JUNE 24.
64. The first Christian persecution under Nero.
79. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emperor of Rome, died, after a popular reign of 10 years. He was the first of the Roman emperors who died a natural death.
1203. The third, or Boniface's crusade, reached Chalcedon.
1314. Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland. The English army of 100,000 men under Edward II totally defeated by the Scots, 30,000, under Bruce. The loss of the English was 154 earls, barons and knights, 700 gentlemen and upwards of 10,000 common soldiers.
1340. Battle of Sluys: the English under Edward III, with 240 ships, defeated the French fleet of 400 ships. The French lost 230 vessels and 30,000 men killed.
1450. Battle of Seven Oaks, in England, when Cade, the rebel, turning on his pursuers, put them to flight, killed sir Humphrey Stafford, and arrayed himself in the knight's panopli and spurs.
1497. John Cabot and his son Sebastian, in the service of England, first descried land on the continent of America, which they called Prima Vista, and is generally supposed to have been some part of Newfoundland. No one had yet reached the continent.
1534. John Boccold (of Leyden) a journeyman tailor, crowned king of Sion at Munster, in Germany, by the anabaptists. The German princes took the city by surprise on this day the year following, and deposed the king, and afterwards put him to death.
1577. Sebastian III of Portugal embarked at Lisbon against the Moors in Africa, with 1,000 sail.
1637. Nicholas Claude Fabri Peiresc, a distinguished French antiquary, died. He was a learned man, and highly esteemed by his cotemporaries.
1643. John Hampden, an English statesman, died. He was a leader of the parliamentary forces, and mortally wounded at the battle of Chalgrove field.
1675. King Philip's war began at Swanzey, in the Plymouth colony, not far from mount Hope. Having sent their wives and children to the Narragansetts for safety, a party of the Wampanoags advanced to Swanzey, where they menaced the people, and proceeded to rifle their houses, and even to kill the cattle. An Indian was shot, whereupon the party rushed forward and slew eight or nine of the inhabitants; thus opened the bloody scene, which for more than a year spread terror and devastation over the New England colonies, and shed a deluge of human blood. It was a
contest for extirpation, and ere it ended the flower of the English and the chivalry of the Indians were laid low.
1711. Queen Anne's fleet, sent to reduce Canada, arrived at Boston, New England.
1724. Great tumult in Glasgow, occasioned by a tax on malt. Preparations of malt liquor were at that time deemed essential articles of comfort.
1736. English act of parliament against witchcraft, passed in the reign of James I, repealed.
1741. A daily mail first instituted in London.
1750. Pension of £30 per annum conferred on Hannah Snell, the female soldier, who under the name of James Gray, served king George more than 5 years.
1762. Battle of Graebenstein; the allies under prince Ferdinand, defeated the French under Soubisse, and d'Estrees, who lost 300 men.
1770. Christopher Drakenberg died in Norway, aged 146.
1782. John Blair, a Scottish chronologist, died. His principal work is a chronology and history of the world.
1796. David Rittenhouse, an American natural philosopher, died. From a manufacturer of clocks and mathematical instruments he became, by his own exertions, one of the most scientific men of the day.
1799. Division of the territory and treasures of Tippo Saib, by the English.
1803. Matthew Thornton, a signer of the declaration, died. He was a practicing physician in New Hampshire, when the war of the revolution broke out.
1804. The spire of Hanslope church, Buckinghamshire, England, fell immediately after divine service and crushed down the roof also; no lives were lost.
1810. Battle of Beaverdams; 570 Americans surprised and taken by the British.
1812. The grand imperial army of Napoleon, consisting of 470,000 men, consolidated into three masses, began the Russian campaign by the passage of the Niemen.
1817. Thomas M'Kean died; a signer of the declaration, and governor of Pennsylvania.
1821. Battle of Carabobo, in Colombia; the royalist army totally defeated by the republicans, with the loss of their artillery, baggage, and 6,000 prisoners.
1839. Battle of Nezib, in Syria, between the Turks, 70,000, under the seraskier, Hafiz pasha, and the Egyptians, 80,000, under Ibrahim. The Turks were defeated, with the loss of 6,000 killed and many prisoners.
1840. The 400th anniversary of the discovery of the art of printing celebrated at Boston and various places in Europe.
1848. Antonio Gagna, a Mexican military officer, died at Puebla, aged 64 years, 52 of which he had spent in the service, and acquired the reputation of a gallant, benevolent and courtly gentleman.
1852. Christopher Edwards Gadsden, bishop of the episcopal diocese of South Carolina, died at Charleston, aged 68.
1852. The first national agricultural convention assembled at Washington, consisting of 151 members, representing 22 states; Marshall P. Wilder, of Massachusetts, president.
1853. A courier arrived at St. Petersburg, bringing the refusal of the sultan of Turkey to the note of the czar, whereupon orders were issued for the invasion of the Danubian principalities.
1855. Forty-seven Russian ships, of from 200 to 700 tons each, were destroyed near Nystadt, in the gulf of Bothnia, by boats from the allied squadron.