MARCH 31.
32 B. C. Titus Pomponius Atticus, a distinguished Roman, died. He understood the art of conducting himself so well, that amidst the civil wars and party strife of the time in which he lived, he preserved the respect and esteem of all parties. He reached the age of 77 without sickness; but finding himself at last attacked by a slight disease, he resolved to put an end to his life by abstaining from food, and expired in five days.
1474. The first book printed in England finished by Caxton as appears by the following entry: "The Game and Playe of the Chesse; translated out of the French and emprynted by William Caxton. Fynished the last day of Marche, the yer of our Lord God a thousand four hundred and lxxiiij."
1547. Francis I of France died. He was the rival and opponent of Charles V of Germany, with whom he was involved in war during almost his whole reign, with various success, and to whom he was once a prisoner, with his two sons. He was a patron of literature and the arts.
1605. An expedition fitted out by the earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, under the command of George Weymouth, sailed from the Downs with a view to the discovery of a north-west passage to India, the passion for which was now in its full vigor.
1621. Philip III of Spain died. He ascended the throne of his father at the age of 20. The war with Holland, which had revolted, was continued with great spirit, and the siege of Ostend maintained three years, at great expense, and the loss of 80,000 men before it was reduced. He imprudently banished the Moors from his kingdom, and thus deprived himself of a million of peaceable and useful artists; a loss which the country has never recovered from.
1631. John Donne, an English poet and divine, died. He embraced protestantism at an early age, which together with his shining talents, procured him favors and emoluments. Dryden styles him "the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of the nation," and his eloquence as a divine is also attested to.
1654. Cockfighting prohibited in England by the parliament (called an act of the usurpation).
1656. James Usher, archbishop of Armagh, died, aged 76. He was advanced by James I and Charles I, and courted by Cromwell.
1665. The English authorities issued an order to imprison George Fox, the founder of the sect called Quakers, for his sermons against the awful crime of building meeting houses with steeples.
1698. Peter Joseph d'Orleans, a French Jesuit, died. He professed belles-lettres, and wrote several valuable histories and biographies.
1713. Peace of Utrecht concluded, which placed England at the head of the European states, and humbled the ambition of France.
1763. Mr. Harrison was granted £5,000 for the construction of a chronometer to determine with more accuracy the longitude at sea.
1765. The Jesuits expelled from Madrid and all Spain. The order was finally suppressed by the pope, 1773.
1774. The bill for closing the port of Boston received the royal assent.
1783. Nakita Ivanowitz, count de Panin, a Russian statesman, died. He was raised from the rank of a horse soldier, under Elizabeth, became a general under Peter, and prime minister of the great Catharine. He possessed great powers of mind, and other qualifications for the high places which he occupied, but his business habits were lax, his conduct haughty, and his manners dissolute.
1791. Matthias Ogden, a revolutionary patriot, died. He was one of the first that joined Washington at Cambridge; he penetrated the wilderness with Arnold to Canada, and was wounded in the attack on Quebec. On his return he was promoted by congress, and remained in the army through the war.
1794. The national convention of France, in the plenitude of omniscience, decreed that there was no God!
1795. The British museum purchased the oriental manuscripts of Mr. Halstead, the disciple of the prophet Brothers.
1797. Daniel Bull Macartney, an Irish gentleman, died, aged 112. He married his fifth wife, who survived him, at the age of 84, when she was 14, by whom he had 20 children in 20 years. His constitution was so hardy that no cold affected him, and he could not bear the warmth of a sheet in the night time for the last 70 years of his life. In company he drank freely of rum and brandy, which he called naked truth; and retained his activity to the time of his death.
1797. Bonaparte, from his head quarters at Klagenfurth, offered peace to the archduke Charles.
1801. The island of Santa Cruz, in the West Indies, surrendered to the British under Admiral Duckworth. It was afterwards restored.
1806. George Macartney, a celebrated British statesman, died. He was employed in several important embassies and other offices, till in 1792 he was selected as ambassador extraordinary to China, a mission which occupied three years, and engaged much attention in Europe; and an account of which has been published in 3 vols. quarto by Sir G. Staunton.
1807. Slave trade abolished by the British government.
1812. Wells, the pedestrian, undertook for 5 pounds, to walk from Westminster bridge, London, to Croydon and back, in two hours, a distance of 19 miles. He performed it in 2 minutes less than the time, but dropped down with fatigue, and was unable to walk home.
1813. Battle of St. Antonio, Mexico, between the royalists and patriots. The former were defeated with the loss of 100 killed, their camp equipage, 6 cannon, and great quantities of stores, &c.
1814. Paris capitulated to the allied army, about 2 o'clock in the morning, and the French troops evacuated it at 7, hostilities to commence in 2 hours. At 11, the conquerors entered the city with the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia at their head.
1827. Ludwig Von Beethoven, a German musical composer, died. His works are numerous, and universally known and admired. His musical talents procured him wealthy patrons among the nobility, by whom he was munificently supported. He was extremely deaf, and eccentric in his manners.
1831. Edward Augustus Holyoake, a venerated New England physician, died, aged 100. He was born at Salem, Mass., 100 years after its settlement, and was a practicing physician there 79 years. He enjoyed uninterrupted good health during life, and at a dinner given by a number of the profession on his centennial anniversary, he appeared among them with a firm step. On a post mortem examination, all the vital organs appeared to have been unimpaired by age and capable of sustaining life much longer, except the stomach, which was divided by a stricture, leaving an aperture less than an inch in diameter.
1831. Battle of Praga, between the Poles under Skrzynecki, and the Russians of 8000 under Geismar, in which the latter were almost totally destroyed, with the loss of 4000 prisoners and 1600 cannon.
1831. An Irish scholar and divine, Rev. Hynes Halloran, chaplain to the Britannia in the battle of Trafalgar, was transported for seven years, for forging a frank, value 19 pence.
1835. John Whitcomb, a soldier of the revolution, died at Swanzey, N. H., aged 104.
1836. Matthew Lumsden died; an eminent orientalist.
1837. The president at interim of Mexico protested "in the most solemn manner, before all civilized nations, against the acknowledgment of the pretended republic of Texas made by the United States."
1839. Battle of Pago Largo in South America, between the troops of Corrientes and Entre Rios, two provinces of the Argentine republic. The former were defeated with a loss stated at 1960, including the commander-in-chief.
1851. John Caldwell Calhoun, one of the most distinguished American statesmen, died, aged 68, a senator from South Carolina.
1852. Tremont Temple, Boston, entirely destroyed by fire.
1854. Thomas Noon Talfourd, an English judge and dramatist, died, aged 57. He cultivated literature as a refreshing relief from the labors of his profession. He died while charging the jury.
1854. Gen. Canrobert and more than 1000 French troops landed at Gallipoli.
1854. The artisans of Barcelona, Spain, to the number of 1500 proceeded to the municipality and demanded that the price of provisions should be reduced and wages increased.