JUNE 20.
404. The illustrious John Chrysostom banished from his patriarchate to the remote and desolate town of Cucusus, among the ridges of mount Taurus, by a command of the empress Eudoxia. The day of this his final exile was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, senate-house, and the adjacent buildings, and by the destruction of the incomparable statues of the Muses from the temple of Helicon.
840. Louis I (Debonnaire), king of France and emperor of the West, died. He had not sufficient ability to manage the conflicting interests of his large dominions, and was harrassed by the rebellion of his brothers and sons.
981. Adalbert, bishop of Magdeburg, died. He converted the Sclavonians, and penetrated far into Pomerania as a Christian missionary.
1333. Battle of Halidon hill. The regent of Scotland, six earls, and many barons fell in the field; the fugitives were pursued by king Edward and a party of horse, and also by lord Darcy and his Irish auxiliaries. The slaughter is said to have exceeded that of any former defeat.
1472. King Henry VI of England murdered in the Tower by order of the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, as is supposed.
1632. The patent of Maryland, designed for George Calvert, lord Baltimore, was on his decease, filled up to his son, Cecilius Calvert. When king Charles signed it, he gave to the new patent the name of Maryland in honor of his queen Henrietta Maria. Lord Baltimore held it of the crown of England as part of Windsor manor, paying yearly forever, two Indian arrows, which may now be seen at the castle.
1649. Richard Brandon, the hereditary hangman, and the executioner of Charles I and the earl of Strafford, died in misery. He was interred the next day amidst execrations and vulgar insults, which he could not feel.
1698. The summit of Carguairazo, a burning mountain near Quito, 1800 feet high, crumbled together, so that nothing more than two enormous rocky horns of the crater's edge remained, and the country for nearly two square miles, was desolated with liquid tufa, and argillaceous mud, enclosing dead fishes.
1719. The Spaniards defeated the Imperialists at Franca-Villa in Sicily, with the loss of their general, Merci, and 4000 men.
1743. John George Keysler, a German traveler and antiquary, died. On his visit to England he was admitted fellow of the Royal society, and deserved it by his explication of Stonehenge.
1743. Action near Manilla, between the British ship Centurion, lord Anson, and the Acapulco ship, the Nostra Signora de Cabadonga, 36 guns and 550 men, commanded by don Geronimo de Montoro, a Portuguese officer. The cutter was captured, with the loss of 67 killed, 84 wounded; British loss 2 killed, 17 wounded. The property on board this prize amounted to $1,500,000.
1747. Nadir Shah, for some time monarch of Persia, was assassinated by his men, whom he had designed the next day to massacre.
1752. The trustees of Georgia, finding that the province languished under their care, and weary of the complaints of the people, surrendered their charter to the king.
1756. Calcutta taken by Surajah Dowla, and 145 Englishmen incarcerated in the black hole, including Holwell, the governor of Bengal; all of whom were suffocated but 23. (See [June 18].)
1779. Battle of Stono-Ferry, in which the Americans under Gen. Lincoln were defeated, owing to the mismanagement of a part of the forces, who did not come up. Loss 146.
1781. Cornwallis evacuated Richmond, Virginia.
1787. Charles Frederick Abel died; an eminent musician, whose performances attracted much attention in Europe.
1789. The national assembly of France having been refused admission into the usual place of meeting, assembled in the rain in a tennis court.
1790. Titles of nobility and feudal right abolished in France.
1791. Louis XVI and the royal family made their escape from Paris with the intention of proceeding to Germany, to avoid the disturbances which threatened the country.
1792. The assembly of the sans culottes appeared in Paris with their arms and colors.
1793. The negroes and mulattoes of cape Francois began an indiscriminate massacre of the whites. A company of 2000 men were sent on shore from the French fleet to arrest their depredations, but were compelled to embark again. (See [23].)
1794. Felix Vicq d'Azir, an eminent French physician and anatomist, died at Paris.
1798. Jeremy Belknap, a Boston divine, and historian of New Hampshire, died, aged 58. He also published two volumes of American Biography, a work which his death abridged.
1813. British made an attack on Oswego, but were repulsed by the militia under Col. Carr.
1815. That questionable monster, the sea-serpent, observed at Plymouth, Mass. Its extension above the surface of the water was supposed to be more than a hundred feet. The serpentine animal noticed in the Norway seas is of much larger proportions, with large blue eyes, "which looked like a couple of bright pewter plates."
1818. Joseph Adams, an eminent London physician and medical writer, died.
1819. The first steam vessel which crossed the Atlantic arrived at Liverpool.
1830. Battle between the French and Algerines, near Sidi Khalef; the latter were defeated.
1836. Edmund Joseph de Sieyes, a French statesman, died, aged 88. He long acted a conspicuous part in the affairs of France, but on the fall of Napoleon was banished, and some years previous to his death was reduced to a state of idiocy.
1837. William IV of England, died, aged 72. His reign was brief, but was distinguished for various important measures of reform, and the abolition of colonial slavery.
1837. Michigan entered the United States confederacy.
1840. Pierre Claude Francois Daunou, peer of France, and eight years editor of the Journal des Savants, died at Paris, aged
79. He was a laborious writer, in which he was distinguished by his great learning and elegance of style.
1843. Henry Doggett, an officer of the revolutionary army, died at New Haven, aged 86. He was the son of Naphtali Doggett, president of Yale college during the revolution, and was the oldest surviving graduate of the college.
1843. Hugh S. Legare, attorney-general of the United States, died at Boston, aged about 50. He was eminent for his acquirements as a scholar, his fine taste as a writer, and his learning and eloquence as a lawyer and advocate. He was acting secretary of state at the time of his death, and experience showed that he was amply fitted for the highest trusts, and adorned every station which he was called to fill.
1844. John Pintard died in New York, aged 87. He was one of the originators of the New York historical society, and of the Savings bank.
1848. Paredes raised the standard of revolt in Mexico, assisted by padre Jurauta.——A portion of Washington's library, consisting of 450 bound volumes, and about 1000 pamphlets, presented to the Boston athenæum by the citizens.——A loan negotiated at Washington by the government, of sixteen million dollars, at a premium of half a million.
1852. William Biddle Shepard, a noted lawyer and politician, died at Elizabeth City, N. C., aged 51. He distinguished himself, by his abilities, and was ten years in congress.
1854. George W. Martin, an efficient military officer, died at Tallahatchie, Missouri. He served in the war of 1812, and accompanied Gen. Jackson throughout the campaigns of three years, and in the Creek war.
1856. Tancred Florestan Roger Louis Grimaldi, prince of Monaco and duke of Valentinois, died at Paris. On the death of his brother in 1841 he became sovereign prince of Monaco, under the title of Florestan I.