JUNE 27.
432 B. C. The estival solstice of Meton, the Athenian, corresponds with this day, in the 87th Olympiad. From the time of Solon the Attic months were lunar, composed alternately of 30 and 29 days.
1137. The city of Bath in England destroyed by fire.
1299. Pope Boniface VIII issued an authoritative rescript, directed to Edward I, claiming the feudal sovereignty over Scotland. Edward received it in his camp, and in reply formally deduced his claim to the superiority, from Brute the Trojan. His holiness rejoined that the Scots cared not for Brute the Trojan, as they were derived from Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, and whose descendants became kings of Albany by conquest.
1506. Ferdinand of Arragon resigned the government of Castile, and Philip and Joanna were enthroned.
1534. The University of Oxford unanimously determined that the jurisdiction of the pope of Rome did not exceed the ministry of any other English bishop.
1627. Villiers, duke of Buckingham, sailed from England on his expedition against the French coast, from which he returned in disgrace, with the loss of the flower of his army.
1627. John Hayward, an English historian, died. He wrote also biographies of some of the kings, and several religious works.
1630. Frederick Morel, a learned French printer, died. Some of his predecessors had been directors of the king's printing house, and his descendants were also distinguished for their learning, and as elegant printers.
1651. "Milton's book" burnt at Toulouse by an arrêt of the parliament. The famous Defence of the People of England, was twelve days later burnt by the common executioner, at Paris, under a judicial sentence.
1689. Dover, N. H., attacked by the Indians. The houses were garrisoned, but some squaws got permission to sleep by the fire in two of them, who gave the Indians admission in the night. Several houses were burnt, 23 persons killed, and 29 captivated.
1694. The French under Du Casse, attacked the island of Jamaica, and laid it waste.
1699. Sebastian Joseph de Pontchasteau, a French author, died; remarkable for the singularity of his acts of devotion and charity.
1709. Battle of Pultowa in Russia, between the Russians under Peter the Great and the Swedes under Charles XII, in which the latter were totally defeated, after a desperate conflict of two hours.
1720. The Mississippi bubble burst in France; amount about $450,000,000.
1724. A party of 13 Indians, called French Mohawks, attacked the house of John Hanson, a quaker, in Dover, N. H., killed and scalped two small children, and carried off his wife, three children and the nurse. The quakers could not be persuaded to use any means for their defence though equally exposed with their neighbors to an enemy who made no distinction between them.
1725. Christian Henry Heinecken, an extraordinary German boy, died. He spoke his maternal tongue fluently at ten months; at one year old he knew the principal events of the Pentateuch; in two months more he was master of the entire histories of the Old and New Testament; at two years and a half he answered the principal questions in geography, and in ancient and modern history. He spoke Latin and French, German and Low Dutch, with great facility, before the commencement of his fourth year, 1725, in which he died. His constitution was so delicate that he was not weaned till a few months before his death.
1742. Nathan Bailey, the English lexicographer, died. Besides his well known dictionary, he was the editor of school editions and translations of several of the ancient classic poets and historians.
1774. Nicholas Tindal, an English historian, died; known as the translator of Rapin's history.
1777. William Dodd, an English divine, hanged for forgery.
1780. I. H. Waser, a Swiss ecclesiastic, executed at Zurich, for some strictures in a newspaper on the administration of justice in that city.
1785. Samuel Mather, a learned New England divine, died, aged 79. He wrote the life of his father, Cotton Mather.
1788. Virginia adopted the constitution of the United States, recommending amendments; tenth state which ratified that document.
1789. Union of all the orders in the national assembly of France.
1794. Simon Nicholas Henry Linguet, a French writer, guillotined. The freedom of his writings drove him from one country
to another to escape prosecution, till he finally came under the revolutionary axe at Paris. The number of his works is thirty-five.
1794. The populace of Warsaw put eight of their principal noblemen to death as traitors to their country.
1800. William Cumberland Cruikshank, an eminent Scottish anatomist, died in London, where he distinguished himself as a surgeon and medical writer.
1801. Cairo surrendered by the French to the Anglo-Turkish army; conditioned to be sent to France. The army consisted of 13,754 men, of whom 600 were Greeks and Copts, and 100 Mamelukes.
1806. The British took possession of Montevideo only to be made prisoners of war.
1817. Fort Bizoton, Port-au-Prince, blown up by its commandant, in revenge of some supposed injuries received from his superiors. He was the only one killed.
1819. The commune of Grignoncourt, in the arrondissement of Neufchateau in France was desolated by a hail storm. M. Jacoutot, the mayor, collected and melted several weighing upwards of a pound each and having a transparent stone in the centre, flat, round and polished, and perforated in the centre. Wherever the hail had fallen, there were found, when it had melted, many similar stones, hitherto unknown in Grignoncourt.
1820. Joseph Von Hager, an eminent Chinese scholar, died. He was born in Italy, studied in Germany, and resided some time in London. He published several works on Chinese literature, and detected the historical fraud of Vella, a Sicilian monk.
1826. Peter Edward Lemontey, a French dramatist, died. He was also an able statesman, and censor of the theatre.
1828. Abiel Abbot, an American clergyman, died; author of Letters written in the Interior of Cuba, and various pamphlets.
1829. Erzeroum, in Turkey, captured by the Russians. Among the prisoners were the seraskier and 4 pashas, 150 cannon.
1832. Cholera appeared in New York.
1840. Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon, died at Viterbo, in Italy, aged 66, of a cancer in the breast, the same disease of which Napoleon died.
1843. John Murray, a distinguished London publisher, died. He not only maintained an eminent position in his profession for a long series of years, but was much esteemed in private life.
1849. The steamer Europa came in collision with the American bark Charles Bartlett, on the ocean; the latter was sunk with the loss of 134 persons.
1857. —— Mitchell, a North Carolina geologist, was killed by a fall into the Caney river, while engaged alone in scientific explorations.