JUNE 11.
1656 A. M. The tops of the mountains were seen, 73 days after the waters of the deluge began to subside, 1st of 10th month, answering to this day.
1184 B. C. The destruction of Troy is placed commonly by English chronologists in the night of this day; an event which Homer has invested with unrivaled importance, and a gorgeous immortality. (See [April 24].)
534 B. C. Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, assassinated. He is celebrated for his laws on the subjects of rank and property. He was murdered by his son-in-law, the second Tarquin.
90 B. C. The consul Rutilius Lupus was destroyed with his forces, by an ambuscade, near the river Livis, during the social war.
816. Leo III, pope, died. A conspiracy was formed against him in 799, and it was only through the power of Charlemagne that he was enabled to keep the pontifical chair. He was an able pontiff.
1183. Prince Henry, son of Henry II of England, died, aged 27. He is sometimes called Henry III, on account of his rebellion against his father.
1258. The great council of reform, called the mad parliament, assembled at Oxford. Every member was sworn to allow no consideration, "neither of gift nor promise, profit nor loss, love nor hatred, nor fear," to influence him in the discharge of his duty.
1289. Battle of Campaldino, in Italy, in which the Florentines defeated the people of Arezzo. The poet Dante, then in his 24th year, was present, and served in the foremost troop of cavalry. He says, "the Uberti, Lamberti and Abati, with all the ex-citizens of Florence who adhered to the Ghibelline interest, were with Aretini; while those inhabitants of Arezzo, who, owing to their attachment to the Guelph party, had been banished from their own city, were ranged on the side of the Florentines."
1294. Roger Bacon, an eminently learned monk of the Franciscan order, died, aged 80. He was a miracle of the age in which he lived, and the greatest genius, perhaps, for mechanical knowledge, that ever appeared in the world since Archimedes. (1292 by some authorities.)
1381. Wat Tyler assembled his
followers at Blackheath, amounting to 100,000 men.
1520. A grand tournament between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France, at Guines. "At the houre assigned," says Holinshed, "the two kings, armed at all peeces, mounted on horssebacke, and with their companies, entered the field; the French king on a courser barbed, covered with purple sattin, broched with gold, and embroidered with corbin's feathers. All the parteners of the French king's chalenge were in like apparell, everie thing correspondent in cloath of silke embrodered. On his person were attendant on horssebacke noble persons, and on foot foure persons, all apparelled in purple sattin."
1526. Holy league against the emperor Charles V.
1543. Nicholas Copernicus, the astronomer, died on this day, according to Lalande, who says, in his History of Astronomy for 1798, "The death of the great Copernicus was, till lately, a problem. I resolved it in my tour. Copernicus died on the 11th of June, 1543, although Gassendi and Weidler date this circumstance on the 24th May, and Planche the 11th of July." (See [May 24].)
1567. Flight of Mary, queen of Scots, and her husband, Bothwell, from Borthwick castle to Dunbar.
1576. Anthony Cooke, preceptor of Edward VI, died. He also educated his own daughters, who were "learned above their sex in Greek and Latin."
1576. Martin Frobisher was despatched with three pinnaces to discover a northwest passage, but compelled by the ice to return. He was the first navigator who attempted to find a northwest passage to China.
1578. Queen Elizabeth granted letters patent to Humphrey Gilbert for the discovery and settlement of "barbarous lands in America, undiscovered by any Christian prince or people." This was the first charter granted by the crown of England to a colony.
1665. Kenelm Digby, an eminent English philosopher, died. He was also in the employ of the government as a soldier and a statesman. He was brave, learned and eloquent, but somewhat visionary.
1685. The duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme, Dorsetshire with men and arms in opposition to James II.
1693. An expedition fitted out in England against Canada and Martinique, arrived in Boston. During the voyage, 1,300 out of 2,100 sailors, and 1,800 out of 2,400 soldiers, had died of a malignant disease. On the arrival of the fleet the disease spread into the town, and proved more malignant than any other epidemic which had ever been known in the country.
1695. Andrew Felibien, counselor and historiographer to the king of France, died. He was also celebrated for his taste and judgment in the fine arts, and his Dialogues upon the Lives of the Painters has done him great honor.
1698. Balthazar Bekker, a Dutch divine, died. His writings got him into trouble with the church, which was alarmed at some very harmless notions he entertained about spirits and devils.
1712. Lewis Joseph, duke de Vendome, died. He was a descendant of Henry IV of France, and distinguished himself under Philip V of Spain, whom he succeeded in raising to the throne, in opposition to the claims of Charles III, archduke of Austria.
1719. A terrible earthquake happened at Pekin, in China, throwing down houses and burying more than 1,000 inhabitants in the ruins.
1727. George I, king of England, died in his carriage near Osnabruck, in Germany, aged 68. He was the first king of England of the house of Brunswick, and had reigned 13 years.
1756. Cæsar Chesneau du Marsais, a French grammarian, died. He was engaged in the Encyclopedie, and his articles on grammar are drawn up with great precision, correctness and judgment.
1776. Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Robert R. Livingston, a committee to prepare a Declaration of Independence.
1783. Great eruption of the Scaptar Jokul, in Iceland, commenced, and continued several days (see [18th]).
1792. The first bank in New Hampshire commenced discounting at Portsmouth.
1792. Battle of Mire; the Polish general Judycki, surrounded by the Russians, defeated, and compelled to retreat.
1793. N. Gouvion, a French officer, killed at Maubeuge, on the Sambre. He served in America in the war of the revolution, and at the time of his death was a general in the army of the north.
1793. William Robertson, the Scottish historian, died. His works are popular, and the History of Charles V will be long read with admiration.
1796. St. Vincent, Grenada, and St. Lucia islands in the West Indies were taken by the British.
1798. Bonaparte seized Malta, the key of the Mediterranean, which he garrisoned, and proceeded with the fleet, carrying 20,000 regular troops, to the Egyptian coast.
1800. Samuel Ireland, an ingenious English mechanic, died. He distinguished
himself by his skill in drawing and engraving. He was unjustly accused of an attempt to impose upon the world a spurious volume of letters and papers in the name of Shakspeare. (See [April 17th, 1835].)
1812. A great skirmish of cavalry in Estremadura, Spain, between the English under general Slade, and the French under general Lallemand.
1825. Daniel D. Tompkins, a distinguished New York statesman, died, aged 51. He was vice-president of the United States under Mr. Monroe, and governor of the state of New York.
1828. Dugald Stewart, an eminent Scottish philosopher and writer, died. His philosophical works are well known.
1829. Battle of Schoumla; the Turks under the grand vizier defeated by the Russians under general Diebitsch, with the loss of 6,000 killed, 1,500 prisoners, and 60 pieces of cannon. Russian loss, 1,400 killed, 600 wounded.
1842. Alexander Crombie died at London. As a scholar and a critic, a metaphysician and a theologian, his name stands high among the first writers of the age.
1845. Theodore Dwight, secretary of the Hartford convention, died, aged 81. He was editor of the Connecticut Mirror, published at Hartford, and in 1815 established the Albany Daily Advertiser, the first daily paper in that city. In 1817 he became editor of the New York Daily Advertiser.
1849. Great excitement at Paris, and a proposition to impeach the president for his aiding the cause of the pope, signed by Ledru Rollin and 141 others.
1849. Ancona capitulated to the Austrians after a very destructive bombardment.
1853. Guerazzi, ex-minister of Tuscany, tried for high treason at Florence, and found guilty, was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, which was subsequently commuted to perpetual exile.
1854. Thomas H. Botts died at Fredericksburg, Va., aged 54; a lawyer, and one of the leading men of his profession.