emperor of Rome, died. He was chancellor of the eastern empire, and seized the throne 807, banishing
the empress Irene to Mitylene. He overcame all opposition from his own subjects, but was vanquished by the Bulgarians, and fell in battle.
1139. Battle of Aurique, in Portugal; Alphonse I vanquished five Moorish kings and their barbaric heads were emblazoned in the arms of the monarchy.
1214. Battle of Bouvines, in France, in which the forces of Otho were overthrown by Philip Augustus, and peace restored.
1261. The Greek emperor, Michael Palæologus, expelled the Latins from Constantinople, who had taken possession of it nearly 60 years previous.
1441. Roger Bolingbroke, chaplain to the duke of Gloucester, having been convicted of necromancy, was exposed, with his instruments, to the public finger, at St. Paul's, in London.
1471. Thomas a Kempis (Thomas Hammerken of Kempen), a famous German theologian, died, aged 92. He displayed great piety and devotion, and instead of confining himself to transcribing books of devotion, like the rest of his brethren, composed works of divinity himself, one of which, De Imitatione Christi, has been translated into nearly all languages in the world.
1505. Philip Beroldus, a French professor of belles-letters, died. He was extremely dissipated in youth, but reformed after marriage, and produced several works, in prose and verse. He was a man of great learning for that age, and is noted for his valuable edition of the classics.
1535. Charles V, emperor of Germany, having assembled a powerful fleet, landed at Tunis, and carried by assault the fortress of Goletta. This gave him possession of Barbarossa's fleet of 87 galleys and 300 cannon. Having reinstated Muley Hassan and liberated more than 20,000 slaves, he returned to Europe.
1554. Queen Mary of England married to Philip of Spain at Winchester.
1564. Ferdinand I, emperor of Germany, died. He became king of Hungary and Bohemia 1527, and was elected king of the Romans 1531. On the abdication of his brother, Charles V, he succeeded to the empire, and governed with great moderation and prudence.
1593. Henry IV, of France, formally renounced the protestant faith at St. Denys, rather than perish by the hand of an assassin.
1603. King James and his queen crowned at Westminster by archbishop Whitgift.
1653. The assembly of the Scottish church being met at Edinburgh were dismissed by Cotterel for not having the authority of the parliament of England, and commanded that not three of them should be seen together.
1659. The pope, Alexander VII, acknowledged by a papal brief, the king of France sovereign of the conquests and colonies which his subjects had made in the American isles. Hitherto the court of Rome had preserved inviolate the universal grant of that infamous man, pope Alexander VI, in 1493, to his catholic majesty, the king of Spain. (See [May 3].)
1666. Engagement at the mouth of the Thames, between the English fleet under Rupert and Albemarle, and the Dutch under Van Tromp and De Ruyter. Each fleet consisted of about 80 sail. Three Dutch admirals were killed.
1722. New England declared war against the Indians. The small pox at that time was waging a war with both.
1724. A violent persecution of the protestants began in France.
1757. The duke of Cumberland defeated by d'Estrees at Hastenbeck.
1759. General Johnson took fort Niagara in America.
1790. William Livingston, governor of New Jersey, died. He was a member of the New York bar, and a warm advocate of the rights of the colonies. He removed to New Jersey, and on the deposition of the royal governor, Franklin, he was elected to fill his place, which he held till the time of his death.
1790. John Bernard Basedow died; at one time professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres, at Soroe in Denmark, from which he was expelled for some irreverent remarks on religion. He was the son of a barber at Hamburg, and acquired a reputation for learning and ability.
1794. Frederick von der Trenck, a Prussian baron, guillotined at Paris. For some imprudent conduct he excited the indignation of the authorities, and was imprisoned a long time at Magdeburg. He finally escaped to France, where he became obnoxious to the guardians of the state, and suffered death at the age of 70. The account of his imprisonment and adventures, written by himself, and highly spiced with romance, is translated into English.
1795. William Romaine, an eminent English divine, died; author of many valuable theological works.
1799. Battle of Aboukir, in Egypt, between the French under Bonaparte, and the Turks, Arabs and Mamelukes, under Mustapha. The Egyptians were defeated, with the loss of their general and 200 taken prisoners, with all their equipage and 20 cannon; 2,000 dead on the field, and about 10,000 driven into the sea and drowned.
1804. Georges and 11 of his companions guillotined at Paris for a conspiracy against Bonaparte.
1804. The American squadron, consisting of the Constitution frigate, 3 brigs, 3 schooners, 2 bomb and 6 gun boats, arrived in sight of Tripoli.
1812. Battle of Ostrovna; the Russians under Ostermann Tolstoy defeated by the French. The battle continued two days; the loss was about 4,000 on each side.
1814. Battle of Bridgewater, (alias Lundy's Lane,) near Niagara falls, between the British under Riall, and the Americans under Brown. It was a sanguinary action, and for the numbers engaged, perhaps unequaled in modern warfare; in which both the senior generals were wounded. British loss 878 killed and wounded and missing; American loss 860 do. The battle commenced at 5 P. M., and ended at 12 in the defeat of the British, 2,700 veteran regulars, exclusive of a large body of Indians.
1814. Charles Dibdin, a celebrated English song writer and dramatist, died. His songs amount to upwards of 1,200; he has scarcely an equal in the number and merit of this species of composition.
1824. William Sharp, an eminent English engraver, died. He rose to distinction in his art by his own unassisted exertions, but was in other respects a very simple character. His works are numerous and held in high estimation.
1830. Charles X of France ordained that the liberty of the periodical press was suspended, and five days after was himself suspended from the throne.
1833. James Martin, a soldier of the revolution, died at Knoxville, Tenn., aged 106.
1834. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an eminent English poet, metaphysician and theologian, died. As a poet and author he was popular, but his conversational powers captivated the most learned men of his time, who visited him to enjoy his conversation. Two volumes of his Table Talk were published after his death.
1840. A couple of officers belonging to the United States exploring expedition having gone on shore at Malolo, one of the Fejee islands, were murdered by the natives. Lieut. Wilkes immediately attacked and burnt the town and fort, killed upwards of 70 of the natives, destroyed the plantations and laid the island waste.
1840. Andrew Laughlin died at Devrock, Ireland, aged 110. He saw five sovereigns successively ascend the British throne. The faculties of his mind were unimpaired until the last few months of his life.
1852. Baron Gourgaud, a distinguished French general, died at Paris, aged 69. He entered the French service in 1801, was engaged in most of the great battles of Napoleon, including Waterloo; attended the emperor to St. Helena, and was afterwards near being involved in a duel with Walter Scott, through his fervid zeal for his master.
1852. William Scroop, an eminent English naturalist, died at London, aged 81.
1852. James Spencer Cannon, a talented minister of the Dutch reformed church, died at New Brunswick, N. J., aged 60. He was 26 years professor of metaphysics in Rutgers college, and of pastoral theology and ecclesiastical history in the Theological seminary at that place, and was distinguished for strong and original powers of mind, urbanity of manners, and fervent piety.