OCTOBER 9.
1047. Clement II, pope, died. He was a Saxon, elected the year previous, and distinguished for his zeal against Simony.
1192. King Richard of England embarked from Palestine in a single ship for Europe.
1253. Robert Greathead, bishop of Lincoln, and a learned and voluminous writer, died.
1326. Hugh Spencer, a favorite of Edward II, hanged at Bristol, which city he defended against the forces of queen Isabella.
1555. Justus Jonas died; a learned coadjutor of Luther and the other reformers, and author of a Defence of the Marriage of the Priests, and other works.
1563. Gabriel Fallopius, a celebrated Italian physician and anatomist, died at Padua. He possessed great powers of mind, which he cultivated by intense application.
1642. The first commencement was held at Harvard college, when nine candidates took the degree of A. B.
1646. The whole order of English bishops abolished by an ordinance of parliament.
1665. Gov. Stuyvesant submitted to the states general his report in relation to the surrender of New York to the English.
1682. Henry Blount died; an English traveler, who made the tour of Europe and part of Asia, and published an account of his travels on his return.
1688. Claude Perrault, a distinguished French physician and architect, died.
1690. John Maynard, an eminent English lawyer, died; celebrated for his eloquence, integrity and public spirit.
1705. John Christopher Wagenseil died; a learned German polemical writer, and professor of history and oriental languages at Altorf.
1707. A fleet of English merchantmen attacked off the Lizard point; the Devonshire man-of-war blown up.
1711. The British fleet returning from its unsuccessful expedition against Canada, arrived at Portsmouth, N. H., when in addition to their other misfortunes, the Edgar 70 gun ship blew up, having on board 400 men besides many persons who came to visit their friends.
1718. Richard Cumberland, a learned English divine and mathematician, died.
1733. Seven hundred British troops withdrawn from Gibraltar to defend the planters of Jamaica from their runaway slaves.
1745. Ath surrendered to the French after a severe and destructive bombardment. This gave France the command of Flanders.
1747. David Brinard, an eminent American missionary among the Indians, died at Northampton, a victim to his extreme mortification and inextinguishable zeal for the success of his mission. He rode about 4,000 miles in 1744, on pastoral duties.
1747. Jonas Surrington died near Bergen in Norway, aged 159, retaining the perfect use of his faculties to the last.
1759. The architect Smeaton finished the Eddystone light house; not an accident occurred to sadden the joy.
1760. Berlin in Prussia, taken and sacked by the Russians and Austrians.
1772. Christian Jacobson Drackenburg died at Aarhus, Denmark, aged 146; "a celebrated and well-known character."
1779. The people of Manchester rioted on account of Arkwright's machinery for spinning.
1779. The French and Americans, about 4,500 men under count d'Estaing and Gen. Lincoln, made an unsuccessful assault upon Savannah, and were compelled to retreat with considerable loss. The brave count Pulaski was mortally wounded in this affair. (Holmes says Oct. 11.)
1781. The French and Americans opened their batteries upon the British at Yorktown.
1791. Abraham J. Lansing, the original proprietor of Lansingburgh, N. Y., died, aged 72, at his seat in that town.
1803. Deluge in the island of Madeira; the city of Funchal, with all its inhabitants, was swept into the ocean, leaving the rocky basis of the island bare. But one human being escaped, which was an infant. The event is supposed to have been
occasioned by a water spout, which had burst against the side of a mountain, and discharged itself down the declivities upon the city.
1805. Battle of Guntzburg; the Austrians under prince Ferdinand, defeated by the French under Bonaparte, with the loss of 2,000 prisoners, besides killed and wounded.
1806. Battle of Schleitz in Saxony; 10,000 Prussians defeated by Bernadotte; being the recommencement of hostilities between the French and Prussians.
1809. Great storm at Boston and vicinity, by which a vast number of vessels were lost.
1812. Lieut. Elliott, of the United States navy, with 50 volunteers, attacked and carried two British vessels, the Caledonia and Detroit, on lake Erie. One of these was burnt, with a cargo valued at $200,000.
1813. British broke up their cantonments before fort George, and marched rapidly for Burlington bay.
1822. Richard Earlom, an English engraver of great skill, died. His flower pieces are highly valued.
1826. Charles Mills, an eminent English historian, died. His histories of the crusades, of chivalry and of Muhammedanism, are valuable acquisitions to literature.
1831. Capo d'Istrias, president of Greece, assassinated by one of his own countrymen.
1836. James Saumarez, an English admiral, died; distinguished in the naval history of his country, and eminent for his private virtues.
1842. Joshua Stow, sometime chief judge in Middlesex county court, Conn., died at Middletown.
1845. David Baillie Warden died at Paris, aged 67. He was a native of Ireland, was sometime consul of the United States at Paris, where he collected a valuable library of American history, was a member of the French academy, and a man of letters and varied learning.
1847. Sweden abolished slavery in the island of St. Bartholomew and all her dependencies.
1849. Timothy Dwight Sprague, editor of the American Literary Magazine, died at Andover, Mass., aged 30.
1849. A riot in Philadelphia, between a set of whites called killers, and some negroes. It was continued the next day, until put down. Four houses were burned, 4 persons killed, and 11 wounded.
1854. William Darby, an eminent American geographer and statistician, died at Washington, aged 79.
1855. A treaty was ratified between Japan and Great Britain, by admiral sir James Stirling.