TUESDAY, 9th.
1497 Vasco de Gama sailed from Belem, near Lisbon, on a voyage of discovery, which terminated in his finding the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, while Columbus was seeking the shores of Asia, by sailing continually to the West, and in so doing discovered the New World. The Portuguese navigator, by patiently pursuing the Coast of Africa, and at length doubling the Cape, which terminates this continent on the south, actually arrived on this long-sought coast the 22nd of May, 1499 after a voyage of one year and ten months.
1762 Catherine II. deposed her husband, Peter III., and caused herself to be proclaimed Empress of all the Russias.
1816 The countries of La Plata and Paraguay declared themselves free, and assumed the name of the United Provinces of South America.