MAY 11.
1491 B. C. The Egyptians under Pharaoh drowned in the Red sea.
1153. David I, of Scotland, died. He was earl of Northumberland and Huntington, and married the daughter of the king of England, for whom he claimed the throne on the death of her father. He was a mild and popular king.
1310. James de Molai, grand master, and 54 knights of the temple, publicly burned at Paris, under the decree of an archiepiscopal council. They were condemned on confessions of Islamism and paganism, extorted by the rack, and afterwards retracted.
1537. A terrible and destructive eruption of Mount Ætna.
1553. Three vessels sailed from England, under Sir Hugh Willoughby, to explore the northern seas. By this voyage an inlet was discovered to the White sea and the bay of Archangel, and an almost exclusive commerce established with Russia in that quarter.
1554. Francisco de Orellana sailed from St. Lucar, in Spain, with 4 ships and 400 men, for the purpose of exploring the river Amazon. He forced his way up about 120 leagues, and meeting with disasters by which he lost his ships and the greater part of his men, he turned about
and died on his way back. "Orellana was very warmly received by armed swift-footed females, which originated the fanciful name Amazonia."
1676. The Indians assaulted the town of Plymouth, Mass., and burned 11 houses and 5 barns; and two days after they burned 7 houses and 2 barns, and the remaining houses in Namasket.
1686. Otho Guericke, a Prussian philosopher, died. He was the most celebrated mathematician of his time, and invented the air pump.
1690. Charlemont, in Ireland, taken by the English.
1696. The Reformed Dutch church at New York incorporated.
1723. Jean Gualbert de Campistron, a French poet, died. He is thought to be little inferior to Racine in the merit of his dramatic compositions.
1743. Several tons of leaden pipe were dug up in Fleet street, London, laid down 300 years before.
1749. Catharine Cockburn, an English poetress, died. She produced the tragedy of Agnes de Castro in her 17th year, which was followed by several others. She possessed also a great and philosophic mind, and wrote an able defence of Locke.
1776. At an action near Charleston, S. C., between count Pulaski and the British, Major Huger of the American army was killed by mistake.
1778. William Pitt, earl of Chatham, a most illustrious English statesman, died. He was the friend of liberty and justice, and eloquent in their cause.
1781. Orangeburgh surrendered to the American Gen. Sumpter; prisoners taken, 82.
1782. Richard Wilson died; an English landscape painter of great merit.
1799. Philip Nicholas Pia, a French chemist, died. He was sheriff of Paris, 1770, and employed his leisure in objects of benevolence, till the revolution overwhelmed him.
1807. Action in the Dardanelles, between the Russian and Turkish fleets; 3 of the latter stranded.
1810. Hastalrick, in Catalonia, evacuated for want of provisions; the garrison cut their way through the French troops.
1813. Spencer Perceval, prime minister of Great Britain, shot in the lobby of the house of commons.
1814. Robert Treat Paine, one of the signers, died. He was a distinguished lawyer, of learning and integrity, member of the first congress, and judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts.
1821. George Howe, editor of the Sydney Gazette, died. His paper commenced in March, 1803, in the 15th year of the colony, and was the first Australian periodical.
1838. Andrew Thomas Knight died. His horticultural writings were exceedingly beneficial, as well to the gardeners as farmers.
1839. Thomas Cooper, president of South Carolina college, died, aged 80. He wrote on law, medical jurisprudence and political economy, and translated Justinian and Broussais.
1844. Stephen Wood, died at Miami, Ohio, aged 82. He was the last survivor of those who were associated with John Cleves Symmes in the settlement of North Bend.
1848. An expedition under Sir James Ross, sailed for the Arctic regions, in search of Sir John Franklin.
1853. Peter Hitchcock, an eminent civilian, died at Painesville, Ohio, aged 70. He was a member of the Ohio senate, and of the house of representatives at Washington; also for twenty-five years a judge of the supreme court of Ohio.
1854. The packet Pike, from St. Louis to Louisville, struck a snag, and sank in a few minutes, by which about fifty passengers lost their lives.
1854. J. Delius, of Bremen, assistant professor of English literature at Berlin, fell into the crater of Vesuvius, and perished there.