MAY 8.
685. Pope Benedict II died.
1360. The treaty called the great peace signed at Bretigni, by which Edward III renounced all his claims to the French crown and its territories.
1429. The siege of Orleans was abandoned. At dawn, the English army was discovered at a small distance from the walls, drawn up in battle array, and braving the enemy to fight in the open field. After waiting for some hours, the signal was given; the long line of forts, the fruit of 7 months' labor, was instantly in flames and the soldiers, with mingled feelings of shame and regret, turned their backs to the enemy. This was one of the inexplicable feats of Joan d'Arc.
1493. Ferdinand and Isabella confirmed, at Barcelona, the appointment of Columbus, on his return from the new world. "The office of admiral of the said ocean, which is ours, commences by a line, which we have ordered to be marked, passing from the Azores to the cape de Verd islands, from the north to the south, from pole to pole; so that all which is beyond the aforesaid line to the west is ours, and belongs to us; and of all this we create our admiral, you and your children."
1532. Francis Alvarez Paez died; a Portuguese divine of the order of the Cordeliers, and an author.
1535. Henry VIII of England had his head shaved, and commanded all about his court to follow his example.
1538. Edward Fox, an English prelate and statesman, died. He was the principal pillar of the reformation in England.
1572. Dame Dorothy Packington sent the trusty and well beloved Thos. Lichfield and George Borden to be her burgess in parliament, informing the queen that whatever they might do in her service in parliament should receive her (Dorothy's) approval.
1638. Cornelius Jansenius died; founder of the Jansenists, who gave the pope and the Jesuits much trouble in Europe.
1655. Edward Winslow died; one of the first settlers of Plymouth colony, Mass., and afterwards its governor. He joined the fleet sent over by Cromwell to attack St. Domingo, the only place of strength which the Spaniards had in Hispaniola, and died at sea, aged 60. His marriage was the first that was celebrated in the colony.
1657. Cromwell refused the title of king of England.
1659. A remnant of the long parliament assembled during the anarchy, and has been termed the rump.
1662. Peter Heylin, an English historian, died. He was an able and indefatigable writer, principally known by his Description of the great World, and History of the Reformation.
1676. Bridgewater, Mass., invaded by the Indian enemy, and 17 buildings laid in ashes.
1703. Vincent Alsop died; a presbyterian clergyman, who attacked Dr. Sherlock with great wit and some seriousness.
1725. Capt. John Lovewell, with a party of 36 men, encouraged by his former success against the Indians (see [Feb. 20]), undertook an expedition against Pigwacket, on Saco river, was ambuscaded, and himself and a great part of his men killed. They made a brave resistance, determined to die rather than yield, and by their well directed fire thinned the number of the savages so that their cries became fainter, and they finally left the field, carrying off their dead.
1729. William King, archbishop of Dublin, died; author of a celebrated treatise on the origin of evil.
1744. Giles Jacob died; an English law writer, biographer, and lexicographer.
1758. Benedict XIV (Prosper Lambertini), pope, died. His character was that of a learned, liberal-minded and benevolent man. His works fill 16 vols. folio.
1775. The great tunnel at Norwood hill, through which the Chesterfield and Trent canal was to pass, was opened; its length nearly 1¾ miles.
1779. Charles Hardy, an English admiral, died. He was two years governor of New York, and was appointed commander in chief of the western squadron, 1779.
1782. Sebastian Joseph Carvallo de Pombal, a Portuguese statesman, died. He displayed great wisdom and abilities in the offices to which he was promoted; and under his munificence and patriotism the city of Lisbon rose from her ruins by the earthquake, in new splendor and increased magnificence.
1793. Battle of Vicogne, the French defeated by the Austrians under Clairfait, after an obstinate action and great carnage.
1793. Jas. Ridgway and H. D. Symonds,
booksellers in London, severely fined and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for selling the books of Thomas Payne.
1794. Anthony Lawrence Lavoisier, a French chemist, guillotined. His philosophical researches were of great service to science, and of practical utility to his country; he was condemned on the most frivolous pretexts.
1799. Bonaparte made an unsuccessful attempt to carry St. Jean d'Acre by assault.
1806. Robert Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, died. He was one of the most extensive merchants in America, and in 1781 was appointed to the control of the government finances, where the services he rendered the country were of the utmost importance. The army was frequently supplied by his own personal credit. It is painful to add, that the latter years of his life were passed in prison, where he was confined for debt.
1813. The Americans evacuated York, Upper Canada, after burning the blockhouses, barracks and king's stores.
1815. David Ramsay, an American physician and historian, died. By unwearied industry and economy of time he was enabled, amidst an extensive practice, to publish several important histories, and left others in manuscript.
1815. Saxony dismembered, and a great part of the kingdom given to Prussia.
1816. The United States ship Washington, 74 guns, put to sea, being the first American ship of the line afloat.
1822. John Stark, a major general in the revolutionary army, died, aged 93. By his skill and intrepidity the first step was achieved towards the capture of Burgoyne, by the defeat of colonel Baum in the battle of Bennington.
1829. Charles Abbot, lord Colchester, died; a British statesman.
1842. More than 70 lives lost by a rail road accident between Versailles and Paris among whom were the celebrated navigator, admiral Dumont d'Urville and his wife and children.
1846. Battle of Palo Alto. The Americans, 2,000, under Gen. Taylor, were attacked on their return from Point Isabel, by 5,000 Mexicans. The former fought their way through the Mexican lines, dispersing the enemy, capturing their baggage and artillery, and several of their superior officers.
1848. Great hail storm at Charleston, S. C.; some of the stones that fell were 7½ inches in circumference.
1852. The emperor of Russia visited the emperor of Austria at Vienna, and two days afterwards reviewed the Austrian troops, consisting of 20,000 infantry and 10,000 artillery and cavalry.
1853. John Farrar, a distinguished American mathematician, died, aged 54. He gave the active portion of his life to the service of Harvard college, to which he brought great natural tastes and aptitudes, habits of persevering labor, and deep conscientiousness.
1854. The sultan of Turkey gave a grand banquet in honor of Napoleon.
1855. Jane Davy, widow of sir Humphrey Davy, died in London; conspicuous in literary circles for her accomplishments, unwearied conversation and physical activity.