1793. Mary Olympe de Gouges, a French authoress, guillotined. Becoming disgusted with the brutalities of the revolutionists, she turned her pen against them, and fell a victim to their vengeance.
1797. William Enfield, an eminent English dissenting minister died; known by many ingenious and useful publications.
1812. Battle near Wiazma; the French under Ney, Davoust, and Beauharnois defeated by the Russians with the loss of 6,000 killed, and 3,500 taken prisoners, and 28 cannon. Of the wounded French, all who fell must have unquestionably perished, as in the night the Russian winter set in, with a degree of iron severity almost unknown to the oldest inhabitants; on the following morning all was buried under a deep, wide waste of snow.
1832. John Leslie died; an eminent Scottish chemist, mathematician, and natural philosopher, inventor of the differential thermometer, and author of various scientific works. He rose from humble life, and received the honor of knighthood for his acquirements.
1834. Dr. Horner, died at Zurich, Switzerland. He accompanied Krusenstern in his first Russian voyage round the world, and wrote the Natural History of Russia.
1839. Carter Berkley, an eminent Virginia physician, aged 72, died while feeling the pulse of a dying patient. He was a lineal descendant of sir William Berkley, and an excellent character.
1840. St. Jean d'Acre bombarded by the allied British and Turkish fleets. The firing commenced at half past 2 P. M., and ceased at 6. The magazine, containing 500 barrels of powder, was blown up, over which about 2,000 soldiers were stationed, who were nearly all buried in the ruins. The number of killed in the town is unknown; loss of the British and allies 18 killed and 42 wounded. The Egyptians evacuated the place on the following morning, and it was possessed by the conquerors, who found 121 mounted guns and 20 mortars on the walls, and 97 brass field pieces and 97 mortars in store, besides stores of all kinds and the military chest, valued altogether at about one million pounds.
NOVEMBER 4.
1493. Columbus discovered the island of Guadaloupe, the largest of the Carib or Cannibal islands, called by the natives Carucueria. The drinking vessels of this fierce people were formed of human skulls. They here saw the pine apple.