NOVEMBER 5.
1500. Columbus arrived at Cadiz in fetters; when the king and queen, ashamed of the orders they had given, commanded him to be released. Notwithstanding the apologies of his sovereigns, Columbus never forgot this ignominy. He preserved his fetters, hung them up in his apartment, and ordered them to be buried with him.
1548. There fell in Thuringia what is described as a ball of fire, which was attended with a great noise; and a reddish substance like coagulated blood was afterwards found on the ground.
1605. Gunpowder plot discovered; a conspiracy for blowing up the English parliament, headed by Catesby. In the cellar was found 40 barrels of powder and Guy Fawkes.
1607. The famous grace Non Nobis Domini, composed by Bird, was first sung, on the second anniversary of the gunpowder plot.
1612. Prince Henry died, aged 19. His funeral expenses were £16,016, yet his father, king James, would allow no mourning for him.
1630. John Kepler, a celebrated German astronomer, died. His genius and discoveries have been highly commended; but he maintained some very peculiar notions; among others, that the globe is a huge animal, which breathes out the winds through the holes in the mountains, as through its mouth and nostrils.
1635. Thomas Parr, an English peasant, died at the age of 152. His habits were extremely temperate, and it is supposed that his death was hastened by a change of diet. James Bowles died in England in 1656, at the same age.
1678. John Baptist Nani, a Venitian nobleman and ambassador, died. He wrote a history of Venice, and an account of his embassy to France.
1690. Thomas Bartholine died; an eminent professor of law and history at Copenhagen. His three brothers were professors in the same university, and his sister an excellent Danish poetess.