OCTOBER 13.
49. Tiberius Drusus Claudius, emperor of Rome, died of poison administered by his wife. He succeeded Caligula, and became contemptible for his vices and weakness.
409. Irruption of the Vandals into Spain, who, dividing her prolific territories, turned their swords into ploughshares.
643. Oswy, of Northumberland, and 10th king of Britain, ascended the throne. The great controversy for the celebration of Easter, was decided by him.
1164. The great council opened at Northampton, England, for the trial of Thomas Becket, by whose sentence he was placed at the king's mercy.
1269. The bones of Edward the Confessor enshrined in gold.
1417. Gregory XII (Angelo Corario), pope, died, aged 92. He was elected during the schism of the west, while the opposite party supported Benedict XIII. They were both deposed, and another elected.
1503. Theodore Beza, a learned French protestant, died. He was professor of Greek at Lausanne, in Switzerland.
1515. Battle of Marignon, in Italy; the Swiss defeated by the French under Francis I.
1698. The French missionary Gerbillon, returned to Pekin from his eighth and last journey, from thence into Tartary, journals of all which are published in Du Halde's History of China.
1705. The parliament of Scotland convened for the last time.
1754. Jacob Powell died at Stebbing, England. He weighed five hundred and sixty pounds. His body was five yards in circumference, and his limbs were in proportion. He had sixteen men to carry him to his grave.
1771. John Gill, an eminent English Calvinistic divine, died. He was a learned orientalist and voluminous writer on theological subjects; his greatest work is a commentary on the Bible.
1777. Esopus, on the Hudson river, burnt by the British under general Vaughan; not a house escaped.
1782. Battle in Persia for the sovereignty, between Abdul Fatcan and Murat Kan, the lord regent. The latter and his three sons were slain, and Abdul caused himself to be proclaimed king.
1793. The allies under Wurmzer invested Landau, and carried the lines of Weissembourg; the French retreated with loss.
1797. Benjamin Hammett fined £1,000 sterling, for refusing the office of lord mayor of London.
1812. Battle of Queenston, in Canada; the Americans, under colonel Van Rensselaer, attacked and carried the heights and fort; but owing to the refusal of 1,200 militia to cross over to their support, and the arrival of British regulars and Indians from fort George, the Americans, to the number of 764, were obliged to surrender. General Brock was killed in this affair, and Van Rensselaer was wounded by four balls. American loss, 90 killed, 82 wounded.
1815. Joachim Murat, king of Naples, shot. He was a soldier of fortune, who emerged from obscurity during the French revolution, became a distinguished general in the armies of France, married a sister of Napoleon, and was placed upon the throne of Naples.
1815. Napoleon Bonaparte landed at St. Helena, a perpetual exile.
1822. Antonio Canova died; the most eminent sculptor of the age. His statues are in possession of the noble and the rich throughout Europe.
1828. Vincent Monti died; one of the most celebrated poets of modern Italy.
1836. Jacob Spencer, a revolutionary pensioner, died at Washington, N. J., aged nearly 100. He had had seven wives, and left but one child living.
1845. Douglas Houghton, state geologist of Michigan, died, aged 36. He was prosecuting a combined geological and linear survey of the region near lake Superior, on a plan suggested by himself.
1845. W. K. Armistead, a general officer in the United States service, died at Upperville, Va., aged about 60. He had served long in the engineer department, and in 1840-41 had chief command in the campaign against the Florida Indians.
1846. Right honorable Henry Stephen Fox, late her Britannic majesty's minister plenipotentiary to the United States, died at Washington, D. C. He was much respected as well for his prudence and urbane manners, as for his decision and diplomatic talent.
1847. A body of 200 German catholics met at the Tabernacle, in New York, and made a public and formal secession from the Romish church.
1853. Tristram Burgess, a Rhode Island statesman, died, aged 83. He stood in the front rank of the public men of his day.
1853. Thomas Kemper Davis died at Boston. He stood high in his profession as a lawyer, and having acquired a fortune, devoted himself to and became learned in English and classical literature.
1854. Howard college, at Marion, Ala., destroyed by fire.