MAY 26.
604. Augustine (alias Austin), first archbishop of Canterbury, died. He was originally a monk, and was sent into Britain with 40 others to convert the English Saxons to Christianity.
735. Bede (the venerable), a learned English monk, died. He passed his life in severe study, and wrote an ecclesiastical history from Julius Cæsar to his own age.
946. Edmund I, king of the Anglo Saxons, killed by an outlaw named Liof, at the age of 23. He was distinguished for personal courage, as well as taste for elegance and splendor, whence he was called the munificent.
1416. Jerome of Prague made the fearless declaration that he was a supporter of the doctrines of Wickliffe and Huss, for which he suffered martyrdom.
1512. Bayazid II, sultan of Turkey, died on the journey to Denitoka, his birth place, whither he was retiring, having resigned the government to his son, Selim, who had rebelled against him.
1536. Francisco Berni, a Tuscan poet, died. He is the principal writer of Italian jocose poetry, which has ever since retained the name of poesia Bernesca.
1568. An estoddfod of the Welsh bards and minstrels held at Cayroes by commission of queen Elizabeth, when the great prize of the silver harp was adjudged to Simon ap Williams ap Sion.
1595. Philip Neri, founder of the oratorians, died. He was noted for his benevolence, and established a hospice for the accommodation of pilgrims, which has become one of the finest in Rome.
1608. Sir Thomas Sackville, that great servant of Apollo and the state, interred with pomp at Westminster. "There never was a better treasurer," observes sir Richard Baker, "both for the king's profit and the good of the subject."
1623. Francis Anthony, an English chemist, died; who took advantage of his knowledge to impose upon the credulous and unwary, by selling his panacea of potable gold.
1637. Fort Mistic, garrisoned by a large body of Indians under their grand sachem Sassacus, taken by assault, and about 70 wigwams burnt.
1689. Battle at the pass of Killicrankie, remarkable for the defeat of king William's troops by the Highlanders under lord Dundee.
1685. John Marsham died; a learned English chronologist.
1703. Samuel Pepys, a learned Englishman, died; celebrated for his collection of valuable documents, &c.
1746. Thomas Southern, an English dramatist, died.
1766. John Laurence Berti, a learned monk of Tuscany, died; author of about 20 quarto volumes of divinity.
1781. Congress resolved to establish the bank of North America, being the first regularly established bank in the country.
1782. William Emerson, an eminent English mathematician, died. His knowledge was very extensive, and his works accurate.
1784. Musical festival in Westminster abbey, in commemoration of the birthday of Handel. This was the greatest concert ever known; the number of performers was 525; 275 vocal, 250 instrumental. The sum produced was over $12,000.
1794. The French convention decreed that no quarters be given to British and Hanoverian soldiers. But the French troops refused to execute the decree.
1795. The Ottoman Porte acknowledged the French republic.
1798. Battle of Tarah and defeat of the United Irishmen.
1799. James Burnett, lord Monboddo, died. He was one of the lords of session in Scotland, and a philosophical writer of considerable learning, but of peculiar notions.
1809. Francis Joseph Haydn, the celebrated musical composer, died. His works are numerous and highly valued.
1811. James Pulteney, a wealthy English baron, died; whose income was $250,000 per annum.
1813. Cannonade between forts George and Niagara, and bombardment from all the batteries.
1814. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a French physician, who revived the use of the instrument known as the maiden, died at Paris, aged 76.
1824. Capel Lofft, an English poet and miscellaneous writer, died in Italy. He was the patron of Bloomfield.
1831. Battle of Ostrolenka, between 55,000 Russians and 20,000 Poles, in which the latter were defeated.
1836. William Young Ottley, keeper of the prints in the British museum, died. He was for half a century actively devoted to his favorite pursuit of the fine arts, and is honorably known as an artist, a collector, and an author.
1838. William Butler died at Philadelphia, aged 108.
1840. William Sidney Smith, admiral of the red, died at Paris, aged 76. He was one of the most celebrated naval officers of the last age, and distinguished himself on various occasions by his talents and courage.
1844. Jacques Lafitte, the French banker, died.
1848. By a fire which occurred in the omnibus establishment of Kip & Brown, New York, 130 horses were burnt.
1852. Samuel Nott, for a long time regarded as the patriarch of the clergy of New England, died in Franklin, Conn., aged 98. He graduated at Yale college in 1780, and two years after settled at Franklin, where he spent the remainder of his protracted life. He was also engaged in the business of instruction, and was a maker of public men. He was injured by a burn, and died of the effects of the accident.
1853. The yellow fever made its appearance at New Orleans; the number of victims during the season was 8,186, the greater part of whom died in August and September.
1854. Angus Patterson, for a long time president of the senate of South Carolina, died at Barnwell, in that state.
1854. A great crowd in Boston, excited by inflammatory speeches, attacked the court house and attempted to rescue the negro, Anthony Burns, under arrest as a fugitive from servitude. A special assistant of the United States marshal was killed, but the object of the riot was not effected.
1855. An imperial ukase ordered that all the serfs in certain of the Russian states, between the ages of 30 and 35, should be enrolled.