SEPTEMBER 29.
1066. William (the Conqueror) landed in England, at Pevensey, in Sussex, and made the conquest of the country, and revolutionized its institutions.
1399. Richard II resigned his right to the crown, publicly acknowledging his incapacity to reign.
1494. Columbus met with his brother Bartholomew at the town of Isabella in the West Indies, after a separation of fourteen years, during which the latter had paid an unsuccessful visit to the court of England.
1513. Fall of Tournay, in Belgium, which closed the campaign of the English under Henry VIII.
1526. Rome taken by the partisans of cardinal Calonna, when the palace of the Vatican, the church of St. Peter, and the pope's ministers and servants were plundered.
1560. Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden, died. He recovered the kingdom from the Danish yoke, and established the protestant religion in his country.
1564. The earl of Leicester was ennobled, on which occasion it is said coaches were first brought to London.
1604. The act of king James against witches went into operation.
1622. Conrad Vorstius died; a learned German protestant divine and polemical writer, who succeeded Arminius in the divinity chair at Leyden.
1720. The great South sea bubble, a scheme for paying off the national debt of England, burst and involved an incredible number of people in utter ruin. The capital of the company was about $168,000,000.
1759. Volcano of Jorullo, in Mexico, by which a mountain was thrown up in a single night to the height of 1224 feet in the midst of a large plain. The volcano is surrounded by numerous conical hills, from which smoke is continually issuing.
1760. The astronomer Maskelyne was sent by the English government to St. Helena, and Mr. Mason to Bencoolen, to observe the transit of Venus on the 6th June, 1761. Three astronomers were sent from France for a like purpose.
1764. Battle between the Irish White boys and English troops near Kilkenny. Several killed on both sides.
1772. John Benjamin Michaelis, one of the minor German poets, died in his 25th year.
1778. American frigate Raleigh, after gallantly engaging two British men of war some time, ran on shore, and was captured.
1791. The national assembly of France dissolved itself.
1793. Francis Rozier, an eminent French agriculturist, killed by a bomb at Lyons, which fell on his bed, while he was asleep. He published a work on agriculture in 10 volumes quarto.
1793. The French convention decreed the incorporation with the French republic of all the Austrian possessions on the west side of the Rhine.
1809. Charles Francis Dupuis, a French philosopher, died; having filled several important professorships and civil offices. He published a work on the origin of all modes of religious worship, in 3 volumes quarto.
1813. The Americans under general Harrison took possession of Sandwich and Detroit.
1825. Daniel Shays, noted for the part he took in the celebrated rebellion of 1786, which bears his name, died at Sparta, aged 64. He had been an officer in the revolutionary army, and enjoyed a pension.
1827. Captains Parry and Franklin reached the admiralty, from the arctic and overland American expeditions. The latitude made by Parry was 82¾ degrees.
1833. Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, died, and was buried with great pomp in the Escurial. His reign was a period of disaster to Spain, during which she sank rapidly into insignificance as a European kingdom. He received a superior education, but was a superstitious and weak minded man, the victim or the tool of artful ministers or bigoted priests. His first wife, an accomplished woman, was
poisoned in 1806, the second died 1808; the third 1829; the fourth by whom alone he had issue, outlived him. It was during his reign that the inquisition was re-established and six years afterwards permanently abolished. In his latter years he seemed to take little or no interest in public affairs, but continued to reign, nominally, goaded on one side by the liberals, and on the other by the absolutists, or apostolical party as they called themselves, who were for ruling by terror.
1840. John Marshall, author of various works on manufactures, commerce and statistics, died at London, aged 58.
1843. Richard Harlan, a noted writer on natural history, died of apoplexy at New Orleans. His parents were among the first quaker families that emigrated from England.
1848. George F. Ruxton, a British officer, died at St. Louis, Mo., aged 38 (Allen says 88). He wrote the series in Blackwood's Magazine on life in the far west, and also a book of adventures in Mexico and the Rocky mountains.
1854. Marshal de Saint Arnaud, a commander of the French forces in the Crimea, died at Balaclava, aged 53. He served in Algeria, and conducted an expedition against the Kabyles; also executed the coup d'état for Louis Napoleon. He is represented as a man of deep religious impressions, was courted by the clergy, and had been much engaged in building chapels.
1855. The Russians, 35,000 strong, attacked Kars, gained possession of the redoubt four times, and were four times driven back, and at length retreated, leaving 4,000 dead in the trenches and around the city. Loss of the garrison about 800.