NOVEMBER 12.
606. Boniface III, pope, died. He established the superiority of the popes over the patriarchs of Constantinople.
1035. Canute (the Great), king of Denmark, died. He took part of England from Edmund Ironsides, and afterwards seized the whole kingdom.
1041. The people rose on the tax collectors of Hardi Canute of England, and slew them.
1493. Columbus arrived at Navidad, on the north side of Hispaniola, where he had left a colony on his first voyage, and had the mortification to find that the people were all dead, and the fort destroyed.
1550. Paul Fagius (Buchlin), a learned protestant German minister, died in England. He undertook a new translation and illustration of the Old Testament under Cromwell, but died before he had made much progress.
1555. Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and chancellor of England, died. In his character as a minister, he had a large portion of haughtiness, boundless ambition and deep dissimulation; for he looked upon religion as an engine of state, and made use of it as such.
1562. Peter Martyr, a distinguished commentator on the Bible, died at Zurich.
1589. The first notice of the appointment of a licenser of stage plays, &c., in London.
1595. John Hawkins, an English admiral, died. He signalized himself in the reign of Elizabeth, by his encounters with the Spanish armada, and his expeditions to the West Indies.
1606. The expedition of the Plymouth company under Challons (See [Aug. 12]), on its passage from the West Indies towards the American coast, was captured by a Spanish fleet and carried into Spain, where the vessel was confiscated.
1684. Birthday of admiral Edward Vernon. The anniversary of his birthday was kept with great enthusiasm formerly, in England, especially about the year 1740.
1688. Andrew Anderson commenced an auction sale of books, the first of the kind in Scotland.
1722. Adrian Van der Werf, a Dutch portrait painter of great reputation, died. He was held in great esteem, received a pension and the honor of knighthood.
1746. Jacq. Alexander Cæsar Charles, in his lifetime so well known as a natural philosopher, was born at Baujency, in France. He was the first to make use of hydrogen gas instead of heated air in balloons.
1775. Montreal surrendered to the Americans; general Prescott, and several officers with 120 privates were intercepted. Eleven sail of vessels, with all their contents, fell into the hands of the provincials.
1775. British ships Tamarand and Cherokee attacked the United States schooner Defence, off South Carolina. This was the commencement of open hostilities in that state. The Defence sustained but little injury.
1780. Battle of Broad river; a band of American volunteers under Sumpter attacked by the British under major Wemys, who were defeated and Wemys taken.
1783. The crew of the British ship Antelope, wrecked on the Pelew island (see [Aug. 10]), sailed for China in a vessel which they had constructed, taking the king's son, Lee Boo.
1793. Bailly, late mayor of Paris, beheaded. He was a patriot and man of science. The first to take the famous oath never to separate till they had obtained a free constitution.
1799. Meteoric shower observed at Cumana, in South America; thousands of falling stars were seen to succeed each other during four hours.
1805. Robert Holmes, an English divine, died. He was distinguished as a poet and scholar, and for his devotion to Biblical criticism.
1812. The Russians under Orloff Denizoff attacked a strong body of French with a large convoy of provisions, cattle, horses, &c., on their way to Smolensk. He killed 1500 and took 1300 prisoners, 400 wagons
of biscuit, brandy and wine, and 200 head of cattle and 1000 horses destined for the artillery. Few of those who escaped ever reached Smolensk, for the inclemency of the weather destroyed what the sword had spared. It was a dreadful blow to the French army, which was reduced to such extremities that the smallest assistance was invaluable.
1813. British frigate Lacedemonian captured Philadelphia sloop Betsey off Carrituck. The British took out the crew, leaving the captain and one man and a boy on board, in charge of a prize master and five men. In the night the two Americans rose upon the crew, recaptured the vessel, and brought her safe to Washington, N. C., with their six prisoners.
1820. William Hayley, an English poet and miscellaneous writer, died.
1824. County of Orleans, in western New York, erected.
1832. Barnaba Oriani, an Italian astronomer, died, aged 80. He was director of the observatory, and one of the most accomplished astronomers of the day.
1845. Maria Brooks, an American poetess, died, aged about 50. Her principal poem is Zophies, which is pronounced one of the most original, passionate and harmonious works of the imagination ever conceived. Southey pronounced her "the most impassioned and imaginative of poetesses."
1848. Revolutionary movements in Prussia. The burger guard at Berlin refused to comply with the king's proclamation to give up their arms.
1849. The American ship Caleb Grimshaw took fire at sea, and burnt four days, when 339 of her passengers were rescued; 60 who left the vessel on a raft, perished.