SEPTEMBER 18.
96. Titus Flavius Domitianus, emperor of Rome, died. He was the last of the Cæsars. Juvenal has shown him a buffoon, and history fixed his infamy.
1014. A violent storm caused the inundation of a large portion of Flanders.
1069. The city of New York burned by the Norman garrison.
1180. Louis VII, king of France, died. He made a crusade, with an army of 80,000 men, to Palestine, but was defeated by the Saracens.
1609. Hudson, ascending the river which bears his name, observing the water to become shoal, cast anchor in the neighborhood of the present town of Castleton, where he went on shore at the invitation of an old man, who appeared to be the governor of the country; who was chief over 40 men and 17 women; and who occupied a house made of the bark of trees, exceedingly smooth, and well finished, within and without. Here he found large quantities of Indian corn and beans, enough to load three ships, besides what were still growing in the fields.
1621. The Plymouth colonists sent an expedition consisting of ten men in a shallop, accompanied by Squanto and two other Indians, to the Massachusetts, to discover the bay, see the country, make peace, and trade with the natives.
1674. Gabriel Cossart died; a French writer, who assisted Labbe in his grand collection of councils, which extended to 28 vols. folio.
1675. Battle of Deerfield, Mass., with the Indians. A company of 96 men under captain Lathrop were escorting 3,000 bushels of corn to a place of security, when they were so suddenly set upon by about 800 Indians, that only 8 escaped. This was a choice company of young men culled from the towns of Essex county. Another company, coming, though too late to their rescue, marched through and through that great body of Indians, and after a fight of five or six hours, came off with a loss of only two, and eight wounded. It is thought
that had Lathrop followed the same mode of fighting, he might have escaped with a smaller loss; but his mode was to fight the savages in their own way, by skulking behind trees, and picking off single persons, which enabled five or six of the enemy, which were so greatly superior in numbers, to surround a single man, and deliberately fire at him at once. The Indians afterwards acknowledged a loss of 96 that day.
1684. John Antonides (Vander Goes), an excellent Dutch poet, died.
1721. Matthew Prior died; an eminent English poet and statesman.
1722. Andrew Dacier, a very celebrated French critic and philosopher, died. He translated many of the classics.
1759. The city of Quebec surrendered to the English under brigadier general Townshend, and was garrisoned by 5,000 men under general Murray.
1773. The Polish diet finally ratified the treaty of the partition of their country between Russia, Austria and Prussia.
1773. John Cunningham died; an ingenious pastoral poet and dramatic writer.
1777. Americans under colonel Brown attacked and defeated the British on the north end of lake George and Ticonderoga, took 293 prisoners, released 100 Americans, and retook the continental standard left there on its evacuation in July.
1777. Congress at Philadelphia adjourned to meet at Lancaster, on account of the approach of the British.
1790. Henry Frederick, brother to George III, and duke of Cumberland, died. His marriage with Mrs. Horton gave rise to the famed Marriage Act of England.
1792. The south-east corner stone of the north wing of the Capitol at Washington, was laid by general Washington.
1794. Bellegarde, a strong and important fortress, commanding the road from France into Spain, surrendered at discretion to the French under Dugommier, although abundantly supplied with every thing required to hold out a siege of many months.
1798. Nelson being applied to for assistance by the Malthese, sent a Portuguese squadron, consisting of 4 ships of the line and 2 frigates, which appeared before Valetta on this day.
1800. The treaty between Bonaparte and the pope, called the Concordat, ratified. This was dictated by the first consul and in every article infringed on the pretensions of the papal dignitary.
1811. Dutch surrendered the island of Java to the British.
1811. Battle of Ximena, in Spain, and defeat of the French under Soult.
1816. Bernard M'Mahon, an eminent botanist from Ireland, died at his botanic garden, near Philadelphia.
1819. John Langdon died; an active and powerful advocate of the American revolution. He was a member of the congress of 1775, and of the convention which framed the constitution; a senator in congress, and governor of New Hampshire.
1821. John Nicholas Corvisart, a distinguished French physician, died. He was physician to Napoleon, and greatly promoted the progress of experimental medicine and pathological anatomy in France.
1830. William Hazlitt, an elegant English writer, died. He is also known as an artist.
1834. Keating Simons died, aged 82; aid-de-camp in the revolutionary war to general Marion.
1838. Great eclipse of the sun over the United States.
1840. C. S. Rafinesque, an eminent botanist, died at Philadelphia, where he had been for several years professor of botany and natural history in Transylvania university, and author of several works on various scientific subjects.
1842. John C. Colt under sentence of death in New York for the murder of Mr. Adams, killed himself on the day appointed for his execution.
1853. Andrews Norton, an American theologian, died, aged 68. He wrote several theological works, was a profound and accurate scholar, and for talent, acquirements and influence, one of the most remarkable men of New England.
1854. The British consul at the Sandwich islands presented his protest to the king, against the annexation of those islands to the United States.
1854. William Plumer, a New Hampshire statesman, died, aged 65. He graduated at Harvard, and while in congress opposed the Missouri compromise. He was a man of taste, had an attachment to historical researches, and collected a fine library. He published two small volumes of poems.
1855. John F. W. Johnston, an eminent English chemist and mineralogist, died at Durham, aged 59. He published several valuable works on agricultural chemistry and geology, and was a contributor to the reviews.