1820. Henry Christophe, king of Hayti, shot. He was a slave, and served in the American war. His activity in the revolution of the slaves in the island of St. Domingo, led to his elevation.
1822. Eruption of mount Galongoon, in the island of Java. It commenced at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of a fine day, by a loud explosion, which was followed by a thick cloud, that wrapped the whole country in darkness, while immense columns of mud, boiling hot, and mixed with burning brimstone, were projected from the mountain like a water spout, with such prodigious violence, that large quantities fell at the distance of 40 miles. The destruction was at its height at 4 o'clock, and had ceased at 5, having in the short space of three hours, laid a fruitful and thickly peopled country under a crust of boiling mud, in some places to the depth of sixty feet. Five millions coffee trees were destroyed, 87 canals, numerous rice fields, 114 villages, and upwards of 4000 inhabitants. The scene presented a bluish, half-liquid waste, where bodies of men, women and children, partly boiled and partly burned, were strewed about in every variety of death. It was followed by a rain storm of four days' duration, which inundated the country, when another eruption took place, more violent than the first.
1822. The first boats passed from the west and the north, through the Erie and Champlain canals, into the tide waters of the Hudson at Albany, amidst the acclamations of thousands of spectators.
1831. Great earthquake in South America. The town of Arica was utterly ruined, and the shock was felt along the coast, including seven degrees of latitude, shaking to its centre the immense breadth of the main Cordillera. It was attended by a violent vertical movement of the earth, during about 70 seconds, which threw down or shattered the houses, and in some cases pieces were detached from the middle of walls, leaving the rest of the edifice uninjured.
1832. Otho proclaimed and installed king of restored Greece, at the palace of Preysing, in Bavaria.
1837. Charles Fourier, founder of the system of social and industrial reform which bears his name, died at Paris.
1841. Johann Heinrich Dannecker, the Nestor of German sculptors, died at Stuttgardt, aged 82.
1848. The populace of Vienna, which had
been in a state of insubordination two days, became calm, and the emperor was invited to return.
1851. The Hudson river rail road was opened throughout, from New York to Albany.