MAY 17.
1039. Harold I, the second Danish monarch of England, died, at Oxford. A heavy tax which he imposed on his people made him unpopular. He was buried at Winchester; but by the cruel edicts of his brother the body was dug up, beheaded and thrown into the Thames; recovered and again buried only to be a second time disinterred and committed to the Thames; found and privately buried at Westminster.
1163. Heloise, abbess of the Paraclete, died; celebrated as the mistress of Abelard, and for her learning. She was entombed with her husband. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1792, the principal inhabitants of Nogent-sur-Seine went in grand procession to the Paraclete, to transfer the remains of the lovers to a vault in their church. In 1800 they were transported to Paris, and one of the most picturesque and interesting ornaments in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, is the sepulchral chapel covering their remains, constructed from the ruins of the Paraclete.
1498. Vasquez de Gama discovered the continent of India. On his return he again doubled cape Good Hope, which had long been regarded as the ne plus ultra of navigation.
1536. George Boleyn, an English statesman, beheaded. He was a man of learning and ability, whose elevation followed that of his sister Anne as queen; and when she fell, he too was degraded and unjustly condemned.
1575. Matthew Parker, second protestant archbishop of Canterbury, died. He was deeply versed in Saxon literature and published a work on the antiquity of the English church.
1610. Gervase Babington died; bishop of Worcester and an eminent theological writer.
1617. Jacob Augustus Thuanus (alias De Thou) died; an illustrious French statesman and historian.
1664. The English conventicle act was passed forbidding more than five persons meeting for religious purposes except those regulated by the book of common prayer.
1690. A party of French and Indians under the sieur Hertel, returning from a marauding excursion among the English settlements, attacked and destroyed the fort at Casco, Me.
1723. Joseph Bingham, an English
ecclesiastic, died; author of Antiquities of the Christian Church, a learned and laborious work, in 10 vols.
1727. Catharine Alexievna, empress of Russia, died. She was the daughter of a peasant of Livonia, married a Swedish dragoon, who was killed on the same day in battle. The Russian general Bauer made her his mistress, after which she lived a short time with prince Mentschicoff. In her 17th year she became the mistress of Peter the Great, who afterwards married her and presented her with the diadem and the sceptre. After his death she was proclaimed sovereign empress of all the Russias, and showed herself worthy of her high fortune.
1729. Samuel Clarke, a famous English divine, died; celebrated also for his writings on mathematics, &c.
1732. William Lowth died; a celebrated English theological writer and commentator.
1738 O. S. Bell, the Scottish traveler, returned to St. Petersburg from his embassy to Constantinople, whither he went at the earnest solicitation of the Russian cabinet, and the British minister. This was the last of his expeditions, and was undertaken in the midst of winter, through a country exposed to all the horrors of a barbarous warfare, attended by only one servant, who understood the Turkish language.
1740. Peter Julian Rouille, a French Jesuit, died; professor of theology and philosophy to his order, and co-editor of the Roman History, 21 vols. quarto.
1742. Battle of Czaslau, or Chatusitz, in Bohemia; the Prussians defeated the Austrians, who lost 7,000; Prussian loss, 3,000.
1749. Samuel Boyse, an Irish poet, died. His talents were amply rewarded, but he unfortunately had a disposition to practice the meanest deceptions to procure benefactions, which brought him to wretchedness and contempt.
1767. Roger Wolcott, governor of Connecticut, died. He never attended school a single day of his life, yet gradually rose by his own efforts to the highest military and civil honors.
1772. The theatre at Amsterdam, in Holland, took fire and burned to death 31 persons.
1774. At a town meeting of the inhabitants of Providence, R. I., the subject of a general congress was acted upon, being the first act of the kind by a public assemblage.
1776. Captain Mugford in a vessel of 4 guns captured British ship Hope, 4 guns, with 1,500 barrels powder and military stores, and brought her into the port of Boston.
1794. Battle of Surcoign; British defeated by the French after a sanguinary conflict.
1797. Revolution in Venice, and a democratic government formed under the direction of the French general Angereau.
1797. Louis XVIII compelled to quit the Venetian territory.
1797. Michel Jean Sedaine, a French dramatic writer, died, aged 78. Bred to the occupation of a stone mason, by application to study he won a place in the French academy.
1801. A French convoy of 560 men with 1 cannon and 550 camels, in Egypt, captured by the British.
1801. William Heberden died; an English physician and medical writer.
1809. Bonaparte issued from Vienna a decree declaring the temporal sovereignty of the pope to be wholly at an end, and incorporating Rome with the French empire. The "holy father" instantly fulminated a bull of excommunication against the daring emperor, but it did not avail; his holiness was taken in his palace and conveyed away at midnight, under pretence that a life so sacred in the eyes of all Christians, might be endangered!
1817. Samuel Jessup died; an opulent English grazier, of pilltaking notoriety. An apothecary's bill, which was given in evidence on a trial a short time previous to his death, affords a table of statistics which will not be exceeded by the memorabilia of the life of any man. In 21 years he took 226,934 pills. He began with a moderate appetite, which increased as he proceeded, so that in the last five years he took them at the rate of 78 a day, and in the year 1814 swallowed not less than 51,590. Notwithstanding this, and an addition of 40,000 bottles of mixtures, he attained the advanced age of 65 years.
1829. John Jay, a distinguished American statesman, died, aged 84. His public services commenced in 1774, and continued till 1801, when he retired to private life; distinguished as a man of great discernment, extensive information, and fine talents as a writer.
1829. Battle between the Russians under general Diebitsch, and the Turks; the latter of whom, 5,000 in number, were defeated and driven into Silistria, with heavy losses on both sides.
1829. Battle of Pravadia, between the Russian army under general Roth, and the Turks under the grand vizier. The Turks are said to have lost 2,000, and the Russians 1,000. The latter maintained their ground, but no important advantage was gained by either party.
1831. Nathaniel Rochester, an officer in the revolution, died at Rochester, New York, from whom the town took its name.
1838. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Perigord, one of the most distinguished statesmen and diplomatists of modern times, died at Paris, aged 84. His namdee was intimately associated with French politics, from the commencement of the revolution in 1789.
1841. About 250 feet of the cliff on which the defences of the city of Quebec stand, fell away, causing the ruin of several buildings, and the death of about 30 persons.
1843. Peter W. Gallaudet died at Washington, D. C., aged 88. The Washington manual laborer school and the Howard institution can bear testimony to his industry and patriotism.
1848. Massacre in Naples, justified by the king, on the ground of necessity; 1777 bodies were found, 400 troops killed, and the city given up to pillage.
1849. A severe and very destructive fire at St. Louis, Missouri.
1850. Gallinas, the noted slave factory on the west of Africa, purchased by the Liberian republic.
1856. Redwood Fisher, an American author, died, aged 73. He began business as a merchant in Philadelphia; subsequently edited a daily paper in New York, and took an active part in public affairs. He published several volumes on political economy, and was much interested in statistics.