OCTOBER 19.
202 B. C. Battle of Zama, in which Hannibal was defeated by Scipio.
125 B. C. The era of Tyre began, with the month Hyperberetæus. The months are the same as those used in the Grecian era; the year similar to the Julian.
1453. The fall of Bordeaux, after a siege of seven weeks, when Guienne, an English province, was incorporated with the French monarchy.
1492. Columbus discovered the island of Isabella.
1608. Geoffrey Fenton, an eminent English writer, died. He served queen Elizabeth in Ireland, where he was promoted.
1619. James Arminius, founder of the Arminians, died. He was professor of divinity at Leyden; his writings are all on controversial and theological subjects.
1630. First general court of the Massachusetts colony held at Boston. Many of the first planters attended and were made free of the colony. The number of freemen this year was 110.
1640. Albertus Miræus, a learned German writer, died.
1645. Newcastle in England, a fortress of considerable strength, taken by the Scots under Leven. The place had been
besieged ten weeks when the Scottish general directed a furious cannonade against the walls; at nightfall the besiegers advanced to the onset, and after two hours' hard fighting at the breaches, forced their entry.
1655. The kirk of Scotland refused to observe the fast day ordered by the protector, on the ground that the church should receive no directions from civil magistrates when to keep fasts.
1660. Colonels Axtel and Hacker executed for the murder of Charles I of England. Axtel commanded the guard that attended the king to the scaffold.
1675. Attack on Hadley, Mass., by the Indians to the number of seven or eight hundred. Nearly all the towns on that river had been either totally destroyed or greatly injured during this season by the savages. They attacked this place in all quarters, but were so warmly received at all points, that after burning a few barns and outhouses, they hastened away as fast as they had come on. The town happened to be garrisoned, and the companies stationed at the neighboring towns hastened to their relief. This was the last attempt upon these settlements this season, the Indians retiring to their general rendezvous at Narragansett. Great numbers of them had been killed, and a greater number had perished by other means.
1682. Thomas Brown, an eminent English physician and writer, died.
1690. Isaac Benserade, a French poet, died.
1745. Jonathan Swift, the eccentric dean of St. Patrick's, died, aged 78, in a state of idiocy, leaving £10,000 to found a hospital for lunatics and idiots.
1749. William Ged, an ingenious Scottish artist, died; memorable for a new invention in the art of printing, called stereotyping.
1762. Dark day at Detroit; "one of the darkest days that ever was known."
1763. A patrol of horse commanded by sir John Fielding, established on the roads leading to London, to clear them of robbers and highwaymen.
1769. A terrible eruption of Vesuvius.
1780. Engagement at Palatine Bridge, N. Y.; colonel Brown killed.
1781. Cornwallis surrendered to the French and American army at Yorktown. Above 7000 prisoners, the military chest, a frigate, with a number of transports and the public stores, and 1500 seamen, fell into the hands of the captors. The allied army consisted of 7000 French, 5500 continental troops, and 3500 militia.
1789. François, a baker in Paris, murdered in the street by a mob, because the return of the king had not lessened the price of bread. The great barbarity shown by the actors in this affair called down on them the severity of the national guards under Lafayette.
1794. Battle of Puffleck; the duke of York defeated by the French under Pichegru. The emigrant legion under Rohan were cut to pieces.
1806. Henry Kirke White, an admired English poet, died, aged 21.
1807. William Gordon died; an English author of a history of the American revolution, &c.
1810. The French burned all British merchandise in the country.
1812. Second battle of Poltosk; the French defeated and compelled to retreat with great loss.
1812. Bonaparte, at the head of the French army, left Moscow. The palace of the Kremlin blown up.
1813. Last day's battle of Leipsic, in which above half a million of men and at least 2000 cannon were engaged in the work of death. The French emperor finding it in vain to stem the torrent of so vast a superiority of force as now bore down upon him, began a retreat, which was disastrous in the extreme. The only bridge by which the army could cross was blown up, leaving 25,000 men to surrender at discretion. On arriving at Erfurt, Bonaparte found his army reduced to 80,000; having lost by death and defection since the campaign opened, 200,000.
1814. Battle of Lyon's creek; the Americans, 900 men, under general Bissell, attacked by a select British corps of 1200 men, who were compelled to retreat.
1825. Girolamo Lucchesini, a Prussian minister of state and author, died. He combined the qualities of an experienced courtier with the practical knowledge of a statesman, was learned without pedantry, and possessed a great memory.
1826. Francis Joseph Talma, an eminent French tragedian and writer, died. He was a man of great natural talent, and esteemed by men of rank and talent; he was a great favorite with Napoleon.
1842. The town of Monterey in California was captured by the United States squadron under commodore Jones, under the belief that war existed. But it was soon restored to Mexico.
1845. Hannah Gough died in New York, aged 110.
1847. A volcano burst forth with great violence on one of the high peaks of Lookout mountain, in the Alleghanian chain, in Georgia.
1847. The corner stone of a monument to the memory of general Washington laid in the city of New York.
1848. The Mormon temple at Nauvoo was fired by an incendiary, and totally destroyed.
1849. Frederick Strickland, a young Englishman, son of Thomas Strickland, bart., perished in the snow near the Notch house, in New Hampshire.
1852. A decree of the president issued for the convoking of the French senate for the purpose of deliberating on the restoration of the empire.
1853. Ichabod Bartlett, a New Hampshire statesman, died at Portsmouth, aged 67.