1774. Robert Clive, baron Plassy, a wealthy English nobleman, died by suicide; a striking instance of the insufficiency of wealth or external honors alone to produce happiness. While a colonel in the service of the East India company, he retook Calcutta from the nabob Surajah Dowlah, and defeated his immense army in the plains of Plassy, and thereby laid the foundation of the present extensive British empire in Hindostan. He was made governor of India, and died immensely rich.
1775. Charles Henry de Fusse de Voisenon, a French ecclesiastic, died. He abandoned his profession for the pleasures of the world and of authorship, and his works were collected in 5 vols.
1775. The Americans, about 1000 in number, took possession of Cobble or Miller's hill, near Boston, and erected entrenchments on it.
1784. Paul Frisi, an Italian mathematician and philosopher, died at Milan. He was self-taught; and introduced into the Milanese the use of conductors to secure buildings from lightning, and contributed greatly to root out the superstitious notions of the people respecting sorcerers and magic. His works on hydraulics, astronomy, and many other sciences, are numerous and valuable.
1795. Battle of Loano, in Italy; the French under Scherer defeated the Austrians and obliged them to retreat with the loss of 8,000.
1798. Theobald Wolfe Tone, an Irishman having a commission in the French army, committed suicide in prison. He had been taken in arms against the British government, tried by a court martial, and sentenced to death.
1807. British Admiral Smith declared Lisbon and the river Tagus in a state of blockade.
1812. Action between the United States brig Vixen, 14 guns, 120 men, Lieut. Reed, and British frigate Southampton, 32 guns, Capt. Yeo. The Vixen was captured, and Lieut. Reed died in the West Indies before he could be exchanged.
1814. Lavalette, the French general, sentenced to death for joining Bonaparte the preceding March.
1814. Edward Rushton, an independent politician, bookseller and elegant writer, died. He nearly lost his sight on the west coast of Africa.