JULY 30.
578. Benedict I (Bonosus), pope, died. During his pontificate the people suffered the double calamity of famine and invasion, throughout which he interested himself to alleviate their condition.
911. Abu Abdillah assassinated; the principal actor in the revolution which established the dynasty of the Fatimites in Africa and Egypt.
1095. Ladislaus I, king of Hungary, died. He was an able statesman and general, and victorious in his wars with the surrounding nations. The Huns were driven from the country by him.
1388. Battle of Otterbourne, on Thursday, "about the Lammas tide," between sunrise and sunset. The youthful combatants were nearly of the same age. Douglas was slain, and the English Hotspur and his brother taken prisoners. The ancient song called The Hunting a' the Cheviat, refers to a private conflict 48 years after this, between the son of Hotspur and William Douglas; but Richard Sheale, with the license of a ballad-poet has mingled the two events together.
1540. Thomas Abel, a chaplain at the court of Henry VIII, executed. He incurred the resentment of the king by his attachment to the cause of the queen, Catharine. He was hanged, and then drawn and quartered.
1588. William Stuart killed in Edinburgh by earl Bothwell.
1609. Battle between Champlain and Indians in Essex county, New York.
1625. The week's plague bill in London returns 2,471.
1631. A French coin dated 1596, found in digging a well at Dorchester, Mass.
1673. New York taken by the Dutch. A small expedition, fitted out to destroy the commerce of the English in America, having effectually performed this service on the Virginia coast, made their appearance before New York, which submitted without exchanging a shot. New Jersey was also humbled.
1711. The British and colonial fleet, consisting of 12 men of war, 40 transports, and 6 store ships, with 40 horses, a fine train of artillery, and all manner of warlike stores, sailed from Boston for the conquest of Canada.
1718. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, died, aged 74. At the age of 24 he became a preacher among the quakers; but by the grant of Pennsylvania he was placed in the position of a legislator, and well did he sustain it.
1743. Thomas Emlyn, an English dissenting divine, died. He enjoyed an imprisonment of two years' duration, as a reward for the publication of some religious opinions, which no man had a right to entertain in those days.
1746. Eight of those concerned in the pretender's rebellion hung, beheaded and disemboweled near London.
1750. John Sebastian Bach, a German musician, died; celebrated for his skill as an organist, and also as a composer.
1762. Moro fort, at the entrance of the harbor of Havana, stormed by the English under admiral Pococke; 400 Spaniards were either cut in pieces, or perished in attempting to escape by water to the city; the rest threw down their arms and received quarter. (See [Aug. 12].)
1768. Captain Cook sailed from England in the Endeavor, on his first voyage of discovery.
1771. Thomas Gray, an eminent English poet, died. He was one of the most learned men of Europe, equally conversant with every department of science.
1775. Captain Cook returned from his second and most important navigation, having lost but one man by sickness, out of a crew of 118 men, during an absence of more than three years.
1777. General Burgoyne reached fort Edward, on the Hudson river, having with incredible labor and fatigue conducted his army through the wilderness. General Schuyler, whose forces did not exceed 4,400 men, retreated over the river to Saratoga.
1780. Rocky mount, a British post on the Catawba, stormed and taken by Gen. Sumpter, after three repulses.
1784. Earthquake at Port Royal and Kingston, Jamaica. Of 150 vessels in the harbors but 6 or 8 were saved, and the sugar works were blown down. A scarcity of provisions attended the calamity.
1789. Battle of Putna; the Turkish army of 30,000 defeated with the loss of 1,500 men and all their artillery, camp equipage, &c., by the Austrian and Russian army, whose loss did not exceed 200.
1800. The grand jury of York, England, recommended the enclosing of 7,800,000 acres of waste lands as the best preventive of future famines.
1809. The British under lord Chatham invaded Holland with 40,000 troops.
1813. Fifth day's battle of the Pyrenees. The French under Soult defeated by the allies under Wellington, after an obstinate engagement. Loss supposed to have been about 8,000 on each side.
1844. Zechariah Poulson, for many years editor of Poulson's Daily Advertiser, died. He was the last link connecting the fraternity of publishers with those of the days of Franklin.
1845. Lynthia Browning, the Kentucky giantess, died at Flemingsburg, Ky. She was seven feet high.
1855. George Johnston, an eminent British surgeon, died, aged 58. While engaged in the practice of his profession, he devoted his leisure to natural history, in which he attained great eminence.
1855. John Woods, an eminent Ohio lawyer, died at Hamilton, aged 61. As state auditor he did much to preserve the public credit at a time of general depression.