SEPTEMBER 9.
905. Olga, princess of Russia, received with great pomp and ceremony at Constantinople by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The baptism and nomination of the empress Helena, established the era of Russian Christianity.
1087. William I (the Conqueror), king of England, died in consequence of a fall from his horse, near Rouen, in France. He invaded England from Normandy, 1066, and having defeated Harold, who was slain at the battle of Hastings, was crowned king.
1513. Battle of Flodden, in Scotland, among the Cheviot hills. The Scots were defeated with the loss of 5,000 killed. Admiral Howard reported 10,000 Scots that fell in the field and pursuit. The English are supposed to have lost about an equal number, but among their slain were no persons of note. The heroic king James was struck down by an arrow a spear's length from the feet of Surrey, the English general.
1576. Titian (Tiziano Vezellio), the Italian painter, died of the plague, aged 96.
1583. Humphrey Gilbert, on his return from a voyage of discovery to America, was foundered at sea in a violent storm when every person perished.
1607. Pompone de Bellievre, an eminent French statesman, died. He enjoyed the favor of princes and the reward of office, and in turn was disgraced.
1609. Henry Hudson arrived in New York harbor, which perceiving to be a good one for all winds, the ship rode all night.
1654. Peter Stuyvesant, with 700 men, approached the Swedish settlements on the Delaware. They were all reduced without bloodshed. (See [Sept. 16].)
1677. About twenty Indians who had descended Connecticut river, fell upon Hatfield as the people were raising a house, killed and captured about twenty, among the latter some women and children. On their return the same day they halted at Deerfield, where several people were employed in rebuilding their houses. But being discovered, their mischief was confined to killing one and capturing two. These people were just returned to their farms which had been laid waste the year before. They were soon compelled again to abandon them.
1681. John Foster, the first Boston printer, died, aged 33. He graduated at Harvard, 1667, and it having been permitted to "have a printing presse elsewhere than at Cambridge," it was put under his charge.
1689. The famous treaty of partition was signed at the river Kerbechi, between China and Russia.
1703. Charles de St. Denis Evremond, a French nobleman, died in England, aged 95. He signalized himself by his valor in the army, and was equally eminent for his literary talents.
1734. An eagle whose expanded wings from tip to tip measured nine feet eight inches, was taken at Charlton, in Kent, England.
1770. Bernard Siegfried Albinus, an eminent Dutch anatomist, died, aged 88. He surpassed all his predecessors in the science of anatomy, and published 3 folio volumes of plates to illustrate the human body.
1771. Robert Wood, an English traveler and writer, died.
1776. United States first so called.
1781. British colonel Stewart destroyed a great quantity of his stores and abandoned Eutaw springs. He left 1000 stand of arms and 70 wounded men.
1782. Grand attack on Gibraltar by the Spaniards, from a floating battery of 64 heavy cannon, and their whole lines, together with 60 mortars and their shipping, which was continued during the whole day.
1790. Action off Codgia bay, between the Turkish and Russian fleets, which was begun the day previous, and ended in the defeat of the Turks, who lost two ships taken, and one in which was the admiral, blown up, and the admiral alone escaped death.
1792. Charles Xavier Joseph Franqueville d'Abancourt, minister of Louis XVI, perished at the massacre of the Orangery.
1797. Three men were suffocated in one of the famed Meux's brewvats at London, not having first used the precaution to let down a lighted candle.
1801. Gilbert Wakefield died; an eminent English polemical and classical writer.
1806. John Brand, an English antiquary, died. He was originally a shoemaker; but
found means to acquire a liberal education and left several valuable works.
1814. Captain McGlassin with 50 Americans, forded the Saranac and reconnoitered the British works, drove in a party of 150 men, attacked and carried their battery, killed their commanding officer and 16 men, and having destroyed their works, returned with the loss of 1 wounded and 3 missing.
1814. British navy with a detachment of troops, 150 sailors and 250 Indians, captured the United States schooners Tigress and Scorpion, near St. Joseph, Michigan.
1816. Kilian Van Rensselaer, a general in the revolutionary army, died at Albany. He embarked early in defence of his country; in 1777 was attacked by a large body of Indians at fort Anne, where he was wounded in the thigh by a ball, which was extracted after his death, having been carried 39 years.
1824. An expedition, fitted out at Rangoon in Burmah, consisting of English and native troops to the number of 1,000, took the town of Tavoy, a place of considerable strength, with 10,000 fighting men, and many mounted guns. The viceroy of the province and many persons of distinction were among the prisoners. A new state carriage for the king of Ava, a magnificent vehicle surpassing anything of the kind in Europe in splendor and costly material, was taken, and conveyed to England.
1830. William Bulmer, an English printer, whose name is associated with all that is beautiful in printing, died.
1839. Second fire at Mobile (the first being on the 7th), by which the best part of the city was laid in ruins.
1839. The United States Bank of Pennsylvania refused to pay its liabilities, and all the banks in Philadelphia immediately suspended specie payments. The whole number of banks in the Union was 959; of which 343 suspended entirely, 62 in part, 493 did not suspend, and 56 never resumed.
1846. Magnetic telegraph between Albany and New York completed; by means of which New York and Buffalo were brought together also.
1848. Great conflagration at Brooklyn, New York; about 200 houses burnt, and property destroyed amounting to $750,000.
1851. Thomas H. Gallaudet, an American philanthropist, died at Hartford, Ct., aged 64. He opened the first establishment in this country for the education of deaf mutes at Hartford, in 1817, and devoted a large part of his active and most useful life to this work of benevolence.
1851. The funeral obsequies of the Spaniards and Cubans who fell in the contests with the forces of Lopez, was celebrated with great pomp at the cathedral in Havana; $70,000 were subscribed by the citizens for the benefit of their widows and children.
1852. J. D. Belin, consul for Belgium and Switzerland, died at New Orleans.
1853. The remnant of the famous table rock at Niagara falls broke off and tumbled into the abyss with a tremendous crash.
1854. Angelo Mai, an Italian cardinal, died at Albano, aged 72. He was chief librarian of the Vatican, and a learned correspondent of the academies at Paris and Munich; but is better known by his discoveries from palimpsest manuscripts, which were published in two collections of 10 volumes each.