OCTOBER 20.
480 B. C. The battle of Salamis is, by respectable authority, placed upon this day. (See [Sept. 30].)
1422. Charles VI of France, died. He succeeded to the kingdom at the age of 13, and during a reign of 42 years the kingdom, by foreign invasions and internal factions, was ruined, and passed into the hands of the English.
1524. Thomas Linacre, a learned English physician and divine, died. He was the best Greek and Latin scholar of his age, and founded the college of physicians.
1579. The Scottish parliament decreed that every householder, having lands or goods worth £500, should be obliged to have a Bible, which at this time was printed in folio, and a psalm book in his house, "for the better instruction of themselves and their families in the knowledge of God."
1687. The destruction of Lima in Peru by an earthquake.
1713. Archibald Pitcairne, an able Scottish physician, died. He disputed the right of Harvey to the discovery of the circulation of the blood, which he asserted was fully known to Hippocrates.
1714. Several people killed by the falling of scaffolds on which multitudes were standing to see the coronation of George I of England.
1719. Birthday of Godfrey Achenwall, a Prussian traveler, historian and political economist. He first gave a distinct character to the science of statistics, and gave it that name. He died 1772.
1723. A fire commenced in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and lasted three days; most of the city was burnt down.
1740. Charles VI, emperor of Germany, died. He was the sixteenth and last prince of the ancient house of Austria, and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa.
1741. The Prussians became masters of Silesia.
1786. A basket maker contrived by a singular scaffolding of twigs to bring down the weathercock from the old abby church of St. Albans, in England.
1796. The university of Oxford and the marquis of Buckingham each presented 2000 copies of the Bible for distribution among the French clergy.
1799. Rome capitulated to the English.
1807. The ports of Portugal shut against British shipping.
1807. Copenhagen evacuated by the British, who brought off the stores in the arsenal, amounting to 92 cargoes, and the ships of war.
1814. Philip Astley, founder of the royal amphitheatre, London, died, aged 72. He served seven years in Germany, in the English cavalry, and on his return began to exhibit equestrian performances. He erected several amphitheatres in England and Paris, wrote a treatise on horsemanship, and two works of a military character.
1815. Great hurricane at Jamaica, which continued 3 days and wrecked one hundred vessels.
1826. Boissy d'Anglas, died at his residence in France, whose name is so closely interwoven with the French revolution. He was a member of the council of 500, and subsequently the president of that body. His hostility to the Directory produced a sentence of deportation to Guiana, but he contrived to elude the exile.
1827. Battle of Navarino, in which the fleet of the pacha of Egypt was annihilated by the combined squadrons of Great Britain, Russia and France, under admiral Codrington.
1841. A fire broke out in the tower at London, and entirely consumed the building called the small armory; about 200,000 stand of arms, and a great number of trophies of various kinds were destroyed.
1853. Selim Pasha defeated a Russian corps of 15,000 men on the frontiers of Georgia. The Turks at this time had a fleet of 22 ships of the line and 9 war steamers, mounting 1116 guns, and the Egyptian contingent consisting of 10 ships of war and 2 steamers, mounting 614 guns.