1783. Henry Brooke, an eminent Irish writer, died. His tragedy of Gustavus Vasa, though forbidden the stage for its tone of freedom and liberty, met with a rapid sale.
1787. The Prussians under the duke of Brunswick took the city of Amsterdam by capitulation. It is said that before the surrender water sold for an English shilling a quart.
1792. Lord Mulgrave died at Liege, aged 48. He was captain Phipps in the British service, and was celebrated for his voyage towards the North pole.
1794. Battle of Fersen, or Mackowieze, between the Russians and the Poles under Kosciusko. The contest was bloody and fatal to the patriots. The victory was wavering, and the expected reinforcements not appearing, Kosciusko at the head of his principal officers, made a furious charge and plunged into the midst of the Russians. He had three horses killed under him, and finally fell covered with wounds, and was captured.
1797. Carter Braxton died; a signer of the declaration of independence from Virginia.
1800. Explosion of an infernal machine intended to have destroyed Bonaparte, then first consul, as he proceeded to the opera. The coachman being intoxicated, drove faster than was his custom, and the engine exploded half a minute after the carriage had passed, killed 20 persons, and wounded 53, and shattered the windows on both sides of the street.
1806. Jeremiah James Oberlin, an eminent archæologist of Strasburg, died. He was an accurate and industrious scholar, and besides various original works, published good editions of several of the Latin classics.
1806. Sanguinary battle at the bridge of Saalfeld in Saxony; the French under Suchet defeated the Prussians, and their general, prince Ferdinand Louis, was killed.
1812. Veraya, in Russia, garrisoned by the French, taken by the Russians under Dorochoff; 500 French were killed and 400 captured. The standard of Westphalia and 500 muskets were taken, and the place having been made a depot for provisions, great quantities fell into the hands of the Russians.
1824. Francis Balthazar Solvyns, a celebrated Dutch painter and engraver, died. He spent 15 years in Hindostan, studying the languages, manners and customs of the east, on which he published a work in folio.